The holidays present us with a unique set of food-related challenges. When going to someone's home for a holiday dinner, you can't just show up with Ring Dings and Pepsi like George Costanza. And then you have the situation with giving gifts to people you don't know very well or like very much, as with an office gift exchange.
Many people have chosen to navigate these choppy waters by presenting their targets with a bunch of food mixes layered inside a Mason jar. This sounds weird, and it kind of is, but bear with me here.
First of all, the presentation is nice. Everybody loves Mason jars. They are universally adored. Dress that baby up with a raffia bow or a hand-written note tied on with twine, and you're golden. It says "I care enough to make this gift by hand, yet I didn't spend too much money on it, so you won't feel awkward about reciprocating."
And typically, the ingredients inside are layered prettily, like an edible sand jar.
But make no mistake, this gift is a burden. It is the gift of something you have to cook. And I submit to you that the ingredients are the least troublesome part of cooking a meal. You probably have a lot of them already. The problem isn't the ingredients, the problem is the cooking of it. Giving someone the ingredients does not address the issue.
This is why most food jars are destined to be stuck on a kitchen shelf forever, gradually being pushed to the back of the cupboard. Mentally, the recipient will put it in the category of "food I'm storing in case of the Zombie Apocalypse." Because when the Zombie Apocalypse happens, you will be darned happy to have all the ingredients for a chocolate cake on hand in a nice, tidy, brain-splatter-proof Mason jar.
Image courtesy Flickr/lePhotography
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