Christmas Gift Food Ideas

First you make peppermint bark and then you make candied pecans. Lets start with the peppermint bark, a personal favorite (and won't cost nowhere near the Williams-Sonoma price).

Gather, 6 oz (3/4 cup) semi-sweet chocolate (chopped), 6 oz white chocolate (chopped), 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract, crushed up peppermint sticks to sprinkle on top. I used chocolate chips, which works equally as well as the bar and you don't have to chop it up.

Line your square or cake pan with tinfoil. 

In a double boiler or make-shift double boiler like I had to do (take a metal bowl, fill a pot with water and put it on a burner). In the small bowl, add your semi-sweet chocolate, 1 tablespoon oil and 1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract (a little of this stuff goes a long way!)

Melt the chips and stir while the chips are melting. 

Then pour out the chocolate onto your tin-foiled baking pan. Place the chocolate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to harden slightly.

After 30 minutes, take your pan out of the refrigerator and complete the same process as before except leave out the peppermint extract. Place your white chocolate and 1 tablespoon oil in a small bowl to metal over a pan of boiling water. 

Once it is melted, pour all of the white chocolate onto the semi-sweet chocolate, spread the white chocolate around the pan.

Then sprinkle the crushed up peppermint sticks and refrigerator it for at least 30 minutes before you even think about eating it or giving it away as gifts :-)

 Once the chocolate is completed harden, pull off the tin foil and break it up into pieces, don't worry if the pieces aren't uniform, it looks better that way.

Ok second, really easy peasy food gift item you should have on hand always during the holiday time!

Sugared Pecans

First gather your ingredients: 2 cups pecans, 2 egg whites (beaten), 1 cups granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ground clove.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves and mix these ingredients together.

In another bowl, whip up the egg whites until foamy.

Pour the pecans into the egg whites and coat them thoroughly. Then pour in the sugar mixture over the nuts and toss the nuts in the bowl to make sure the nuts are completely coated!

In a foiled line baking sheet, spread the nuts out evenly and bake 1 hour. Break up pieces after 1 hour if the nuts are not completely cooked, meaning there is no stickiness or gooeyness from the egg whites. After the nuts are completely cooked, take the pan out, break out more pieces if need be and set the nuts aside to cool.

I actually did have a last minute Christmas dinner Sean and I had to attend and gave both of these as a gifts.  Enjoy!

And when you have that unexpected gift giver and you didn't have anything in return except the bark and nuts, then you will thank me!