The Best Handmade Hostess Gifts Include Food

Every hostess is happy to have additions to her meal or snack table, but what about bringing along personalized, handmade hostess gifts that're really just for the hostess, and not her guests? Soup in a Jar-especially one with pasta and/or comfort food-is one of the best handmade hostess gifts you can give, and it comes from the heart.

Why not offer your hostess a chance to put her feet up and let you do the cooking for her, using your own special recipe. With soup in a jar, you'd at least be doing the planning for her. Soup in a jar is not hard to make and since you won't be using perishables, you can make this gift-or two or three-well in advance of any event. That way you'll never be left high and dry without a hostess gift at your disposal.

Ingredients will depend on the recipe you choose. If you want to give your hostess a gift she'll cherish, include not only the ingredients but the recipe for your family soup she's begged you for over the years.

Ingredients that store well:

• Dry ingredients such as powdered items; flour, cocoa, sugar (brown sugar may harden), herbal seasonings, etc.
• Oatmeal
• Raisins or other dried fruit
• Dried vegetables
• Pasta

Incorporate artistic flair

• Layer ingredients for texture and color (don't put two like colored ingredients side-by-side. Likewise, don't put two ingredients with the same texture side-by-side.
• Choose soups with a variety of ingredients.
• When adding pasta, be creative. Use alphabets, ruffled, tri-colored, and different lengths and shapes of pasta.
• Use a variety of jars. You don't need to use a canning jar. If you want to use a V-8 jar, then use it, just make sure the mouth of the jar is wide enough for all of the ingredients to pass through.
• Make sure you include a recipe card attached to the jar, or in the basket with the jar.
• After you screw on the jar lid, cover it with a dishcloth and tie with a matching ribbon.

Remember, use your imagination and add your own personal handmade, homemade touches to each gift jar you make. Also remember that if you make several of these gifts ahead of time, they will never be a time when you show up to an event empty handed. As a hostess yourself, you know you'd love to receive the same type of gift in return.

Ideas

• The Gift of Comfort - ingredients to their own favorite soup.
• The Gift of Adventure - ingredients to a brand new recipe neither of you has ever tried.
• The Gift of Surprise - mix all of the ingredients into a big bowl, and then add to the jar in a hodgepodge manner. When doing this, it's best to have simple additions to the soup. For instance, use dried onion and celery flakes, etc., so that the only thing your hostess needs to add is liquid. In this case, do not include a recipe card, just list the amount of liquid that should be added.
• As an added touch, instead of adding the recipe card to the jar, use it as your thank-you card. Send it in the mail the day after the party or drop it off at her doorstep.
• If you are planning soup in a jar for new neighbors, gift them with a soup that will give them the flavor of their new neighborhood or use vegetables or other ingredients that are local.
• If possible, include a photo of you and the hostess on the back of your recipe. Or make a photo frame from a recipe card, insert the photo, add a magnet to the back, and tie it around the jar with a ribbon for a nice touch. Each time your hostess cooks, she'll see the photo magnet on the fridge and remember you.