Gifts that entail a little bit of thoughtfulness or some personalization are always the best.  With Valentine’s day a few days away, I thought it would be fun to show you how to make your own gift boxes.  Of course I give gift boxes all year round, not just on Valentine’s Day.  I find I am regularly assembling homemade gift boxes to bring to friends who invite me to dinner, do me a favor or just need a little pick-me-up.  I’m sure you’ve seen sites from which you can order gift boxes to be delivered and that’s great.  But they are also really expensive and what if you want to customize the box with homemade items?  They are super easy to do on your own and it will feel more special and thoughtful to the person receiving it recipient.  Follow my suggestions below for easy, cute, DIY gift boxes.

Purchase the gift box:

You can really use any kind of box/crate/basket that you have or that you are able to find locally.  I happen to love these 12 x 10 slide-top boxes from Poole and Sons which is a site my friend Jenni Kayne told me about.  Michael’s always has a huge supply of baskets if you don’t have time to order something online.  For filler, I like to use this wood shred from Nashville Wraps.  But this Kraft Eco Paper Shred is great, too.  If you want to use some twine or yarn to tie around it, amazon has this twine in a value pack with a multitude of colors.

Select the contents:

The possibilities are endless when it comes to items you could put in the box.  I like coming up with a theme.  Here are some boxes I have done in the last few years:

• Beauty box with your favorite products
• Gourmet food box with a small bottle great olive oil or truffle oil, aged balsamic, an unusual pasta, sundried tomatoes, a small basil plant
• For the movie lover- popcorn kernels, gourmet popcorn seasoning salt, movie tickets/gift cards, a favorite dvd, gourmet candy
• For the gardener- use packets of seeds, a small garden hoe, new gardening gloves
• Fill the box with some cute, non toxic nail polishes, non toxic polish remover, nail file, gift card for a mani/pedi (teachers love this one)
• A bottle of wine, a wine opener, cool coasters, some gourmet nuts, fruit spreads and crackers
• One of your favorite recipes printed and the ingredients to make it (e.g. granola, cookies)
• To welcome a new baby- organic toiletries, a cute onesie, a monogrammed bib, classic board books

Spread the love!

Thank you for all your feedback on the recent dinner planner posts!  I have had several readers reach out to me asking about prepping ahead techniques, such as what vegetables are okay to prep in advance and what should be done at the last minute.  Even though I try to give prep ahead tips with each dinner planner, I thought it would be helpful to write a separate post with more general guidelines which you can use when planning your personal meal plan for the week .

When it comes to prepping recipes for your week in advance, you really have to do what works for you. As a basic rule of thumb regarding produce, you have to be aware that it slowly loses its nutritional value beginning from the moment that it is harvested. So the fresher, the better.  If you buy foods locally and from smaller vendors you have a better chance of the food incurring less “travel time.”  There are other factors that affect that nutritional value as well. Any exposure to air, light, water, and certain temperatures can also affect the nutritional value.   So aside from planting an entire garden in our own back yards, there isn’t a ton that we can do to protect fruits and veggies from the process. But by the time we are consuming these foods there are still plenty of the nutrients in tact and this produce is still very beneficial to your health.

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This post was originally published on November 10, 2011.

Thanksgiving is 2 weeks away!  Is the exclamation point there to emphasize panic or joy?  I’m excited!  I’ve been teaching quite a few Thanksgiving-themed classes as of late and I’m feeling spirited.  Don’t let these Thursday posts stress you out.  The whole point is to show you what you can do in advance, not what you must do in advance.  All these tips and strategies are most relevant to the hosts and hostesses who are preparing most or all of the meal themselves and who have a busy schedule leading up to the holiday.  If I didn’t get a lot of these tasks completed early, I don’t see how I could pull off this meal without tons of stress.

Here’s what you can get done this week:

• Get your knives sharpened Especially your carving knife.  A razor-sharp knife is the most important tool in your kitchen.  In my area, you can get your knives sharpened at Sur La Table, the farmer’s market and at the local cutlery store at the mall.  I think Sur La Table charges $1/inch.

• Make your grocery lists  I make three lists:

1. Non-perishables (e.g., flour, spices, wine, nuts, dried fruit)  I buy these now.
2. Perishables to buy one-week ahead (e.g., winter squashes, butter, hard cheeses, potatoes)
3. Perishables to buy two days before (e.g., turkey, dairy, bread for stuffing, all other fruits and vegetables)

This post has been edited from the one originally published on Thursday, November 3, 2011.

If you followed the advice in my post last Thursday, perhaps you now have a general idea of how many guests you will be hosting on Thanksgiving.  If not, it’s time to get on the phone and do some inviting!  Do you have a good, balanced menu and have you taken guests up on their offers to bring something?   This week we have a few more tasks that we can check off the list.

3 weeks before thanksgiving

• Order the Turkey  If you eat turkey on Thanksgiving, it’s a good idea to order it now.  I have always ordered a fresh, free-range, organic turkey, because in my opinion it has a tasty turkey flavor and is higher quality than most other alternatives.  The only thing that may be better is a heritage turkey, which has a much stronger turkey flavor and supposed to be more moist.  It will have less breast meat though and will be more expensive.  If you want a heritage bird, you need to order this ASAP since they sell out fast.  Avoid “self-basting” turkeys which are injected with anything from chicken fat to salt to chemicals.  True, they are easier to cook, but I think they taste more like salt than turkey and they are just full of stuff you don’t want to feed your family.

Here are some questions that will help you decide what size to order:

How many ovens do you have?  If you have one large oven that can accommodate two turkeys side by side and an extra oven to spare (you’re so lucky!), then you have the option of cooking two smaller birds versus one large one.  But with two small ovens, you may not want them both being monopolized by turkeys.

Are your guests dark meat-eaters or white meat-eaters?  You will get more white meat by weight from one large bird than from two smaller.  Likewise, you will get more dark meat from two smaller birds than from one large one.

How big a turkey should you buy?  The rule of thumb is one pound of turkey per person.  So if you are expecting 16 guests, you should order a 16 pound turkey.  That doesn’t mean that you will have 1 pound of meat per person, though.  Personally, I think this is only a good rule if you don’t want leftovers, if your guests are not big eaters, and/or you have a good number of dark meat eaters versus all-white meat eaters.   Two years ago I cooked two 17-pound turkeys for 20 adults and 5 kids and I had just enough leftovers for the five of us for dinner the next day.  Last year I cooked two 18-pound turkeys for 24 adults and 5 kids and we had the same amount of leftovers.   My point is that I think 1 1/4 pounds per person is a safer bet.

Do you have a bad back?  What does this have to do with anything?  A very large turkey is mighty challenging to keep pulling out of the oven to baste.  I find two smaller turkeys much more manageable, if you have the oven space.

• Planning Your Table Decor  I don’t do anything fancy for my table decorations, but it’s nice to make the table look special.  Now’s the time to check your linens for stains and make sure you have enough napkins, plates and glassware.  I generally like to do something simple with fresh flowers in autumnal colors and add in a few of the kids’ Thanksgiving art projects from years past.   The top image is a collection of pins from my Thanksgiving Pinterest board.  I just adore Jenni Kayne’s table setting which is the largest image at the top of the post and below.  Check out all her lovely holiday photos and ideas on her ripplustan.com blog — beautiful!  But you can put out bowls of apples and pears or gourds and nuts, add in a few votive candles and it will look lovely.  If tablescape isn’t your thing, you can always order from your local florist or full service market.  Just get on it this week.  The succulents glued onto pumpkin arrangements last quite a while, so why not order them now to enjoy through Thanksgiving  and not have to worry about doing it in two weeks.  Last year, I needed a change from the succulents and pumpkins and I went to Trader Joe’s and bought lots of hydrangeas, roses, and snap dragons and ornamental kale from Whole Foods and I made the arrangements below with some leftover burlap I had.  Rustic, pretty, easy and very affordable.

• Make your pie crusts and freeze them  You can freeze them in disc form or roll them out, fit them into pie plates and freeze them, well wrapped.
• Make your homemade stock and freeze it  I use over a gallon of chicken stock on Thanksgiving for soup, stuffing and gravy.

• Make your dry mixes for pie fillings, cornbread and other baked goods.  Not only are there never enough ovens on Thanksgiving day, but there are never enough measuring cups and spoons either.  I measure out the dry ingredients, store them in a glass jar and label each jar, e.g. “Dry Mix for 2 Pumpkin Pies.”  I didn’t label them the first year I did this and let me tell you — pumpkin pie spices smell A LOT like apple pie spices.
• Check your inventory of helpful tools and appliances  Here’s my list of Thanksgiving essentials:

1. Instant-read thermometer — the only way to know if your turkey is ready.
2. Roasting pan(s) and rack(s)
3. Fat separator
4. Twine for trussing
5. Baster
6. Potato Ricer — for making the best mashed potatoes (recipe coming soon)

Guess what today is?  It is exactly 4 weeks before Thanksgiving!  Don’t panic.  We are going to plan and get organized and have so much fun doing it.  “Right after Halloween!” you’re thinking.  Yes, of course.  Halloween is on Saturday and if you’re like me, you still have to buy candy and figure out your son’s costume.  All I know is that there is duct tape in the laundry room and that means lots of costume possibilities!

But as per previous years, I do like to start the Thanksgiving planning posts 4 weeks prior to the holiday and each Thursday after.  My cooking class students have found these weekly strategies to be helpful in spreading out the workload and reducing stress, especially if you host Thanksgiving and do most of the cooking yourself.  You can look back on last year’s post which was titled “Planning a Happy Thanksgiving 2014 — 4 Weeks and Counting.”  It will list a few things you can get done now, such as invite your guests and plan your menu.  I have had a lot of requests this year for suggestions on how to put together a great Thanksgiving menu and how to make sure it’s balanced and doable.  So that’s what I’m going to do for this post.

I am obviously going to express my personal opinions about what should be on a Thanksgiving menu, so if you’re looking for “alternative” recipes, like Chipotle-glazed Turkey and Thai Butternut Squash Salad, I’m not your girl.  I keep things pretty traditional with the turkey and the remaining sides will complement it.  I also use seasonal ingredients (tomatoes and melon will not be making appearances) and keep things almost all homemade (no cream of mushroom soup, canned sweet potatoes or canned cranberry sauce.)  I did not say however, that I am counting calories on Thanksgiving.  So I do use butter in my mashed potatoes, whip heavy cream to serve with pies and make pie crusts with all-purpose flour.

Ok, let’s get into it.  First figure out approximately how many people you are having, how much cooking you would like to do yourself and most importantly, curate a menu based on how many ovens you have.  The reason the number of ovens is an issue is because we can come up with your perfect Thanksgiving menu, but if you have one oven and you are monopolizing it with a turkey, we need to make sure you don’t have 8 other oven recipes on your menu.

Then think about the recipes you absolutely must include no matter what.  In my house, there MUST be:

Turkey and gravy, Cranberry Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Crispy Cauliflower, Stuffing, Pumpkin Pie, and Apple Pie.

Ironically, I never eat any of the above, except the cranberry sauce.  Most of the items in that group are pretty standard on Thanksgiving, except the cauliflower and I serve that as an hors d’oeuvre.  Other Thanksgiving classics include:

Sweet Potato Casserole (skip the marshmallows and opt for this deliciousness instead)

Green Bean Casserole

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Pecan Pie

Thoughts:

• I think most Thanksgiving menus are lacking salads and non-starchy vegetables, in general.  Salads are the easiest to add onto a menu because they can be prepped way ahead and they don’t require an oven.
• Whenever I plan my menu, I try not to repeat ingredients too many times.  Even though I love Brussels sprouts, I usually try to make them in either a salad or a side dish, but not both.  If they’re part of a mixed vegetable medley, that’s fine.  But if I have pecans in the topping of the sweet potato casserole, I won’t use pecans in a salad, too.  Maybe I’ll use toasted pumpkin seeds instead.
• It’s ok to outsource.  You can accept a friend’s offer to bring something or buy a pie from a local bakery.  What’s the big deal?
• If you are short oven space, consider using a toaster oven for baking small 8 or 9-inch dishes and using an outdoor grill for reheating or keeping things warm.  My sister swears by this countertop commercial turkey roaster oven for cooking her turkey since her oven is too small to cook a large turkey.  The turkey is brined the night before and cooked in this contraption like you would a normal oven.  She says her turkey turns out amazing.  I have never used it, so I would read the reviews and if you buy it, do a test run with a chicken or small turkey in the next couple of weeks.  You can buy it on amazon, but not prime, so don’t wait until the last minute.
• Opt for at least half as many or equivalent non-starchy sides as starchy.  If you have mashed potatoes, stuffing and sweet potato casserole, you need 2-3 non-starchy sides like a salad, green beans and cauliflower.

Thanksgiving Menu for a Small Crowd

Whole Roasted Turkey or Turkey Breast with Gravy

Cranberry Sauce and/or Applesauce

Mashed Potatoes (recipe coming soon)

Stuffing (mushroom and leek or traditional cornbread)

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with or without bacon

Green Salad with Delicata Squash and Apples (image above and the perfect salad) or Butternut Squash Salad with Pomegranates and Pumpkin Seeds

Pie (either pumpkin or apple)

Thanksgiving Menu for a Larger Group

Main:

Whole Roasted Turkey or Turkey Breast with Gravy (oven)

Cranberry Sauce and/or Applesauce

Starchy Sides:

Mashed Potatoes (recipe coming soon)

Sweet Potato Casserole (oven)

Stuffing (oven)

Non-Starchy Sides:

Green Bean Casserole (oven) recipe coming soon

Brussels Sprout Hash with Capers, Hazelnuts and Lemon

Green Salad with Delicata Squash and Apples or Butternut Squash Salad with Pomegranates and Pumpkin Seeds

Dessert:

Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie and/or Pecan Pie

Whipped Cream

Here are some other recipes which would be a fantastic part of any Thanksgiving menu:

Starchy Sides:

Roasted Delicata Squash with Pomegranate-Pistachio Relish (recipe coming soon)

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes (oven)

Potato and Celery Root Gratin (oven)

Warm Barley and Caramelized Mushroom Salad from Food & Wine

Honey-Glazed Acorn Squash by The Healthy Apple

Pumpkin Leek Stuffing by Feed Me Phoebe

Non-Starchy Sides:

Maple-Mustard Roasted Vegetables (oven)

Spinach Gratin by Ina Garten (oven)

Creamed Spinach by Tyler Florence

Brussels Sprout Leaf Salad (my fave, fave, fave!)

Shredded Brussels Sprout Salad with Apples and Manchego

Onions with Currant, Port and Balsamic Glaze from Bon Appetit

Fennel and Green Apple Salad with Pomegranates

Roasted Green Beans with Shallots, Lemon and Thyme (oven)

Brussels Sprouts with Turkey Bacon and Dates

Parsnip-Apple Mash by Martha Stewart

Roasted Carrots and Red Onions with Fennel and Mint from Bon Appetit

Shaved Cauliflower Salad by Happy Yolks

Nice additions if you have time:

Soup:  I make butternut squash soup and serve it at noon for lunch.  We eat dinner at 4:00 pm.

Rolls or Cornbread:  I personally don’t see the need for them since there’s already so much starch, but some people think they’re a must-have.  I do serve mini-muffins of cornbread.

Fruit platter:  I make a big platter of fruit every year to serve with dessert and there are never any leftovers.  I use berries, figs, pomegranates, persimmons and dates.

Whipped cream:  for pies and berries

Vanilla ice cream:  also for pies

What are your favorite Thanksgiving stand-bys?  Please share!