Holiday care packages

I've begun a tradition of creating holiday gift packages to send out to friends and family right before Christmas. It usually involves a couple of weeks of planning, excel spreadsheets, and a big mess. Every year I say I'm not going to do it again, and then I do.

This year, I made:

Salt + pepper shortbread

Lemon sandwich cookies

Mallowmars

Guava thumbprint cookies

Walnut orange meringues

Caramel grapefruit jellies

Chocolate chip cookies

Cardamom pistachio brittle

"Cheese sandwich"

I am an improv genius!  I love ricotta in desserts. I had some rhubarb compote in the fridge. So I decided to make something that would go with it, and because I had been experimenting with improvisations on shortbread recipes, I made a quick and easy shortbread with black pepper. The crunch and spicy went really well with the creamy ricotta and sloppy sweet rhubarb.

Black pepper shortbread + rhubarb compote + ricotta cheese + pistachios = well balanced, tasty, somewhat nutritious dessert