The Best Gift

I was inspired a couple years ago after reading Ruth Reichl’s editoral in the holiday edition of Gourmet Magazine to make my Christmas gifts. She wrote eloquently (as she always does) of a friend she knew as a child, Alice, a West Indian woman who was a great cook. She said Alice listented to her friends all through the year as they talked about foods they missed, foods they remembered etc and at Christmas, she (Alice) would make these foods and give them as gifts. Each time, every time, the people on the receiving end of the gift-giving venture were always ecstatic. So last year, instead of buying my gifts, I made them: Christmas fruit and rum cakes. All my friends loved their presents and loved the fact that they did not have to make a cake that year. The joy was in the giving and the receiving.
Why don’t you trying making your gifts this year? It could be your friends favourite dish, snack, cookie or even drink – like homemade ginger beer! Trust me, it’s the gift they will remember and cherish all year.