Holiday How To: Homemade Flavored Barbeque Sauces

Looking for some unique and different Valentine’s Day gift ideas? Look no further! Charm City Concierge has created some one-of-a-kind gift ideas that will make anyone smile!

This year we wanted to focus on homemade gifts with a twist for their loved ones. From sweet to savory we have everyone on your list covered.

Personalized Homemade BBQ Sauces.

I love cooking and wanted to create unique Valentine’s day gifts for the special people in my life. I wanted to focus on more of a savory treat and knew that BBQ sauce was a great base! I mean, who doesn’t love BBQ! For my recipes I decided to make my own BBQ sauce base and kick it up a notch with a few more simple ingredients. You can make your own base, which was very easy, or jazz up a favorite BBQ sauce you already have. The three flavors I decided on were, Honey, Spicy Chipotle and Chocolate, it is a Valentines Day gift after all. Once I prepared each sauce I stored them in glass jars that I had around the house. It gave each sauce the perfect homemade feel!

Molly’s BBQ Sauce Recipe

½ cup Ketchup

¼ cup Cider Vinegar

3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

2 Teaspoons Chili Powder

1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

3 Shakes Worcestershire Sauce

1 Teaspoon Salt

Honey BBQ Sauce

Add ¼ cup of honey into the sauce

Chipotle BBQ Sauce

1 Tablespoon Chipotle Powder

1 Tablespoon Sriracha Hot Sauce.

½ Teaspoon Cinnamon

Chocolate BBQ Sauce

3 oz Semi-sweet chocolate

Heat the BBQ Sauce base until it starts to bubble. Remove from heat and add the chocolate, stir until melted and combined. We hope you enjoy these tasty and fun recipes for a gift or for you to enjoy!

Holiday How To: Sweet Treats Bouquet

Our Sweet Treats Bouquet makes an adorable, edible centerpiece for any Valentine’s Day celebration or the perfect gift with that extra-special homemade feel!

Ingredients:

Melted Dipping Chocolate, Wooden/Plastic Dipping Skewers

Toppings: Sprinkles, Colored Sugar, or Crushed Peppermint

Marshmallows, M&Ms and Candy Hearts

Vase or Metal Tin, Cutting board or Plate

Microwaveable bowl

Here is how you do it!

1. Place marshmallows on the plastic skewers so that they are secure on one end.
2. Melt Chocolate in a microwaveable bowl until it is smooth when stirred. (Best way to do this is in 30-45 second increments, stirring in between)
3. Scoop marshmallow stick into chocolate sauce so that most of marshmallow is covered in chocolate. Be sure to let the excess chocolate drip off the marshmallow.
4. Roll the chocolate covered marshmallows in the topping choice.
5. Place the marshmallow on a cutting board or plate to let the chocolate/topping mix set.
6. After all marshmallows have been dipped, fill vase with M&Ms or  Candy Hearts.
7. Once chocolate is hard on marshmallows, arrange skewers in the vase to make a “bouquet” of marshmallows
8. Enjoy!

Holiday How-To: Sweet Gift in a Jar

As a company filled with creative concierges, we love a good Do It Yourself project, so when the holiday season rolls around we get busy crafting up holiday decor for our office, homes and parties, as  well as holiday gifts for our friends, coworkers and clients. We will be doing a series of videos to show you how simple and fun some of these can be. DIY crafts can seem overwhelming at first, so we have broken down some of our favorite simple ones for you!

These first video is one of our favorites – Gifts In A Jar! These make great gifts for a hostess, teacher or anyone special!

Click the video to see our quick demo. The detailed recipe can be found listed below.

Hot Chocolate in a Jar

Ingredients

1 cup powdered milk

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy (we used Andes Peppermint Chips)

1 cup miniature marshmallows

Other ingredients based on your favorites!

Preparation

Layer powdered milk, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, chocolate chips, peppermint candy and marshmallows. Decorate jar with your choice of stickers, ribbons, labels, etc. We used Avery full sheet label paper (Avery 5353) to print our labels then cut them out. You could also do regular mailing labels with would fit about 12-30/page depending on the size and you won’t need to cut them out! You could also do a handwritten note, punch a hole and tie it to the ribbon around the top!

We hope you enjoy our videos and they help you get through the hectic holiday season with a smile!