oh yes, i even made myself one

they have all been given out! well, most of them. the ones that haven't don't read this anyways. (at least, i don't think they do, and if they do - hi dad! hi ellen! hi harry! stop reading unless you want your gift spoiled!) so i can finally post pictures of the christmas gifts i made this year. keep in mind that i am nowhere near as talented and creative as some others out there, namely jaimey, whose creativity and cleverness and resourcefulness i envy, possibly even more than i envy my sister's sense of humor and closet and shoe collection. or at least as much.

at some point this year my mother picked up the perfect mix and sent it to me, which at the time i thought was a little random, but then the november issue of cooking light had this mix recipe in it, and it just looked so pretty that i thought i can do that! which is usually how my crafty obsessions endeavors start anyway. i also hoped people would appreciate that in a recession we were giving them one less thing to pay for: a dinner on us, and hopefully a fun evening of cooking together. they were cost-effective for us (especially since i had to do 15+ gift bags, between my family, brian's family, work, friends, and our two lovely neighbors) which is also nice when money is tight like it is now. on the other hand, they were a bit labor-intensive with all that measuring, mixing, swearing when i realize i am out of something i thought i had, running to the grocery store more than once, bagging, ribbon-tying, and labeling. and of course, the recipes for each mix were included. so i guess it all evens out, what i didn't spend in money i more than made up for in time and energy and love, cue sappy music.

cozy caribbean dinner: black bean soup, corn bread, and red stripe beer. in many of the dinners the spices were bagged separately from the rest of the mix.


southwestern chili dinner: chili, corn bread, and a festive striped dishtowel


new england dinner: boston baked beans, heirloom brown bread, and molasses


winter night dinner: split pea soup, honey whole wheat bread, honey and jam, apple cider, and mulling spice


single guy's baking: whole wheat beer bread, beer, and jam


warm drinks: mocha coffee, cappuccino, spiced tea, minted citrus tea, spiced cranberry cider, and a mug


another winter night dinner: bean soup, honey whole wheat bread, honey, and jam


i don't know what happened to the pictures of the other two i took, the cajun dinner (red beans & rice, french baguettes, and louisiana hot sauce) and the italian dinner (mushroom risotto & chianti). they seem to have disappeared which is not surprising given my [nonexistant] technological prowess. that is also unfortunate because i gave them away also. the one i saved for myself was the bean soup, which sounded so darn good to me, and now brian knows why we have little bits of 86 different kinds of beans leftover in our pantry.