Holiday baking, gift making and present wrapping has me pretty wiped out this week.

I mean, holy crap, Christmas is in ONE WEEK! Next Tuesday is the day, the big show… the day that children wait excitedly for all year, other than their birthday. It is a day full of smiles and happiness, not to mention gift giving and receiving.

Every year I make a tradition out of giving homemade gifts as Christmas presents. I’ve already shared one of my homemade holiday gifts- The dark chocolate orange dessert sauce I made last week- This weekend I got on the ball and finished up my “least perishable” homemade holiday gifts, and I’m here to share them with you!

Here are a couple of different and delicious homemade holiday gifts that ANYONE can make in their kitchen. Not only are they great for holiday gift giving, but they’re great for any other gift giving occasion, or even just a way to further personalize your own kitchen supplies!

So, without further ado-

First off, I’ll share with you my rich and delicious hot cocoa mix-

I actually got the original version of this recipe from Allrecipes.com, and someone who commented on the original version further refined it, and then I refined it again, because I wasn’t totally happy with the outcome. Feel free to do the same with mine.

2 cups dutch process cocoa powder
4 cups powdered sugar
5 cups powdered milk
1 1/2 cups powdered creamer
1 bag miniature milk chocolate chips

Mix all of the ingredients together in a GIANT bowl.
Actually, I have this giant tupperware bowl (I usually use it as a layer cake holder, but it holds about 3 gallons of liquid, if need be) and I poured all the ingredients into it, put the lid on and shook it until my arms got tired. I think the shaking method might work better than the stirring method, because the ingredients FULLY integrate, rather than just sort of being sloshed together.

Directions for making the mix into a liquid- For one serving, place 1/3 cup cocoa mixture into mug and “top off” with 3/4 cup boiling water. Stir until fully dissolved. Serve with whipped cream or homemade marshmallows.

Actually, I made two versions of hot cocoa from this mix today, and I REALLY liked the version I made with steamed milk. OMG delicious. I’d totally encourage others to do the same, or even just heat up some milk in the microwave.

In addition to this being a super easy Christmas gift idea, I’m making it even more super easy by including a printable label for it!
Here it is-

After I whipped up the mix, I used a 1/3 cup measure to scoop up 6 servings of the mix into ziploc sandwich bags, squeezed all the air out of the bag, sealed it, put that bag into a SECOND ziploc bag, squeezed all the air out of that, sealed it and then placed it into a homemade gift bag that I made out of gift wrap. (making a homemade gift bag is way easy. Just get out an old VHS tape and wrap it halfway, sealing the edges with a glue stick. Make sure you don’t wrap the whole thing, unless you intend to give the VHS tape as a gift! hehe.. Trim up the top and let the glue dry, and you’ve got yourself a pretty little gift bag!)

GIFT IDEA!

I’d recommend giving your hot cocoa mix as part of a gift basket with a pretty holiday mug, a little baggie of homemade marshmallows, a couple candy canes and maybe a DVD and some cushy socks, to encourage the use of the hot cocoa as a festive relaxing agent. You could even make it a couple gift by including two mugs and picking a romantic movie!

Next up, for all the Italian food lovers, or even the salad loving hippies out there-

Italian herb infused vinegar and garlic olive oil!

This gift idea is not only simple, but its economical to boot! I wouldn’t recommend children make them, as they require stovetop cooking, and hot vinegar and hot oil are especially dangerous.

GREAT BIG GIANT IMPORTANT EDIT!!!

As one commenter reminded me, do not leave the garlic infused olive oil at room temperature for longer than a week (the week guideline was laid out to me via the recipe and directions I initially used for this gift idea, though I am keeping my olive oil refrigerated until the day in which it will be gifted, with instructions for the recipient to keep it refrigerated) as it may begin to grow bacteria. Keep it refrigerated!

For the olive oil you’ll need-

3 garlic cloves
16 oz extra virgin olive oil

Peel and slice the garlic cloves thinly. Using a meat tenderizer, smash the garlic slices.
Pour the olive oil into a medium saucepan over LOW heat. Place the smashed garlic clove slices into the warmed oil. Stir occasionally. After about 15 minutes, use a metal or wooden spoon to scoop up some of the garlic pieces. They should appear slightly translucent, and yellowy, and the oil should smell garlicky. Do not cook longer than 20 minutes on the stovetop, and never allow the oil to boil, or bubbles to form at the bottom of the oil, this will change the chemical properties of the oil, lowering its smoke point further, which may cause difficulty if the receiver of this gift wishes to cook with it.

Remove the pan from the burner and allow the oil to cool inside the pan. Prepare the jars or bottles that you wish to place the oil by placing a peeled garlic clove and if you wish, a sprig of fresh rosemary or oregano inside the bottle. While still warm, pour the oil into the jar or bottle through a clean and dry funnel. Dispose of the cooked garlic (or use it in a stirfry!). When the oil is room temperature, cap and close the jar or bottle, and keep refrigerated.

Here is the label for the Garlic olive oil-

Of course, this gift could be given alone, or paired with a delicious and spicy herbed vinegar-

To make the herbed vinegar, you’ll need-

2 quarts distilled white vinegar

a handful of fresh organic oregano
a handful of fresh organic basil
a handful of fresh organic rosemary
(you can use any herb combination you wish, just make sure it is fresh and organic)
3 tablespoons garlic powder or chopped garlic
1 tablespoon Mrs. Dash sodium free salt alternative- Original (it is a mixture of all sorts of dried herbs, veggies, and it is also completely optional in this recipe, so if you don’t know what it is or if you don’t wish to purchase it, don’t worry about it.)

I made 2 quarts of herbed vinegar, so feel free to adjust the recipe accordingly if you wish to make more or less of it.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, pour the vinegar and place within it all of the herbs, reserving one “sprig” of each herb per bottle or jar of vinegar you wish to make (they will be used as decoration within the bottle). Heat the vinegar, using a spoon to stir and press the herbs down into the vinegar occasionally, over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Do not boil. Place the reserved herbs into the jars or bottles you wish to store the vinegar in. After 15 minutes has passed, remove the pan from the burner and allow the vinegar to cool slightly. Remove the herbs, discarding them. Stir into the still warm mixture the Mrs. Dash and garlic powder, allow to sit for a few minutes and then strain, using a fine mesh sieve, into a medium sized bowl or pitcher. While the vinegar is still warm, pour through a clean and dry funnel into the jars or bottles with the reserved herbs in them. Allow to cool completely before sealing or capping.

Here is the label for the herbed vinegar-

GIFT IDEA!

This gift would be great alone, paired with the garlic olive oil or even better, make an Italian food gift basket with a package of gourmet spaghetti, a jar of grated parmesan, some salami, a homemade baguette or a selection of Italian cheeses. Take it even further by including The Godfather or one of the seasons of The Sopranos on DVD. (you could go completely crazy and give THIS in addition to the rest of the gift basket, for the big “Godfather” fan in your life.)

A few other ideas for homemade Christmas gifts from the kitchen can be found HERE.

I know this post was more about function than photo, but thats the nature of packaged food items. Only so much can be done to make a bottle of vinegar look… appetizing. In the end, its just a bottle of vinegar.

Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys this post, and maybe is inspired to create a few holiday gifts in their own kitchen!

If you’d like to print out any of the labels I posted here- Just click on the label and you’ll be sent to another window with the image at exact size. Right click on the image and select “save image as” to save it to your computer. Then just open it in whatever photo printing program you have (MSPaint works, even) and there you go!

-A.

P.S. Tomorrow I’m posting another Gift from the kitchen- Homemade lime curd and sour cream cake! (Also, I’ll be posting a selection of holiday candy on Thursday!)

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 3:30 am and is filed under December 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.