The gift of giving: operation chicken pot pie

I love creating gifts for people....thinking of ideas, searching for something that the person will find truly meaningful/helpful/useful, choosing just the right wrapping...the whole process is strangely therapeutic. I know its hokey, but the whole "giving is better than receiving" thing makes perfect sense to me....of course, I do still like the receiving part.

So, as I mentioned in a recept post, I was thrilled (and touched), when a good friend recently asked if I would help her create gifts for several of her friends who are expecting babies. Specifically, she'd asked me to make miniature chicken pot pies. I realize this sounds like a strange baby gift, so I'll share the story behind the story:

Following the birth of her son last fall, I'd dropped off some miniature chicken pot pies for she and her husband to enjoy as quick, easy dinners . As it turned out , in addition to enjoying the pies, my friend discovered that the little glass bowls I'd baked them in (and told them to keep) made fabulous baby cereal bowls. She was so grateful to be relieved of dinner duty for a few nights and happy to have some little bowls to feed her kid with, she thought the gift would be worthy of sharing with other new moms.

For such a grand occasion, I decided I should "do it right" (as JiT says), using all fresh vegetables and homemade from-scratch pie crust. I made an extra pie for JiT to "taste test" and he assured me that they passed (phew)! So then, it was on to the next adventure-- how to wrap them!

The pies are each individually wrapped in heavy-duty foil to to protect them for time in the freezer, but since lumps of foil don't seem all that appealling, a nifty container was definitely in order. After much deliberation, I found these fabulous boxes at the Container Store -- tucked in with plenty of tissue paper, the pies were perfectly nested.

Next, I created label for the front of the box listing all of the storing and heating instructions (and including a shameless plug for this blog), added some matching gift tag stickers and a coordinating ribbon trim for a pulled-together look -- we were ready to go.

My friend was really pleased with how they turned out and has already requested 3 more orders over the next two months! I'm excited to help and trying to think of other potential gift ideas to offer in the future...cupcakes, custom dinners, custom-filled picnic baskets... This is so much fun!

Feel free to share your gift-giving challenges (Fathers Day)...I'm excited to try to help!