Supply Chain Problems Won’t Get US Down!
All this blah blah blah on the nightly news about the shipping problems, backlogged cargo, and supply chain problems and how it’s creating such a disaster for our upcoming Christmas, almost makes me laugh. Horrors! What are we gonna DO if we don’t each have 45 presents under the tree?
Forgive me, I’ll get off my soapbox. But there is a point to my tirade. How about simplifying, spending less, giving less, and DOING more for each other? It’s with this idea in mind that I share the following ideas around gifts from the kitchen.
Don’t you love handmade gifts? They’re the best kind, particularly when they're edible and prettily packaged. These treats are easy to make, are on the affordable side, and aren’t dependent on whether or not backlogged cargo ever shows up.
And since this is such a popular approach to holiday gifting, you might want to create a special cookbook, “Gifts from My Kitchen” in your Cook’n Recipe Organizer to house all the wonderful recipes that tend to show up this time of year. (And then think how on top of things you’ll be next year at this time!)
One treat that’s making the rounds in our neighborhood now is the cookie truffle. These delicacies are made by crushing a package of chocolate cookie sandwiches (such as Oreos®) and mixing this with an 8 ounce package of cream cheese. This mixture is then rolled into balls. Two 8 ounce packages of semi-sweet chocolate chips are melted and the cookie balls are dipped in this melted chocolate and sprinkled with crushed hard peppermint candies or cookie sprinkles. I’ve tried sprinkling the balls with crushed malted milk balls, too. This is an easy recipe and such a pretty gift!
Candied nuts are also a big hit. Loads of recipes for these are floating around the Internet, but my favorite uses orange juice. These look especially festive in clear plastic bags tied up with a Christmasy ribbon.
Then there are the mixes in a jar that everyone loves to receive. Whether it’s pancake mix, muffin mix, cake mix, soup mix, etc., the recipe choices are limited only by your imagination. The ingredients look beautiful layered in the jar, and the attached recipe tops it off. This idea shouts thoughtfulness.
Aunt Annie used to share her homemade cheese balls with the neighbors. She made sure to tuck in a box of gourmet crackers. I took her idea a step further last year and tried making a sweet cheese ball rather than the typical savory cheese ball. It turned out awesome—how can you go wrong when you sweeten cream cheese with powdered sugar and add some lemon extract? I rolled the ball in sweetened shredded coconut and gave it with my homemade lemon-flavored sugar cookies. Spreading a sugar cookie with sweet cream cheese—oh my gosh!
And one more idea for a gift from the kitchen: homemade hot fudge sauce. The nice thing about this gift is that it keeps for a LONG time. The holidays tend to be overloaded with sweets that need to be eaten fairly soon so they don’t dry out or spoil. So, what a cool idea to give someone a gift they can use after the holiday hoopla dies down. Along comes January or February and you can pull out the homemade hot fudge sauce and top your nightly dish of ice cream. Now that’s living!
Gifts from the kitchen—they’ll never turn into clutter, and that makes the perfect gift. And supply chain problems? They won’t get US down!
In case you like the idea of the homemade fudge sauce, I share the recipe here:
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup top-quality unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup cream
4 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions:
Add Recipe to Cook'n
Forgive me, I’ll get off my soapbox. But there is a point to my tirade. How about simplifying, spending less, giving less, and DOING more for each other? It’s with this idea in mind that I share the following ideas around gifts from the kitchen.
Don’t you love handmade gifts? They’re the best kind, particularly when they're edible and prettily packaged. These treats are easy to make, are on the affordable side, and aren’t dependent on whether or not backlogged cargo ever shows up.
And since this is such a popular approach to holiday gifting, you might want to create a special cookbook, “Gifts from My Kitchen” in your Cook’n Recipe Organizer to house all the wonderful recipes that tend to show up this time of year. (And then think how on top of things you’ll be next year at this time!)
One treat that’s making the rounds in our neighborhood now is the cookie truffle. These delicacies are made by crushing a package of chocolate cookie sandwiches (such as Oreos®) and mixing this with an 8 ounce package of cream cheese. This mixture is then rolled into balls. Two 8 ounce packages of semi-sweet chocolate chips are melted and the cookie balls are dipped in this melted chocolate and sprinkled with crushed hard peppermint candies or cookie sprinkles. I’ve tried sprinkling the balls with crushed malted milk balls, too. This is an easy recipe and such a pretty gift!
Candied nuts are also a big hit. Loads of recipes for these are floating around the Internet, but my favorite uses orange juice. These look especially festive in clear plastic bags tied up with a Christmasy ribbon.
Then there are the mixes in a jar that everyone loves to receive. Whether it’s pancake mix, muffin mix, cake mix, soup mix, etc., the recipe choices are limited only by your imagination. The ingredients look beautiful layered in the jar, and the attached recipe tops it off. This idea shouts thoughtfulness.
Aunt Annie used to share her homemade cheese balls with the neighbors. She made sure to tuck in a box of gourmet crackers. I took her idea a step further last year and tried making a sweet cheese ball rather than the typical savory cheese ball. It turned out awesome—how can you go wrong when you sweeten cream cheese with powdered sugar and add some lemon extract? I rolled the ball in sweetened shredded coconut and gave it with my homemade lemon-flavored sugar cookies. Spreading a sugar cookie with sweet cream cheese—oh my gosh!
And one more idea for a gift from the kitchen: homemade hot fudge sauce. The nice thing about this gift is that it keeps for a LONG time. The holidays tend to be overloaded with sweets that need to be eaten fairly soon so they don’t dry out or spoil. So, what a cool idea to give someone a gift they can use after the holiday hoopla dies down. Along comes January or February and you can pull out the homemade hot fudge sauce and top your nightly dish of ice cream. Now that’s living!
Gifts from the kitchen—they’ll never turn into clutter, and that makes the perfect gift. And supply chain problems? They won’t get US down!
In case you like the idea of the homemade fudge sauce, I share the recipe here:
Old Fashioned Hot Fudge Sauce
Yield: 3 1/2 cups
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup top-quality unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup cream
4 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions:
In medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In large saucepan combine milk, cream, butter, and vanilla; stir until butter has completely melted. Add dry ingredients to milk mixture, constantly whisking. Boil, stirring constantly until thick and smooth, approximately 5 minutes. Cool and refrigerate any unused sauce. Leftovers can be reheated in a double-boiler, or microwave.
TIP: Cocoa powders are not created equal. The very best cocoa powders have a butterfat content of 24% or higher, so look for this on the container label. The higher butterfat percentage, the richer and fuller-bodied your end product will be. Dutch cocoas are considered some of the finest and are the cocoa-of-choice by professional chefs and bakers.
TIP: Cocoa powders are not created equal. The very best cocoa powders have a butterfat content of 24% or higher, so look for this on the container label. The higher butterfat percentage, the richer and fuller-bodied your end product will be. Dutch cocoas are considered some of the finest and are the cocoa-of-choice by professional chefs and bakers.
Recipe formatted with the Cook'n Recipe Software from DVO Enterprises.
Sources:
- www.theguardian.com
- www.southernliving.com
- www.cookingclassy.com
- www.12tomatoes.com
- www.creationsbykara.com
Alice Osborne
Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2006
Email the author! alice@dvo.com
