Now, I don't generally go overboard for Valentine's Day- the beau's birthday is just the month before and our anniversary is right afterward so those holidays get priority in the budget. This year, I decided on a creative, budget friendly little gift basket themed around his favorite series, Firefly.
When I hit the internet I couldn't find another example of anyone doing this, so I decided to record my process in pictures so I could share it here.
Allons-y!
First off, the tools and components:
- Small wood crate- Amazon
- Shredded paper- Michael's Art Supply
- Swing-top glass bottle- Amazon
- Scissors
- Double-stick tape
- Aluminum foil
- Nature Valley Trail Mix Bars
- Kahlua
- Skyy Vodka
- Fruity Oaty Bar wrappers- deviantArt
- Mudder's Milk label- deviantArt
Not Pictured:
- Bao
- Milk
A couple things to touch on here- There are actually quite a lot of recipes on the internet for Mudder's Milk and Fruity Oaty Bars, but the Mudder's Milk recipes all contain dark beer which gives beau headaches and I'm crap at baking so the bars were out as well.
Back to it! I chose Nature Valley Trail Mix bars for my Fruity Oaty's because they have (you guessed it) fruit, and oats! Since the label was proportioned more for a flat chocolate bar than a granola-type bar, I had to smoosh the trail mix bars- luckily they were pretty soft so I was able to do this without any additional tools.
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| Nestle it up in some foil... |
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| Wrap 'er nice and snug in the label, and tape... |
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| Repeat as needed! |
To mix up my beer-free version of Mudder's Milk, simply do a 1-to-1 ratio of vodka and Kalhua into your glass bottle, and top with chocolate milk, to taste (wipe the outside of your bottle clean at this point if need be). Next, cut out your Mudder's Milk label, hit that bad boy with some double-stick tape and throw it on your bottle!
Bam.
I actually wound up unable to find any bao, so I picked up the most similar pork-buns I could find at a local Chinese place. All I did was place it into my wood crate atop the straw and all was well.
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| The "bao" looking like boobs was just a happy accident. |
I welcome questions and/or comments! Thanks for reading!
The happy recipient!
