Off with their heads

…Or their feet – whichever you want to eat first. Epi Sub & Pizza on Main Street in Bangor is holding its annual gingerbread fund-raiser for the Bangor Humane Society. You can buy traditional or white chocolate-dipped gingerbread people for $1 each through Dec. 24 or a gingerbread house for a $35 donation (advance orders necessary). For information or to order, call Laurel Butler at 942-3888.

Beyond martinis

Holiday cocktail parties don’t need to be stressful, according to mixmaster Dale DeGroff, former bartender at New York’s famed Rainbow Room. DeGroff, who has been dubbed the “Billy Graham of the holy spirits” by the London Tribune, says cocktails should be the focus, freeing the host to pick up takeout snacks – fish and chips with vodka drinks, Indian food with a classic gimlet, barbecue with a Rob Roy. To make the pictured Aqueduct, combine 11/2 ounces vodka (DeGroff suggests Wyborowa brand), 1/2 ounce triple sec, 1/2 ounce apricot brandy and 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice over ice. Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass. For more inspiration, check out DeGroff’s “The Craft of the Cocktail,” (Clarkson Potter, 2002).

Dashing through the snow

It appears all of the other reindeer have found better things to do than exclude poor Rudolph from their games – they’ve moved on to jazz up tables everywhere on Pottery Barn’s holiday line of tableware. The pictured mugs cost $39.95 for four (set one includes Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen; set two includes Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen). For information or to order, call (888) 779-5176 or visit www.potterybarn.com to view the whole collection.

Tidbits is hungry for news about local food products and events. Send your Tidbits by mail to: Bangor Daily News, attn: Kristen Andresen, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor ME 04402-1329; by fax to 941-9476; or by e-mail to kandresen@bangordailynews.net.