An aromatic oil, an aromatic salt, an aromatic sugar - homemade Christmas stocking fillers

I was going to publish my new novel this past weekend. I was gonna sit down and give it a final thorough read through with an edit app, I was gonna uploaded it into Kindle and I was gonna set it free into the world, just like that. This past weekend. It didn't happen. It's not like I didn't have the time to do it, I did. But I found myself occupied with other stuff and telling myself "I'll do it later." and then the weekend was over and I did not do it. Of course I need my husband's laptop for the final readthrough/ revision/ edit. And he was busy working on it, whenever I found myself with some free time in my hands. So I ended up postponing it, and busied myself elsewhere.

I edited these pics, on one hand. I also made a few other edible gifts to share on the blog, I photographed them as well. I cleaned up house and tidied it. I baked saffran buns for Lia's and Susana's Sweet World December edition - they don't look quite good, but man, were they delicious!! I read, I bought a Christmas gift for myself (perfume, I needed it) I searched the net for further Christmas inspiration, I wasted far too long on my guilty pleasure that is Instagram, I even watched a marathon of Ex On The Beach - please don't ask, I know already. It's the best piece of crap ever!! I did all this, but did not touch my novel. And I realized it wasn't going to get published before next weekend, because I must really go through that final edit.

Or maybe that's just an excuse I made up, maybe I am having second thoughts, maybe I got cold feet. I worked really hard on that novel, but then I went and read some opinion blog posts about vampire literature and I came out thinking my novel stinks. Man, does it ever stink!! It's completely uninteresting, there's nothing there besides a stupid love story! There's no philosophical thinking process, there's no moral questionings, there's no supreme vampiric evil - to paraphrase one of my favourite bands! - there's nothing but a stupid romance between a silly witch and a hot vampire bloke. What's the interest of that? Should I even bother? It doesn't even have a little mystery thrown in to spie it up and make it more interesting. So maybe I'm having cold feet.

I'll have this week to think properly on matters, and to make a clear decision, but for the time being I do rpefer focusing on homemade Christmas gifts, recipes, sorting out the Christmas menu - we're having family over, this year - sorting out the Christmas gifts. I'd rather focus on styling and shooting posts for the blog, right now, than think of other things. It's way more fun, even if photos are not coming out quite as I wished them to. Like this shoot, I had another idea in my mind, I had envisioned the outcome quite differently, but alas! it didn't pan out. Still, these three little treats are stocking fillers that will bring a smile to the lips of whomever may get them, as they're delicious and thoughtful and made with love. I settled on an infused olive oil, a pumpkin spice sugar and a lemon salt.

The infused olive oil. Great for seasoning, great for dipping crusty, fresh of the oven homemade bread as an entrée of sorts. Here's the how to:

• one medium sized dry chilli
• one small garlic clove
• good quality extra virgin olive oil

Peel the garlic and cut it in half, not all the way through, though. Chop the chilli in two or three pieces, keep the seeds as well. On a pretty flask, drop the garlic and the chilli - flakes and seeds and all - and top it off with good olive oil. Stopper and let it infuse in a cool, dark place.

The lemon salt, good for fish - I did one last year, similar to this - great on chicken, on spinach and rabe too. I love it, its very versatile.

• lemon peel
• dried parsley
• sea salt

On a bowl mix up the lemon peel, the dried parsley and the salt. Pour it into a pretty flask, stopper and reserve. It will infuse all the scents and aromas into the salt per se, and if you run chicken legs with this and then roast them... oh boy!!

Finally, the pumpkin pie sugar. Look, this is in no way "faithful" to whatever they do across the ocean, this one's my version of what I like in my pumpkin pie.

• vanilla sugar (there's a recipe here)
• ground cinnamon
• freshly ground all spice
• freshly ground nutmeg
• freshly ground star anise

On a bowl combine and mix all the ingredients. Pour onto a flask and stopper, reserving. It's quite good on hot chocolate, to sweeten it up, also sprinked over sweet warm rolls. Great with anything pumpkin as well!!