I don't travel very far without gifts in hand during the holiday season. Especially when I've been invited to a holiday dinner or cocktail party, I always bring a little something special for the host. This season I've been trying to come up with more creative ways to show my appreciation and stumbled upon the most fabulous gift. Have you heard of the Italian Olive Oil, Nudo? The coolest thing about this Olive Oil is they offer an adopt an olive tree program which allows people all over the world to adopt an Italian olive tree and receive its oil. The programme involves a collaboration between a group of small scale, artisanal olive producers in Le Marche, Abruzzo and Sicily. Each olive farmer keeps responsibility for the care of their grove, and all the olive oil goes into the Nudo adoption programme. In giving financial security to the olive farmers, the programme makes viable the traditional farming methods which, quite simply,produce the world's best olive oil. How incredible is this? So I've been building hostess gifts with a bottle of their olive oil and pairing with a baguette and wheel of brie. I designed a little recipe card for baked brie to include with the gift and also included a little card explaining the history behind the Nudo Olive Oil and how to adopt an olive tree in Italy. Earlier in the month my friend Laura gifted a bottle of Nudo Olive Oil to me (which is how I discovered this fabulous brand) and I have been using it all winter long. I have been topping on crostini and pasta making for an extra delicious appetizer or meal. Please let us know what you're gifting this year...we'd love to hear! We're always looking for cool and creative new ideas over here.

The beautiful photos above were taken by Karilyn Sanders.