Diane Phillips - The Perfect Basket: How to Make a Fabulous Gift Basket for Any Occasion

The Harvard Common Press
535 Albany Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02118
www.harvardcommonpress.com

Copyright 2005 by Diane Phillips
Photographs copyright 2005 by Brian Hagiwara

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
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Printed in China

Printed on acid-free paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Phillips, Diane.
The perfect basket : how to make a fabulous gift basket for any occasion / Diane
Phillips.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-55832-294-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Handicraft. 2. Cookery. 3. Gift baskets. I. Title.
TT157.P4653 2005
745.59dc22 2005004439

ISBN-13: 978-1-55832-294-3
ISBN-10: 1-55832-294-9

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Book design by Night & Day Design
Photo styling by Christine McCabe

To my agent, Susan Ginsburg, who is not only
a great friend, but is also the best cookbook
agent on the planetI am grateful for all that
she does for me each day.

Gift giving is a part of the fabric of my life. Whether it's giving a gift basket, a loaf of bread, or my time to a cause, giving to others gives me great joy. That being said, this book would not have been possible without the generosity others have bestowed upon me.

To my husband, Chuck, who will graciously take me out to dinner after a long day of testing and writing, a special thank you for your understanding and love. To our children, Ryan and Carrie, thanks for sharing your lives with us and for being such terrific adultsI am overwhelmed by your successes.

Thanks to the friends who have encouraged me along the way: Christine Willems, Jan Stapp, Suzie Rantzow, Muffie Knox, Loraine Lukash, Roberta Hestenes, Nonnie and Bruce Owens, and our Sunday night group, who were always up for a new taste or adventure. Thanks also to my cousins Bob and Donna Pasquin and their gracious family, whose friendship and hospitality have been such a gift.

Teaching in cities across the country, I have met many friends who have become part of my family when I am on the road. Special thanks to: Chan Patterson and the staffs at the Viking Culinary Arts Centers and Viking Home Chef; Bob Nemorovski and the family at Ramekins; Cynthia Liu, Mia Chambers, and the staffs at Draegers; Doralece Dullaghan and the Staffs at Sur La Table; Marilyn Markel and the staff at A Southern Season; Larry Oats and the staff at KitchenArt; Nancy Pigg, Lana Santavicca, Nancy Rau, and the Fricke family at CooksWares; Sue and Lynn Hoffman and the angels at the Kitchen Shoppe; and the staffs at Central Markets. A special thank you to Ron and Devora Eisenberg, Allison Sherwood, Erika D'Eugenio, Sara Rose, and the amazing staff and volunteers at Great News! in San Diego for giving me a kitchen to call home.

At The Harvard Common Press, thanks to my publisher, Bruce Shaw, and to the rest of the staff there: Christine Alaimo, Liza Beth, Valerie Cimino, Abby Collier, Christine Corcoran Cox, Virginia Downes, Amy Etcheson, Pat Jalbert-Levine, Skye Stewart, Julie Strane, Megan Weireter, and Betsy Young. I am grateful for all your hard work to make this book so beautiful and for taking it into the marketplace. I am privileged to work with such a wonderful group of professionals, who also enjoy a good laugh! Thanks also to Barb Jatkola for her great job copy-editing; this book is better for your keen eye and great questions.

I love giving gifts. Whether it's a beautiful crystal vase filled with flowers from my garden or a basket filled with home-baked goodies, it's a labor of love when I think about the recipient and how I'd like to show him or her my appreciation and affection. I began giving gift baskets to my friends and family when my children were young and I didn't have a lot of disposable income. The children are grown now, but the idea of giving a basket filled with things that I think my friends will enjoy is still a part of my life.

I wrote the original edition of The Perfect Basket in 1994, when the gift basket industry was just beginning. It was a book that gave readers inspiration and ideas for creating their own gift baskets filled with homemade treats or purchased items built around a theme. Today gift baskets are a $2.8 billion industrya pretty staggering figure if you know how much each item in a basket is typically worth. But this is not a book about how to start your own gift basket businessthere are lots of sources for learning about that. The Perfect Basket is written to inspire you to make your own baskets for family and friends. Putting together themed baskets to give to loved ones as a personal expression of your affection and gratitude will give you a feeling of joy and satisfaction that handing them a gift card to the local department store could never replicate.

What's different about this book is the range of choices I give for putting together a basket. Whether you want to give something as simple as a mug filled with a homemade coffee or chocolate drink or an over the top basket with mugs, an espresso machine, assorted coffees, chocolate spoons, and flavored syrups, you'll be able to use each basket idea to create an inexpensive or a splurge gift, or anything in between, by adding or subtracting a few items.

Containers for your gift baskets don't have to be limited to the usual wicker baskets; rather, they can be any number of items that will fit the theme. For example, a plastic bucket can hold all the items for a new car basket, such as car washing soap, a chamois, and the like. A soup tureen will hold soup mixes, a bundt pan will hold cake mixes, a salad spinner can hold flavored vinegars and herb blends for salad, breadbaskets or loaf pans can hold bread mixes, and a cookie jar can hold cookie mixes. You should use this book for inspiration and then put your own stamp on the gifts themselves, changing the containers to suit your preferences and your pocketbook.

There are two sections in The Perfect Basket. The first is about giving themed special occasion baskets filled with store-bought items that you will arrange in a container and present to your recipient. These baskets celebrate an occasion, such as a new car, a honeymoon, a new pet, or a special trip. These special occasion baskets range in price from around $25 to upward of $100, with various price points in between, so you can mix and match the items on the list to fit your budget and personal preferences. To make sure you have flexibility when tailoring these gifts to your friends and family, I provide lots of choices for items to fill each basket, as well as different prices for different versions of the same basket.

The second section of The Perfect Basket is made up of food-related gifts. Because I'm a cookbook author and teacher, these gifts are near and dear to my heart, and they are some of my favorite ways to remember friends and family. Each of these baskets has a mix of some kind, and a recipe for preparing the mix, to include with other items. This chapter is also full of choices. You can follow exactly the basket suggestions I have provided, or you can mix and match mixes and recipes to create your own baskets. You can also tailor any given basket according to the kind of present you want to give: a simple soup mix tucked into a large mug makes a great gift for your child's teacher, or you can give an entire soup and bread basket, packed into a gleaming new stockpot, to a favorite relative.