3 Wonderful Homemade Gift Ideas Straight From Your Kitchen

You can give out gifts using stuff or ingredients that are readily available in the house. Some great homemade gift ideas that can be found or made in your kitchen are chocolate-dipped nuts, molded candles and muffin mix in a jar.

Gift-giving does not have to be difficult or expensive. In fact, you don’t always have to step out of the house and hit the malls to look for presents for your loved ones. You can find and make your own gifts using stuff you already have at home, particularly in your kitchen. From wrapped nut gifts to homemade cookies, the great thing about homemade gifts is that you can add a personal and unique touch to it and make the person feel that it really comes from you.

Chocolate-dipped nuts

For the friend or special someone who is a chocoholic, chocolate-dipped nut gifts will definitely satisfy their sweet tooth. For the recipe, you will need a cup of semisweet chocolate chips, 2 tablespoons of butter, 1 egg, 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted, ½ teaspoon vanilla, ½ cup chopped peanuts, a dash of salt and flaked coconut. Over low heat, melt the chocolate and butter into a medium saucepan. After melting, allow it to cool until lukewarm. Beat in the egg until smooth and mix in the sifted sugar, salt and vanilla. Mix in half of the coconut flakes and peanuts. Let the mixture cool for an hour. After cooling, roll them into 1 inch balls into the remainder of the coconut flakes. Chill the balls for three hours. This recipe is fairly easy to make and yields about 30 chocolate-dipped nuts. You can put these sweets into a personalized jar or box. Add a ribbon and a sincere note to make it even sweeter.

Molded candles

Candles make cute presents and are functional as well as decorative. You will only need to buy the paraffin candle wax and candlewick if you don’t already have it. Or, use old, used candles. The other things you need may be readily available, like a heavy pot for melting the wax and a cupcake or jelly mold. The first thing to do is to melt the wax in the pot. Make sure it doesn’t get too hot and, when the wax is ready, prepare the wick by dipping it into the wax a few times. This will give it a ‘wax coating’. Make a small hole into the jelly or cupcake mold for the wick to be inserted in. Pull the wick through and pour the wax into the mold. Make sure it doesn’t spill or reach the brim, then allow it to cool. In a while, you will notice that the top part will “shrink”, pour a little layer of wax on it and leave it to cool. To remove the finished candle from the mold, you can run the outer part of the mold with hot water and it will easily slip out. You can make as many candles as you want. Just put them in a fancy box with a special note attached to it.

A jar of muffin mix

A jar of muffin mix is a wonderful gift idea for people who love to bake but may not have the time to do so. You will need a cup of vegetable shortening, 1/3 cup of baking powder, 2/3 cup of sugar and a tablespoon of salt. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Cut the shortening into the mixture and distribute evenly. Put the mix in an airtight container or jar. Decorate the jar with ribbons and paste fancy paper on its surface. You can write notes and the muffin recipe on a fancy paper, too.

Gifts do not have to be expensive or bought from a store. Usually, people pay more attention to the thought behind the present. Homemade gifts are a great way of expressing yourself and letting the other person now that you actually made a gift just for them.

Smiley Saturday

What did the Spanish farmer say to his chicken?
--Oh lay.

What do cows read?

--The moos-paper.--In piggy banks.

Where do cows go on vacation?
--Moo York.

What happens when a dog stays in the sun too long?
--It turns into a hot dog.

Where do cows go on vacation?

--Cow-lifornia.

When a pig burns himself, what does he put on it?
--Oink-ment.

Why was the cow afraid?
--Because he was a cow-ard.

What is a ducks favourite snack?
--Cheese and quackers.

Sinigang na Bangus

1/2 lb Bangus (milkfish)
2 c Water
3 med size Tomatoes, sliced
1 med size Onion, sliced
1 pack sinigang mix (thanks there’s a Filipino store)
2 pcs eggplants sliced
String beans
Lettuce romaine
radish
salt to taste

1. Slice fish and cut into 4-6 pieces. Salt all over.

2. Boil water with onions, tomatoes and fish. Add eggplants, string beans, radish and sinigang mixture.
Bring to a boil. Add the lettuce romaine, lower heat and simmer 3-5 minutes.

3. Serve with bagoong or patis (fish sauce).

The Most Practical Way to Create a Drink Menu

You can create a drink menu by classifying similar types into the following groups: martinis, classic cocktails, tropical drink menu, frozen drinks, hot drinks, single spirit menu, and special concoctions.

The cocktail party is a well-known social gathering. Your drinks are the essential part of your party. You have a choice of preparing a full bar or a drink menu. When you go for a full bar, your guests have the option of choosing their preferred drink. This is recommended when you have a wide selection of spirits available for mixing up to come up with various drinks. A drink menu, on the contrary, can help you save your money because you it does not require a completely stocked bar. You can simply put together a list of drinks together with the ingredients. Make sure to have several printed lists of your drink menu and place them in menu covers to ensure that they will not get wet during the party.

Martinis

You can use the same spirits and mixers belonging in the same category so you can have the following:

* Dry Manhattan – composed of Dry Vermouth, Bitters, Cherry, Whiskey

* Classic Martini – consists of Dry Vermouth, Bitters, Gin, Olive

* Tequini – is Dry Vermouth, Bitters, Lemon Twist, Tequila

Classic cocktails

Restoring the classic cocktails will surely ignite your guests’ interests in the bartending style of the golden age. Most of these drinks need more preparation time, so practicing beforehand will be of great help in order for you to be fully equipped with mixing skills once your guests arrived. You might want to try the following:

* Martinez – is made up of Gin, Triple Sec, Orange Bitters, Gin

* New Orleans Fizz – Lime juice, lemon juice, cream, Gin, Orange Flower Water, egg

* Dubonnet Cocktail – Dubonnet Rouge, Gin

* Ward Eight – Grenadine, Sour mix, Bourbon

Tropical drink menu

Tropical drinks are ideal for a cocktail party during the summer. Make sure to prepare fresh juice and have a variety of fruit garnishes. Your options would be:

* Envy – prepare Tequila, Blue Curacao, pineapple juice

* Hurricane – have light and dark rums, passion fruit, orange juice, lime juice, simple syrup, and grenadine

* Mai Tai – Orange Curacao, lime juice, gold and dark rums

* Blue Hawaiian – rum, Blue Curacao, crème de coconut, pineapple juice

Frozen drinks

When using Margaritas, you can try mixing not so common flavors in order to have some variations. You can use the following:

* Hypnotiq Margarita – comprised of Tequila, Hypnotiq, Blue Curacao, Sour mix, pineapple juice

* Tamarind Margarita – consists of Tequila, Triple Sec, lime juice, peaches

* Tamarind Margarita – using Tequila, Tamarind Concentrate, Simple Syrup

Hot drinks

Hot drinks are great for the holidays. These are some of the variations:

* Hot Toddy – whiskey, hot tea, lemon, honey

* Tom & Jerry – Brandy, Dark Rum, egg, water, sugar

* Black Stripe – Dark Rum, molasses, hot water

The common garnishes to use are lemon, nutmeg, orange, cinnamon stick and clove.

Single spirit menu

This drink menu is ideal for a selective spirit that you wish to include. Scotch, cachaca, and pisco are excellent options that permit guests to try unfamiliar mixtures. A Scotch drink menu can have several varieties.

* Aggravation – Scotch, cream, coffee liquer

* Rusty Nail – Scotch, Drambuie

Special concoctions

You can experiment by being creative in working on a special concoction to match a theme. If you are having a rock theme cocktail party, you can have a huge array of gemstone colored drinks.

Grilled Mushroom

When everybody in the house is busy munching with fresh from the grilled spareribs, the time for me to sneak in on my veggie menu. So, with a little dash of salt, garlic and onion, presto I have my grilled mushroom.

Spring Roll

The following pictures show the step by step prepratioon of my spring roll. Not lot of vegetable used because the family only prefer cabbage and carrots.

Filipino Dish for Memorial Day

CHICKEN AFRITADA for my Filipino dish share on Memorial Day

Ingredients:

• 1 Kilo boneless chicken breast, cut into pieces
• 5 medium size potatoes, peeled and halved
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1 head garlic, minced
• 1 green & red bell pepper,sliced into strips
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 3 tablespoon butter or margarine

Cooking Instructions:

• Heat oil in a cooking pot or wok.
• Saute garlic and onions.
• Add chicken and slightly brown.
• pour the tomato sauce and broth. bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 20 minutes or until the chicken is almost cooked.
• Add potatoes and continue cooking.
• When potaotes are cooked, add the green and red bell peppers and simmer for an additional minute or two.
• Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste and serve with steamed rice.

SPRING ROLL IN SPRING TIME

My bestfriend’s birthday is coming up. So, I thought of making spring rolls. I have to choose what vegetables I have to use because most of his family members don’t eat vegetables. So I prefered to use cabbage and carrots; they like these two vegetables,(at least) and ground beef. Guess what? A day before my bestfriend’s birthday I made 25 pieces as a trial and guess what? His Granny was able to eat almost half of it. Everybody has surely like the spring roll I made with a sweet and sour sauce for dip. Hearing a comment such as “ohm…If you didn’t cook that dish, I don’t know if I can be able to eat a food like for the rest of my life”, sound like bells to my ears. If they ever like it, especially the one who made that comment, (he doesn’t eat vegetables) I am sure visitors would like my spring roll. Do you know how many did I make? Well, a hundred pieces and it's like a blockbuster movie that day. At the end of the day, the family decided to include my spring roll for family tradition dish, just like the cottage cheese that they always have.

Kusina Ko-HOW IT STARTED

I came here in Michigan on February 16 to venture for new adventure. As always, anywhere I go I would still look for Filipino food to eat. There's is one family who is so generous to let me stay at their house. Well, obviously I would say that bread, pizzas, mac n chiz, potatoes in different varieties: mashed, fries, baked, etc. are the common meal that they are having. I have a bestfriend here whom is so nice that would always bring me to Chinese restaurants during his rest days. A Week passed I thought I will survive not having Filipino foods. Waaaahh, I am craving for Filipino foods. Eating at a Chinese restaurant could ease the craving but still my taste bud is crying for Filipino dishes. So, this craving must END. I asked my bestfriend to drive to the fruit/vegetable market and grocery stores and buy the ingredients I needed for each menu that I have in my mind. The very first meal I cooked is vegetable stir fry, with a little help from Mama Sita’s ready mix seasoning, my stir fry veggies became a success, yipee!!! The next day, I fixed sweet and sour pork, I had to have the pork breaded with Italian bread crumbs before I fry it and mix in the sweet and sour mixture I made, of course, I love vegetable, so, I put carrots in it. My bestfriend's family and him really loves that and the next day he went to work he started bragging to his coworker that I AM AN EXCELLENT COOK, whew!!! So, that started my cooking career,hahahaha