Foodie Gifts

My Christmas gifts this year are bought, and to be honest, I don't know that unless I had really planned ahead, that I would have been at all interested in doing homemade gifts. Actually, I don't really like giving people the same things because it seems to denote that I *thought* less about them. Except in the case of me giving all my friends tickets to booze cruises. In that case, I was thinking *a lot* about them. Lol.

I have realized, however, that premaking homemade foodie gifts for friends and family to give them for host gifts and birthdays might be pretty worthwhile. Here are a few ideas I'm throwing around:

1. Limoncello. Yes, this goes back to my boozy friends, but hey, they have good taste and I'm sure would love a little homemade limoncello.

2. Homemade marshmallows w/ hot cocoa. Use a special valrhona chocolate for the cocoa and some tahitian vanilla for the mashmallows and you've got a gourmet gift guranteed to impress some people!

3. Chocolat liquer. Also a delicious treat. I personally think it's better than the standard bottle of Patron we've all been passing around. Lol.

4. Herb gardens in beautiful containers. What foodie wouldn't want their very own herbies? Get a beautiful container, add rocks on the bottom for drainage, add soil and some herbs at varying heights and voila! You could even take some of the pretty herb plants multiplying in your garden!

There are a few critical things that you might think of doing to kick these gifts up a notch like personalized labels, decorative bottles (go vintage if you can) and jars, and a high quality ribbon.