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Holiday Gift Ideas

© Pier Jones

With the holidays fast-approaching, I'm sure that most of you don't know how in the world you would fit canning and preserving into your schedule. So, with that in mind, I thought I might offer up some suggestions for gift-giving ideas; some ideas for what to do with some of those foods and herbs you've painstakingly canned, frozen, and dried throughout the year.

Herbal vinegars are a great addition to any holiday gift-basket, and they are easy to make. Try these for starters, but use your own imagination! (The following recipes are from issue #15, Nov/Dec 1998, of Home Food Preservers Magazine.)

Soup Seasoning Vinegar

1 handful fresh tarragon

2 handfuls fresh parsley

1-4 red peppers (depending on taste)

enough cider vinegar to fill a quart jar

Cover with a lid, and let sit a few weeks. Strain and bottle. When you add vinegars to soup (usually not more than a tablespoon or so is needed), the vinegar acts as a flavor-enhancer, livening up your meal, while the herb flavors come through as seasoning. Add the vinegar in the last 10 minutes or so of cooking.

(Note: When you bottle this as a gift, add a two-inch piece of tarragon to the bottle.)

Fruit Salad Vinegar

1 cup cranberries

the peel of half of one orange (scrubbed)

3 3 inch cinnamon sticks

3 or 4 sprigs mint

1/3 cup honey

enough white wine vinegar to fill a quart jar

Cover with a lid, and let sit a few weeks. Strain and bottle. The color of this one is beautiful.

For more great ideas on herbal vinegar combinations, check out this article of Suite 101's Herb Gardening topic.

For a lovely gift basket, just add a bottle of dried herbs, or an herb blend, and recipes for using the vinegar and herbs.

If you have questions, please post to the discussion area, or join our Preservers egroup at http://members.aol.com/preservers/group.... , where you will meet a lot of very helpful canners.....both experienced and not-so-experienced. And look for tasty recipes in which to use your garden produce in the other topic areas at www.suite101.com .

If you are always looking for new how-to's about canning, freezing, and dehydrating, and want to try new recipes, check out Home Food Preservers Magazine at http://members.aol.com/preservers/index.... Be sure to check this site for information on our newest publication, The Preserving Cook, a newsletter dedicated to cooking with what you've put up. It will be filled with oodles and oodles of good recipes for using all those goodies that you've canned, frozen and dehydrated.