Thursday, December 23, 2010

'Tis the Season to be Canning

I do not keep it a secret that I despise the vapid consumerism of this time of year. I avoid the mall and most stores in general from Thanksgiving to New Year's. I have instead chosen to make many Christmas gifts for friends and family.

This year I did quite a bit of canning, and this is what my pile of gifts looks like:

For seven people I made:
  • pickled/marinated peppers and onions
  • red pepper hummus
  • Dukkah (Egyptian nut and spice paste - kind of like a savory peanut butter)
  • ginger garlic paste
  • ginger lemon/limeade

This was much more satisfying to me than spending hours and excessive money at the mall. And maybe the people I give these gifts to don't even like the things I made for them, but so what? You run the risk of that when you buy something random at the mall too. I at least had fun making my gifts, and I did so with less stress and mood swings than if I had gone out and bought all those gifts. If they don't like the things I made, I hope they'll at least pass them along to someone who will.

2 comments:

  1. We have given gifts from the kitchen before too -- really, the best kind of Christmas. I love your kitchen bounty.

    Merry Christmas.

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  2. Very nice! I love it that you made this all and gift it to others. I would very much appreciate a home-made gift. I have "everything" already so I'd appreciate something like this over something from the mall that I don't need.

    The savoury peanut butter sounds great. Maybe you could do the recipe for another Weekend Cooking? :-)

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