A Lovely Last Minute Hostess Gift - The Stylish Girl's Easy Guide to the Holidays - Day 21

Need a last minute hostess gift? Here's all you need to pull together to make a little gift basket, and you'll be the favorite guest, plus you'll be providing some fun entertainment for your group!

Cookie Cutter Gift Basket With Recipe (you don't even have to make the cookies)

As I was flipping through my 1989 book, Martha Stewart's Christmas, it hit me. The reason my house is filled with pinecones, moss, bark and woodland themes all around is because Martha's was. A friend of mine and I used to affectionately refer to Martha as our media mom. We both lost our mothers at a young age, and it was Martha who taught us how to master the roux, make a good chicken pot pie, how to iron, fold and store sheets (a useless and rarely used skill any good homemaker has), and how to gild, spray paint, or grow anything. This book had a profound effect on me and I believe it is why I gravitate toward the natural when decorating. Anywaaaay, meanwhile back at the ranch, I'm borrowing this Cookie Cutter Gift Basket from Martha.


It's real simple. Grab a gift basket. I happened to have laying around the exact basket she shows in her book, a moss-lined birch basket that an orchid came in. I feel like we know each other. I stuffed it with, yes, bark tissue, which I had picked up a while back from a gift shop because I was drawn to it. Now, fill some pretty organza gift bags (got mine from some jewelry I had recently bought), and fill each one with a Christmas cookie cutter. If you have some big, beautiful copper ones, they look great all by themselves, tucked in the basket. Now just tie a recipe card with ribbon to the ornaments! Here's the recipe:

Hearthside Ginger Cookies

- 3⁄4 cup margarine, softened

- 1 cup white sugar

- 1⁄4 cup molasses

- 2 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1⁄3 cup water

- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking soda

- 2 teaspoons ground ginger

- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves

- 1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg

- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped

- 1⁄4 teaspoon salt

- 2 tablespoons white sugar

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.

Stir in the molasses.

Mix the water and baking soda and stir.

Sift together the flour, salt, and dry spices; add gradually to the sugar-margarine mixture.

Gradually stir the sifted ingredients, along with the ginger and raisins, into the molasses mixture.

Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.

(The dough may be too soft to handle at this point- I suggest either adding a bit of flour, or refrigerating for 20 minutes

[or even overnight]).

Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.

Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes.

Yields 40 cookies

Merry, Merry!

Tina

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