Gifts From the Kitchen

Okay - do any of you out there need some "neighbor gift" ideas? Here are a few for you. For the other doctors at my husband's office I decided to go with a nice bottle of Olive Garden Salad dressing. I needed to come up with a tag of some sort so I made these little chipboard olives. I sanded the edges and then used my dark brown stamp pad around the edges also. I thought they were cute (they are much cuter in person) - Matt didn't have a clue what they were. I'm hoping that the recipients will get it. I am going to write something on the back along the lines of: "Olive Christmas! Hope you do too." Or something about "spending time dressing up your packages" or "dressing up for the holidays." And something about "Pouring on the Christmas cheer." I haven't gotten as far as the specific wording yet. If you want to go all out, add a can of olives, a box of croutons, and a red onion all wrapped in cellophane.

Here are a couple of other recipes for salty gifts from the kitchen:

Savory Cheesecake with Crackers

2 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese

1 1/2 C grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 C minced onion
1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 eggs
2/3 C whipping cream

prepared pesto
sundried tomatoes

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a spring form pan. Sprinkle with 1/3 C powdered Parmesan cheese and tap to coat the pan. Mix the cream cheese with the whipping cream and eggs until smooth. Add the salt and pepper, onions and cheddar cheese. Pour half of the cheese mixture in the pan. Top with 1/4-1/2 C pesto sauce and sundried tomatoes. Pour the rest of the cheese mixture on top. Sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese. Bake for 1 hour. Chill until ready to serve or package.

To package this I though you could slice it into generous wedges (4 or 6) and wrap in Saran Wrap. Give it away with a box of your favorite crackers and maybe a little cheese knife.

I saw a picture of something similar to this and they topped theirs with pinenuts. I would love to try pinenuts on this recipe. For my first attempt I think I would sprinkle them on the top before baking and hope that an hour in the oven wouldn't toast them to a crisp. We'll see. If you try it let me know how it goes!

Homemade Sweet Mustard and Beef Stick
(Recipe courtesy of my friend Tami D.)

1 can Coleman's dry mustard (in yellow tin)

1 C white sugar

3 eggs well beaten

2/3 C white vinegar

Mix mustard and sugar. Add the beaten eggs and then the vinegar. Bring to a boil in a saucepan slowly until it bubbles. Cool and package in containers. Give away with a good Beef Stick or Summer Sausage. I found Hickory Farms ones at Wal-Mart.

I also found some cute little ceramic crocks at Tuesday Morning for my packaging. I will put the mustard into disposable Tupperware and then inside the little crocks, wrapped in cellophane.

***Beware: I haven't tasted this yet but Tami says that a little goes a long way and it is addicting!

PS - (12-17-07) I just mixed up a batch of this mustard and it is SPICY! Like, make your nose run/horseradish spicy. So, if you like that kind of thing, go for it. It was a little much for me but I think I will still give it away with a disclaimer attached! It may be great mixed with a little Mayo to tone it down. I bet it would be good on sandwiches.

Good Luck Gifting!