Sweet and Spicy Nuts! You could put them in a nice jar or canister.

Spicy, Sweet & Salty Rosemary Nuts
makes 2 cups

2 cups unsalted mixed nuts, such as almonds, cashews, and walnuts
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
kosher salt

Toast nuts in a skillet over moderately low heat until fragrant. Drop in butter to melt, and toss and cook nuts in butter for a few minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together the sugars, cayenne, and rosemary. Sprinkle sugar mixture evenly over nuts and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar caramelizes. Transfer nuts to a cookie sheet, spread in single layer and sprinkle with kosher salt. Once nuts have cooled, break apart the clusters.

my favorite cheat fudge:
Melt 18 oz. of chocolate chips in a pan with one 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk. Take off the heat and add 1.5 tsp of vanilla extract. Spread evenly in a buttered or lined 8 or 9 inch pan, chill 2 hour until firm, cut into squares. You can add nuts when you add the vanilla or use another flavored extract (I like peppermint). People will love it and be amazed and it is crazy easy to do.

It's not *food* but I'm going to make some sea salt scrubs because I hate having dry rough hands in the winter. Just take some fine sea salt and moisten it with enough oil (I use olive oil) to make a thick paste. Put it in a pretty jar, and that's it. I like to put lemon zest in mine too, makes it smell nice. To use it, just take about a half a teaspoon of the mixture and rub it all over your dry hands and then rinse. Leaves them nice and soft and smelling like lemons :)

Making infused oils freaks me out because of the risk of botulism!

I bought a bunch of ceramic mini loaf dishes at a craft store (Michaels, $1each) with holiday designs and baked some chocolate chip pumpkin quick bread this year & gave them to my coworkers! You can buy the quick bread mix at any grocery store, in all kinds of flavors, and the recipes are very easy.

Last year I did fudge--which was also a hit!

d4kk1tt3n doesn't the lemon burn your hands when they are all dry and cracky in winter? I love the idea esp of using olive oil to do it but my hands flinched at the mention of even lemon zest! Scary!

loudlyquiet, lemon zest would be mostly lemon oil. Lemon juice contains the citric acid that would burn. It's not found in the zest.

chocolate truffles

they're a lot of fun to make! i make a vegan version, but there are tons of recipes online. you can add in flavored syrups like hazelnut or roll them in coconut flakes or chopped nuts.

You can also do a scrub w/sugar instead of salt. You could make bath salts - Epson salts (very inexpensive) and dried herbs (lavender...).

As far as a seasoned salt - mix salt, brown sugar, ground chilis (chili powder), and cumin together. You could also add some cocoa to this.

You could also make a "mix": For cream scones combine: 2c flour, 1T baking powder, 1/2t salt, 1/4c sugar and 3/4c (total) of whatever mix-ins you like (craisins & choc chips...). Place in jar w/ a note to mix w/ 1 1/4c heavy cream, brush tops w/cream and spinkle on sugar. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. You could make the mix and buy the cream (buy a pint per gift) when you get there. These are really good!

Last week The Kitchn linked to some jarred mixes on the Food network and I made the curried lentil mix for friends. I made the soup myself and can tell you that it's delicious! I don't see why it wouldn't ship, although the pretty layering would probably be lost.

This year, I canned Lemon Curd, made an Oatmeal Stout Spicy Brown Mustard (delish!), and made candles (got the wax from Michaels, added essential oils and poured into vintage glasses from thrift stores). They didn't cost much and are great gifts!

I'm doing hot chocolate mix as gifts. Super easy, just mix and pour into a jar. I used Alton Brown's recipe, with the recommended malted milk instead of powdered.

@loudlyquiet: Yeah, as Greige pointed out there's not a lot of acid in zest. Though you could put something else in there to make it smell nice if you wanted that wasn't so scary :)

This year we've also made a lot of hot chocolate mixes for my daughter's friends and homemade cherry liquor (in the summer when cherries were SO cheap) for MY friends :)

If you don't really cook but need to travel, why not concoct some rice pilaf bags with rice, spices, raisins, etc. ? Or better yet, wait til you arrive and go to the store.

Homemade nut brittle is easy, a nice way to spend an afternoon...and people are floored by how delicious it is. It's very rich so you can give small amounts. I really like almond.

you could do those cakes you bake and seal in jars, like these

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cake-in-a-Jar/Detail.aspx

if you can make a cake from a boxed mix, you can probably make these. just be careful with how much you put in each jar.

just thought of another one, home made pepermint bark

a layer of melted dark chocolate on the bottom, wait for it to cool

a layer of melted white chocolate in the middle

and a thin layer of crushed peppermints on top, put it in the fridge to harden back up and break it into pieces

I love to make homemade caramels. Super easy, but wrapping them up individually, which only takes a bit of time, makes them seem super special

make easy fudge! i like to cut it into squares, wrap it in parchment paper like pieces of candy, then present it in a cute little jars. see some of my favorite variations here:
http://theweekendgourmande.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/fail-proof-fabulous-fudge/

I think that it's a nice idea to shake things up by making these sugar plums http://bit.ly/6Fgnff

Nut brittle. It doesn't take a long time to make and travels well. In addition to peanut, I make pistachio. You can package it any way you like -- boxes, tins, etc.

Homemade peppermint bark is really easy and travels well--it's not too big but people love it.

Hermit bars are a baking project, but very easy. I thought of them because they get better after a few days and they are easy to transport or ship. And a little goes a long way, as with the peppermint bark.