My husband and I, along with a crew of siblings, aunts, uncles, and even some work colleagues with nowhere else to go for the holiday, are about to descend upon my aunt's lovely home for Thanksgiving dinner. This is a time when a hostess gift is certainly called for. We want to take some small and luxurious token of appreciation, maybe even something homemade. Here are a few ideas, and we'd love to hear more from you!
Here are a few ideas that particularly struck our fancy, culled from around the web. We weren't strongly inclined to sweets like cookies or candy, since there is so much food left over from Thanksgiving already! We'll save those giftable treats for later in December.
TOP ROW
• 1 Bath fizzies - We don't usually make our own bath products but these bath fizzies from Martha Stewart actually sound really easy and accessible. Also see how to make homemade body scrubs.
• 2 Granola - A batch of homemade granola is always appreciated.
• 3 Cookie dough for later - There are too many sweets left over from Thanksgiving to give your host a whole other batch, but what about a prettily-wrapped roll of frozen cookie dough for later?
• 4 Homemade cocktail mixers - We love things that we wouldn't usually think to make ourselves, like a set of holiday cocktail mixers. See recipes at Martha Stewart, plus printable tags.
• 5 Hot chocolate mix - We love these little tins, with printable labels for download at Blonde Designs Blog.
BOTTOM ROW
• 6 Homemade jam or preserved fruit - Did you can some jam or fruit this summer? Take a jar, wrapped up in a pretty tea towel or bag tied with ribbon.
• 7 Small bags of coffee - What about a small bag of your favorite coffee, in a bag decorated by you?See more about this here.
• 8 Flavored sugar or herbed salts - Leave a vanilla bean in sugar to scent it, and give it in a pretty jar. More ideas like this here at Martha Stewart.
Plus all of these homemade things, you could also just take a very nice jar of honey, an extra-special bottle of olive oil, a pint of good ice cream, or a bundle of fresh herbs from your garden, tied with a pretty ribbon.
What are you taking to say thank you to your Thanksgiving host this year?
Related: What's the Best Food Gift You've Ever Received?
(Images: Martha Stewart; Faith Durand; Joseph de Leo/Country Living; Martha Stewart; Martha Stewart; Faith Durand; Emma Christensen; Blonde Designs Blog)
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I thought the first photo was pistachio and strawberry marshmallows!!!
An exfoliating scrub of fine sea salt, sweet almond oil, and a few drops of essential oil in a pretty jar is one of my favorite small thank-you gifts to give. Everyone loves them!
If you're going to make mixers, I recommend making grenadine, including juicing the pomagranate. You don't even need to pull all the seeds out, just use a citrus reamer. It's so much better than store-bought I don't even know how to describe it.
I also thought they were marshmallows!
I thought they were marshmallows too! So, of course, now I want some... :(
Thanksgiving is always at my great aunt's, but because all the attending family live pretty close we divide up the list and everybody brings stuff. I am going early to help her out this year, though. (Oh yeah, and I'm making chocolate peanut butter pie too!)
i thought they were marshmallows also. but last new years eve i made some marshmallows for the annual hot cocoa at my grandma's and everyone loved 'em. I cut them out into stars. :)
A variety of homemade dry rubs.
I just saw these herb infused honeys at http://foodandstyle.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/making-herb-infused-honeys/ that would make an awesome hostess gift.
I recently watched Nigella Feasts and she made a yummy looking hostess gift from just 3 ingredients. She just combined sugar, corn syrup and baking soda and I have to admit, now I am dying to try it. I like the Thanksgiving blessings mix you highlighted too, so I think I'm gonna have to give both ideas a go, or come up with a way to incorporate them....
@ Teacherteacher - Nigella was making honeycomb candy (I think she calls it hokey pokey) and it's a classic candy, crispy and light. And extra-delicious dipped in chocolate.
But package or wrap it up well in something airtight. It gets soggy, tough and chewy the minute it encounters humidity. If you fully enrobe it in chocolate or some other candy coating it keeps quite a bit better.
@ Kakugori - now you have me thinking about chocolate peanut butter pie! Would you share the recipe? I love making chocolate peanut butter balls and bars but have never made it in a pie! Thanks
I don't really have a recipe, I just make it. It is kind of like a chocolate cream pie. I use chocolate pudding in a graham cracker crust, with a cool-whip and pb mixture on top. It's as easy or as complicated as you care to make it--make the crust (regular or graham cracker), pudding filling, whipped cream or just buy and assemble. Add as much peanut butter (or other nut) to the topping as you want, until it tastes good. Eat any that accidentally doesn't make it onto the pie. :D