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8 creative, easy (and yummy) DIY food gifts

Struggling with what to give your food-loving friends and acquaintances this holiday season? Get creative in the kitchen and try these suggestions from Food & Wine magazine for perfectly palate-pleasing stocking stuffers. 1. Mom's nutty granolaThis granola recipe from Jessamyn Waldman's mother is more nutty than sweet. Says Waldman, "I love it because I'm not a sweet breakfast person myself." 2.

Struggling with what to give your food-loving friends and acquaintances this holiday season? Get creative in the kitchen and try these suggestions from Food & Wine magazine for perfectly palate-pleasing stocking stuffers. 

1. Mom's nutty granola

This granola recipe from Jessamyn Waldman's mother is more nutty than sweet. Says Waldman, "I love it because I'm not a sweet breakfast person myself." 

2. Graham cracker pound cake

This clever pound cake, from Megan Garrelts of Bluestem in Kansas City, Missouri, has crushed graham crackers in the batter.

3. Roasted chile salsa

The roastiness of the fresh chiles adds sweet richness, plus a powerhouse of heat should you choose a chile like cayenne or habanero.

4. Meyer lemon marmalade

Emily Kaiser devised this simple, fail-safe recipe while living in Oakland, California, with two excessively productive Meyer lemon trees. Likely a cross between an orange and a lemon, the Meyer lemon gives this sweet-tart marmalade a bright citrus flavor.

5. Black pepper jerky

Real beef jerky isn't a smoky stick of preserved mystery meat. Rachel Graville's handmade versions are an exemplar of the artisanal-jerky trend. This classic recipe gets a double dose of peppery flavor from both cracked peppercorns in the marinade and coarsely ground peppercorns on top.

6. Perfect blueberry syrup

A huge virtue of homemade syrup is that, unlike the store-bought kind, it can taste much more like fruit than sugar. This blueberry syrup will last long enough to give as gifts during the holidays; simply transfer it into tall, pretty bottles using a funnel and store it in the refrigerator.

Petrina Tinslay

7. Garlic confit

To preserve the garlic, Grace Parisi simmers the cloves with dried red chiles and fresh thyme in olive oil under tender, then packs them in the oil. Recipients can mash the garlic confit in butter and spread it on bread or slip it under chicken skin before roasting.

Petrina Tinslay

8. Spicy herb salt

The flavor of sturdy herbs like thyme and rosemary is too strong for pesto, but it works beautifully in a seasoning salt. The mildly spicy salt is delicious rubbed over big cuts of meat like leg of lamb or thick steaks, but it's also terrific sprinkled on buttered bread or corn on the cob.

Want more easy food gifts? Click here. 

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