My love language is gifts, and nothing gives me greater pleasure than creating the perfect present for the fabulous people in my life.  This year I wanted to create custom edible (or at least practical) gifts for each of my recipients, and using simple household items I created baskets or kits that were (almost) too pretty to eat.

Munchie Basket: (FYI my cricut had a meltdown right before I was giving Aimee her present, or the tags would be a lot more decorative.) My friend Aimee and I love to eat.  Most of our plans together revolve around some type of food or restaurant, or making sure we have enough snacks.  I ordered a sampling of biscuits from a delicious shop we had visited in Charleston, South Carolina, of course hoping she would share with me.  I whipped up some honey brown sugar butter for the cinnamon ones, and garlic and herb butter for the cheese and chive, put in cute little mason jars and attached a tag. I picked up some sweet and savory snack mixes that stored in these cute containers from The Container Store.  We love sushi, but I couldn’t figure out how to get it in the basket, so I got a sushi stuffed animal.  I also wasn’t sure how to incorporate our extreme love of cheese plates so I got her a tea towel with a recipe for baked Brie.  She was really happy.

Sugar, Spice & Everything Salt:  My friend Steve loves to cook, so I put together a spice, salt and sugar set using magnetic spice tins and a container from The Container Store.  

Salts:

• Sriracha Salt
• Garlic Herb Salt
• Curry Salt
• Lime Ginger Salt 

Spice Mixes:

• Greek Spice
• Cajun Spice
• Tex-Mex Spice
• Five Alarm Chili

Sugars: 

• Vanilla Honey Sugar
• Cinnamon Clove Sugar
• Citrus Sugar
• Rosemary Lemon Sugar

Tip:  If you’re infusing sugar or salt with anything wet (sriracha, citrus zest, etc), grind it in a food processor, bake at 250 for 5 minutes, then grind again to avoid having wet spices!

Sweet Southern Home:

My best friend from college recently moved across the country, so I wanted to send her and her girlfriend a gift that made them feel at home.  I made them a mini loaf of fluffy bread with savory herb butter and fresh local honey, and included a jar of pickled green beans, and some good ol’ sweet tea.

You’re So Sweet:

My friend Kellie works a million hours and takes care of everyone, so I wanted to send her a package of goodies she can enjoy for a while.  She got fudge, cookies, hot cocoa mix, sugared pecans, and a vanilla candle (my new crafting mission).

(Ps the fudge was still cooling when I wrote this blog, I did not short kellie on her gift, I just used a placeholder of broken candy bars.)

For others, I went the practical route and made them something that would help them drink inconspicuously in public, while still letting people know their identity.  I ordered sturdy plastic tumblers in bulk online and used my Cricut to make each of my co workers a personalized cup no one will steal in the teachers’ lounge.  

The English teachers got a little extra literary card from one of my favorite Teachers Pay Teachers sites, Bs Book Love.

For our couple friends, I ordered custom coozies from one of my favorite etsy-turned-pro crafters, Oh Sew Sassy.  She completely lets your customize the colors, fonts and name, so it’s fun to put together different ones for each person.  Cheers!

Ironically, the only people I didn’t give food were my students. They got a highlighter to help them with their annotation skills, and one single candy cane.  They love to hate me.