Here we are in mid-December, and it just doesn't feel as crazy as usual. We don't know your reality, of course; maybe you are having a second cookie-decorating party this weekend, and you're still not totally cleaned up from Saturday night's cocktail soiree.

Either way, right now is the moment in time when people can sort of gauge how they're doing with the shopping, the party circuit, the extra end-of-year workload. Many of the food news folks focused on dessert this week, but there was also some dish on yumberry juice from China and sought-after ham from Spain.

Let's start with the ham, since it would make a great gift for the worthy recipient, and its American debut was last week: "There is no longer a need to hide a leg of celebrated Ibérico ham in your suitcase on the trip home," says The Washington Post. Last week at Jaleo in downtown D.C., there was a "first slicing" of this dry-cured ham made from black-footed pigs. Now it is available there and at the restaurant Taberna del Alabardero; Washingtonians can buy it "as early as this weekend" at Dean & DeLuca, the Cowgirl Creamery and also online from www.tienda.com.

And what is this about yumberry? Another miracle juice? Just when the American public was getting bored with the exotic juices we have at our disposal, The New York Times has to come along and report about yet another Next Big Thing. Yumberry juice, which one company hopes will be "the next pomegranate," is "purplish," with a "sweet-tart flavor." Read this little article to learn the cute way the juice got its name. What fruit does yumberry juice actually come from? It's called yang-mei, and it is "chewy and juicy with a pit like a cherry."

The NYT also alerts us to good sources for caviar, Amish cheese and a spin-off of a dessert cafe called ChikaLicious Pudding in its Food Stuff roundup. When people say "only in New York," it's things like pudding stores that they are talking about.

Continuing on with specialty food, "There's nothing like a platter of warm tamales to make a Texan feel that the holiday season has arrived," a Dallas Morning News writer tells us. So they do a terrific rundown of readers' favorite spots to get these sweet-or-savory Mexican treats. We didn't know these were a holiday item, nor did we think a tamale could include a cinnamon-coconut-raisin mixture (yum).

Kim Pierce keeps us up to date on what's in season down in Dallas: lots of produce is peaking, but she writes about navel oranges this time. Not only are they good eating oranges, you can also use the rind to make a treat: She includes a simple recipe for candied orange peel that Hot Plates may be trying this very afternoon. DMN writer Pierce also passes on a tip from the Food Network: "Stuff a dried date with a piece of candied orange peel and an almond, then dip the entire thing in melted dark chocolate."

L.A. Times writer Leslie Brenner, who "can cook, but I'm no baker," happily fixates on a French dessert called croustade that she learns to make from a Daniel Boulud cookbook. Now, as Brenner says, lots of people just bake, or just cook, but not many people do both with great excitement. This croustade (there are many variations) seems like a dessert made for those who want to impress guests but whose skill level in the baking department is just average. Well, maybe a little above average.

More sweetness, of the most decadent kind: a primer on ganache, or chocolate mixed with cream, from Minimalist Mark Bittman in the NYT. He explains that besides being a chocolate sauce, ganache is the basis for truffles -- which make a great gift, whether store-bought or made by you.

Out of Los Angeles, there is news of a new and lovely place opening this weekend in Napa, Calif., called the Oxbow Public Market. Developers and area residents alike are thrilled, as Oxbow will really make sense in the town of Napa. Located on the Napa River, the market will be something like "Seattle's Pike Place and Vancouver's Granville Island -- but on a more compact scale that is more easily replicable." But how can anybody replicate a place whose ice-cream artisan will have "a human-powered milkshake maker (driven by pedaling a bicycle)"?

The best thing out there today, for so many people, will be The Washington Post's Holiday Guide to Cookies. There is a cookie in here for everyone, and this Web package is beautifully designed. The Classic Chocolate Chippers and the Almond Buttons look great, but wouldn't it be fun to cook up a few of each kind of cookie and get all your gifting out of the way? TWP is the most service-oriented of all the papers, we think, and that comes in really handy at this time of year.

But we've also got to point at the Boston Globe's version of the holiday cookies extravaganza. Their chocolate chunk shortbread sounds the most divine.

Some of us will give the gift of cookies; others will present loved ones with fabulous gift certificates to restaurants we love, or bottles of something we love to drink. The really good ones among us will skip doing gifts, as our gardening expert's family does, and give their gift money to the needy. So we end off this roundup with the NYT's piece on food-related charities. Sometimes we know we want to give, but there is information overload, and we want to just skip it. If you want to share your wealth but need direction, this piece is for you.