Edible Gifting

Giving food as gifts is a wonderful way to share with friends and loved ones. My friend, Connie, loves cooking, especially healthful cooking. She was recently asked to do the cooking segments for a local Saturday television news show.

During her recent segment, she showed how easy it is to give food as a gift. She suggested taking what you and your family love to eat and gifting it to others. You can create kits which when added to common ingredients in the kitchen turn into yummy treats. You can also gather all the needed ingredients for a specific recipe and place them in a basket along with the recipe.

After you have assembled the food items, use creativity to package them. Mason jars and Chinese take-out boxes are cute and easy options. Finish by tying on a cute gift tag.

Below are the gift tags I created for Connie to use on the segment. You can find the recipes that go with these tags at Connie's blog.

Click on the image below that you want to print. Right click and choose 'save image as'. After opening, choose your computer's print option. Print at full 8.5 X 11 page size.

Please leave comments if you have questions about how to print these. I will be happy to help.

Have fun gifting your favorite recipes!

Eggnog Punch

• 1 quart peppermint ice cream, softened
• 4 cups eggnog, chilled
• 2 cups ginger ale, chilled

Pour eggnog in a punch bowl, add ice cream. Use a potato masher to blend ice cream with eggnog. Add ginger ale. Serve.

Glazed Crackers

The "flip-flop bandits" got together recently for our annual Christmas bash. Susan brought this delicious little treat, and I just had to share it with you! It's another goody for parties and cookie exchanges.

1 cup butter
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
2 sleeves Ritz crackers
½ cup chocolate chips
½ cup white chocolate chips

*Preheat oven to 325. Combine butter & sugar over medium heat. Bring to boil & cook 3 min. Stir in vanilla & pecans. Arrange crackers on cookie sheet and spoon pecan mixture over crackers.
*Bake 6 min.
*Remove from oven & sprinkle choc chips on top of pecan mixture. Return to oven & bake for 2 minutes or until chocolate is melted to your liking.
*Remove from oven & let cool briefly.Transfer crackers to serving plate or an airtight container.

Snowballs

1 c. butter, softened
1/3 c. sugar
1 T. water
1 t. vanilla
2 1/4 c. flour
1 c. chopped pecans
1 c. sifted powdered sugar
edible cake sparkles or colored sugar

In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, beat until combined, scraping sides occasionally. Beat in water and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. Using a spoon, stir in the remaining flour and chopped pecans.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes or until bottoms are light brown. Cool completely.

Place sifted powdered sugar into bowl. Separate if using more than one color of crystals. Add a different crystal in each bowl of powdered sugar. Gently roll and shake cooled cookies in desired powdered sugar mixture.

Yields: 36

Sugar Plums

2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 c. sugar, divided
1 c. dates, chopped
1 c. coconut
1 c. walnuts, chopped
1 t. vanilla extract

Blend eggs and one cup sugar together. Stir in dates, coconut, walnuts and vanilla. Butter a 2 quart casserole dish and pour in mixture. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool until mixture can be handled. Roll into walnut size balls. Roll balls in remaining sugar.

Egg Nog Logs

1 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
3 c. flour
1 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 t. salt
2 t. vanilla extract
1 t. rum extract

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Combine the flour, nutmeg and salt. Gradually add creamed mixture and mix well.

Divide dough in to 10 equal portions. Roll each into a 15 inch log. Cut each log into five 3 inch pieces. Place on lightly greased baking sheets (or the baking world's greatest invention: the DeMarle Silpat). Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Vanilla Frosting:

1/4 c. butter, softened
2 c. confectioners sugar
5 t. milk
1 t. vanilla extract
3/4 c. finely chopped pecans

In a small mixing bowl, beat the butter, confectioners sugar, milk and extract until smooth. Dip ends of cookies in frosting then in pecans. Place on waxed paper (or the baking world's greatest invention: the DeMarle Silpat) until set. Store in airtight container.

Hidden Mint Sugar Cookies

1 roll ready to bake sugar cookie
1 pk. of your favorite mini mint patties
pecans, chopped finely
egg wash (beaten egg)

Place 1 slice of sugar cookie on greased cookie sheet.

Place mint on the slice. Lay a second slice of sugar cookie on top.

Brush lightly with egg wash. Lightly press chopped pecans on top.

Bake according to directions on pack of sugar cookie.

Coffee Bean Cookies

1/2 c. butter, softened
1/4 c. sugar
1 t. salt
2 1/4 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1/4 c. toasted almonds, chopped
4 English toffee flavored candy bars (1.4 oz size), chopped
1/2 c. shortening
2 large eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
3/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 c. chocolate covered coffee beans

Beat butter and shortening at medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugars, beating well. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. combine flour and next 3 ingredients; add to butter mixture, beating well. Stir in almonds, coffee beans and candy. Cover and chill dough, if desired. Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-11 minutes or until golden. Cool on cookie sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks and cool completely.

Angel Kisses

These are the cookie that I took to the cookie exchange tonight. They are a delectable concoction, and I love the combination of fluffy with chocolate and nuts. They're easy to make and easy on the budget too! They are pictured in this photo: the white cookies in the foreground.


Ingredients needed:

4 egg whites at room temperature
1 c. sugar
dash of salt
1 t. vanilla
1t. vinegar
1 c. chopped nuts (I used pecans)
1 c. chocolate bits

Cooking directions:

Beat egg whites in an electric mixer until very stiff. Add sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating constantly until mixture is very stiff.



Beat in vanilla, vinegar and salt.

Fold in nuts and chocolate bits.

mmmm! That fluffy yummy sight makes me want to eat the whole bowl!

Drop by rounded tablespoonful, one inch apart, on buttered foil on cookie sheet (or the cooking world's greatest invention: The DeMarle Silpat). I found that flattening the cookie slightly before cooking makes a prettier cookie.

Bake in very low oven (250) for 1 hour.

While you are waiting for those to finish, go make polka dot Christmas ornaments for yourself, your kiddos' teachers, your neighbors, etc.


Hey, give them an ornament and some angel kisses and you've got a fantastic gift!

Remove from oven and peel off when cookies are cold.

Makes 3 dozen.

Marbly Chocolate Goodness!

This stuff is too good for your own good. I made this yummy chocolate concoction this week to give away as Christmas cheer, but so far only one person has benefitted: moi!

I found this recipe in a recent Southern Living magazine and couldn't resist its promise of chocolate decadence. A caption on the recipe reads, "The hardest part about making Salty Chocolate-Pecan Candy is waiting for the chocolate to firm up before devouring it." Obviously the person writing this caption wasn't just a creative writer hired to make the recipe sound good but had devoured his/her own prodigious share of this candy.

It's really quite easy and the results are spectacular!

Here's what you need:

1 c. pecans, coarsely chopped
3 (4-oz.) bars bittersweet chocolate baking bars
3 (4-oz.) white chocolate baking bars
>1 teaspoon coarse sea salt*
(*3/4 tsp. kosher salt may be substituted.)

Here's what you do:

Place pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 8 to 10 minutes or until toasted.

Line a 17- x 12-inch jelly-roll pan with parchment paper (I used my DeMarle silpat). Break each chocolate bar into 8 equal pieces. (You will have 48 pieces total.) Arrange in a checkerboard pattern in jelly-roll pan, alternating white and dark chocolate. (Pieces will touch.)

Bake at 225° for 5 minutes or just until chocolate is melted. Remove pan to a wire rack. Swirl chocolates into a marble pattern using a wooden pick (I used my Pampered Chef cake tester).

This was lots of fun! And isn't it beautiful?!
As much as I love chocolate, I could see this as a
wallpaper in my kitchen...except I'd always be craving
chocolate....wait! I already do that!

Sprinkle evenly with toasted pecans and salt.

Chill 1 hour or until firm. Break into pieces. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator up to 1 month. (Candy will soften at room temperature)

Not only does this taste fabulous, it looks spectacular! Pretty on a plate:

Wait a minute! I need to get a little closer to that chocolate!

MUCH better! Now all this raving about Salty Chocolate-Pecan Candy is
more than I can handle. I'm off to dig some out of the refrigerator for
a late-night snack. Don't tell anyone....oh, and if you are one of the people
I was making this to give, I'm sorry. I couldn't keep from eating it all!

This recipe found in Southern Living, OCTOBER 2007 and at Southern Living Recipes online.

Pretzel Wreath

My kiddos and I spent part of an evening last week cooking in our pjs and this is what we made:


This recipe came from the Pampered Chef Holiday Guide 2007. Its easy and fun. Give it a try. Tie a ribbon and bow on it, put it in a pretty goody bag and give them as gifts.


Place almond bark or confectionery coating candy in a bowl. Microwave according to package directions until melted and smooth.

Dip rounded bottoms of 5 minature pretzels, one at a time, into bark; shake off excess. Lay pretzels onto Parchment Paper (I used my Demarle silpat) in a circular pattern with sides touching and rounded sides toward center.

Repeat with 5 more pretzels, placing directly on top of first circle in a staggered pattern. Decorate wreath as desired with nonpareils or colored sugar. (I used Pampered Chef's sweet caramel sprinkle)