Are you bored with spiced drink mix or layered soup in a jar? Let me inspire you with some new food gift ideas! I like making treats in the kitchen because they are cheap and don't take much time shopping for. My family likes them because they taste good and are consumable - no clutter! Here are some of the themes I use for inspiration in choosing the right recipe for each person:

Family History or Country of Origin - Introduce a person to a food that originated in the place your family is from. My husband's family is from Hungary so every year they make small crescent shaped nut filled cookies called Kieflies to give as gifts. It becomes a family event as we grind the nuts, roll out dough, and sprinkle the finished cookies with sugar. Then we pack them up in boxes to send off to relatives in California and deliver them personally to nearby family and friends.

Ethnic Dinner in a Basket - Gather a variety of ethnic food items into your own gourmet food gift basket. To our family who lives in upstate New York (but is originally from the Southwest), we send enchilada sauce and our family's favorite canned salsa. Add a bag of flour tortilla mix, Spanish rice mix, and some dried beans and you have the beginnings of a fiesta.

Hobbies - Does this person you know sit around playing Japanese video games all night? Give them Japanese treats. If they go participate in Civil War Reenactments, find a historical recipe book and cook them up some hard tack for the next camp out. If they like to scrapbook, put together a basket of healthy snack foods such as spiced almonds or pecans, dried fruit, pretzel mix and homemade or gourmet mustard for them to share with friends at the next photo cropping marathon.

Favorite Food - Think of a person's favorite food and then make several varieties of it. My friend Julie likes muffins so I could make her blueberry muffin mix, apple spice muffin mix, struesel muffin mix, and cranberry orange muffin mix. My neighbor Tony likes hot stuff so he might enjoy pickled peppers, hot salsa, and my mother-in-law's famous spicy asparagus spears.

Using these ideas for inspiration, you will have fun mixing up some food gifts for this holiday season and have your family and friends asking for more of your gourmet treats. Happy Holidays!