Shopping Mall Kryptonite

Maxed out your plastic? Got nothing in the gift idea department? Or maybe you just would rather spend three hours doing something sweet, like roasting oats to your favorite gospel record, than wandering an outdoor "lifestyle center" like a zombie?

That's the case for Alex, who only started giving Christmas gifts a couple years ago and can barely keep from covering himself in fake blood, putting on handcuffs and gluing a dollar-bill over his mouth when he gets near a shopping mall. True story...

This year, Alex and Lake came up with a list of perishable presents they could cook and gift to their loved ones: a handmade fruit-and-oat granola, a smoky maple spice rub, Thai-flavored salt and mulled maple syrup. And Evan has been itching to make jars of red-and-green escabeche for months. So we made a CSR (container store run) all hunkered down on a recent L.A. winter morning (a brisk 74 degrees) and set to mixing, caning, mulling, mixing and toasting. For those who are behind on gifts, consider these idea-sparkers.