Ten On Tuesday: Savory Spice Shop Christmas Edition

As most of you know, my mom and my brother own Savory Spice Shop OKC.  As with all things in our family, we help each other so my sister and I, and our husbands pitch in to help where we can.  This Christmas season I've been helping with a few things here and there and thought it might be nice to have a gift guide of fun Savory Spice Shop gifts.  I'm going to go through 10 starting with basic ones they have pre-made in the store and then do a few VERY easy DIY ones.  These are all things we're thinking of giving to our children's 11 teachers, bus driver, extended family, close friends, etc...  (Spoiler alert, if you are one of those people you might want to stop reading). 

1. Cookbooks - Yes, it is a spice store and there are hundreds of spices, but cookbooks are great so people know what to do with those spices.  They have five available including the Spice Bible (pictured above).

2. Microplane + spices - The microplanes are bundled to you with a complimentary bag of nutmeg, cinnamon, turmeric and ginger. We added this as a gift topper last year, but it would fit perfectly in someone's stocking or as a teacher gift or gift for a friend. 

3.  Mortar & Pestle - Tools are cool.  I like giving people gifts they might not buy themselves which are fun and interesting.  These sets start at only $17 and are made of marble!  They can be used to grind spices, muddle berries or fresh herbs, mash garlic, or a variety of other things.  I think they'd be a fun present for pharmacist friends too.  (PS, those Himalayan Salt Bricks in the background would make excellent gifts for the grill master in your life)

4.  Pepper Grinders - I think pepper grinders are essential for everyone's kitchen, but find that lots of people still don't have them.  You could buy one of these and a bag of peppercorns for under $25 and give something that your friend or family member would use everyday. (Yes, they have salt grinders too.)

5. Gift packs!  They have so many premade gift packs that are amazing and in a complete range of prices and tastes. Here is the full A-Z list.  I am a big fan of the Oklahoma Collection and Flavors of Oklahoma, which feature the tastes of my home state.  These gift packs are only available available in Oklahoma and are awesome.  Pictured above is another favorite of mine - Picks for Popcorn.  This one is so versatile and easy to give to anyone.  A few of our teachers will get these this week!

6.  Another great way to make gift packs is a custom version featuring your favorite spices.  Pictured here is one I'm giving this Christmas that includes: Peruvian Chili Lime Seasoning, Gold Coast Tropical Poultry Rub, Black Dust Coffee & Spice Rub, and Supreme Shallot Salt.   You can pick any four, six, eight, or more that you like and they'll make up a set for only a small packaging fee.

7. Gift cards -  This Christmas the gift cards are giving back to you.  For each $25 in gift cards you get back $5 in Spice bucks to use starting in January.  At the checkout you'll get a little card like this that you just bring back between January and March 2014 for $5 off of your purchase.  This is a great deal!

8. Individual Hot Chocolates, spice tubes, and Recipes to Go - these are smaller items that would be great gifts or stocking stuffers.  You can find individual red or burgundy boxes with one of three different kinds of hot chocolate inside.  The Recipe to Go boxes have all the spices the person would need to make the included recipe. The recipes are for seasonal things like spiced nuts or reindeer party mix.  Both the kiosk and the main store have spice tubes just for the holiday season.  They are often filled with flavored sugars, but also now feature regional blends, including our family favorite Great Plains Beef & Bison Rub (I use it in everything savory basically).

We are giving out individual hot chocolates to a variety of school administrators, the bus driver, etc...

9. 2-jar gift sets - Ok, here are the promised very very simple, DIY projects.  I have kept these super simple and easy to mass produce.  All you'll need for the first project is:

• twine or string of some kinds (I'm using baker's twine from my scrapbooking stash)
• Scissors 
• 2  2 oz jars of the spice of your choice - I chose spices that were red and green to make it extra festive.

I made this small gift set for 8 different people and they were quickly mass produced. 

 

 

 

See, nothing to it.  Just pick up a bunch of jars of beautifully colored jars of spice and tie them up in pretty string. I wrapped the twine around twice, tied a not, then tied it to the wrapped string, and tied a big bow.  

(Hint: if you want a large number of jars of the same spiced call ahead (405-515-9119) and they will bottle them up so they are ready when you arrive!)

10.  This one is only slightly more complicated.  We are giving these to B's "special" teachers - PE and Gym teachers. I wanted something small enough for him to easily carry to their classrooms, but still as special as these ladies are to us:

Supplies:

• Gift Cards
• Bakers twine or other string
• Pre-bagged cinnamon sticks ($1.80)

Optional

• Tags (from an office supply store or scrapbooking/craft supplies)
• Washi tape

 

Cut a very long strand of string, I used roughly 18 inches.  Fold it in half and wrap it around the gift card and cinnamon sticks. then stick the end through the look and keep wrapping.  I just tucked the tail end into the loops of string.  Then cut another roughly 8-10inch piece of string and tie it around the wrapped twine in a big bow (feel free to trip the ends shorter if you like).  This would be fine as is, but we'll be adding tags so I wanted to show you those as well. 

 

I am using gold washi tape from my collection.  You can find it in the scrapbooking/craft section of target or at a local craft store.  I just wrapped it once around the end.  We will then write our greetings and thanks on the tags. 

 

I attached the tag folding the string in half, threading it through the tag, and tying another big bow of twine around the whole thing.  

 

I think they are cute and they took no time at all to complete.

I hope you found some gifts that work for you and that you have a delicious, happy holiday season!

Ps.  If you don't live nearby or don't want to venture out, call the shop at 405-525-9119 or email them at okc@savoryspice.com and they will gladly mail your order to you or to your intended recipient!