Gifts
From the Heart
By Pamela White
Each year as the holidays approach, seemingly on a high-speed
train, I begin listing friends, family, teachers and neighbors
for gift-giving. Let's see, there's the dance teacher, soccer
coach, troop leader, puppy sitter, classroom teachers, band director,
art club teacher...well, you can see how it adds up. My dilemma
is that I want to show my appreciation without busting my budget.
Besides keeping financially afloat, I have another reason to
skip shopping in the mall and online for teacher gifts. Our former
neighbors, a preschool director and an elementary school principal,
decorated their home at Christmas with a cornucopia of construction
paper banners, homemade angels, baked goodies and tree ornaments
made out of walnuts and gold paint. All were made by their own
children, or the children they watched over at work. Each gift
was made and given in love, straight from the heart. No purchases
made with plastic at a department store would do. They basked
in the memories they hung on their walls and tree each year.
If you are ready for a less expensive -- and more personal --
way to show your thanks, stop racing through the crowded malls
and spend an afternoon or two with your family making and baking
gifts.
You will need containers, colored plastic wrap, holiday bags,
aluminum foil, jars and ribbons. Think holidays. If you can find
plastic cups or bowls with Santa and his reindeer, snow, a menorah,
or New Year's balloons, use those to hold the goodies you make,
wrap with plastic and tie with a ribbon. Gifts in jars -- cookie,
bread, brownie, cake mixes -- are easy to make and pretty as
well. If you like to work ahead and ease your way through the
holiday gift-giving, make use of summer's bounty during July
and August. Imagine having a pantry filled with raspberry jam,
apple butter, dilly beans and herbed oils, ready to wrap and
give.
I've pulled together some of our favorite recipes that are great
to make with children of all ages. Toddlers can dip nuts into
chocolate, melted in a microwave. Preschoolers can toss caramel
with crunchy popcorn. The youngest kitchen cooks can make the
velvety cocoa mix. With some coaching by Mom or Dad, everyone
can build a colorful layer of cookie mix in a jar.
Hot Cocoa Mix
This recipe was given to me, dare I say it, 20 years ago. Until
recently, I thought I was the only one, or at least one of a
few who had it. Now I know similar recipes abound, yet I remain
faithful to this cocoa mix and still love its velvety texture
and rich flavor when made with hot water. On the gift card, include
the instructions: Add one cup hot water to four tablespoons of
mix.
3 1/3 cups powdered milk
2 cups powdered sugar
2 ½ cups chocolate milk powdered mix (Nesquik, for example)
1 ½ cups powdered coffee creamer
Mix all ingredients together and store in watertight container.
This makes 10 cups of mix, enough for at least 2 gifts.
Crunchy Caramel Corn and Chocolate Nuts
Come up with your own name for this mix.
I saw a similar offering for a pricey $7 for less than one
cup of mix. This is much less
expensive and could be named after the child who is making and
giving it, such as "Jamie's Jolly Nutty Caramel Crunch." Give
yourself an early gift and buy a candy thermometer. It's inexpensive,
invaluable and only takes up a tiny bit of storage space (unlike
many of your other kitchen toys.)
16 cups popped popcorn
2/3 cups mixed nuts
1 ½ cups light brown sugar
2/3 cups butter
6 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cups nuts
4 oz. dipping sweet chocolate (German's, for example)
Plan on dividing the popcorn, nuts and the caramel sauce into
four portions when mixing -- this project works best when coating
a small amount of popcorn. Combine sugar, butter and corn syrup
in a pan over medium heat. Stir while heating to a boil. Cook
until a candy thermometer reaches 255 degrees or about four minutes
past the boiling point. Stir continuously. This is best done
by an adult or child over eight years of age, under supervision,
if necessary. Remove from heat when caramel is 255 degrees and
add vanilla. Separate popcorn and nuts into four bowls and pour
1/4 of caramel sauce over each bowl. This works best when done
with two (or more) people. One can pour the caramel sauce while
someone else uses two serving spoons, sprayed with PAM cooking
spray, to gently toss the popcorn until all is covered by the
sauce. Continue until all popcorn is coated. Spread the coated
popcorn on cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes at 300 degrees.
Put chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl and heat for one minute
on high. Stir. Heat for one more minute, stir and reheat for
30 seconds, if necessary. Have your child of any age add the
nuts into the chocolate and gently turn the nuts until covered.
Using a fork, you or your child can remove each chocolate-coated
nut, scraping the fork on the side of the bowl, and place the
nut on a buttered plate. Refrigerate nuts until chocolate is
solid.
Break up caramel corn into pieces and mix with chocolate nuts.
Save some for your own family to munch as a reward for their
hard work.
Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix in a Jar
Visit gourmet cooking stores and price
the jars of "cookie
mix." Wow. Now go home, pull out a quart-sized canning jar,
your baking supplies and make your own cookie-in-a-jar gift for
the lovely woman who taught your three-year-old how to pirouette
or the gentle man who took your sons camping with the troop for
a weekend.
1 quart-sized canning jar (or other container)
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
½ cup slivered almonds
2 cups chocolate chunks
3/4 cup light brown sugar
In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
Begin layering ingredients in jar. If the fit is tight (and it
will be) pack ingredients tightly and tap jar on a towel-covered
kitchen counter after adding each ingredient to aid in settling.
Add the flour mix, then wipe inside of
jar on top of flour layer to remove any loose flour. Add ½ of chocolate chunks.
Add ½ nuts. Add brown sugar. Add rest of chocolate chunks,
then rest of nuts.
Close jar and decorate as desired. Write
instructions to be attached to jar: Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Empty contents into
bowl. Add 1 ½ stick softened butter, 1 beaten egg and ½ teaspoon
vanilla. Mix well, using hands if necessary. Drop by one-inch
balls on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, let
cool 2 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Enjoy.
Raspberry-Cherry Preserves
Even if you haven't planned ahead and preserved your fruits,
you can still make "homegrown" spreads with frozen
fruits. This recipe for raspberry-cherry preserves is easy
and the result is breathtaking. The water bath to seal the
jars can be done in a pan.
Pint jars, lids
3 cups frozen raspberries
3 cups frozen sweet cherries (pitted)
4 cups sugar
Press raspberries through a sieve to remove
seeds. Simmer cherries and raspberry pulp together, adding
sugar. Cook over low heat
until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Increase heat
to medium and cook until thick (30 minutes or so). Stir regularly
as the fruit and sugar mixture thickens. Pour the fruit, boiling
hot, into canning jelly jars that are hot (from having been placed
in hot water and wiped dry); add lids. Place jars into a hot
water bath or into a pan filled with boiling water. Cover and
process (boil) for 10 minutes until seal is formed. This should
make about 4 ½ pints.
