When thinking up homemade food gift ideas, things like cookies, hot cocoa mix and fudge immediately come to mind. I recently discussed giving wine as a gift over on the Bitter/Sweet blog, but let’s look at some more food related gift ideas that go beyond cookies and candy:

From YumSugar, check out this slide show of 12 Handmade Edible Food Gifts, including Parmesan Black Pepper Biscotti, Homemade Kahlua, Candied Citrus Peel, and Smoky Cashews. Slashfood recently posted easy recipes for Four Fast Tomato Sauces, which would be great packaged in old-fashioned mason jars and given to a pasta loving friend.

From BlogHer, try these Homemade Beauty Gifts with a foodie twist, like chocolate lip balm and chamomile bubble bath. Also check out 5 DIY Holiday Beauty Gifts which features bath salts in “flavors” like pink grapefruit, cucumber mint, and candy cane. Most of the ingredients for these “recipes” are everyday pantry items like sea salt and baking soda.

From MyRecipes.com, here’s a guide to creating Ultimate Gift Baskets like Herb Garden, Italian Feast, and Tea Time. Each basket contains quite a few items, for the sake of budget you could just select a couple to build a basket.

And finally, from Wired, here is a list of Gifts for the Nanogastronome. This list includes new gadgets, books, and food that a culinary buff might like to receive.

A tagine (or tajine) is a traditional cooking vessel used in North Africa, especially in Moroccan cuisine. The top cover has a cone shape that encourages condensation to run back down into the bottom of the pan, allowing tough cuts of meat to braise over low temperatures. In Moroccan cuisine, tagine also refers to a slow-braised stew with vegetables and spices, including Ras el Hanout.

Since a tagine is not in my cooking arsenal, I used a dutch oven which is probably the closest western equivalent. When covered tightly, a dutch oven can serve a similar purpose in cooking. If you do not have chipotle chili powder, use regular chili powder or cayenne pepper. You can also used smoked or hot paprika. We served this dish with clementine oranges on the side (interestingly, our crate of clementines read “Product of Morocco,” so it seemed fitting).

Chicken & Butternut Squash Tagine
adapted from Cooking Light

Olive oil
2 onions, diced
1 sweet bell pepper, such as yellow, seeded and diced
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/3 cup golden or regular raisins
hot cooked rice, for serving

Heat oil in a large dutch oven. Add onions and bell pepper, sauteing under tender, about 5 minutes. Add cumin, paprika, turmeric, salt, cinnamon, ginger, chili powder, and garlic. Saute 2-3 minutes, then add chicken.

Saute chicken until coated in the spice mixture, then add chicken stock and butternut squash. Scrap the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until squash is tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from heat, stir in raisins, and let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.

To serving, spoon tagine over hot cooked rice. Serve with orange slices if desired.

For the Gift of Food, try making something with a healthy twist. Who could say no to granola with cherries and dark chocolate? Try making a batch of this great granola recipe and packing it in a glass jar with a festive bow on top. The wheat germ adds a nutty flavor and gives the granola texture and a nutrition boost.

Any kind of dried fruit or nuts can be substituted for the dried cherries and chocolate chips, just keep the proportions the same. You can also coarsely chop any kind of chocolate baking bar instead of using mini-chips.

Jenn’s Chocolate-Cherry Granola
2 1/2 cups quick oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup mini-chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300F and coat a 13×9 baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, toss the oats and wheat germ.

Combine oil, maple syrup, and salt in a glass measuring cup and heat in the microwave for 1 minute. Add the vanilla.

Pour the syrup over the dry ingredients and toss to coat everything evenly. Spread mixture over prepared baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

Add the dried cherries. Add the chocolate chips while the mixture is still warm and stir to melt the chocolate into the granola, or add the chocolate chips after the mixture has cooled to keep in pieces.

Sprinkle granola on top of yogurt and fruit.

As part of my Thanksgiving feast, I wanted to make the traditional mashed potatoes and stuffing, but with a twist. Since I was not making a whole turkey, it was important to impart flavor in both the stuffing and potatoes. Nothing bores me more than a table full of beige food, both in color and flavor. Shy of using food dye, there is not much that can be done to potatoes to make them prettier. Instead, I focused on taking the beige out of potatoes and stuffing by infusing both with flavors from my Simple Garlic Broth.

The timing on this is near perfect: Prepare and begin cooking the turkey, then begin the stock. While the stock cooks, peel potatoes. Once the stock is complete, begin cooking potatoes. While potatoes cook, prep for the stuffing. Prepare stuffing and finish potatoes while turkey is resting. There will be downtown in between the steps to do other things as well.

You’ll notice there are no pictures to this post, but potatoes and stuffing are just not the most photogenic foods out there.

Simple Garlic Broth is my go-t0 homemade stock, which I love to use in everything from soups to couscous to hummus. Over time, I have altered the recipe slightly, but it still remains fairly easy, as the title implies:

Simple Garlic Broth

5 cups cold water
2 heads of garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
2 bay leaves (fresh or dried)
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
salt, to taste

Break apart and peel the cloves of garlic, crushing each clove slightly with a knife. Combine garlic cloves in a large pot with water, olive oil, bay leaves, and thyme sprigs. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for an hour. Makes about 4 cups.

Remove from heat and strain broth through a sieve, reserving the solids. Add salt to taste to broth. Divide broth, reserving about 3 cups for stuffing and the remaining for potatoes.

Remove bay leaves and stems of the thyme sprigs from the reserved garlic solids. Using fingers, slide off any remaining thyme leaves from the stems, then discard stems. In a small bowl, use a fork to mash garlic cloves into a puree. Add salt to taste then add to the broth reserved for potatoes.

Set aside divided broth until ready to prepare potatoes and stuffing.

Garlic-Thyme Whipped Potatoes

5 lb russet or golden Yukon potatoes, scrubbed and peeled
reserved garlic broth, from above
Cracked black pepper, to taste

Cut potatoes into 1-inch cubes, as uniform as possible. In are large pot, cover potatoes with 1-inch of water. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer until potatoes are tender with pierced with a fork, about 30 minutes. Cover and remove potatoes from heat.

Move potatoes to an unused burner on the stovetop to keep warm until turkey as finished cooking and is resting. Drain potatoes (potato water can be reserved to make gravy) and return to pot. Add garlic broth and solids. Using an electric mixer or immersion blender on medium to high speed, puree potatoes until desired consistency (smooth or slightly chunky, depending on preference). Season to taste with black pepper.

Garlic-Thyme Stuffing

1 package herb stuffing
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1 small onion, diced
2-3 ribs of celery, diced
3 cups garlic broth
Cracked black pepper

In a medium to large saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onions and celery. Saute 3-5 minutes, until softened. Remove from heat and add about 1 cup of broth and a third of the herb stuffing mix to the pan. Stir until all of the stuffing mixture is moistened, then repeat. Add remaining stuffing mixture to pan and add enough broth to keep stuffing at desired consistency. The package will state 2 1/2 cups of broth, but you may need to use up to 3. Season to taste with pepper.

Horchata is a Mexican beverage that translated to Cinnamon Rice Milk. It is made by boiling rice in  a large amount of water and flavoring the “milk” with cinnamon, vanilla, or other flavors of choice such as peach. Sunny Anderson, the host of Cooking for Real on the Food Network, introduced viewers to this delicious drink. This is a fairly simple recipe, both in preparation and execution. I found this to be a very enjoyable drink on a cold, wintry day (like today!).

If the thought of rice milk seems just a little odd, keep in mind that rice milk is also sold at the supermarket as an alternative to dairy milk (along the lines of soy milk, or even coconut milk, which can be used to flavor beverages and dishes). For this recipe, do not use instant rice. Look for long-grain white rice, not brown. If fresh peaches are not available, frozen peaches can be substituted (thaw before using). The trick to this beverage is to blend the mixture completely, then strain the solids to make sure the texture is consistent.

Peach Horchata
adapted from Sunny Anderson

1 cup white rice (not instant)
8 cups cold water, divided
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 (3 inch) cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp salt
1 ripe peach, pitted and sliced into 8 wedges
5 cardamom pods, slightly crushed (optional)
Ground cinnamon, for serving

In a large saucepan, stir rice with 6 cups of water, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon stick, salt, peach slices, and cardamom pods (if using). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 40 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick and cardamom pods.

Working in batches, puree rice mixture in a blender. Pour puree through a fine sieve, pushing through the solids and discarding the large pieces. Return to saucepan and add remaining 2 cups of water. Stirring occasionally, return mixture to a boil. Remove from heat and transfer to a serving pitcher.

To serve hot: pout into mugs, dusting with ground cinnamon as desired.

To serve cold: allow mixture to cool to room temperature, then chill for 2-3 hours. Mixture might be slightly thicker when served cold. If to thick, add a small amount of cold water.