Homemade treats add personal touch to Christmas gifts

Candy, cookies or jams and homemade liqueurs, cordials or sausages all make great gifts. Have fun with the packaging, and add personalized gift tags.

The production of the gifts can even become an event to anticipate with families or friends gathering to make the gifts together.

Many stores sell decorative bottles that can be kept and used again long after the contents are gone. Consider making fruit cordials that can be used to flavor teas, sparkling water or wine.

A spiced chai concentrate to keep in the refrigerator would be a great non-alcoholic gift and can be used to flavor iced tea. Or add milk, and serve it warm.

There are also many recipes for liqueurs that can be made at home, including limoncello, amaretto, peppermint schnapps and coffee-flavored liqueur.

Tom Rush, bartender at Biga Italian Restaurant, 4329 S. Peoria Ave., has long made the popular limoncello for the restaurant. And the reason for serving the drink is based in the Italian culture as told to Rush by several people of Italian descent.

"Italians celebrate life and love with food and wine," Rush said. "After a multi-hour, multi-course dinner of antipasto, fish, truffles, entree, espresso, dessert ... as a sign of closing, one drinks limoncello as a digestive, palate-cleanser and breath-sweetener before one kisses and expresses affection to family and those whom they love before leaving dinner. What could be sweeter?"

Rush also shared some tips on making limoncello and a recipe.

"There are two basic recipes for limoncello: using grain alcohol that produces a product of 33-35 percent alcohol content; or using vodka, producing a 20-25 percent alcohol product. I use the vodka recipe, as it is much softer than the grain-alcohol version," Rush said.

He said there are also two schools of thought on whether to use whole lemon rinds or to zest the lemons.

"My thoughts are this: If the rind and the pith are equal diameters, use the whole rind," Rush said. "If the diameter of the pith exceeds the rind, zest half the lemons, and use the whole rind for the other half. The rationale is, like wine with good tannins, a certain tannic or bitter quality in the background, will produce a good limoncello, which will be balanced by the sugar content of the lemons and simple syrup, and smoothed out by the vanilla."