Austin Wedding Invitations, Favors And Great Gift Ideas
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Unique Local Artisan Gift Ideas From Austin, Texas!
This page showcases some of the best Austin gift and specialty food producers. Their one-of-a-kind creations are perfectly suited to be placed in Austin-themed gift baskets, presented as wedding favors, or even mailed as unique forms of invitations: Brownies, Candy, Wedding Chocolates, Cookies, Spice Mixes in Tins, Agasweet Agave Nectar, and much more in the are of cool gift ideas for weddings and other personal celebrations.
All The Goodies At A Glance...
- Unique candy gifts make the best wedding favors!
- My best candy ever - Espresso Sea Salt Caramel Truffles!
- Chef Keem's Custom Chocolates
- What's missing here?
- Somewhat better, isn't it?
- Perfect Wedding Chocolates!
- A Truly Unique Wedding Idea - Personalized Chocolate Bars
- Don't Forget the Groom And His Groomsmen!
- Chef Keem recommends:
- Why use sea salt?
- Austin's own Spiceburst Gourmet Spices
- Unique Spice Tins - Beautiful Wedding Favors!
- A Spicy Conscience...
- Meet the owners of Spiceburst
- For more interesting facts visit the "Spiceburst" lens
- Chef Keem recommends:
- You've never had chocolate like this before!
- Cocoa Puro - KAKAWA Cocoa Beans
- The World's Finest Cocoa Beans...
- Chef Keem recommends:
- Product description of the "Zen" flavor:
- 12 Labels - 12 Divine Flavors!
- Live Life More Sweetly - The Marie Louise Butters Story
- Austin's Pastry Queen - Rebecca Rather
- Chef Keem recommends:
- Austin's Cookie Queen - Penny McConnell
- Austin Wedding Resources
- This is Austin Wedding Dance Music!
- Wedding Music you'll never forget
- Please Visit My Blog "Chef Keem's Squid Kitchen"
- Travel to Austin in style!
- Come see us soon, y'all hear!
- Slow down, cowboy! You've got a whole life ahead...
- Let me know what you are looking for in Austin...
Unique candy gifts make the best wedding favors!
May I suggest my brand-new product? Espresso Sea Salt Caramel Truffles!
Made with my very own "dulce de leche" caramel recipe, this confection is perfect. By design, the chocolate and the generous caramel filling melt at the same rate in your mouth - not like some other candies where the chocolate is gone quickly and we're left with a chewy piece of ordinary caramel. The finishing touch of saltiness with a hint of coffee is simply divine. This is "caramel" like you've never tasted before - smooth and rich, with a beautiful aroma of Mexican Vanilla.
I'll be glad to discuss different shapes, sizes, and volume discounts with you. Please contact me through the link in the bio box of this page.
My best candy ever - Espresso Sea Salt Caramel Truffles!
Go to this page for more info and my online store...
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Espresso Sea Salt Caramel Truffles - My Best Candy Ever.
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Raving reviews of "Chef Keem's Espresso Sea Salt Caramel Truffles!" Here's why they are better than any other sea salt caramels on the market: I cook a rich and smooth "dulce de leche" caramel from scratch and flavor it with intense Mexican Vanilla i...
Chef Keem's Custom Chocolates
Barbara Chisholm writes in the "Austin Chronicle":
"Chef Keem, the affable and indefatigable creator of...lusciously flavored chocolates. The fillings include Blackberry Black Walnut Jalapeno, Spiced Rum Raisin...and our personal favorite, Southern Pecan Caramel Coffee Bean..."
What's missing here?
Somewhat better, isn't it?
Perfect Wedding Chocolates!
"You could even print the invitation on the back.
Send some chocolate and they will come! All of 'em."
A Truly Unique Wedding Idea - Personalized Chocolate Bars
...and they are quite affordable, too!
It's a very simple idea: You e-mail me one or more .jpeg files of your photos or graphics, include a description of the text you wish to be on the sleeve, and I design your wrapper for FREE! Yep. Free.Now you're wondering why I'm overweight if I work for free. You think I eat all my own chocolates? Nope. But - where's the catch? you ask. Let me explain:
I'll design your fantastic looking personalized unique one-of-a-kind chocolates for FREE only if you buy some of the bars. (Now we're making sense!)
There is more info on the chocolates themselves on my "Molded Chocolates" lens. But here on this lens I will tell you how you can order your own.
I offer 8 flavors - 7 dark chocolates and 1 white:
Blackberry Black Walnut Jalapeno
Bavarian Hazelnut Coffee Bean
Crushed Espresso Beans
Tres Leches Coconut Macaroon
Southern Pecan Caramel Coffee Bean
Peanut Butter Praline
Spiced Rum Raisin
White Chocolate with Crushed Gingersnaps
The bars weigh 3.5 ozs. before getting wrapped in silver foil and your personal sleeve. I know - how much? you say. How about $3.50 per bar plus shipping. I think that's a fair price.
Here's another detail:
I request a minimum order of 6 bars, and a minimum of 2 bars per flavor. That means that you could order 6 bars of the same flavor, or 3 x 2 bars of 3 different flavors, or 4 bars of one flavor and 2 bars of another flavor. Are you confused yet? ;-)
I recommend that you order more anyway, to balance out the shipping cost. The shelf life is about 6 months.
I plan on having this offer set up in my Etsy store soon. Until then, we can do business through my e-mail link from this lens and you could pay me through PayPal or a snail mail check (info provided in e-mail).
One last thing: Yes, we can discuss a volume discount!
Don't Forget the Groom And His Groomsmen!
Chef Keem recommends:
Austin's own Spiceburst Gourmet Spices offer beautifully decorated glass jars with exquisitely flavored sea salts. These tasteful gifts make very original wedding favors - and they will bring luck to the couple!
Why use sea salt?
Unlike table salt, which is chemically cleaned, bleached, and treated with anti-caking agents, sea salt is natural, processed with very little mechanization, no heating, and unrefined. More and more people are becoming concerned with the chemicals they are putting in their bodies and using unrefined, high-quality sea salt is part of a more conscientious lifestyle.
Austin's own Spiceburst Gourmet Spices
Unique Spice Tins - Beautiful Wedding Favors!
A Spicy Conscience...
Handmade food at its best!
At Spiceburst Gourmet Spices, we create products with a conscience. Most seasonings are heavily processed and contain dehydrated ingredients or preservatives. We only use fresh, high-quality herbs, peppers, and produce in our infused sea salts, and we blend them with the least possibleamount of hand-processing. You get a more intense flavor when you're cooking with seasonings that are real and uninhibited by chemicals.From the Portuguese sea salt that is hand-harvested straight out of the Atlantic to the seasoning that ends up on your table, every step in our process follows the Slow Food philosophy. We personally select every ingredient; we hand-blend the salt with fresh-roasted garlic, orange zest, chipotle peppers and arbol chiles; and we package every jar in small batches to ensure freshness. We don't even sell our products to our retail partners in large quantities.
If you're like us, you appreciate simple food that is bursting with real flavor. And that's exactly what you get with Spiceburst products!
- Garlic Saltburst
- Chile Lime Saltburst
- Chipotle Saltburst
- Orange Saltburst
- All Spiceburst
- Cracked Malabar Saltburst
- Savory Pomegranate Glaze
- Za'atar Saltburst
- Rocket Sauce
Here is the Spiceburst home page!
Meet the owners of Spiceburst
Spiceburst Gourmet Spices
At Spiceburst Gourmet Spices, we infuse Portuguese sea salt with fresh-roasted garlic, fresh lime, roasted jalapenos, and orange zest to create our truly unique spices. Check us out at www.spiceburst.com!
For more interesting facts visit the "Spiceburst" lens
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Infused Sea Salt
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At Spiceburst Gourmet Spices, we understand spices and we want to share that information with you. We're always looking for unique seasonings to make that we can use in our own kitchen and on our grill. This lens is meant to keep you informed about t...
Chef Keem recommends:
Next, a very special treat awaits your taste buds!This is the "Mother of all handmade confection": Austin master confectioner Tom Pederson's KAKAWA Cocoa Beans!
You've never had chocolate like this before!
"You've never had chocolate like this before...Exquisite! -Austin American Statesman
"For lovers of serious dark chocolate...best of 2004!" -Austin Chronicle
"Pure cocoa rapture!" -Austin Monthly Magazine
Cocoa Puro - KAKAWA Cocoa Beans
The World's Finest Cocoa Beans...
Covered in Three Chocolates!
Fresh roasted whole cocoa beans covered in layers of the best dark, milk, and white chocolates, and then rolled in velvety cocoa.Tom Pederson is a very thorough man. O.k., he is a fanatic, when it comes to his cocoa beans. He hand-picks the best of the crop and roasts them himself in his Austin commercial kitchen. Then he coats these crunchy morsels with 3 separate layers of the finest premium chocolates. Finally, his divine confection gets rolled in the finest cocoa powder and sealed in freshness-preserving foil bags.
Here is a very in-depth blog post on KAKAWA cocoa beans and here is Tom's site with ordering info.
Chef Keem recommends:
Marie Louise Butters did something that nobody thought possible: she re-invented the brownie. These days, one can hear stories like Hollywood event planners sending a private jet to have her delectable squares available at an Oscar party.
Product description of the "Zen" flavor:
"While the chocolate melts in your mouth, a tantalizing hint of crystallized ginger sparkles while you inhale calm and the real meaning of Brownie. One hand is clapping continuously in a frenzy of delight. Be at one with Brownie. Breathe."
12 Labels - 12 Divine Flavors!
Live Life More Sweetly - The Marie Louise Butters Story
Here is the first thing you need to know about Mary Louise Butters brownies: Mary Louise Butters is a real person, and yes, that's her real name. In fact, on any given day, a fair number of people here in Austin, Texas will call Mary Louise or even stop her on the street just to tell her how incredibly delightful they've found her brownies to be.Many of us in Austin have come to the conclusion that Mary Louise is to brownie-making what Mozart is to music and what Mary Poppins is to child care.
We thought we knew brownies - those rich, comforting squares of chocolate, sugar, butter, eggs and flour. But when Mary Louise began adding rose essence or chipotle chilies or crystallized ginger to her rich dark chocolate base, we knew she had invented brownies that weren't just to be enjoyed, but positively savored.
Taste one, and your mind stops racing. The next thing you know, those exquisite and ebullient flavors have become the great fact of the moment.
In all, there are twelve delectable varieties of Mary Louise Butters brownies. We wish you the best of luck in choosing a favorite.
We'll keep it short. We know you have some serious brownie shopping to do!
Austin's Pastry Queen - Rebecca Rather
Her book belongs in every kitchen. Period.
The Pastry Queen: Royally Good Recipes from the Texas Hill Country's Rather Sweet Bakery & Cafe
Amazon Price: $21.45 (as of 07/10/2009)
List Price: $32.50
Release Date: 10/01/2004
Avg. Customer Rating: 
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Chef Keem recommends:
Penny's cookies are the most famous cookies in Austin. Everybody loves Penny and her perfect little treats. Now you can buy her cookie and brownie mixes for a freshly-baked trip to Nirwana. Whenever you wanna.
Austin's Cookie Queen - Penny McConnell
"In our humble opinion the best cookie mixes start from really good cookie recipes.""From that basic philosophy the cookie mixes from Penny's Pastries were born in our Austin bakeries were we baked fresh cookies, brownies and shortbread seven days a week for over 15 years."
"Now, we're the first to admit that it probably doesn't take 15 years to create really good cookie recipes but we were having entirely too much fun and making too many friends to ever consider hanging up our aprons and retiring the spatulas."
"All these cookie mixes were made for kicking back and having a good time. From the Cowboy cookies full of old-fashioned oats and buttery toffee to Black Magic loaded with two kinds of chocolate and toasted walnuts, you're going to find exactly what you'd expect to find from a small band of energetic cookie bakers - real ingredients, obsessively put together and a great life story in every mix."
Surprise your guests with a delectable piece of Austin to take home.
Shop at Penny's Pastries!
Austin Wedding Resources
- MyWedding.com Austin
- Comprehensive guide for all your wedding needs in Austin. Accommodations, Bridal Fashions, Cakes, Gifts, Jewelers, Wedding Planners, and much more...
- Austin Wedding Day
- Another great wedding guide with helpful articles and many links to wedding vendors
- Austin Cake Lady
- This lady makes gorgeous cakes. Go look!
- Cakes by Kathy
- More beautiful cakes by a true professional pastry artist
- Lavender and Roses
- I've known Lori for a long time. Her wedding cake creations are superb!
- All in One Bake Shop
- Creators of exquisitely unique custom cakes according to your specifications
- Shelley Ward Photography
- Shelley is a truly gifted artist. Her photographic style is absolutely unique. See her portfolio!
- Austin's Inn at Pearl Street
- "In the heart of downtown and the Uptown Cultural District stands one of Austin's finest vintage boutiques..."
- San Jose Hotel
- All the movie and music stars stay here when they're in town. A legend in the making...
- Tosca String Quartett
- Very, very good music - and very "Austin"!
- Maria's Taco Xpress
- For a uniquely South Austin rehearsal dinner go to Maria's and eat good, baby!
This is Austin Wedding Dance Music!
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - Live From Austin, Texas
Amazon Price: $11.98 (as of 07/10/2009)
List Price: $11.98
Used Price: $4.39
Release Date: 09/03/1997
Avg. Customer Rating: 
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Wedding Music you'll never forget
Isn't that what weddings are all about?
Andrea Bocelli - Amore
Amazon Price: $12.99 (as of 07/10/2009)
List Price: $18.98
Used Price: $3.99
Release Date: 01/31/2006
Avg. Customer Rating:
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Please Visit My Blog "Chef Keem's Squid Kitchen"
Interesting food bits, recipes, and much more...
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byTravel to Austin in style!
Come see us soon, y'all hear!
Slow down, cowboy! You've got a whole life ahead...
Let me know what you are looking for in Austin...
Thanks for rating this page with a few stars (on top)!
kiwisoutback wrote...
Great idea! I'm sure these are incredible, the sea salt caramels were. Nice touch with the personalized invitations, these should be a big hit. Squid Angel blessed!
Posted June 03, 2009
mulberry wrote...
This all looks pretty delectable! These types of lenses are so helpful. It's hard to know where to find the GOOD stuff when you're visiting somewhere.
Posted May 20, 2009
JaguarJulie wrote...
That's a pretty cool pic -- Cocoa Puro - KAKAWA Cocoa Beans! Actually, from the outside of the beans, they look quite organic -- almost like stones.
Posted April 30, 2009
luvmyludwig wrote...
Welcome to the Squidoo Skidoo group, it's great to have you join us.
Posted January 18, 2009
JoshuaKnowles wrote...
Another great lens chefkeem! I just created a blog for Favors for Wedding events such as wedding receptions, parties, and showers. Feel free to browse if between lensbuilding. Thanks chefkeem!
Posted December 24, 2008
by chefkeem
My Twitter is worth $133. That's good to know, or is it?
Hi, I am Chef Keem, sentenced to Squidoo-for-life. Born and raised in Munich, Germany. Firs... (more)
