Herb Infused Oil – Best Gift Ever

Herb infused oil, really…the best gift ever. It’s elegant, luxurious and very easy to make. Make it in batches and give as holiday or hostess gifts or use at home, you really can’t go wrong. In my case, this is a thank you gift for my co-worker EBAY. Not only does EBAY, help me with the printer and crazy espresso machine in the office kitchen, but she even babysat my cats while I was away. It doesn’t get any better than that.  To show her my appreciation, I decided to make her homemade herb infused olive oil.    I used sage, rosemary, peppercorns and garlic, but the possibilities are endless (lavender, chili flakes, salt, oregano, orange peel, thyme, sun-dried tomato, roasted garlic, to name a few).  I stopped off at TJ Maxx to pick up pretty bottles, some good olive oil and really cute gift tags. I bet a hardware store would also have good supplies for this project.

Ingredients:

• several bottles with proper tops (the suction cup tops are best for traveling gifts, cork is good if you are keeping at home)
• 1 big bottle of olive oil
• Red and Black whole peppercorns
• Garlic cloves*
• Fresh herbs
• Twine and scissors
• gift tags, a pen and someone with good handwriting

Keep oils infused  with garlic in fridge to avoid botulism!!*

Wash bottles with soap and water  to remove price tags. Dry thoroughly and set aside. Rinse and pat dry herbs.  I recommend doing this the night before so they air dry. DON’T put fresh herbs in oven to dry. I may or may not have done this and completely ruined half my herb rations…

Drop several peppercorns, 1 sprig of rosemary, 1 leaf of sage and 1 clove of garlic (unpeeled) into each bottle, bending and bruising the herbs as you drop them in to encourage infusion.  I chose to slow the infusion of the garlic by keeping the peel on the cloves, but do as you wish.

Using a funnel, pour oil into each bottle.

Write a nice little note on the gift tags, wrap around neck of bottle et voila!

Since infused oil doesn’t actually need that many herbs to create flavor, I had lots left over.  I wrapped them with twine, then hung them on my fifty dishtowel rack. I’ll stop by the hardware store this weekend to pick up a pretty jar and I’ll have rosemary for the rest of the year.

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