DIY Christmas: Garlic-Rosemary Oil and Sundried Tomato Balsalmic Set

Christmas is just around the corner. Time to get moving on those last minute DIY Christmas gift ideas. This is an awesome idea I thought of this year. Last year I picked up some specially infused olive oil and balsalmic sets from Pike’s Market for Christmas gifts. Everyone LOVED them and has been asking if they will be getting another one this year. First of all, they were kinda spendy at $30 each plus I do not want to nagivigate downtown traffic this time of year on my weekends off…..so I’m gonna try to do it myself 🙂

I would highly recommend making a Costco run for this kind of production. Let me tell you about how much these ending up costing:

5 qt olive oil $17.95

2L balsalmic $19.99 each

2 packs of Rosemary $5

1 bag of peeled garlic cloves $5

2lbs sun dried tomatoes $7.99

1 bottle roasted red pepper flakes $3

14-500ml decorative bottles $2.50 each

TOTAL $110 (about $15 per set)

Definitely worth the cost savings here plus you get to personalize it yourself!

Step 1: Chop up garlic. Definitely save yourself the trouble of peeling the garlic and used the peeled garlic cloves! I used about 2-3 cups of garlic cloves. BEWARE: your house will smell like garlic!!

Step 2: Brown the garlic in a pan. I sauteed the garlic in a little bit of olive oil on high. The goal is to make it brown and crispy without burning it. This will take some of the edge off of the garlic flavor and make the infused oil have a sweet garlic flavor. After it is browned, take off the burner and set out on paper towels to cool and drain.

Step 3: Pack the bottles with the herbs. I filled balsalmic bottles with sun-dried tomatoes. It was about 1/2c of sundried tomatoes per bottle. This was very messy! Then I also added red crushed pepper flakes. About 1/2 tablespoon per bottle.

Step 4: Fill bottles with balsalmic vinegar! I filled it about 3/4 to the top and then finished it off with a little red wine (shiraz) and sundried tomato oil to add to the flavor.

Step 5: Repeat the steps for the oil bottles! I filled mine with 1/2 cup of roasted garlic and 2 sprigs of rosemary. These are SO pretty.

Finally the finished product. After 2 hours I ended up with 14 bottles of product and a very messy and garlic-smelling kitchen 🙂 These are really nice gifts. They would go perfect with a bread making kit or even a little italian recipe book.

Well I hope these shape up against the Pike’s Place market equivalents! Happy Holidays!

For more DIY Holiday Gift ideas click HERE