A Handmade Christmas

There is something about the holidays that brings out the creativity in me.  I enjoy making gifts for loved ones.  It slows the holiday frenzy down and I can savor time at home instead of rushing around. It’s fun to gather a group of friends to create together over a glass of warm cider, hot chocolate or wine.   Most of these ideas from the archives can come together in very little time and are easy on the budget.  Click on the highlighted link to get the instructions.   I hope you will find a spark of inspiration to create handmade gifts for everyone on your list.   Priceless.

Hot Chocolate On a Stick

The best hot chocolate ever and so adorable to wrap!

Cranberry- Pecan Dark Chocolate Bark with Candied Orange for Gifting

‘Tis the Season!  Candy bark is the workhorse of edible gifting. This dark chocolate bark comes together in minutes and looks fabulously decadent wrapped  for gift giving. Sweet cranberries and crunchy toasted pecans are enveloped in dark chocolate  to give the bark texture and a nice contrast in flavors.  Hidden inside is the surprise bite of candied orange peel to make the bark more interesting.  Strewn on top are more cranberries, pecans and the crowning touch:  a dusting of Fleur de sel.  The finished bark is beautifully festive.  For presentation, I filled cellophane bags with the bark and tied them with a cranberry~colored velvet ribbon. These were nestled inside themed birchbark paper cones with a sprig of evergreen tucked in(instructions for making the cones at the end). To save time, you can use commercially available candied orange peel or candied ginger.

Dark Chocolate Dipped Apricots with Pistachios and Orange

If you’re looking for a healthy but delicious Valentine treat, these dried apricot halves dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with chopped pistachios and orange zest are super quick, easy to make and hard to resist.  They make a great gift and are a gluten free treat any time of the year.

Snickers Banana Bread~A homemade gift from the kitchen

There is nothing like a homemade gift from the kitchen. A banana bread loaf is a great offering as it can be served for breakfast during a busy season of entertaining.  It can easily be frozen by  the recipient to be enjoyed long after the holiday season, if preferred.  Adding your favoirte candy bar chopped up into the batter of your go-to  recipe is an indulgent addition befitting the holidays.  In this recipe I  added chopped Snickers bars as they have peanuts, caramel and chocolate, perfect partners for banana bread!  Decadent?  You bet!  At the end of the post I will share several wrapping ideas for the gifting of banana bread loaves.

Cranberry Almond Cookies with Double Chocolate Glaze

As good as they are gorgeous!

These cookies are one of my favorites yet I have never encountered them anywhere.  I like to make them during the holidays when fresh cranberries are available but they are good anytime..  The red chunks of fruit and the white and dark chocolate drizzle make them attractive on a cookie platter.  Their texture is moist with the nice crunch of the toasted almonds.

Thanksgiving Granola and 6 Great Gift Wrap Ideas

Granola is easy to make and fun to personalize.  Although I have a favorite recipe I played around  to create a Thanksgiving version, minus the turkey, of course!  This blend is chock full of cranberries, pecans, pumpkin seeds, good-for-you chia seeds and is flavored with pumpkin pie spice and maple syrup. YUM!  

Spiced Chocolate Maple Leaf Cookies

When I started blogging, my friend Lynne gave me a handmade cookie cutter in the shape of a maple leaf to celebrate the blog and my Canadian heritage.  I have been waiting for fall to create something with the cookie cutter.  When walking recently in the beautiful Chanticleer gardens near home, I was wishfully admiring the lotus seed pods in the pond.  I was told  the way to the seed pods was through the gardener’s sweet tooth!  So you know who got a basket of these cookies!  Fall themed cookies, perfect for a plantsman and for care packages to my college sons!

Smoky-Sweet BBQ Rub for Father’s Day or Anyday

 

Spice rubs really enhance the taste of grilled foods.  They are a staple in our kitchen and enjoyed year round.  This particular blend has been a favorite and we make it in big batches to give away as gifts throughout the summer.  It is the perfect marriage of smoky and sweet.  The sweetness comes from brown and granulated sugars.   Smoked paprika, dry mustard, garlic powder, ginger, black pepper and cumin bring in elements of  smokiness and a punch of bold flavor while salt makes it all sing in perfect harmony.

Pansy-Topped Shortbread Cookies to Celebrate Friendship

Spring is a season of renewal and wonder.  I love to walk through my garden and welcome back tender shoots of beloved perennials as if welcoming back a long lost friend.  Having reached a certain age when friends do leave the winter for warmer climes, a new spring ritual has become reconnecting with friends returning home.  This week my dear friend Dona returned from Arizona. We  met to walk through our local gem of a garden, Chanticleer(www.chanticleergarden.org/). Much to our surprise, there was already so much in bloom to celebrate friendship and spring and make our hearts soar with the joy of both.

After our brown bag lunch, I surprised my friends with a box of flower-shaped  shortbread cookies each topped with a fresh sugared pansy, which I had seen on a favorite blog, Stonegable, last month. (You can see the original post here:  www.stonegableblog.com/2010/05/pansy–shortbread–cookies.html‎)

The cookies were easy and as scrumtious as they were pretty!   In French, pansies have such a pretty name, pensées, or thoughts…. Befitting for a girlfriends’ reunion to catch up on friendship!

“I pray, what flowers are these?  The pansy this, O, that’s for a lover’s thoughts”

George Chapman

Pansies,  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Henri Fantin-Latour, 1903

PANSY-TOPPED SHORTBREAD COOKIES(Adapted from Stonegable blog)

1 1/4 c flour

1/4 c sugar

1/2 c butter, room temperature

1/4 t vanilla

1 egg white, whisked

2 T sugar to sprinkle over flowers

INSTRUCTIONS:

Rinse, pat and dry pesticide-free pansies and leave to dry on paper towels.  Make sure to cut back all the stem and most of the back greenery so your flowers will lay flat on the cookie.

Combine flour and sugar.  Cut in the butter and vanilla until mixture looks like oatmeal.  Shape into a ball, roll out on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out desired shape.  Place on a parchement lined cookie sheet, 2 inches apart, and bake at 325 F 30 minutes until edges are golden.

Remove, cool, then brush with a thin coating of egg white.  Add a pansy and coat the top of the flower with additional egg white, brushing the petals flat onto the cookie as you work.  Sprinkle with some sugar and rebake for 5 minutes at 325F.

Although best eaten fresh, these cookies can be frozen.  The flower will absorb moisture and its texture will be more noticeable on the thawed out cookie.

Enjoy!!!!!

The Ultimate Man-Cookie: Triple Chocolate Bacon

“The question that women casually shopping for perfume ask more than any other is this: ” What scent drives men wild?”  After years of of intense reasearch we know the definitive answer.  It is bacon.  Now, on to the far more interesting subject of perfume!”  Tanya Sanchez

Looking to say Happy Valentine’s Day sweetly to the guy in your life?  If your man loves chocolate and bacon, this could just be the perfect cookie for him.  Decadent, loaded with chocolate, they are absolutely delicious with the surprise salty crunch of the bacon.  A perfect marriage of sweet and salty.