Gifts from your kitchen, garden - and heart

Sunset, Dec, 1994 by Kevin Candland, Christine Weber Hale, Daniel Mahoney, Lauren Bonar Swezey, Dennis W. Leong, Linda Lau Anusasananan, Jeff Phillips

Elegant and useful, here are seven gifts with a personal touch. Each takes only an hour or two to make, and each costs only a few dollars.

Handmade gifts bear a personal stamp that can't be matched by store-bought presents. But sometimes the results don't do justice to all the effort that went into them. It's disheartening to labor long and hard over a gift, only to realize that you could have bought something that looked better than what you made, and perhaps even spent less than you paid for materials. For that matter, who has time during the holidays for elaborate make-it-yourself projects?

That's the beauty of the seven gift ideas presented on the following pages. They're so easy to assemble and they yield such great results that you almost feel as if you're cheating. And when you're done, you'll have a unique gift that you can be proud to present to anyone on your holiday list. (Don't worry--we won't tell them how easy it was to make.)

SPECIALTY CITRUS CURD

INGREDIENTS

5 tablespoons butter or margarine 2/3 cup citrus juice or 1 cup (about 5 1/2 oz.) kumquats 2/3 cup sugar 2 large eggs 4 egg yolks 1 1/2 tablespoons grated citrus peel, colored part only (optional)

The winter months bring a wide variety of unusual citrus to our markets. You can use the juices of these fruits to make delectable alternatives to standard lemon curd. Try blood oranges, Honey tangerines, kumquats, Lavender Gems (grapefruit-tangelo hybrids, also called Wekiwas or pink tangelos), Meyer lemons, or pummeloes. The colorful curds are delicious spread on shortbread, toast, English muffins, and croissants, or used as a filling for sweet pastry shells.

Spoon the curd into small, decorative jars and wrap them with clear cellophane and ribbon. Be sure to include a card with chilling instructions (the curds should be kept refrigerated and used within two weeks of when they're made) and serving suggestions. If you want to make a large quantity of curd for gift giving, cook several individual batches. Do not increase the recipe because the mixture may curdle when cooked in one large batch. (If using kumquats, stem and seed them. Whirl them with the sugar in a blender or food processor until smoothly pureed. If you use blood oranges, you can give the curd a striking red color by concentrating the juice. Squeeze enough oranges to make 1 1/3 cups juice, then boil it over high heat until reduced to 2/3 cup. Cool before using.) In a 10- to 12-inch frying pan, melt butter over medium heat. Remove from heat; add citrus juice and sugar or the kumquat puree, whole eggs, egg yolks, and peel. Stir with a whisk to blend well, then stir over medium-low heat until mixture thickly coats a metal spoon (8 to 10 minutes). Pour into small jars, let cool, then cover airtight and chill. Makes 1 3/4 to 2 cups.

FAMILY PHOTO ORNAMENTS

MATERIALS

Antique napkin rings, boxes, etc. Old family photos Scissors Glue String or ribbon

Familial feelings have a way of coming to the fore during the holidays. That's why these tree ornaments make such well-appreciated gifts. Pairing old family photographs with antique knickknacks, they're instant heirlooms guaranteed to tug at the heartstrings.

The first step is to rummage through antiques or secondhand stores for old napkin rings, ashtrays, coasters, spice boxes, and other curios that would make suitable frames for the photos. Next, select the photos to be used. If you're reluctant to give up the original photos, you can reproduce them on a color copier (which will pick up subtleties of tone better than a black-and-white copier); this will also give you the opportunity to reduce or enlarge the photos so they will fit the antique objects properly. Cut the images to fit, and glue them in place. Tie strings or ribbons around the ornaments (or parts of them) so they can be hung from a tree.

SIMMERING SPICE POTPOURRI

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups cinnamon sticks broken into 1/2-inch chunks 1/2 cup allspice 1/2 cup whole cloves 1/2 cup dried bay leaves, broken slightly 1/4 cup dried rosemary leaves 1/4 cup dried oranged peel in 1/2-inch chunks

When you walk into Maureen Austin's home in Alpine, California, the first thing you notice is a wonderful spicy-sweet aroma in the air. Austin is an herb gardener who has spent a lot of time thinking about fragrance. She created her first stovetop potpourri--a mixture of spices and herbs to simmer on the stove--after her son was born. "Fragrance excites people or turns them off. Since people were visiting us frequently for my herb business, I wanted our home to smell like the herbs and spices I was working with, not like diapers."

Austin's Simmering Spice mixture makes an ideal scent for stimulating the holiday spirit. You can easily put together a large batch and parcel it out in attractive containers as small gifts. As Austin does, you may find some of the ingredients--bay leaves, rosemary, orange peel--in your garden; look for the rest in natural food or other stores that sell bulk spices.

Combine the ingredients in a mason jar or other container, and present with the following instructions. Makes enough for about 30 uses.