A last minute Hostess gift

My favorite new spice to cook with? Grains of Paradise! Doesn't that just SOUND great? We first saw Elton Brown (yes, the food network) make an apple pie with this spice. Sounded interesting so we tried it and I'm hooked. It has an intriguing history you can read about here.


I use it now on just about everything I used to use freshly ground black pepper on. It has a similar initial peppery taste, but a lingering warmth that plain pepper lacks. The link will talk about hints, flavors and aromas, but I won't pretend like I understand all that, I will just say that I really, really, really like it.

I like to share new things I am excited about, so it's quickly become my hostess gift of choice and I try to keep a few extra grinders around for just such an opportunity. One came last weekend when I had a wonderful dinner at my Sister-in-law, Sandi's home. It slipped my mind a little bit, so I thew together a very last-minute tag to brighten up the gift.

It's really nothing special, but the exercise did remind me that as a papercrafter, a little homemade touch is a just moment away...literally. I took the grinder to my office, found some coordinating cardstock and ink to match the label, found one of my all-time favorite stamps "merci"(you know, 'cause it's French), a punch, a brad, some ribbon and there ya go, a 2 minute tag.

Bon appetit & Happy Paper Crafting, Sue