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Food Gifts: 150+ Irresistible Recipes for Crafting Personalized Presents
The only all-occasion guide to homemade food gifts that look as fabulous as they taste, with more than 150 recipes, hundreds of packaging ideas, and insider tips from best-selling author and food stylist Elle Simone Scott
Food fosters connection, and there's no more meaningful way to connect with others than to give a personalized food gift that you’ve prepared and packaged yourself. Elle Simone Scott, food stylist, ATK cast member, and author of the bestseller Boards, turns her considerable talents to expanding the boundaries of what food gifts are (they're endlessly customizable) and when they can be given (literally, anytime), proving along the way that food is one of the best (and best-looking) gifts you can give.
Gifts for every A unique housewarming or new neighbor gift, celebrating a wedding or a new baby, a birthday, graduation, holiday cookie swap, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day—all these and more are covered.Any level gift, from simple to Give one gorgeous bottle of Fruits of the Forest Liqueur. Up the ante by adding a jar of Citrus Simple Syrup. Gift a cocktail party basket with the liqueur, syrup, sparkling wine, flute glasses, and a cocktail recipe.Spin one item many Make a big batch of homemade granola for gifting, or divide the recipe into thirds and flavor them different ways. Elle shows how to do this with shortbread cookies, hot cocoa mix, party snack mix, and more.Big-batch Bring Banana Caramel Pie in a Jar or Party Cake Pops to a school or work event. Gift your whole crowd at the holidays with Chocolate-Ginger Truffles or get them through the winter with Summer Tomato Sauce.Playful DIY meal For friends who love to cook, there's DIY Pancake Mix, Turkish Bride Soup in a Jar, or Mushroom Risotto in a Jar.Helping-hand Support and comfort someone with a fully cooked meal that’s ready to be popped into freezer or oven—think Chicken Ramen Soup or Stuffed Shells with Amatriciana Sauce.
You’ll also learn Elle’s favorite ideas for keeping food gifts fresh and packaging items cost-effectively yet creatively using edible garnishes, thrifted tableware, canning jars, cellophane bags, parchment, and more. With her expert help, you’ll never again resort to an expensive, impersonal store-bought basket.
Food fosters connection, and there's no more meaningful way to connect with others than to give a personalized food gift that you’ve prepared and packaged yourself. Elle Simone Scott, food stylist, ATK cast member, and author of the bestseller Boards, turns her considerable talents to expanding the boundaries of what food gifts are (they're endlessly customizable) and when they can be given (literally, anytime), proving along the way that food is one of the best (and best-looking) gifts you can give.
Gifts for every A unique housewarming or new neighbor gift, celebrating a wedding or a new baby, a birthday, graduation, holiday cookie swap, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day—all these and more are covered.Any level gift, from simple to Give one gorgeous bottle of Fruits of the Forest Liqueur. Up the ante by adding a jar of Citrus Simple Syrup. Gift a cocktail party basket with the liqueur, syrup, sparkling wine, flute glasses, and a cocktail recipe.Spin one item many Make a big batch of homemade granola for gifting, or divide the recipe into thirds and flavor them different ways. Elle shows how to do this with shortbread cookies, hot cocoa mix, party snack mix, and more.Big-batch Bring Banana Caramel Pie in a Jar or Party Cake Pops to a school or work event. Gift your whole crowd at the holidays with Chocolate-Ginger Truffles or get them through the winter with Summer Tomato Sauce.Playful DIY meal For friends who love to cook, there's DIY Pancake Mix, Turkish Bride Soup in a Jar, or Mushroom Risotto in a Jar.Helping-hand Support and comfort someone with a fully cooked meal that’s ready to be popped into freezer or oven—think Chicken Ramen Soup or Stuffed Shells with Amatriciana Sauce.
You’ll also learn Elle’s favorite ideas for keeping food gifts fresh and packaging items cost-effectively yet creatively using edible garnishes, thrifted tableware, canning jars, cellophane bags, parchment, and more. With her expert help, you’ll never again resort to an expensive, impersonal store-bought basket.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 16, 2024
About the author
America's Test Kitchen
256 books572 followersAmerica's Test Kitchen, based in a brand new state-of-the-art 60,000 sq. ft. facility with over 15,000 sq. ft. of test kitchens and studio space, in Boston's Seaport District, is dedicated to finding the very best recipes for home cooks. Over 50 full-time (admittedly obsessive) test cooks spend their days testing recipes 30, 40, up to 100 times, tweaking every variable until they understand how and why recipes work. They also test cookware and supermarket ingredients so viewers can bypass marketing hype and buy the best quality products. As the home of Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines, and publisher of more than one dozen cookbooks each year, America's Test Kitchen has earned the respect of the publishing industry, the culinary world, and millions of home cooks. America's Test Kitchen the television show launched in 2001, and the company added a second television program, Cook's Country, in 2008.
Discover, learn, and expand your cooking repertoire with Julia Collin Davison, Bridget Lancaster, Jack Bishop, Dan Souza, Lisa McManus, Tucker Shaw, Bryan Roof, and our fabulous team of test cooks!
Learn more at https://www.americastestkitchen.com/.
Discover, learn, and expand your cooking repertoire with Julia Collin Davison, Bridget Lancaster, Jack Bishop, Dan Souza, Lisa McManus, Tucker Shaw, Bryan Roof, and our fabulous team of test cooks!
Learn more at https://www.americastestkitchen.com/.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 22, 2024
What you would expect from an ATK cookbook. Great for anyone looking to make food based gifts. Gift recipes are what you would anticipate, very detailed, well-written and easy to follow. What shines more than the actual recipes are the instructions on how to pack the food items to make them delightful gifts that everyone would want to receive
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October 31, 2024a librarian hit on me upstate while I was reading this in early July and it gave me a menty b about my bodily safety
May 2, 2024
I love to give food gifts and so I was excited to check out this new book. The author does a great job of breaking down different types of food gifts and unique/interesting ways to present them. I really like all the color photos of different types of food gifts and packaging ideas. But I was surprised how many of the food gifts were things that needed to be refrigerated or needed to be eaten right away. I guess I like giving food gifts that DON'T necessarily need to be eaten right away. And if something needs to be refrigerated then it kind of defeats the purpose of the cool packaging/gift basket if you give it to someone and they immediately need to refrigerate it. The author does give a lot of recipes and again lots of great color photos, but I would have liked to have seen more preserved/canned items or gifts that didn't need to be refrigerated.
August 29, 2024
"Food Gifts" is an interesting crossover between America's Test Kitchen's science-driven, foolproof recipes and the stylized trendy cooking of Elle Simone Scott. With a large variety of recipes and incredibly detailed ideas and instructions for putting together gifts, it tries to pin gifting food down to a science. I'm not sure who exactly the target audience is, as it feels like ATK and Elle's audiences are quite different. While there were some features missing I would've loved to see - a table of all recipes and what allergens they contain or substitution guide might have been a nice touch for a book so focused on feeding others - overall I thought this was a fine book for those who want step-by-step instructions for creating beautiful edible gifts.
October 23, 2024
Usually I am happy if a cookbook has 3-4 recipes I want to try. After cooking for 45 years many recipes either fall in the “been there done that” category or “I won’t be able to find those ingredients locally” Category. I have bookmarked 13 recipes I want to try in this book. Not necessarily because I want to gift them but because I want to eat them. The author mentions that she had cancer and her colleagues gifted her meals while she was ill. That’s a common practice here too, but I can’t imagine having meals brought in by ATK staff! Wowza!
July 6, 2024
I wish I liked to cook because I would totally make most everything in this book. The ideas and recipes are fabulous! I would love to be the recipient of any of this. There is also all types of ideas for containers, crafting gift boxes and packaging. This is definitely inspiration for people who need occasional gifts or want to start a small gift basket business.
July 15, 2024
Jammed with useful information and ideas about gifting edible things. This includes spices, tea blends, sauces (savory and sweet), meals, baked goods... Each item has a note on how long it will take you to make them and how long/how to store it.
July 24, 2024
The set up was not what I thought it would be, so for me, I got a little confused. With that being said, I don’t think this would be a book I would buy, but I find a lot of great ideas. This is definitely a book that is worth a look see.
August 13, 2024
I like the TV programming by America's Test Kitchens, as well as their publications. There were several recipes for gifts that I will try, although some of the suggestions included ingredients that are not readily available in my area.
April 24, 2024
Really cute food gift ideas and not overly complicated recipes
May 12, 2024
Pretty standard looking ATK book with gorgeous pictures, cute and clever ideas, some recipes I want to try.
May 15, 2024
I like how she packed foods. But very few recipes I would actually make.
May 17, 2024
Nothing that interesting
June 10, 2024
awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 18, 2024
Beautiful book!!
July 15, 2024
I was so sad to learn about Ellie Simone Scott’s fight with cancer. And—yet it added a real dimension of care to the food gifts in this book. She writes eloquently about the deep meaning of receiving such gifts, whether simple or complex and beautiful.
July 17, 2024
If you like to give homemade food gifts, this book is full of ideas, recipes, and ways to package the gifts.
August 29, 2024
Eye candy
May 11, 2024
Food Gifts... excellent ideas for perishable gifts to create, package and gift to family, neighbors and friends for holidays. Provides clear instructions and pictures how to wrap and label items as well as helpful suggestions on where to procure packaging material like baskets and jars, both second hand and new. I appreciate the simplicity in the recipes and the author's understanding of creating gift baskets recipients want to receive. Creative and unique ideas!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews