Expressing hospitality through gifts of bread or wine is a practice that reaches across centuries and continents.
Whether you are welcoming a new neighbor, celebrating a friend's birthday or providing meals to assist a co-worker after surgery, food gifts are always welcome. Warm bread, sticky jam or tins of cookies feed the heart and nourish community. In order to avoid a baking rut, consider adding some unique recipes to your repertoire so that whatever the occasion, you are prepared to dish out hospitality.
Preserves, Jams, Garnishes, Condiments
Sometimes the most convenient food gift is one that does not require immediate consumption. However, you may tire of giving predictable jars of strawberry jam or your homemade salsa. Consider seasonal or international ingredients and recipes to create unusual treats like fig jam, saffron curry marinade, cashew bacon brittle or home-grown sun-dried heirloom tomatoes. Unleashing your inner "foodie" can result in delicious spreads and snacks; just remember to make test batches of new recipes before integrating them into your hospitable giving.
Breads, Cookies, Baked Goods
Sometimes unique food gifts are special because of their origin rather than any particular complexity - not that you have to tell the recipient. Portuguese farm bread, for instance, immediately sounds rustic and labor-intensive, yet it only requires five ingredients. Crossing categories is another way to create unique food gifts: honey lavender shortbread sounds like bread, tastes like a cookie and uses a flower as an ingredient. Guinness stout ginger cake combines dessert and drinks. Label your gift so that recipients can savor the discovery of what their treat contains after you've gone.
Tags: food gifts, gift that, unique food
