It’s that time! We’re getting close enough to Christmas that we can start making baked goods—ones that keep well, of course—as we finish prepping our food gifts! I have had great luck giving gingerbread biscotti as a food gift. It makes an easy remembrance for groups of people, like coworkers, neighbors, etc. A few pieces in...
Christmas Foodie No. 7: Christmas Granola
Mmm… I love granola. In fact, I’m eating some right now! Granola with Greek yogurt and maybe a drizzle of honey is one of my favorite go-to breakfasts, snacks, desserts… A jar of homemade Christmas granola makes a great starting place for a gift. I like to package it with some nice coffee for...
Christmas Foodie No. 6: Gingies
Six weeks to Christmas and I’m making Christmas cookies. I swear, I’m not as insane as I look. It just isn’t Christmas to me until I have a batch of my grandmother’s Gingies in the oven. When I was small, we would get boxes of them in the mail, along with beautiful winter oranges,...
Christmas Foodie No. 5: Hot Chocolate on a Stick
Some things I learned while doing this week’s food craft: Candy making is pretty easy. Candy making is also pretty hard. My husband will eat as much melted chocolate as you give him. The actual recipe for making hot chocolate on a stick is very easy: melt the chocolate, add powdered sugar and cocoa,...
Christmas Foodie No. 4: Easy Consumable Gifts Sugar and Spice
These easy consumable gifts are about as simple as food gifts get. In the foreground, Christmas spice salt, adapted from a recipe in Nigella Christmas. Christmas Spice Salt 2 cups sea salt 2 tsp peppercorns (I used smoked) 2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes 2 tsp anise seed (or whole star anise) This blend...
Christmas Foodie No. 3: Pie in a Jar
We’ve all seen those ubiquitous cookie mixes, cake mixes, and brownie mixes layered in jars to give as gifts, but what about pie in a jar? Well, not a whole pie. (Those are super cute, but they also look super labor-intensive.) How about just the pie filling? I was looking for a way to...
Christmas Foodie No. 2: Plum Cardamom Jam
Before I had ever made plum jam, I thought it was hard. That was way back when I assumed that if a product was something people routinely bought prepared at the store, it must be hard to do. HA! Then I saw this recipe for raspberry basil jam in an issue of O Magazine. ...
Cinnamon Rolls
While my parents are in town this weekend, I’m making these cinnamon rolls, which I first made two years ago. Enjoy! I have been craving cinnamon rolls for about a week. I blame the Pioneer Woman. But, after everything I’ve been doing lately to eat better and after attending the Green Festival in...
Christmas Foodie No. 1: Pepper-Infused Vodka
Christmas is only 12 weeks away. Depending on your personality, that either made you say, “Yeah, and?” or made you faint from the sudden onset of holiday stress. Personally, I fall somewhere in between. Since marrying my awesome husband who has the “save money” gene (which I might have, but it’s dormant and recessive...
Feral Cherry Pie
I knew that Butterpowered Bike and I would be friends when she showed me where she’d found cherry trees for foraging. I mean, that’s friendship, right there. But I knew we were really truly foodie buddies when she helped me pick—and then let me take ALL—the cherries because I told her I wanted to...