The Naptime Chef

Homemade Gift Week: Don’t forget to enter below to enter the Duda Farm Fresh Giveaway for a Meyer Lemons, a $25 Williams-Sonoma giftcard and a KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixer in Majestic Yellow. Entry rules below, click here for contest introduction.

To wrap home homemade gift week I am talking about the two ultimate Powernap (quick and easy!) recipes for the holiday season: homemade vanilla extract and vanilla sugar. Both of these require nothing more than filling containers with one ingredients and sticking in vanilla beans. Sounds too good to be true? It’s not! Once I discovered just how easy it was to make my own vanilla extract I never went back to buying the jarred stuff again. I use it all the time in baking and I can guarantee your friends and fellow bakers will love receiving it as a gift.

Homemade Gift Week: Don’t forget to enter below to enter the Duda Farm Fresh Giveaway for a Meyer Lemons, a $25 Williams-Sonoma giftcard and a KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixer in Majestic Yellow. Entry rules below, click here for contest introduction.

For this webisode I am demonstrating how to make delicious cocoa almonds. They make fantastic holiday gift and are incredibly simple to make during naptime or whenever you have a free moment. Today I am making them while my daughter is at school! To give them as gifts I like to package them up in clear plastic bags or to-go containers lined with parchment paper. Everyone loves them this way and they make a great holiday party nibble.

Homemade Gift Week: Don’t forget to enter below to enter the Duda Farm Fresh Giveaway for a Meyer Lemons, a $25 Williams-Sonoma giftcard and a KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixer in Majestic Yellow. Entry rules below, click here for contest introduction.

This is the latest installment of my Tales from the Trenches Series. An ongoing series where friends and readers share their stories and recipes about the great food they fit into family life. We all have tips and tricks to share with each other: when we cook, what we cook and how we cook the delicious food we love to eat. If you are interested in contributing a story and recipe please feel free to contact me. Today my friend Winnie of Healthy Green Kitchen is sharing an amazing recipe for her favorite homemade chocolate bark, a simple and delicious holiday gift.

When it comes to holiday presents, I am a big fan of giving (and receiving!) those that are homemade. I preserve lots of jams and fruit butters throughout the summer and fall, and I save them in my pantry to give to family and friends during the holiday season. I also make big batches of granola which I package up to give away.

Homemade Gift Week: Don’t forget to enter below to enter the Duda Farm Fresh Giveaway for a Meyer Lemons, a $25 Williams-Sonoma giftcard and a KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixer in Majestic Yellow. Entry rules below, click here for contest introduction.

I am filing this under “naptime entertaining” because flavored dipping oils are one of my favorite things to have on hand when we entertain. I love slicing up a baguette and pouring little pools of oil in various shallow bowls for people to sample while we wait for dinner to be ready. I’ve come to love coming up with new oil flavors based on what is fresh in my herb pot which is, by the way, thriving in our bedroom for the winter months. These oils are so simple to make and poured into pretty glass bottles they make beautiful gifts!

Welcome to Naptime Chef homemade gift week! This week we are going to talk all about edible homemade gifts. I, for one, am so excited to give my friends some of my favorite homemade gifts this season. Do you make anything for your friends and family? I’ve heard some people say they are hesitant to give edible homemade gifts because they think it means they have to tackle complicated, intimidating recipes. But I can assure you this is not the case. There are many tasty and easy recipes that are very simple to make and are terrific presents. Those are the ones we will talk about this week!

Congratulations to Cindi, the winner of the holiday cookie week Holiday Baking Kit!

1. 10 Hot Coffeehouse Holiday Drink Recipes
2. 18 Awesome Waffle Recipes
3. The Cheggnog
4. Peppermint Candy Cane Mug Cake
5. Candy Cane Milk Shooters