Friendship's Day Gifts and Recipe Guide

Since childhood, anticipating the first Sunday of August has been a total delight for everyone. Shopping for friendship bands, sneaking them into school, tying them around all your friends' wrist was the greatest feeling of content.

As a kid, friendship's day was about bands and friendship rings, presents and cards, and proving a point to the school authorities that no matter how hard they try, they won't be able to stop us from celebrating our favourite day with our best friends.

Well, that was back in the 90s and early 2000 when digital media was not so forthcoming. With Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other social media swapping the physical meaning of friendship's day with the virtual posts and portrayal of love, things have started changing and so is their implication.

Amidst posting friendship's day quotes and showing the world about how much we love our friends, we are trying to make our time with friends count. While children make use of the social media, teens and more importantly adults are taking this day to thank their friends for being an integrated part of their lives.

So, if there is a special reunion with your friends after a long time or a break from a hectic schedule, there can be a lot of unique ideas you could execute to remind them of the beautiful time you shared. Giving them gifts and cooking them their favourite food is not what a friend expects. They always think you are going to howl at them for being super busy. But, you know that them being able to find time for you makes you look through all their ill habits and idiocy.

So, yes, cook them delicacies and make this friendship’s day a relaxing, refreshing, and enthralling day for all your buddies! Yes, cooking is not always everyone’s forte. And if you can’t cook them the most amazing dishes, don’t worry. We have some suggestions here of easy yet mouth watering recipes for your league! Have a look at the menu card and select your favourite dish!

 

1. Coffee Ice Cream

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• Milk: 250 ml
• Cream: 100ml
• Strong Black Coffee: 25ml
• Chocolate Ice-Cream: 4 Scoops
• Drinking Chocolate: 4 tbsp

Recipe:

• Prepare hot coffee and add chocolate to it.
• Stir it to ensure homogeneity.
• Pour milk into it. Chill to get the required temperature.
• Once, it is chilled, Whisk in cream.
• Pour it over ice cream in the glasses. Serve immediately!
  
  

2. Tomato Basil Soup  

Ingredients ( Serves 4)

• Oil: 2 tbps
• Butter: 1tbps
• Onion: 1, chopped
• Garlic: 2-3 cloves, minced
• Sea salt: 1tbps
• Chicken or vegetable stock: 2 cups
• Chopped tomatoes: 400 gms
• Honey: 1tbps
• Sour cream: ¼ cup  
• Finely chopped fresh basil: ¼ cup  
• Freshly ground black pepper: As per taste

Recipe:

• Heat oil and butter in a 4-quart pot over medium heat. 
• Add onion, garlic and salt and sauté until onions are soft and translucent. 
• Add stock, tomatoes and honey and simmer for about 10-15 minutes to marry flavours.
• Let soup cool slightly and put ½ of it into a blender with sour cream. 
• Blend until smooth. 
• Transfer to another pot. 
• Blend the other half of the soup and add warm blended soup. 
• Add basil and pepper before serving.

3. Corn and Cheese Maggi 

Ingredients

• 1 packet Maggi
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup of grated mozzarella cheese
• Half a cup grated cheddar cheese
• Half a cup boiled corn
• Water
• Salt to taste
  
  

Recipe:

• Boil the Maggi as per instructions on the packet.
• Add a pinch of salt, boiled corn and the tastemaker provided in the packet.
• Half-cook the noodles and turn the flame off.
• Grease a baking tray with butter, transfer the noodles to the baking tray and add the mozzarella and cheddar cheese to cover it completely.
• Place the baking tray in a preheated oven for 5 minutes on 150 degrees. Serve hot. 

4. Paneer Sizzler

Ingredients

• Paneer - mashed: 500 gm
• Bread - grated: 2 slices
• Garlic paste: 1 tbsp
• Ginger paste: 1 tbsp
• Onions - grated: 1 cup
• Mushrooms- sliced thin: 1 cup
• Cornflour mixed with 1 cup water: 1 tbsp
• Tomato Ketchup: 2 tbsp
• Worcestershire Sauce: 1 tsp
• Vinegar: 2 tbsp
• Black Pepper powdered: 1 tsp
• Butter to drop on the plate as required
• Oil to pan-fry
• Salt to taste
  
  

Recipe:

• Mix the paneer, bread, garlic, ginger and 1 tsp: salt and form into 4-6 rounds. Heat a thin layer of oil and pan fry the paneer patties till brown on both sides. Keep aside.
• Mix the cornflour solution, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, salt and vinegar and keep aside.
• In the same pan brown the onions, add mushrooms over high heat and stir fry 4-5 times.
• Add the cornflour mixture, bring to a boil and simmer over low heat till a little translucent. Keep aside warm, until ready to serve.
• Heat the sizzler plates till very hot?a drop of water thrown over should sizzle and evaporate immediately. Place 2 paneer patties over it, turning once so it is heated through. Pour some of the sauce over and place whatever accompaniments you are serving with it over the plate.
• Drop a dab of butter directly on the plate and serve immediately.
  
  

5. Oreo Shake

Ingredients

• Chocolate syrup: 4 tsp.
• OREO Cookies divided: 8
• Milk: 1 cups
• Vanilla ice cream, softened: 2 cups

Recipe:

• Spoon  1 tsp. syrup into each of 4 glasses.
• Roll each glass to coat bottom and inside of glass. Finely chop 4 cookies; set aside.
• Quarter remaining cookies; place in blender.
• Add milk and ice cream; blend until smooth.
• Pour  into prepared glasses; top with chopped cookies.
• Serve immediately.
  
  

6. Cheese Macaroni

Ingredients

• 250 gm macaroni pasta
• 40 gm butter
• 40 gm plain flour or maida
• 600 ml milk
• 250 gm grated cheddar
• 50 gm grated parmesan cheese

Recipe:

• Cook the macaroni in a large saucepan of boiling salted water for 8-10 minutes; drain well and set aside.
• Melt the butter over a medium heat in a saucepan slightly larger than that used for the macaroni.
• Add the flour and stir to form a roux, cooking for a few minutes.Gradually whisk in the milk, a little at a time.
• Cook for 10-15 minutes to a thickened and smooth sauce.
• Meanwhile, preheat the grill to hot.
• Remove the sauce from the hob, add 175 gm of the cheese and stir until the cheese is well combined and melted.
• Add the macaroni to the sauce and mix well.
• Transfer to a deep suitably-sized ovenproof dish.
• Sprinkle over the remaining cheddar and the Parmesan and place the dish under the hot grill.
• Cook until the cheese is browned and bubbling. Serve straight away.

7. Cake Lollipops

Ingredients

For the cake balls :

• Chocolate cake (Without icing) – 1 piece
• Butter – 2 tbsp
• Icing Sugar – 3 tsp

For the frosting:

• Butter – 2 tbsp
• Icing Sugar – 3 tsp
• Food color – a drop (I used pink)
• Edible Color beads – 1 tsp

Recipe:

• First crumble the cake, keep aside.
• Mix butter and icing sugar and beat well until fluffy.
• Add the butter sugar mixture to the crumbled cake and mix well.
• Gather to form small balls.
• Refrigerate at least for 2 hours.
• After the cake balls are ready refrigerated, melt the chocolate and dip one end of the stick into the melted chocolate.
• Tap off the excess and insert into the rolled cake balls pricking a little less than half way. Again refrigerate it for 30mins to let it set.
• Then for the frosting mix butter, sugar and food color.
• Beat well, fill them in piping cones with a star nozzle and pipe it on the refrigerated cake balls.
• Just drizzle colored beads. Your cake pops are ready!
  
  

8. Masala Chai and Biscuits

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tsp tea leaves
• 1/2 tsp finely chopped ginger
• 2 tsp sugar or to taste
• 1/2 tsp chai masala

Recipe:

• Bring the water to a boil.
• Add the tea leaves and ginger and simmer for a minute.
• Add the chai masala.
• For chai masala, grind equal quantities of star anise (badiyan), cinnamon (dal chini), laung (cloves) and elaichi (cardamom). (In this case, one or two of each)
• Add the milk and sugar, let it come to a boil once more, and then strain it into the cups, and serve with biscuits.

So, these were some of our easy suggestions for you to cook for your friends. But hey, it is not done yet. As it was said before, there is nothing that can beat the happiness of presents. However ‘generous’ your friends may be, a gift always makes their eyes pop. Thus, while you set table for a fun filled get together with your buddies and revive their stomachs with your delicacies, gift them unique presents for a perfect day!

Friendship day gifts are not the mandatory gifts that one gives out of social obligations. It is a gift that a friend gives to other as a symbol of love and a warning of the consequences that would follow if the other dared to forget something. So yes, these gifts ought to be special. While selecting the perfect gift, there are times when you are perplexed with absolutely no good choices to fill your cart. We know you want something creative for your gang. Something that goes in accordance with their weird choice of life. This is the very reason we have come up with the solution for all your gifting problems.

At bigsmall.in, you get to choose the unique and out of the box gift for your friends. A gift, that defies the ordinary and marks a reminder of a unique personality of your mate. Here, you get to pick the right present for your friends according to their vivid personality. So, whatever your friend's personality is and whatever is the field of interest, sit back and relax because here are some awesome gift suggestions for your dear friend!

Like the colours of a rainbow, your friends too have a very different taste in everything. One loves football while the other cricket. For one, movies are the best source of entertainment while for other nothing can beat the happiness a book brings with itself. Some love to spend their free time travelling while the others live to party and celebrate every moment of life. And then there are some who find contentment in playing pranks with others. Who, like Fred and George Weasley are the master pranksters and there is no way you can get away from their wicked brain.

We, therefore, bring to you various gifts for such vivid personalities of your friends to give away this friendship's day. If your friend is a sports maniac, giving them the figurines of their favourite player, game over and golf coffee mugs. If they love to read, give them super cat vintage bookmarks, hands free book holder or lazy glasses to make their reading effortless. It they have a dream of traveling the world, scratch world map, air couch, travel passport holder or power nap pillows would be their world.

If your friends have lots of things on their bucket list, gift them a bucket list box which would remind them of all the things that need to be done. It would keep track of all the things they wish from life and store memories of all that's been done so far. If they are indecisive and find themselves at crossroads, gift them decision maker paperweight to help them decide.

If your friends love to sip coffee or tea every now and then, gift them various unique mugs we have for you. If decorating their place is their favourite hobby, you can gift them a lot of home decor products to add a new glittery look to their house. Various LED lamps and wall hangings, photo frames and beautiful and unique wall clocks would hence be the right choice for you to give away.

Not only according to the personality, if you wish to buy some gifts for your female friend, or a male friend, there are really interesting options for you to choose.  For your girl friends who love to pamper themselves, you can gift them spa socks, nail polish holder or a mermaid blanket and make their life comfortable.

For your guy friends, beard grooming gifts like beard shaper and beard catcher, Foot hammock, ultimate pocket tool are witty choices for a perfect friendship's day gift.

And that's not all. You could even gift them a gift box with the collection of witty and funny stuff to mark their day.

Whatever your choice be, your gifts would add a magical effect to the entire day. And with such a brilliant arrangement of your incredibly tasty food and delicious beverages with super amazing ice shapes floating over the drinks( courtesy of various ice mould trays available at Bigsmall) the entire day would be a total delight for everyone!

So, what are you waiting for? Gear up to meet your friends and spend an extremely beautiful day with them filled with food, gifts, games, pranks and most importantly, memories. Open the gates to the childhood days, relive your best moments, laugh over the idiocy of each other. Remember each other's first crush, ambitions, silly habits, and how all of this made your bond stronger than ever.

No matter whether you are a teen or a fully grown adult, these times with friends are always cherished. Not because you get to meet them after a long time, but because even after such long time, there is nothing that has changed in your relationship. That even after changing towns for studies, work and life, and achieving the pinnacle of success in your respective domains, you are as silly as you were before in front of each other!

Wow! Look at how far you've come! Don't you think it's amazing! Cheers to your friendship, folks! May your bond stays the same! And your friendship's day turns out to be a perfect one with food, gifts and memories!

Happy Friendship's Day!