Yummies: We Heart Goodies As Gifts!

Give your loved ones something you know they will like...something they won't have to return, try on, pretend to love or wear every time they see you.

Unlock your inner Martha this season!

Make them some love! During these crazy times where moolah is tight and most peoples jobs are as unstable as walking on a tightrope, making your loved ones gifts is the best thing!

No one can resist gorgeously wrapped goodies this time of year...(and PS diets actually go into reverse until Jan, so anything you or they eat doesn't count)...handing someone a box of homemade love is the best one they will get (unless they get a pair of Brian Atwood stilettos or a Rick Owens jacket..but I bet the cookies will get waaaay more love)

And making and baking does not have to be hard! We are gonna show you a few of the yummiest, easiest and super cute Goodies as Gift ideas we could find *

They have all been tested by my belly and they totally pass the tests.

You know when you get those "retro" tins filled with store bought butter cookies that are so fake tasting they actually taste like old coconuts instead of butter?

Well, save the tin...feed the cookies to the furry friends in your local park....and replace them with something you made!

Everyone will swoon...we promise.

The best thing to put in those tins is some TDF white choc bark!

Great way to give edible gifts...in a cake stand! A GIFT IN A GIFT!

Bark is minty, melty, smooth, creamy and chocolatey...UM HI...YOU CAN"T GO WRONG! Sorry for yelling ;)

Ingredients

17 ounces good-quality white chocolate (such as Lindt or Baker's), finely chopped
30 red-and-white-striped hard peppermint candies, coarsely crushed (about 6 ounces)
7 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
6 tablespoons whipping cream
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

Directions

1. Turn large baking sheet bottom side up. Cover securely with foil. Mark 12-x-9-inch rectangle on foil.
2. Stir white chocolate in metal bowl set over saucepan of barely simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water) until chocolate is melted and smooth and candy thermometer registers 110°F. (chocolate will feel warm to touch). Remove from over water.
3. Pour 2/3 cup melted white chocolate onto rectangle on foil. Using icing spatula, spread chocolate to fill rectangle. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup crushed peppermints. Chill until set, about 15 minutes.
4. 
5. Stir bittersweet chocolate, cream and peppermint extract in heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat until just melted and smooth. Cool to barely lukewarm, about 5 minutes.
6. Pour bittersweet chocolate mixture in long lines over white chocolate rectangle. Using icing spatula, spread bittersweet chocolate in even layer. Refrigerate until very cold and firm, about 25 minutes.
7. 
8. Rewarm remaining white chocolate in bowl set over barely simmering water to 110°F.
9. Working quickly, pour white chocolate over firm bittersweet chocolate layer; spread to cover. Immediately sprinkle with remaining crushed peppermints. Chill just until firm, about 20 minutes.
10. 
11. Lift foil with bark onto work surface; trim edges.
12. Cut bark crosswise into 2-inch-wide strips. Using metal spatula, slide bark off foil and onto work surface. Cut each strip crosswise into 3 sections and each section diagonally into 2 triangles.

Oh...if you are too busy to make...Williams Sonoma has the yummiest bark around and it comes in a tin.

Not quite as cute as this vintage one we found on Etsy but almost....cuz the Etsy one you made!!!

OMFG! Please help us! Please! We are dying to use this "vintage" egg crate for something and me thinks me just figured it out!

Create some unbelivable homemade fudge (waaaay easier to do than you think and waaaay yummier than you remember) roll into truffle like balls...OH WAIT! You can make truffles too!!!

OK sorry.. create truffles or fudge balls...roll into cocoa and place in this super ridiculously cute turq egg crate!!!! Wrap with celophane and a big black and white striped bow and tada!

Best gift ever!

Are you in the mood to make some crazy yummy cookies like the ones from Bittersweet LA?

We found a cookoo crazy easy recipe for "Snowballs"

They are minty sugar cookies that you can make from a store bought mix...add a few personal touches and voila! Home made lovin' ;)***

Put these suuuper cute cookies in a big apothecary jar from Crate and Barrel (IKEA has ones too) tie a red grosgrain bow around the neck and you are the queen of cutey mcgoos.

**Bittersweet LA does not use mixes we are told...they only make super yummy homemade goodies**

OK..OK it's time for the reason we did this post...the thing that would make Mrs. Fields proud...

Magic Bars...they are essentially 7 layer bars but with a few different ingredients for the crust.

The owner of Bittersweet made these last night for her King of the castle and the word on the street is he snuck down stairs after she fell asleep and ate most of them.

Magic Cookie Bars

• 1 cup whole wheat graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 Tb brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)
• 1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 cups flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 325°F . Line a 8x8-inch baking pan.

2. In small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, oatmeal, brown sugar, and butter; mix well.

Press crumb mixture firmly on bottom of baking pan.

3. Sprinkle chocolate chips, coconut and pecans on top. Pour the condensed milk evenly.

4. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until slightly golden on top.

5. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan.

Oh...and the best part? Besides the flavor that is...they take 40 min start to finish! Wooo hooo!

These would look suuuper cute in a white cardboard box from Michaels Crafts or Container Store filled with festive tissue paper.

Put a great label on the outside and you are super GTG (Good To Go)

We heart these MS labels from Michael's...

And for the reason we heart this post soooo much...the packaging that made us giggle, swoon, envy (in a good way) and recreate and give to friends...

Homemade Vanilla Hot Cocoa powder...and the wrapping is almost as yummy as what is inside.

Grab some vintage-y MS labels from you local Michael's Crafts, ribbon, old school lunch bags and a silvery Sharpie and your friends will vote you best gift giver.

All of the above gifts make AMAZING Host gifts as well or just thank you for people in your life or neighbors (the ones you like...we can think of something else to put in that hot cocoa bag above for the neighbors you don't like but this is a nice post so we will be good).

Festive poster containers make suuuper rad cookie holders! Go to Container Store for some!

We love Tiny Prints for custom gift tags or find some amazing DIY templates and put on these ridiculously divine stickers from Miss S...soooo good!!!

Find these Vintage-esque labels at Michaels...or this suuuuper cute tissue at CS.....

Be recessionista chic! Make your gifts and be the sexiest, cutest gift giver ever!!!

XOXO things-we-heart