The Gift Basket For Any Occassion

The Gift of Garden in Any Space   by Arleen M. Kaptur

Gardening is a soul-satisfying activity, but it can
also be a fantastic way to be creative and to find
inspiration as you feel the warm earth and watch
the tender plant shoots reach for the sun’s warmth.

Container gardening is a fast-growing trend and if
you find yourself short on time, land, or money, then
this is the notch that will fit you just fine. One idea
for a great looking, very versatile, and fun planter is
to grow a “salad basket.” A cherry tomato plant is
the center point of your basket. Any planter or box
that offers drainage can be used. After your tomato
plant, then fill the planter with lettuce, kale, swiss
chard, tender green onions, and parsley. If you enjoy
other greens in your salad, then include these. The
best part of your “salad basket” is that as you snip
and enjoy the harvest, it just encourages your plants
to produce more. You will always have the freshest
salad ingredients available right at your finger tips.
The colors are summer beautiful, and the taste – well,
warmed by the sun, and grown in the gentle summer
breezes, watered by the soft rains of nature, and with
a little extra watering, and weeding from you, you
have a basket made in the heart of any salad lover.

A lot of people enjoy using herbs in their cooking and
even in baking. If you take a planter and fill it with rows
of your favorite herbs, then you are ready to try any
new dish that comes along. The center point of your
planter should be dill since it grows to a height that
will not overpower your other plants. It will then produce
fine, feathery dill to use in potato salad, and serve with
chicken. If you surround your dill plant with rosemary,
oregano, sage, basil, and even mint, you have a great
assortment of fresh herbs, and in cooking, this is far
better than any dried herb you might have around the
house. You can use other herbs and in the fall, when
many go to seed, the colors, fragrance, and usefulness
just keeps on giving. When autumn comes, you can
plant some of the herbs in windowsill planters and
you can continue enjoying their wonder during the
winter months.

Children and gardens just seem to go together. If
you have an old red wagon that has lost its usefulness,
you can make holes in the bottom for drainage and
fill with quick to harvest items that will just delight any
budding gardener. From a few strawberry plants, to
cucumbers or tomatoes, ask your local nursery what
grows quickly in your climate and then plant a few seeds
in rich potting soil right in the ‘ol red wagon. Your child
can experience watching a simple seed produce that
first shoot and then flower into a plant with all kinds of
healthy goodies to pick when ripe. Not only will your
child begin to enjoy healthy snacks from his/her own
little wagon of plants, but they can share with family and
even proudly produce that bowl of strawberries for
Sunday breakfast. You and you child will enjoy the
experience and well, the great taste of the produce,
and beauty of the wagon is just extra.

Gardening is not only for those with a lot of land. It can
be enjoyed if you only have a patio, porch, or balcony.
Even if none of these are available for you, then a bright
sunny window with planters filled with “goodies” will
bring pleasure and beauty into any home.

However you enjoy gardening, the most important point is
that it is fun and it can be shared.
Something to think about
©Arleen M. Kaptur
May, 2008

About the Author

Arleen M.Kaptur has written numerous articles for magazines and newspapers.
Creative Mother’s Day gifts on the cheap

Mountain Woods Rattan Napkin Holder w/ Salt & Pepper Set $14.95 Keep napkins at your fingertips with this stylish Napkin Holder Set. This handy set, accented with inlaid rattan, includes matching salt & pepper shakers. The shakers are easy to fill and hold generous amounts of spices. The Napkin Holder Set is an attractive centerpiece for your dining or buffet table….

Breakfast Foods – Fruit Basket, Milk, Cereal, Swiss Cheese, Eggs Wall Clock by WatchBuddy Timepieces (Black Frame) $19.95 WatchBuddy Wall Clocks are the World’s Most Lovable Theme Clocks – combining beauty and functionality, they are a wonderful home wall decor accent. They bring personality and fun to any room. They make great Kitchen Clocks, but also are great for display on the Living Room, Family Room, Den, Children’s Room or Bedroom Wall. These wall clocks are only available online. They are a unique and perfect…

Breakfast Foods – Fruit Basket, Milk, Cereal, Swiss Cheese, Eggs Wall Clock by WatchBuddy Timepieces (Hunter Green Frame) $19.95 WatchBuddy Wall Clocks are the World’s Most Lovable Theme Clocks – combining beauty and functionality, they are a wonderful home wall decor accent. They bring personality and fun to any room. They make great Kitchen Clocks, but also are great for display on the Living Room, Family Room, Den, Children’s Room or Bedroom Wall. These wall clocks are only available online. They are a unique and perfect…

J&D’s Ultimate Bacon Lover’s Gift Pack (Baconnaise Bacon Flavored Spread, 6-Flavors Bacon Salt and Bacon Flavor Lip Balm) $31.95 This gift set certainly furthers J&D’s mission that “Everything should taste like bacon.” It includes 7 bacon-flavored items (plus 1 jar of Malt Salt) for everything from seasoning, to spreading and even kissing. Use the Bacon Salt on your favorite foods, like French fries, salads and on non-bacon meats like chicken and steak (or, use it on bacon to create double bacon). Use the Baconnaise as a he…

Art of Appreciation You’re My Cup of Tea Gourmet Food Gift Basket $39.99 This whimsical wicker “Tea Cup” is filled to overflowing with delicious tea time goodies for your special someone to enjoy. Relax and recoup with classical Hemmingway English Breakfast Tea, exotic Chai tea, Biscoffs Gourmet Belgian Tea Cookies, Torani Italian Style Biscotti, Tea Pot Sugar Cookies, Nikki’s Chocolate Toffee Cookie, Key Lime Shortbread Cookies, Nonni’s Chocolate Almond Biscotti, Choc…

Art of Appreciation Gift Baskets Afternoon Tea Time Gift Bag Tote $29.99 Product Notes: This gift is presented in a paper gift bag tote beautifully designed to look like a real china teapot. While it is very realistic looking, it is not a real teapot. Beautifully detailed and charming, this gift bag tea pot tote comes complete with handles, delivering new tea time pleasures day after day with a sampling of fancy teas and matching gourmet go togethers and treats. Open t…

Kitchen Pantry Gift Basket $94.95 The mola mola Kitchen Pantry was created to provide fair trade ingredients for everything from home baking to gourmet delights. By adding organic and fair trade ingredients, your recipes are sure to be transformed into taste sensations. Both sweet and savoury dishes will benefit from the exceptional, natural flavours provided by the products included in this gift basket. For baking, Cocoa Camino semi-sweet chocolate chips and golden cane sugar, as well as Divine cocoa and frontier vanilla, are sure to make your sweet treats sing. Arayuma black pepper, chili pepper and cinnamon, packed fresh from source, are sure to add some zing to both sweet and savoury dishes alike. Finally, quinoa is an excellent source of protein and can be used in all meals from breakfast to dinner. As a break from cooking, enjoy a cup of mola mola Private Blend coffee, made from organic, shade grown, fair trade coffee beans, or mola mola milk hot chocolate featuring Hispaniola Dominican cocoa. As an added treat, unwrap the Zazubean Smooch Berry Crisp 40% cocoa chocolate bar!

Gift Basket Design Book $12.56 Gift Basket Design Book

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Accessories – Gift ideas – Bracelet $7 Bracelet – Accessories – Gift ideas -

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Accessories – Gift ideas – Bindies $6 Bindies – Accessories – Gift ideas -

#The Autumn Offerings Gift Basket $24.95 It’s a Jelly Belly Thanksgiving gift basket!

Breakfast $5.99 If the thought of making breakfast has you diving back under the covers, this is the book you’ve been dreaming of: Marie Claire Breakfast. Like the other fresh, lively titles in the popular Marie Claire cookbook family, this one will shake you out of your cold cereal rut! Wake up your morning routine with chic and tasty recipes focusing on fresh seasonal ingredients and international flavors. Choose from gratifyingly simple meals such as the sheep’s milk yogurt with a swirl of strawberry purée in the Quick Ideas section, or try your hand at the heartier options in the Sweet and Savory chapters. Want to turn breakfast into a social occasion? Whip up something special like corn fritters with crispy proscuitto or decadent huevos rancheros. Prefer traditional to trendy? There are plenty of updated classics in this delicious book, including new twists on old favorites like BLTs and porridge. Each recipe is presented in a clean, simple style alongside crave-inducing photos of the finished dishes. You’ll never hit the snooze button on the alarm clock again.

Design Ideas Wire Sink Basket by Design Ideas, White $8.49 Wire Sink Basket by Design Ideas

igourmet 4-lb. Mediterranean Gift Basket $59.99 Mediterranean Gift Basket

igourmet Snackalicious Gift Basket by ig4U $49.99 Snackalicious Gift Basket by ig4U

igourmet 13-lb. Sympathy Gift Basket $99.99 Sympathy Gift Basket

The Perfect Basket by Phillips, Diane Edition ILL, 0 $22.49 Here’s the perfect solution for everyone who strives to give the perfect gift! This stylish and user-friendly guide offers baskets for every occasion and at every price level, and is filled with gorgeous four-color photographs for inspiration. The book is also chock full of helpful tips and suggestions for how to choose the proper basket or other creative container, how to select properly sized items and assemble them in the basket, and how to wrap and decorate the basket. This revised and expanded edition now features more than 30 food baskets such as Chocoholic’s Basket, Weekend Breakfast Basket, and Wok on the Wild Side Basket, and 60 themed baskets such as Baby’s Here Basket, Off to College Basket, and Sports Fan Basket —a gift basket idea for nearly every occasion and holiday. Suggestions for creating most baskets cover several budget levels of $25, $50, and $100 or more. Other ideas range from a backpack filled with goodies for an off-to-college student to a cooler filled with tailgating supplies for an ardent football fan to a selection of homemade baked goods and cookie mixes for your favorite dessert lover. The food-themed baskets also offer recipes using the homemade mixes that can be copied and included as part of the gift. Everyone appreciates a gift created just for them, and gift baskets are a fantastic way to present a personalized gift to that special someone or turn a token gift into something treasured.The Perfect Basket gives experts and novices alike everything they need to create spectacular gift baskets for everyone on their list.

The Widow’s Breakfast $3.29 Imogene is young and beautiful. She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She’s also dead and waiting in the Rosebud Theater for Alec Sheldon one afternoon in 1945. . . . Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with big ideas and a gift for attracting abuse. It isn’t easy to make friends when you’re the only inflatable boy in town. . . . Francis is unhappy. Francis was human once but that was then. Now he’s an eight-foot-tall locust and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . . John Finney is locked in a basement that’s stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. In the cellar with him is an antique telephone long since disconnected but which rings at night with calls from the dead. . . .

Chocolate Recovery Candy Gift Basket $37.62 Chocolate Recovery Candy Gift Basket

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Design Ideas Large Large Storage Basket – Silver Mesh by Design Ideas $22.99 Large Storage Basket – Silver Mesh by Design Ideas

Design Ideas Long Storage Basket – Silver Mesh by Design Ideas $30.49 Long Storage Basket – Silver Mesh by Design Ideas

Design Ideas Silver Mesh Under Shelf Basket by Design Ideas, Silver $13.49 Silver Mesh Under Shelf Basket by Design Ideas

Design Ideas MagNetic Silver Mesh Basket by Design Ideas, Silver $6 MagNetic Silver Mesh Basket by Design Ideas

Design Ideas Mesh Undercabinet Sliding Basket by Design Ideas, Silver $35.99 Mesh Undercabinet Sliding Basket by Design Ideas

Accessories – Gift ideas – Pencil case $8.5 Pencil case – Accessories – Gift ideas -

igourmet 6-lb. Truffle Lover’s Gift Basket $99.99 Truffle Lover’s Gift Basket

igourmet 8-lb. USA Classic Gift Basket $79.99 USA Classic Gift Basket

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igourmet 5-lb. Mustard Lover’s Gift Basket $69.99 Mustard Lover’s Gift Basket

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Easter Morning Breakfast Gift Basket $79.99 The perfect way to top off your Easter Morning festivities is with our Easter Morning Breakfast Gift Baskets Hungry egg hunters will enjoy fluffy pancakes topped with 100 pure New Hampshire maple syrup, or buttery biscuits topped with thick cut, mouth-watering hickory smoked country ham biscuit slices or wild Maine blueberry jam. Our handmade, two-handle basket is cloth lined and perfect for serving breads and muffins. Decorated in bright, beautiful spring colors, this is one of our most popular Easter Baskets and is terrific for all Easter celebrations.

Mother’s Day Gift Basket – Breakfast in Bed $79.99 This Mother’s Day gift basket is destined to please Mom! Treat her to “Breakfast in Bed” on her special day with all of the finest gourmet breakfast favorites: award-winning farmhouse pancake mix and jam, wild Maine blueberries, organic maple syrup, distinguished country ham, coffee, granola, and more! Her reaction to this perfect Mothers Day gift will make you want to send a Mothers Day basket everyday!