I love Craftsy. Love, love, love it. I often have Craftsy classes playing on my iPad when I spend time in my sewing room.

My classes have all been sewing related… that is, until now. As a Craftsy affiliate, I was offered a free food class to try out. Being that I love to cook, and I adore cooking shows, it was certainly not a hardship. With Christmas just around the corner, I chose to try out the Sweet & Savoury Food Gifts with Diane Morgan.

Diane shares some great recipes, which are perfect for preparing at home and giving to friends and family this festive season. We watch Diane make some savoury food items and then we move onto the sweet items. Peppermint bark or Limoncello anyone?

In the final chapter, Diane shares ideas for presenting and wrapping the food gifts. Some fun printable tags are also included in the class to add lovely personal touch.

As soon as I saw Diane making her Famous Holiday Pecans, I needed to make them. I didn’t have any pecans in my pantry, so I improvised with what I had... hazelnuts and pistachios. I’ve since made another batch, and this time with pecans which work a lot better than hazelnuts as they have more little cracks and crevices to absorb to sweet coating.

Diane takes us step by step on how to make a  brown sugar meringue (my first time ever making meringue). Once it’s ready, melt some butter on a baking pan and stir the nuts through the meringue mixture.

Lay out the nutty meringuey deliciouness on the buttered tray and bake, stirring the nuts every 10-15 minutes until they’re golden.

Let the nuts cool before packaging them in a lovely jar or cellophane bag.

Honestly, once you taste one, you won’t be able to stop yourself from eating another and another and another… I plan on sharing some of these with family. A jar of holiday pecans with a nice bottle of bourbon and it’s the perfect gift for an uncle or brother.

Do you like giving and receiving food gifts?

What foodie items do you like to gift?