Your Inner Kitchen Santa

‘Tis the season for gift giving and I, for one, love to give edible gifts. Homemade gifts are so heartfelt and are really quite simple to make. For example, you can easily whip up delicious herb infused dipping oil in one afternoon, or make a few bags of chocolate bark for your friends. Here are some of my favorite homemade gifts to make. What are yours? —

Peppermint Hot Fudge Sauce – The perfect ratio of chocolate, butter, cream and sugars.

Meyer Lemon-Ginger Loaves – For dessert or breakfast.

Easy Italian Herb Infused Dipping Oil
12 leaves fresh basil, completely dried
4 sprigs thyme
4 sprigs rosemary
4 sprigs oregano
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
3 cups good quality olive oil

DIRECTIONS: Divide the sprigs up between 2 12-ounces bottles. Add the kosher salt and pepper to the olive oil and pour it into the glass jars until they are each nearly full.

Kelsey Banfield, the Naptime Chef, will be releasing her first cookbook in March 2012. Titled The Naptime Chef: Fitting Great Food Into Family Life, the book will feature full-color photographs and plenty of mouth-watering naptime recipes. Stay tuned!

Instituto Cervantes

Children and teenagers learn to understand and express themselves in Spanish, while improving their communication skills through a dynamic immersion program taught by NATIVE TEACHERS that combines CLASSES, ARTISTIC WORKSHOPS and FUN ACTIVITIES! All of our high-qualified teachers are native Spanish speakers who adapt the structure of the class to the needs and levels of each group while conducting the classes entirely in Spanish. We offer both Spanish Summer Camps and Regular Courses for children along the year to foster language learning and multicultural understanding.

BAMkids

BAMkids presents adventurous art and ideas for young audiences, igniting the imaginations of creative kids ages 3&mdash;11 with a fun and engaging lineup of workshops, movie matinees, and live performances from around the world.

Super Soccer Stars

Soccer Stars is New York&rsquo;s most popular youth educational soccer program! With 24 years of experience under our cleats, we have positively impacted over one million kids in our local community by putting the FUN in FUNdamentals in our weekly classes and camps. At Soccer Stars, we use the soccer ball as a vehicle to help children not only improve their soccer skills, but develop self-confidence and physical literacy, improve gross motor skills, build teamwork, and hone socialization skills. Our highly trained coaches and early childhood experts lead an age-specific curriculum with a low kid-to-coach ratio so every child gets individual attention and can grow at their own pace. Kids ages 1-12+ can join our seasonal programs, including Parent &amp; Me, FUNdamentals, Development Training, and Travel Soccer. Join us at one of over 80 locations in neighborhoods across across Westchester County, Connecticut and New York, available 7 days-a-week: Connecticut: <ul> <li>Cos Cob</li> <li>Greenwich</li> <li>Port Chester</li> </ul> &nbsp; Westchester: <ul> <li>Briarcliff</li> <li>Eastchester</li> <li>Mt. Kisco</li> <li>New Rochelle</li> <li>Ridgefield</li> <li>Scarsdale</li> <li>White Plains</li> </ul> &nbsp; New York City: <ul> <li>Bronx</li> <li>Inwood</li> <li>Upper West Side</li> <li>Upper East Side</li> </ul> &nbsp; Can&rsquo;t find a class or location that fits your schedule? Soccer Stars also offers private classes for small groups or individual training. Let our coaches come to you with a completely customizable program, anytime, anywhere. Birthday parties are also available!&nbsp;