Last minutes gift ideas from the kitchen

Invariably, at least once during each Christmas season, I have a moment of panic when I realize that I totally forgot to get a gift for someone that I really, really wanted to get one for. Fortunately, I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

Treats in a Jar

All this fun gift takes is a quart canning jar, a favorite recipe, and about 8 minutes.

These fun treats-in-a-jar are really all about layering. This year, we received cookies-in-a-jar from Darren and Sita, friends who can take a great deal of credit for getting us to North Carolina. For many years, I’ve made Brownies-in-a-jar. One year, I canned apple pie filling and gave pie-in-a-jar with a new pyrex pie plate to a couple of my sisters. Some years, I’ve made Russian Tea Mix in a jar. The common theme is JAR.

Start out with a clean quart canning jar. One year, I found decorative blue canning jars with old fashion wire bale lids at the dollar store. Some years, I buy a case of new canning jars from Walmart or the hardware store. Some years, I just look out in the garage to see what kind of empty jars I already own.

Into a clean, dry jar, measure the ingredients of your favorite recipe. Do not put in anything that is moist or oily. This means that I took my favorite brownie recipe and left out the eggs, oil, and vanilla. In a cookie recipe, leave out the eggs, shortening, and vanilla.

The trick to making these gifts really pretty is to be careful about layering. You COULD mix all the ingredients into one, but that doesn’t look anywhere near as cool as layers do. Some of your recipes may need to be cut in half to fit into quart jars. It’s important to experiment a bit to figure out what exactly will work best.

Put the lid on, place a circle of colored fabric or plastic wrap on top and tighten ring over it. Write up instructions on a small card or piece of paper and attach to the jar with a bit of ribbon or raffia.

Voila! Instant gift!

Barb