Gifts Cooks Love--To Give and To Receive!
I'm a sucker for homemade gifts of food, packaged with care and made with love. Intricate holiday cookies. Homemade chocolate toffee. Candied lemon peel.
So I was delighted to be invited to an afternoon with Diane Morgan, the award-winning cookbook writer and culinary instructor, and thrilled to be given a copy of her newly published cookbook, Gifts Cooks Love: Recipes for Giving.
While seasoned cooks and canners will delight in the book's recipes for Green Tomato Chutney or Olive Oil and Herb-Cured Albacore Tuna, those with less time or skill will embrace her wonderful quick and easy ideas.
In under two hours, Diane prepared three recipes: Rustic Rosemary-Parmesan Crackers, Home-Churned Lemon Herb Butter, and Bollywood Coconut Curry Popcorn Seasoning.
Time-strapped as we all are this season, I was glad to learn that Bollywood Popcorn Seasoning, made with shredded coconut, curry powder, ginger, cinnamon and cayenne, takes but minutes to make. (As an added bonus, its intoxicating scent will perfume your kitchen for hours.) I've come across Hawaiian popcorn seasoning in the past, made with nori, sesame seeds and rice crackers, but this Bollywood seasoning is pure genius.
Compound butters are all the rage these days, and churning your own butter is easy to do. Whether you make it by yourself, painlessly, in a stand mixer, as the book suggests, or turn the experience into a family affair by pouring the cream into a jar, corralling the kids, and letting everyone give that jar a good shake, you've got a winning gift. Mixed with fresh herbs and lemon zest, there's nothing like the taste of this homemade butter.
Filled with some forty recipes for both sweet and savory gifting, Gifts Cooks Love is a book that keeps on giving. Present it to your favorite foodies and hope that next year they'll shower you with homemade treats like a jar of thick lemon curd or a box of toasted coconut marshmallows. But don't forget to keep a copy for yourself. You'll want easy access to all those recipes too, and not just for this holiday season. The Double Fudge Brownie Pops look like a whole lot of fun, and Valentine's Day isn't that far away!
--Tracy Schneider
Leslie Kelly on December 13, 2010 at 10:39 AM
I'm definitely going to make that popcorn seasoning!
And just ordered a couple Le Creuset spice containers to put it in....
http://www.amazon.com/Creuset-Stoneware-Small-Spice-White/dp/B0015UVJH2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1292265451&sr=1-1
K Sanders on December 15, 2010 at 05:04 PM
I like this and will buy it! I love giving home-made gifts to family and friends all year long. :)