Pallet for Home

I stress now & can not stress enough... Packaging & Presentation.  You MUST NOT skimp on these with your homemade gifts. Yes, what is on the inside counts but your presentation/packaging hold their attention. Intrigue, pulling them in with desire & appreciation for the time & effort you put into a gift JUST for them. It is what sets your gifts apart from the rest. 

 Think local & natural for a theme in your gifts.

 I came across an *article sharing "More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn't exactly what the bees produce", according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety news.

Food Safety News decided to test honey sold in various outlets after its *earlier investigation* {Honey Laundering} found U.S. groceries flooded with Indian honey banned in Europe as unsafe because of contamination with antibiotics, heavy metal and a total lack of pollen which prevented tracking its origin.

YIKES! And that is just with Honey.Once you have had Raw, unprocessed honey from a true bee keeper, you will forever be spoiled to the taste, color and texture.It is DiViNe! Either buy from a LOCAL beekeeper, or if you have your own hives, PACKAGE them up GOURMET STYLE! Truly people. The simple method is fine for selling to keep cost down. But should you GIFT them... Put more effort into it. If you from a local, there is nothing wrong with making a more gift worthy label. Just be sure to add the beekeeper information in respect to their work as well as giving the recipient a way to seek out where their gourmet honey can be purchased.

I LOVE the amazing Graphic Fairy and all she shares of antique/Vintage graphics. I pieced together bits I found on her site to create my own Gourmet Honey labels to adorn the Hexagon jars I grabbed up at The Flower Factory {12 jars for less then $7!}. The labels were finished up in Pic Monkey after a simple edit program for combining. Printed out at the local office supply store which I had done on the white linen resume paper, costing twice the normal printing cost for colored. Great for gifts but the not so much for paper labels in LARGE quantities. I found a natural twill cotton ribbon but do not favor it's thickness. It leaves me not so thrilled. It will do for now, but I am on the hunt for a cotton ribbon less "bulky".

  I discovered some great gift & special occasion recipes from a book entitled *Gifts from the Kitchen by Annie Rigg.*

I'm eyeing the Limencello recipe for an after the New Year treat. {This is a lemon infused vodka ,only the outer zest is used to produce the lemon essence. Have storage containers handy so as not to waste the excess lemon juice.- I highly recommend using a nice smooth Vodka. I have tasted many varieties from low to high end and have found Seagrams Extra Smooth Vodka with the dark blue label to be very fine.It is distilled 5 times from the finest American grain . My preferred cocktail Spirit. I pay $10 for the 750 ml- 80 proof bottle.}

 My kids LOVE Nutella. Personally I had never heard of this chocolate hazelnut version of Peanut Butter.  Thankfully Aldi's has their own {much less in cost} version. Now if I can only find a local source for Hazelnuts, I can eliminate the store version ingredient questionable's. This is not a healthy food. It is an indulgence of taste best for occasional eating.

Whip this up {double/triple etc to your needs} and use spring latch or unusual shape jars with lids for packaging. Add some *Homemade Graham Crackers* ,maybe *Raising Janes {Mary Jane Butter's daughter} recipe here* English Muffins, a small similar shaped tin of homemade nibbles or pretzels for dipping into the spread to the top of the Jar{s}.I LOVE me some Alton brown and recommend  should you wish to make some impressive Hard pretzels, try *his recipe here*. No need to make them into sticks. Just play with twisting to fit in a smaller tin. Secure your jar & tin with a pleasant ribbon or natural twine. Don't forget the label as well as all their recipes so they can make more themselves!

Makes One - 1 pound jar

1/2 Cup Blanched Hazelnuts

3 1/2 ounces DARK chocolate{72% cacao content}, chopped

1/3 Cup & 2 Tablespoons sweetened Condensed Milk

1-2 Tablespoons Hazelnut Oil

pinch of salt

3-4 Tablespoons Hot Water

Preheat Oven to 350 {F} degrees. Place Hazelnuts on cookie & toast 5-7 Minutes until pale golden color. Remove & let nuts slightly cool.

Put warm nuts into food processor & chop until almost smooth Paste texture.

Gently Melt Chocolate, condensed milk & hazelnut oil in saucepan over low heat.Stir until smooth & ADD TO the Hazelnut paste in food processor.

Add pinch of salt & blend. Add hot water & blend again until thick & spreadable consistency.

Spoon into Sterilized/clean Jar{s} & let cool. Place on lid & store in refrigerator.

This will keep in the fridge up to 2 weeks.

Do you prefer something long lasting? Maybe your just not feeling crafty. Then I HIGHLY encourage you to buy up a few of these* Cast Iron bread pans*. The exact same ones My Captain bought for me a few years ago. I'm not sure if they offer the custom engraving for the bread pans as he had done for my cast Iron Pie pans. But if they do, why not have it personalized while your at it. I refuse to bake my breads in anything else. What a difference they make and once you try it, you'll know why I'm hoping for a few more under the tree this year.

Sportsman's guide* is where their at. For under $17 each. The Captain LOVES buying from them and if you become a member {for $30 a year which gives you lower prices & optional payment plan for your purchases- no hidden or additional fees}. Very nice for budgeting gifts. Back to those pans.

 and this one:

 Moss is easy to whip up with a decent backyard source like mine and plenty of time {a year and a half} to tend to their growth. I have found 2 ways to grow it. {Share Courtesy of About.com in gardening by Marie Iannotti}

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1. The easiest way to get a patch of moss started is to take a piece from somewhere else and move it. Rake and scratch the surface of the soil you’re going to be putting it on, so that the filaments make good contacts. Wet the are and lay the moss on top of it. Press is well into the soil. It even helps if you pin it in place or put some light rocks on it to anchor it. Newly transplanted moss will need to be kept moist for the first few weeks. You can tell you moss as taken when it doesn’t lift with a light tug.

It’s probably wise to take your transplant moss from a similar surface to minimize transplant problems. 

Moss Making Recipe:

Mix until creamy and spreadable. If the mixture is too thick, add a small amount of water. If it’s too thin, add more moss.

Paint the mixture onto the new surface. You can allow the mixture to sit for a day or two, to start the process. You may get mold first, but by about week 6 you should see signs of moss.

**To keep your moss growing well, you need to maintain ideal moss conditions: shade, moisture and a low soil pH. You’ll also need to keep the weeds out. Moss can’t compete for moisture with the roots of weeds.

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The love for Ferns and woodlands come into play with this easy idea of slicing a log for the cake stand! Perfect even after a wedding. Fern fronds laid about to pull it together. Wonder what cake she will decide on...

 The other piece of decor I have set my eyes on long ago when we first discussed her getting married...Chandeliers! Grapevines with moss tidbits and wild grasses. Votives in glass holders secured between the hanging apparatus {not sure if we would use heavy duty rustic rope or rusted chains} for hanging in the canopy dining tents.

So be prepared for much more woodland love coming from this chick. Oh, and I have yet to mention I am planting that back garden I gave up on/downsized from, outside the picket fence, in cutting flowers. Beyond Frogs little strip of flowers I had mentioned previously. Nope. We are going to Market this next summer! Looks like long stem Sweet peas will be one of my main growers. White Willow, the Bride, may be using the DARK purple Sweet peas in her wedding too. This year is the trial garden and I have been devouring so much beauty on this endeavor.... Reneesgarden.com has been seeing A LOT of traffic from this house.

I am succumbing to a sore throat and must hop off to the herb store for lozenge ingredients. This time I am adding lemon extract...and hiding them from the kids. They are THAT good.