Quick Last Minute Gifts
This time of year it seems like you get invited to parties and last minute activities and you end up needing a quick hostess gift or a little something to take along. I like to have a few gifts ready for such occasions so I’m not scrambling or I don’t have to buy something.
Of course there are always my homemade jam, I always can some in nice jars just for giving. In addition to jams & jellies I like to have a few other options, each year I make something different. A few years ago I made pancake mixes in nice little bags and had little jars of maple syrup to go with them. Last year I made maple glazed pecans to hand out. This year I decided to make some little jars of mulling spices, I blogged the recipe over at Not Dabbling today if you’re interested. Next year I may make jars of Herbes de Provence with homegrown herbs.
I also like to bake a lot of fresh bread, because who doesn’t love receiving a loaf of ciabatta from a friend? A loaf a bread is also a great thing to go with that homemade jam. 
Next year I may also think about buying a box of olives to cure myself, what a wonderful gift a jar of home cured olives would be! I’m always keeping my eye open for things I can make for quick gifts and I bookmark or try to write them down when I find them.
Do you keep things around for quick last minute gifts? Any great ideas for the rest of us?
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Spicy Gingerbread Cookies
After many of you asked for the recipe yesterday I figured I’d do a new post with my gingerbread recipe (I have it on my blog from a few years ago). These cookies aren’t you typical gingerbread men/women. If you don’t like spicy things, you will not like this version. This recipe has as least double the spices of most recipes and I always use blackstrap molasses to make the flavor even stronger. If you’re a fan of spicy gingerbread you will really appreciate the flavor in this version.
One of my favorite things about these gingerbread cookies is that they’re not too sweet. If you like your cookies sweeter you can ice them, but I think they’re perfect as is. As with most spicy baked items, they’re twice as good the next day and seem to get better with age. They also keep well compared to a lot of cookies so they make a great option for mailing (I just sent some to a family member in Afghanistan). Bake up some of these and some snickerdoodles and send them to a service member you know, they’ll appreciate the holiday cheer!
MOM’S SPICY GINGERBREAD COOKIES
1 1/2 (or 12 ounces) cups dark molasses *I use blackstrap
1 cup packed dark brown sugar (I use regular sugar)
1/2 cup cold water
1/3 cup butter
1 egg
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons allspice (freshly ground is best)
4 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Mix molasses, brown sugar, egg, water and butter. Mix in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
Heat oven to 350. Roll dough 1/4 inch thick on floured* board. Cut with floured cookie cutter. Place about 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake until no indentation remains when touched, 10 to 12 minutes; cool. *TIP* If you like chewy cookies use confectioners sugar instead of flour when rolling out your dough
Note: Can roll dough 1/2 inch thick and cut with 2 1/2 inch round cookie cutter. Place about 1 1/2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake about 15 minutes.
I use all organic ingredients when I make this, since we’re organic eaters. All of my organic spices come from Mountain Rose Herbs, and I get my flour/sugar from a local co-op in big 25 lb bags. This recipe is pretty good for you as far as cookies go, the blackstrap molasses will give you a healthy dose of iron, manganese, copper, potassium, calcium, magnesium, B6 and many more nutrients.
All of the various spices added to the cookies are also super healthy and contain all kinds of vitamins, minerals and trace elements. Here are links for the health benefits of the various spices: cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and allspice. A lot of these spices actually help your body fight off the colds and flu, what a wonderfully tasty way to do so. If you want to make the recipe even healthier try swapping out some of the flour for white whole wheat flour. I’ve successfully swapped out half of of the flour for freshly ground soft wheat flour.
I was going to do gingerbread cookies as my Friday Favorite this week since they’re my favorite cookie, but I decided to write about them today. I will willingly pass over any other kind of cookie out there for a spicy gingerbread man. Second in line for my favorite cookie is the Date Pinwheel cookie, after that spritz or cookie press cookies, and most things after that I don’t eat because I’m not a big fan. My least favorite cookie has to be butter cookies, perhaps it’s the icing, I’ve never been a fan of them even when I was a kid.
What’s your favorite holiday cookie? second favorite? third?
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Simply Delicious Gifts
I have a friend who always tells me, “you can just make me a bunch of these for Christmas” whenever she eats one of my gingerbread cookies (she doesn’t cook or I’d just give her the recipe). I’ve always made her something instead, last year it was a nice tree skirt to match her simple mission decor. This year however, I decided I’d finally do it. She gets one of my calendars of course, but I thought a big box of gingerbread cookies would be a wonderful addition to that gift.
I considered doing a cookie of the month club and making her a batch of different cookies each month throughout the coming year, but then I decided I’d rather just go all out and make her 365 gingerbread cookies – one every day for 2011. I set to work yesterday afternoon, mixing, rolling, cutting, and baking 365 little gingerbread people. I packaged them up in the afternoon. One of my favorite parts of making homemade/handmade gifts is coming up with creative tags.
It’s a simple and practical gift, it only took me a few hours to make, and yet it’s something she’ll enjoy. Not to mention she loves the fact that the gift isn’t anything she feels she needs to keep since she’s not big on having unnecessary things in her home. It’s a win-win, I spend time doing something I enjoy, she gets to enjoy eating all the little gingerbread people she loves so much. There are so many options for practical gifts like soup, home canned jams for the mom that’s too busy to can her own, or some take and bake cinnamon rolls for friends & family to enjoy on Christmas morning.
What would be your idea of the perfect edible gift?
**Recipe for Gingerbread Cookies**
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Spreading Some Holiday Cheer
Growing up my mom always made tons of Christmas cookies, caramels and other goodies and sent a big plate full to each neighbor. We’ve done something similar since we moved in here. I’m not much of a cookie maker when it comes to the holidays, I prefer chocolates and other things like caramel corn. We also don’t stop at the neighbors when spreading delicious holiday cheer. We take goodies for everyone at the Post Office, the library and our small town local bank. Of course we live in a small town, so each of these place only has 4-7 employees.
I enjoy doing this because it shows all those people that we talk to each week that we appreciate the service they provide and that they go out of their way to do their jobs well. The ladies at the library will hold new books for us that they know we’ll like, our UPS man always delivers our packages in great shape and always has a treat for the Chiots, the friendly post office workers are always ready to chat, and the ladies at the bank always have treats for the Chiots in the drive-thru.
Do you hand out any kind of goodies to neighbors and other people like the mailman?
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Displaying All Those Cards
Everyone has their own way in which they display all those holiday cards they get from friends and family. For the longest time I didn’t display them, I simply set them in a pile on my coffee table. Last year I taped them to the posts on my stairway, but they kept falling down. This year I decided to put all those clothes pins to work that aren’t being used since it’s cold outside.
I have been pinning all of my cards into the garland that I put on the banister. We have a fairly short banister, so I think when this is filled (which it almost is now, photos were take last week) I’ll move on to putting the cards in that garland above the sliding glass doors.
I have to admit, this way of displaying cards is growing on me. I might continue doing this unless see something better. Tucking them in the tree would be nice, as would bringing a branch in to pin them on. I’m sure there are endless ways to display cards that I’ve never even thought of.
How do you display all those holiday cards you get in the mail?
