Last minute gift idea

You are in the middle of another busy day at work. The phone is ringing off the hook. Clients are screaming for you. Your boss is screaming at you. The school wants you to come and pick up your child who got sick after eating the tuna surprise in the cafeteria. You are two days past your dead line. The car is in the shop – again. And you just looked down at your day planner and you suddenly realized in absolute horror that tonight is your Aunt Marge’s birthday dinner and you completely forgot! Okay, so don’t panic. One word – well actually three words: holiday gift baskets. I know it sounds crazy, but actually it can be very spot on for any occasion. You don’t have to wait for a holiday to give a holiday gift basket - birthday, dinner party, house warming, retirement, congratulations, and just so many more. The beauty of a holiday gift basket is you can buy according to the person’s taste. You can select depending on if they have a major sweet tooth or have a more refined gourmet palate. And giving a holiday gift basket will be a pleasant surprise and what better way to let someone sample a wide variety of goodies at one time? Just think of the look on Aunt Marge’s face when she unwraps the decorated cello and there is a basket overloaded with chocolate pecans, roasted nuts, peanut butter fudge, divinity, candied pecans… and much more. Unless Aunt Marge is watching her girlish figure and in that case we even have sugar free holiday gift baskets. Or maybe Aunt Marge is a bit of a food snob – then we have the gourmet holiday gift basket. It is filled with many unique and tasty foods from our she-crab soup to our pecan pepper jelly to our cheese straws.

Cheese Straws

· 1/2 cup butter, softened
4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet. In a large bowl cream butter and cheese. Stir in flour and salt; mix well. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/2 inch in thickness. Cut into 2 inch strips and sprinkle with ground red pepper. Place the strips on prepared cookie sheet(s) 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until crisp.


Now the above isn’t our recipe, but it is a very good and easy one and cheese straws are a delicious alternative to boring cheese and crackers. Our cheese straws come in cheddar, blue cheese, and jalapeño. So if you wanted to get a little creative with your own cheese straws – by all means, go for it. But I’ve gotten away from my original topic: holiday gift baskets. I will sum it up with this: you just cannot go wrong with giving a holiday gift basket. There are holiday gift baskets for nearly any and every taste.