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I am sure that my friends will be relieved to know that I am fully aware of my Type-A personality.  But even they would be surprised that I started to think our holiday gifts from the kitchen waaaay back in October.  But for once, I had a good reason to be prepared so early.

A few weeks ago, I went to a gift exchange party with my long-standing Cooking Teachers group (SIG) with the San Francisco Professional Food Society.  If I didn’t have my act in gear, I wouldn’t have had enough time to get the supplies that my little elves and I needed to make 20 holiday food gifts.  20 food gifts, you say?  That’s right.  You know what that means.  Not only did I bring a bunch of gifts to the party, but I got to bring a plethora of gifts home too!

Even though it was be a friendly crowd, they are all culinary professionals, so I couldn’t get away with simply dipping some pretzel rods in chocolate and wrapping them up with a ribbon.  I’m not saying that I had to do anything complicated, but I wanted the end result to taste fantastic and look pretty.  And maybe be a little different from what I made on TV and what I gave last year.

Here are a few ideas for Gifts In A Jar:

• Curried Lentil Soup: While this is pretty, the flavors might be too bold or sophisticated for some kids (like my daughter).  This might be a good hostess or holiday gift for an adult household or one with adventurous eaters.
• Peppermint Bark rings of the holidays
• Caramel Popcorn is amazing – and looks adorable in a cute tin or to-go container from a restaurant supply store.
• We settled on a BBQ Rub – it was simple and easy to make in bulk.  And we are happy to report that it tastes fantastic, too.  The jars are from Ikea, and my daughter finished each one with a demi-tasse spoon from Ross.

Here is our recipe:

1 part each: onion powder and cumin
1.5 parts each: brown sugar, paprika and chili powder
.5 parts each: coriander and garlic salt

We made another version too:

1 part each: chili powder, paprika and kosher salt
1.5 parts of brown sugar

I am deeply honored that this post is featured in the Holiday Roundup at Oprah.com.