Gifts from the Kitchen

I am very familiar with the plate of Christmas cookies or the banana bread that you are often given around the holidays. Not that I don't love cookies and breads...but I get so overloaded with them during the holidays that some of them are sure to go to waste.

I recently learned how to do some "gifts in a jar" from a friend of mine and from a whole pile of books I checked out of the library on the subject. These gifts enable a person to have most of the ingredients to make something, but they can make it whenever they want to instead of having to eat it right away.

Here's the one my friend taught me to make:

Chocolate Chip Cookies in a Jar

• Large canning jar (1 quart, I think)
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• Scraps of fabric
• ribbon or twine

1. Mix together the flour and baking soda and carefully place into the bottom of the jar as the first layer.
2. Place the brown sugar as the 2nd layer and the white sugar as the 3rd.
3. Top the white sugar with the quick oats. Then, use the chocolate chips to fill to the top.
   
4. Cut out a piece of fabric into a circle and tie onto the top of the jar with ribbon or twine.
5. Attach the following directions (either handwritten or typed on nice paper)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 stick melted butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Empty jar into bowl, stir in butter, 1 beaten egg, and vanilla. Mix well.
Drop on cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes.
Makes 2 dozen cookies.

What I love about this gift is that it's inexpensive and actually useful. When someone is in a pinch they can grab the jar and whip up a treat! Like I said before, there are tons of books on these types of gifts and I plan to try some more. You can do it with soups, special hot chocolate and tea mixes, muffin mixes, breads, and scones.

Go ahead and research some additional recipes and I'll share the good ones that I come across. It really makes a thoughtful and practical gift!