| an create some wonderful gifts for your friends | | | | quite thrilled with the idea and knew there would |
| and family by picking up a wicker gift basket and | | | | be plenty of options to be creative: cheese is one |
| filling it with items you know they will love. Be | | | | of the most popular foods and comes in a wide |
| careful about perishable food items, though, as | | | | range of varieties. Unfortunately things |
| your thoughtful gift could turn into a disaster. | | | | didn’t turn out to be quite that simple. |
| There are plenty of gift basket ideas that can be | | | | I spent a lot of time deciding which cheeses and |
| very easily done at home for your friends and | | | | wine to match with each other, and prepared the |
| family. The general rule of thumb is to be creative | | | | baskets the night before the actual party so |
| and let your imagination flow to come up with a | | | | everything would be ready in time for my guests. |
| wonderful result. However, as I recently | | | | What happened in the end is while I had |
| experienced, some things are best left to the | | | | remembered to chill the wines and |
| specialist care of professionals. This is particularly | | | | canapés for the party, I left the cheese |
| true of gift baskets containing perishable food | | | | baskets at room temperature overnight, not |
| items as they may need to be kept under | | | | thinking that it might be an issue. |
| controlled conditions to maintain their quality. | | | | My guests were very polite and no-one |
| The most common source of inspiration for gift | | | | complained to my face, but as they left the party |
| baskets is to center the main idea around the | | | | I realized my mistake with horror when one of |
| hobby or interests of the person receiving the | | | | them ‘forgot’ his basket behind. |
| present, and house it in a nice wicker basket to | | | | Needless to say that what it contained was far |
| get full marks for presentation. These gift | | | | from being pretty and I was devastated. Still |
| baskets are perfect for many occasions and are | | | | there was a valuable lesson to be learnt: it is best |
| a great treat to give your guests as they leave a | | | | to leave cheese gift baskets to professionals who |
| party you have hosted. | | | | can preserve the contents integrity and advise |
| With this in mind I planned some lovely cheese | | | | how to keep the cheese fresh. The other thing I |
| and wine baskets for the 25 friends I had invited | | | | learnt was that August may not be the best time |
| over for a wine tasting evening last summer. The | | | | of year to schedule a cheese and wine tasting |
| thought was that it would be a very nice | | | | event! |
| memento for them to take back home. I was | | | | |