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  When you lack ideas for a gift for your child's teacher or that difficult-to-buy-for relative, food is generally a perfect solution. Everybody has to eat, right? A myriad of online and catalog companies exist with choices from breakfast and snacks to gourmet cooking staples and wine. And mail-order goodies make for a great surprise on the doorsteps of any gift recipient on the holidays.
  
  

For the Sweet Tooth

• Cookies from Home packs boxes and tins of home-baked goodness. Select from a terrific assortment of holiday-inspired containers, and fill it with white chocolate macadamia, oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. Cookies from Home can even custom-make labels and packages with your company's logo or family name.
  
  

For the Gourmet

• Szechuan peppercorns? Check. Rose water? Check. International assortment of cheeses? You bet. The food-filled site iGourmet.com is an enclave of kitchen culture for the ultimate connoisseur. Hard-to-find cooking staples are just the beginning of what's available on iGourmet. Meats, cheeses, chocolate and various accoutrement may be arranged in gift baskets, or select one of their pre-made baskets according to your price point. Everything perishable is delivered on dry ice, testimony to the quality and freshness of the company's products.
  
  

For the Morning Person

• Wolferman's famous English muffins and scones will delight any teetotaler, but their gift assortments standout when it comes to clever ideas. Choose from a wide array of baked goods, like danish, crumpets or cinnamon rolls, add a jar or two of Wolferman's jelly or preserves and throw in some coffee for good measure. Give the gift that keeps on giving all year long and choose Wolferman's "Breakfast Club" where your loved one will receive a different morning meal once every month.
  
  

For the Cheese Lover

• Wisconsin Cheeseman is tops in specialize deli products. But the offerings go beyond cheese logs and meat rolls. Peppermint bark, Stollen, petits fours and cookies can be added to any order. Many of the meat and cheese assortment boxes also come with spreads, nuts, hams and condiments depending on the selection.
  
  

For the Wine Buff

• The Gift Tree thinks class in a glass, adding flare to their gift baskets with a bottle of wine and/or champagne. Fruit boxes include D'Anjou pears, Fuji apples and navel oranges. Gift towers might include any combination of goodies like toffee peanuts, cheesecake caramels and gourmet popcorn. The containers in which many of the gift assortments are arranged range from picnic baskets and luggage to pub games and champagne ice buckets, so the gift lasts even when the goodies are gone.