Are you inspired by all the great handmade gifts our writers have been making? We like to cook things for the ones we love as well! Here’s some handmade recipes for holiday giving!
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Of course, sweets are the mainstay of homemade holidays, but this year I decided to go savory. Every year I grow tomatillos, make pints and pints of salsa verde, and then it sits on the shelf because no one eats it. Naturally, this year I decided I’ll make it in half-pint sizes, and then use it for gifts. I made 20 half-pints. When I went to check for this photo, I was down to 11; I think my husband has been eating it because of the nice small sizes. I used Rick Bayless’ wonderful recipe, and grew everything myself except the limes. By the way, this stuff is great on pizza!
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Well, Xan has me drooling over her salsa verde.
With the successful zucchini growing season this fall, I (Sincerely, Emily) knew exactly what some people were going to be getting this year for gifts! Zucchini Relish! I started making this recipe back in the fall of 2009 with a few zucchini from my garden (before the nasty borer got to it!) and more from the farmers market. Now I am thrilled I can use all of my own, homegrown zucchini for the recipe. I have not harvested my horseradish yet, or I would have used that too!) I found the recipe over at Homesteading in Maine and I also have the zucchini relish recipe posted (with permission) over at my blog too.
We love this relish on sandwiches in place of mayo.
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Not Dabbling In Normal 
My zucchini are doubling in size every day! I can’t believe how huge they are getting. I have an influx of mushrooms growing almost as exponentially as the zucchini and hopefully, by the rate of growth going on in the garden, we should get some good results for our first year veggie gardening on Serendipity Farm. Your garden was the very first thing that attracted me to this blog…now I keep coming for the scintillating company and the prize free gardening information 🙂 I keep watching these zucchini posts and smiling because THIS year I will be able to use every single one without having to hollow massive zukes out and use them as hire canoes on the river 😉
Hi Fran, I am so glad you zucchini and mushrooms are growing so well. Your first year veggie patch is successful already! Celebrate each success in the garden, one zucchini or mushroom at a time!I LOVE your reference to the massive zucchini canoe. What a picture in my head that is! But hollowing out those big zucchini’s and stuffing them up with some thing else is yet, just another, wonderful way to eat them up (and sort of disguise them all at the same time!
I can see me eating enormous bacchanalian feasts of huge stuffed zucchini all on my own…Steve is NOT a zucchini fan 😉