Do your Holiday baking for your own family using Taste of Gourmet mixes of course - and cook up extras for your friends and family gifts!
Make the All-American Apple Cake using the pumpkin recipe and bake it in small loaf pans! Add pecans or walnuts if you want to - but a loaf of yummy pumpkin bread is a wonderful gift for anyone! One mix will give you 4 or 5 loaves - all depends on the size of your pans.
Go ahead and BAKE the Sweet Potato Muffins - in mini pans or the medium size pans. Put 5 or 6 medium muffins on a Christmas Plate, wrap with a bow and you'll have a happy friend who receives that! A Christmas bowl with the mini muffins will pop right into the microwave for breakfast or a snack!
I love to give my friends a whole baked pie tied with a ribbon! They can enjoy it immediately or just pop it into the freezer to bring out on a dreary day when they need a "pick me up!" I do the same with a loaf of Bayou Beer Bread and sometimes add a tiny crock of Garlic Herb Butter!
Tony and I loved receiving Deanna's biscotti each Christmas so much, we begged for her to help us make a mix out of her recipe - Auntie Dee Dee's Cranberry Biscotti! Now I make up the mix, divide the cooked biscotti into plastic bags and have wonderful gift for friends! My only trouble is keeping Tony out of the kitchen during the baking! He LOVES D's biscotti!
Like a friend said at dinner the other night..."It isn't WHAT the gift is that matters...it's giving something that you love too!" Being "Home-made" is also giving a little bit of YOURSELF and that's even better!"
I make the Fudge pie and Praline pie w/pecans in little tart shells (I get 14-16 tarts per mix), bag 3 of them in Christmas cellophane bags, and give those to teachers...comes out to about $.85 each pie!
Posted by: Laurie Phillips | December 07, 2008 at 07:56 PM