50 homemade holiday gifts from LA Times
50 ways to make your holiday gifts homemadeNot only are homemade gifts less expensive, they also capture the spirit of holiday giving in a way that purchased gifts simply can't. And if you consider the ubiquitous traffic and holiday crowds, a leisurely morning spent baking breadsticks or whipping up a batch of homemade marshmallows seems positively Zen-like by comparison.
1 Make a batch of grissini grissini (homemade breadsticks), flavored with rosemary or black pepper, wrapped in parchment paper and tied with a bow.
2 Cut out cinnamon marshmallow stars with cookie cutters, then pack them, dusted with powdered sugar, into a tin.
3 Pack a batch of cookbook author Paula Wolfert's prunes in Armagnac into a Mason jar. (Awesome over vanilla ice cream or crepes.) They'll be ready to eat in two weeks: You can include that on the "don't-open-until-Christmas" card.
4 Make a batch of caramel sauce and pour it into a sterilized old vinegar jar or an antique bottle from a flea market.
5 Stack a dozen shortbread cookies, flavored with lavender or a spice of your choice, wrap in tissue paper and tie with a ribbon.
6 Make a batch of fudge with 70% cacao and stack the pieces in a tin lined with parchment paper. Wrap the tin with a page of newspaper that showcases the recipient's hobby or political bent.
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Are they all food?
So we'll be both fat and poor. Great.
Now all I need is my trailer / caravan. :p
I think it's even a better idea- to make something that you already know how to make, and make well. Making some fancy thing that is new to you can end badly.
I remember when we received a gift of a jar filled with the dry ingredients for a cookie recipe, each layered on top of the previous so that it all looked very attractive. Included was instructions on what wet ingredients to add, how to make the cookies, and what and how much was included in the jar. Seemed pretty neat. We decided to make some of these for our neighbors.
After Christmas, we made the cookies from the jar we received...uhg! For over a year, we wondered with fear if the jars we gave out ended up with cookies just as bad. Short answer- yes.
It would have all been much easier making our tried and true chocolate chip and peanut butter assortment. Don't make it hard on yourselves!
Where'd my post go?
Here it is again.
The cheapest and most thoughtful gift you can give is poetry or a small thoughtful personal story or endearment.
If by poetry you mean oral sex... :p
Very good idea. I've been making beer as Christmas gifts for years. I have fat, happy, drubnk relatives as a result.
Dumb question - where can I buy parchment paper?
Re: the prunes in Armagnac...
in Northern Mexico they do something similar with tequila. Same basic idea: sugar syrup mixed with alcohol, add prunes and seal. Very tasty. Mmmm... tequila.
I am totally into making gifts but all foods? All 50 are foods? How about carry-along pet-plants and makeshift shelving.
TJS, you can buy parchment paper at any cooking store, i.e. Williams-Sonoma or similar stores.
I second making something you know how to make (or at least something that uses the skills you already have mastered.) I'm making cute lunch bags out of fabric in my stash and embroidering them with the recipient's monogram because I can sew and embroider.
I'm also making nightgowns (summer and winter versions) for my daughter.
I am a fan of useful gifts rather than crafts for crafts sake.
The Xmas I was eight my father made me a bicycle. It was the tail end of the Depression and he hadn't gone back to work in the shops yet, so he had the spare time. Bikes were expensive but his labor and ingenuity were free, so he welded, hammered, assembled and painted a bike out of junkyard parts. It wasn't the classiest looking thing I've ever ridden, but I loved it more than any in the long line of vehicles I've since owned.
For good reason.
For those who are wondering why these are all food items: the article was in the LA Times Food section.
maybe it should be 50 gifts you can make USING the LA Times, the sad fishwrap it's become...
1) gift of birdcage lining
2) gift of toilet paper for laid off co-workers
3) wrap gifts with the classy business section
4) re-gift the South Coast Plaza uber-rich catalog insert
5) re-gift the Pixar Wall-E 'for your consideration' booklet
6) re-gift the special section on Staples Center from a couple of years ago, some of the most heinous advertorial ever invented.
7) re-gift the dental floss and shampoos that are wrapped wtih my paper
8) re-gift all the coupon inserts from the last 2 months of sunday papers
9) give bundles of used papers to the newly-laid off and homeless to help keep em warm.
...
blah on the times.
This year I am making song books for my whole family. Whenever we get together, we do our Family Von Trapp thing, but unlike those plucky Austrians -- we can't remember all the words. So, I've gone to the net and retrieved all the words to the songs we sing, based on e-mails I've been sending out to family members, cataloging the tunes. The e-mails have been really great, bringing up memories with each song. I'm also planning to make one book for me with all the chord progressions on the songs, so I can play my electric auto harp as accompaniment. Then, we'll just call out "46" and we'll turn to page 46 and have all the words for old chestnuts like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxInSDeiSkc
I understand the paper may not be what it once was, but that is no reason to be quite so denigrating. A little respect, please. For my charitable giving this year, I might actually get one of these e-reader things and subscribe to several papers.
In terms of cost-free gifts, I'm learning how to play "Daniel" on the keyboard and I plan to play and sing it for my brother Dan. Everybody else is getting white elephants. (Used books and CD's. Photo calendars.)
I'm having that cannonballing toddler thing again. Time to "type letters on computer?
This should be called 50 ways to see disappointment in the faces of your friends and family Christmas morning.
"(shake, shake, shake) Is it an iPhone?....oh it's jar of caramel...thanks"
breadsticks?? seriously?
I love these. It reminds me of watching Norm Abrams turn out one of his woodworking projects on PBS: "Use your [expensive, highly specialized tool that only Norm has] to [perform carpentry task that he learned after years spent mastering the craft] and voilà ! You've made a highboy from American oak with brass hardware and a hand-rubbed lacquer finish that will last for generations."
If I could whip up grissini, lavender shortbread cookies, fresh pasta, and chocolate truffles, I'd hope that I'd also know how to homey it all up!
#16 = winner
just collect all the consumer crap from x-mases past and re-gift to each other. Leave the original paper on.
What is wrong with the LA times editing software? "grissini grissini" ? they are just called "grissini"
And later "GlühweinGlühwein" ... seriously .. this is the way you demand it after you already had 5 Glühwein's
too funny
#21 I guess they laid the copy editors off first!
TJS: Trekking to Williams Sonoma shouldn't be necessary. Parchment paper can usually be found in one's grocery store, in the same section as the plastic wrap.
I make fudge for my co-workers around this time of year.
In fact, I spent the last two days doing this. I chopped it into squares and packed it into the tins (from Dollar Tree) this morning.
I'm talking lots of fudge. I went through 16 bags of chocolate chips, 8 cans of condensed milk, 2 cans of evaporated milk and two big bags of marshmallows.
It's tedious and messy but not hard to do, and really impresses.
1. A handmade gift (especially one made just for you) trumps anything mass produced.
2. Armagnac is delicious.