A quick and delicious recipe for Rosemary Sea Salt that makes a great holiday hostess gift!
Hey y’all! It’s Stephanie from Sustaining the Powers here again today. Raise your hand if you love to give hostess gifts. Raise your hand again if you love to receive hostess gifts! Maybe it’s because I’m from Texas, but my mom always taught me you should never show up at a party empty handed.
You can bring some flowers, text the host (if you know them) and ask if you can bring a dish, drink or dessert, bring a bag of ice (parties almost always need more ice), bring a bottle of wine (or here in Colorado it’s a 6 pack of craft beer), or make a little something for your hostess, but it’s always special to be on the receiving end of a hostess gift. (It’s special to give them too. I get really excited about giving hostess gifts!)
Today I wanted to share a recipe for one of my favorite quick and easy hostess gifts – Rosemary Sea Salt. In my opinion, rosemary and sea salt were born to be together. They’re one of those perfect culinary pairings that I find myself sprinkling on everything. Potatoes? They need some rosemary sea salt. Eggs? Yep, them too. Fish and other grilled meats? You won’t find a better rub. Olive oil for dipping bread? Always! Popcorn? Definitely! A rosemary blood orange cocktail? Yep, even my sweet gin cocktails can benefit from a pinch of sea salt and rosemary. (Rosemary and juniper (which goes in gin) are sibling plants after all.)
This recipe is almost not even a recipe since it’s as simple as can be – add coarse sea salt and cracked dried rosemary into a food processor or blender and give it a quick whirl. Then ta-da! You’re done and only have to package it up. You can even make it in those 10 minutes of panic between when you’re getting ready to head out the door and realizing you forgot to pick up something to take to your hostess. I usually make a big batch of these before the Thanksgiving holiday (like this week) and then keep them on hand so I always have a little something to take with me to a holiday party. I even stash a couple in the car for those “Surprise! I got you a gift!” moments you inevitably have with the friend you agreed not to trade gifts with this year. (Does this happen to anyone else or just me?) “Oh, it’s not really anything much,” she’ll say as you unwrap an expensive looking cashmere scarf. “I got you something as well!” you can reply. “I left it in the car in case you were serious about not trading gifts.” Then present her with a cute jar of “artisan” rosemary sea salt. Winning!
Last year we gave jars of this rosemary sea salt out as Epiphany gifts to all our friends so I put it in these cute little mason jars I found on sale at Big Lots and added a little printed sticker label to the top with serving suggestions. I’ll share that printable with you below! If you’re not familiar with it, Epiphany is celebrated on January 6th each year to mark the arrival of the Magi (wise men) after Jesus was born. I love giving my small homemade holiday gifts and cards out on Epiphany because you can take your time, make things after the Christmas rush has passed during the time most of us have off from work and you can use the after Christmas sales to grab some great deals on ingredients and supplies. Plus it’s WAY easier to track everyone down after the new year when they’re done travelling.
Do you give hostess gifts? What’s your favorite thing to take along to a party?
Ingredients
- 1 part dried rosemary (I prefer to get cracked Spanish rosemary from my local bulk spice shop)
- 2 parts coarse sea salt (Make sure it's coarse so you can blend it down.)
- 1/4 cup cracked dried rosemary
- 1/2 cup coarse sea salt
Instructions
- If your rosemary is not cracked rosemary, give it a quick whirl in your food processor to break it up.
- Add coarse sea salt to the rosemary in your food processor and process until the salt has broken into smaller crystals, but isn't finely ground. You want it to be a chunky salt.
- Divide into small jars or zip top bags, package with labels or as desired for gifting, and store sealed in a cool, dry place.
Notes
You may need to work in batches depending on the size of your food processor or blender. Processing many batches of rosemary sea salt may begin to dull your processor or blender blade, so use an older one or a grinding/chopping blade if you have it.
Pin it for later!
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