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