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The Family Table: Homemade gifts to give

3 min read

Every year, I tell myself I want to make some homemade Christmas gifts to give to family and friends. I start thinking about it around Thanksgiving, meticulously planning out what I’m going to do, who I’m going to do it for, and plotting out exactly what I’ll need.

Somehow, I never manage to get around to doing it.

I broke the trend this year.

Family will be getting sets of flavored salts, created with my own two hands.

I started the project a few weeks back, believing that making 48, 4-ounce jars of salts was going to take a little time.

Turns out, it was far simpler than I could have imagined since my oven, food processor and dishwasher did most of the work.

With that in mind, I thought I’d share my method for any of you who might be stuck trying to come up with a very last minute (but thoughtful) gift to give.

For my 48 jars, I used a mix of kosher and sea salt and found that two cups kosher salt and one-half cup of sea salt fill about eight jars. I made four varieties, but the two I liked the best were roasted garlic, and the combination of Sriracha and lime.

The process was simple: wash the jelly jars/lids in the dishwasher on the hottest cycle and then make sure they are thoroughly dried.

To make the Sriracha-lime salt, use a fine zester to zest the peel of one lime onto a plate. Let it sit out to dry for a couple of hours. In a big bowl, mix the salt, the juice of the lime and enough Sriracha to make the salt seem like wet sand.

Set your oven to 170 degrees (that’s the lowest mine would go), and spread the wet salt onto parchment paper. Put the salt in there for about 90 minutes. When it feels hard and dry, it’s done. Put it in a food processor to break up the chunks, add in the dried lime peel and jar it by simply putting on the lid tightly.

The roasted garlic salt requires the extra step of buying a big head of garlic and roasting it first. To do that, cut the top off of the garlic so the cloves are exposed, drizzle it with oil, wrap it in foil and roast on 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. When the garlic is done, you should be able to squeeze it out of the paper and right into the food processor.

To the roasted garlic, add 1/2 cup of salt. Process it until it forms a paste, and then add the remaining two cups of salt in 1/2-cup increments until all the garlic and salt is blended.

To dry this salt, do the same thing — put it on parchment in a low oven for about 90 minutes. Pop it back in the food processor to break up the chunks, and then jar it and give, give, give!

In the hustle and bustle of buying, it felt really nice to do something to give made with my own two hands. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to keep it up every year, and offer my family and friends something homemade.

May everyone have a safe and happy Christmas, and a wonderful new year!

Jennifer Garofalo is the Herald-Standard’s news managing editor. Contact her at jgarofalo@heraldstandard.com.

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