Anne Byrn says she’s pretty frugal with packaging gifts and reuses boxes, jars and ribbons she receives. But she advises you stock up from time to time on new items to keep your gifts fresh! That way, you’ll be able to garnish your game day nachos with your favorite team’s colors, package your bake sale cupcakes in a container tricked out with the name of your child’s school, or present your hostess with a beautiful bottle of wine wrapped in something even prettier!
Here are a few suggestions from an Anne Byrn cookbook called What Can I Bring?:
Save department store jewelry and accessory boxes. Cover them in holiday paper and line them with waxed paper or parchment paper. Pack bars, candies, and nuts in the boxes, then secure them with attractive bows.
Buy small plastic organizing bins and trays. Line them with parchment paper or waxed paper and fill them with loaves of bread, cookies, or jars of preserves. Attach a bow and a tag to the side.
Let your children decorate brown paper lunch sacks with holiday drawings. Fill them with colorful waxed paper, then add a jar of something yummy. You can even punch holes around the top of the sack, thread a colorful ribbon through them, and tie a pretty bow.
Nothing beats those handy plastic storage containers. Decorate them with permanent markers. Tie festive raffia bows around the containers and attach homemade tags.
Buy foil loaf pans for gifts of bread, or order greaseproof paper loaf pans from baking catalogs such as Sur La Table (check out www.surlatable.com). You can bake the breads right in the loaf pans. Then cover them with plastic wrap and tie colorful raffia ribbons around them.
Make your own gift tags: Cut out squares of heavy white paper and punch a hole in one corner. Have your children decorate one side of each square, then write the name of the recipe and your name on the back.
For more like this, check out her cookbook:
What Can I Bring? Cookbook
by Anne Byrn
Potlucks and picnics, dinner parties and church socials, fundraisers, reunions, cookouts—it’s the busy age of shared meals, which means with every invitation comes the question: “What can I bring?”
Anne Byrn, an inspired cook and problem solver knows exactly how to answer the question. Cutting through menu block—a condition familiar to everyone who cooks—here are over 200 delicious suggestions for crowd-pleasing food that’s designed to travel.
GET THE BOOK: Amazon | B&N | ebooks.com | Google Play | iBooks | Kobo
