Friday, December 02, 2011

Hickory Farms - A Perfect Compliment To Any Holiday Celebration

One of the best parts of the holidays is the food. I don't know about you, but at our Thanksgiving meal on Thursday I ate so much I forgot to have dinner that night. And then dove into leftovers the next day.

Growing up, I remember having Hickory Farms smoked sausage at our holiday meals. Strangely, I only ever remember it during holiday meals - it was like a special treat to eat slices of that yummy, spicy smoked sausage during the colder months. It's probably the reason I still look for a meat tray at any Christmas party.

Hickory Farms' wide selection of signature sausages and savory cheeses are still a part of many holiday traditions. I recently received a gift basket of delicious Hickory Farms foods and intended to bring it to my family's Thanksgiving dinner as a hostess gift for my aunt. Plans changed, however, and Thanksgiving was switched to MY house! This gift basket suddenly took center stage as the appetizers while the turkey cooked.

Prior to being devoured.

We sliced up the beef summer sausage and the farmhouse cheddar cheese and set them out along with a plate of veggies and dip. It didn't take long for the delicious sausage and cheese to disappear. I nearly forgot to include the olive oil and rosemary crackers, but did get them out before the cheese was gone. We kept the fruit (including some amazingly juicy pears!) in the basket until the end of the day, and sent some of the fruit home with relatives, as we were all too full for another bite.

My grandmother remarked that it had been a few years since she's had Hickory Farms foods, but they still taste just as good as they did when she was younger. It reminded me of holidays as a kid, too, peering up onto the kitchen counter to sneak a quick piece of summer sausage before my mom was finished slicing it up. While I didn't get to present this basket of Hickory Farms foods as a gift like I intended, it still served as the ideal warm up to a fantastic holiday meal. As for the basket itself? It's being filled with pine cones to serve as a festive centerpiece on the table for now.

Once again this holiday season, Hickory Farms will donate $5 from each Party Planner gift box sold to Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry Campaign, a national nonprofit that is working to end childhood hunger in America. In addition, Hickory Farms provides free shipping on select products to APO/FPO military addresses across the globe, allowing loved ones overseas to share in holiday traditions.

If you order online, be sure to take advantage of their $3, 3-day shipping option on the website, with no minimum purchase to qualify!

Hickory Farms summer sausages and cheeses are a great addition to any holiday party, or the perfect gift for that hard-to-shop-for friend or relative. We love having Hickory Farms foods as a part of our holiday traditions!

Full disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Hickory Farms and received a product sample to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - if you want an opinion on it you'll have to get your own summer sausage 'cuz I'm not sharing. Yum.

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