Homemade gifts are the absolute best.

I’m serious. There is no question about it. I think we’ve really become too materialistic for commercial goods over the years and it’s a shame. So much love and effort is put into homemade gifts and you can’t help but feel a little special when you receive them.

Every holiday, my family gets together and we have a dinner and celebrate. Over the years, my family has grown in size and now it’s just too much to give everyone a gift. What I do now, is prepare a nice little bag for each family that contains a mixture of homemade gifts. Last year I gave out cookies, pickled peppers, and Nom Nom Paleo’s magic mushroom powder. There’s enough of each supplied in the bags to share amongst every member of each family. It seems to work great and I enjoy giving gifts I personally make.

I’ve collected five of my favorite gifts to give for the holidays or any occasion. Most of these can be made the day you plan to give your gift, but the limoncello takes about a month or longer and the hot sauce takes about 3 days. Please plan accordingly!

Limoncello

This is the recipe that needs to be done a month in advance if you plan on gifting it. This was my first year making it and I planned to give it out during the holidays. Everything worked perfectly! I went out to buy bottles to keep it in, came back and my fridge had died. We had to wait a week to get a new fridge due to delivery, and by the time our new fridge arrived, the limoncello had turned a terrible color. I was really, really sad. Next year though! It also taste best in the freezer. I used this recipe from Forbidden Rice Blog.

Flavored Butter

Holy cow this is the best. After I made this, I took a bite and wanted to eat it like ice cream. I proceeded to take a picture and send it to my friends talking about how I wanted to eat it like ice cream. I didn’t. But I really wanted to. This is really easy to make and best to prepare the day you plan to give it. In the refrigerator, the butter will last about a week to two weeks. It can be stored in the freezer if you want it to last longer. Make sure to use unsalted butter.

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened

2 oz (or 4 Tablespoons) of fresh cranberries

3 Tbsp Honey

1 tsp tangerine zest

1. In a small saucepan, add the honey and cranberries. Turn the heat to medium low and allow cranberries to pop.

2. Once all the cranberries pop (about 5 minutes) turn off the heat and allow to cool.

3. In a mixer, add the butter, zest, and cooled honey/cranberry mix and whip until combined.

4. Transfer to a sealable jar and store in fridge.

Hot Sauce

Who knew making hot sauce was so easy? I recently discovered this and was blown away. Depending on your preferred spice level, you can change the peppers or mix and match them. Since I have a thing for garlic (more like an obsession), I had to add that to my batch. This takes a short while to cook, but it does take 3 days to sit. I used the method from Popsugar and used the following ingredients:

3 habaneros

8 jalapenos

4 cloves of garlic

5 cups of vinegar

salt to taste

Cookies

Who doesn’t like receiving cookies? If you’re always wondering what to give co-workers or neighbors, this is the perfect gift. The s’more cookie is my absolute favorite cookie. Ever. At least so far. I gave these out last year and one of my family members sent me a text saying that she couldn’t stop eating them and started to eat her daughter’s share of cookies. Try them, you’ll love them!

Nom Nom Paleo’s Magic Mushroom Powder

Michelle Tam from Nom Nom Paleo created this amazing powder recipe that you can use as a rub or seasoning. It’s crazy delicious and you can make this in about ten minutes or less. The seasoning is wonderful on oven baked chicken wings! Here’s the recipe for the powder and she even provides printable labels for your jars!

Have fun making your homemade gifts! Let me know how it works for you and share a picture if you can! I would love to see them!