Each holiday season, food lovers look forward to homemade treats from friends and relatives: a plate of sugar cookies, a rum-soaked fruit cake, a batch of granola.

We went in search of a few folks known for their edible holiday gifts and found a Durham man who buys 40 pounds of Bertie County peanuts to make peanut brittle and a Clover, S.C., woman who makes as many as 175 loaves of pumpkin bread for her co-workers, relatives and friends.

It's the effort that makes the recipients of gifts from the kitchen feel loved. “It's just really special to have a food gift,” says Marcie Cohen Ferris, an assistant professor of American studies at UNC Chapel Hill and a recipient of one of our cooks' gifts.

Maybe these generous cooks will inspire others to start a tradition.

Loaves of pumpkin bread

Last year, 64-year-old Mary Simmons of Clover, S.C., baked 175 loaves of pumpkin bread to give relatives, neighbors, co-workers and church friends. This has been her holiday gift-giving tradition for more than 25 years.

When Simmons got the recipe 30 years ago, she thought this spiced, moist bread would be a special holiday treat. “You only use pumpkin that time of year,” she says.

Baking that many regular and mini loaves of pumpkin bread is a major undertaking. The bread can sour quickly so Simmons turns her home kitchen into production central for about two weeks in December. Her shopping list includes more than 24 cans of pumpkin, 30 pounds of flour, 32 pounds of sugar. “That's not even the raisins, the pecans or the eggs,” she says.

Simmons will get home from work by 6 p.m., eat a quick dinner and stay up baking until 1 a.m.

“I stay very busy in the month of December,” she says. “It's very hectic.” And after baking, she has to deliver all the loaves.

The lucky recipients include more than 100 people at her church, Greater Life Ministries in Clover, and all 51 employees at the Charlotte advertising firm, Luquire George Andrews, where Simmons is treasurer and office manager.

Judi Wax, a vice president at Luquire George Andrews, says she and her husband, Saul, a retired chef, look forward to Simmons' pumpkin bread each year. “In two days, it's gone,” Wax says.

Despite her list of recipients that grows each year, Simmons says she can't scale back. “Now they look forward to getting it. I don't want to disappoint them.”

Pounds of peanut brittle

Joel Muse has been making peanut brittle as a holiday gift for the last 35 years. “The more you make it, the better you get at it,” says Muse, 70, of Durham.

Even his niece, chef Amy Tornquist, can vouch for that sentiment. She has had varying degrees of success trying to replicate his recipe. “His is always better,” says Tornquist, who owns Sage & Swift Catering and Watts Grocery in Durham.

Tornquist attributes Muse's brittle brilliance to his training as a scientist. A Williamston native, he is a semi-retired chemist who spent decades working in research and development at Goodyear Tires. While living in Ohio, Muse got the recipe from a friend about the time a cousin sent him five pounds of raw Bertie County peanuts for Christmas. A tradition was born.

Muse is so particular about how to make brittle that he brought two samples to illustrate success versus failure: a golden yellow batch that was perfectly caramelized and pale yellow brittle that didn't measure up.

“It's only within a few degrees and a few seconds,” Muse says about the different results.

Muse says his Goodyear co-workers used to line up to get their brittle. Now he gets to use Tornquist's commercial catering kitchen to make his holiday treats. He still buys raw Bertie County peanuts, as much as 40 pounds a year, and cranks out several batches over many days for about 20 friends and relatives.

Tornquist asks her uncle to make brittle for her to give to customers, friends and her daughters' teachers. She plans to sell it at a bakery and sweets shop that she will open on Durham's Broad Street in late spring.

When that happens, anyone will be able to get a taste of Uncle Joel's peanut brittle.

Cheese straws galore

George Fisher, 66, of Charlotte, has spent the past 22 years fine-tuning his recipe for cheese straws. He only gives the final product as a gift to about 10 friends and business associates. Fisher works in customer service for a golf products company.

Among the lucky recipients is Karen Cooley, owner of Charlotte's Cooking Uptown store.

“He's very serious about it,” Cooley says. “He's constantly trying to perfect it.”

Fisher insists on using good quality cheddar cheese; store-brand doesn't cut it with this recipe. He says he reduced the amount of flour in the original recipe because the dough was so tough that he almost broke his cookie press trying to make the straws.

If the final dough is still too stiff, Fisher recommends leaving it on the counter for a bit longer. And he says watch the cheese straws closely in the oven: They can burn in seconds.

Fisher makes two batches after Thanksgiving but many never last to become gifts: “I eat so many when I fix them.”

His recipients appear to have the same reaction. “Everybody seems to like them,” he says. “Maybe they are just being nice, but they sure do eat them all.”

Jars of homemade soup

Penny Rich, a Chapel Hill personal chef and city council member, is known about town for the jars of homemade soup she gives as holiday presents.

This tradition, only a few years old, started with her friend, Ferris, whose birthday falls on Dec. 30. Rich figured Ferris' birthday got overshadowed by the holiday season, and so she gave her friend 12 jars of different homemade soups to heat for quick lunch breaks between classes. “It was extra special because it was the gift that kept on giving,” Ferris says.

The soups were so well-received that Rich, 52, started expanding her gift list to neighbors, friends and clients. She makes up to 50 jars of soup and stores them in a second freezer. The flavors range from black bean and minestrone to curried butternut squash and shrimp bisque.

From mid-November to mid-December, Rich is in soup-making mode, turning out two to three flavors a week.

The only problem is that Rich's teenage sons raid her soup collection. “I often see Ball jars missing from the freezer,” she says.

Because the soups are frozen, Rich has to deliver them in person so they don't perish on a doorstep.

The response has been good. “I always get the jars back,” Rich says. “I think that means ‘Let's refill them again.'”

Joel Muse's Peanut Brittle

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup water

1 cup light Karo syrup

2 cups raw peanuts

1/3 stick of butter

1 tablespoon baking soda

PLACE sugar, salt, water and Karo syrup in a Dutch oven or other large pot; attach a candy thermometer to the pot. Heat over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. When syrup reaches 240 degrees, add peanuts. Turn heat to high and stir constantly until the temperature reaches 290 degrees. Then add butter and baking soda and stir rapidly until the butter is melted and dispersed. You must stir the butter as quickly as possible, or you will get a much darker color than the desired golden brown.

POUR brittle onto two buttered cookies sheets and let it cool. Once it cools completely, break it up.

Yield:

About 2 pounds

Mary Simmons' Holiday Pumpkin Bread

2/3 cup solid butter-flavored vegetable shortening

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 (16-ounce) can pumpkin puree

2/3 cup water

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

2/3 cup raisins

1 cup chopped nuts

PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9- by 5- by 3-inch loaf pans. Set aside.

CREAM shortening and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Add eggs, pumpkin and water and mix well. Stir in flour, baking soda, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and cloves. Add raisins and nuts. Mix well.

DIVIDE batter between two pans. Bake for 65-70 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the bread comes out clean.

Yield: 2 loaves

Penny Rich's Shrimp Bisque

1 1/2 pounds of shrimp (local N.C. shrimp when available)

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 tablespoons butter

2 leeks, rinsed well and cut in big pieces

4 celery stalks, cut in big pieces

1 large fennel bulb, cut in big pieces

3 garlic cloves, chopped

4 tablespoons tomato paste

1/4 cup cognac or brandy

4 tablespoons flour

4 cups seafood stock

3 cups half-and-half

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup dry sherry

1 cup Crème Fraiche, optional

3 to 4 scallions, diced, optional

PEEL and devein shrimp. Save shells and shrimp separately. Place shrimp in refrigerator until ready to use.

HEAT oil and butter in a large soup pot. Add shrimp shells, leeks, celery, fennel and garlic. Cook 4 to 5 minutes until shells get pink and vegetables begin to soften. Add tomato paste and cook 5 minutes more on a low-medium heat.

REMOVE pot from heat and add brandy to deglaze. Return to heat and sprinkle with the flour. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add stock and the half and half, heat to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 30 to 35 minutes or until the mixture has thickened.

STRAIN mixture through a sieve into a second clean soup pot. Taste and correct seasoning with salt and pepper. Return the soup to a simmer.

CHOP shrimp into very small pieces. Add to the bisque and cook 2 to 3 minutes until the shrimp turn pink. Add sherry and cook 1 to 2 minutes more. At this point, you can pour the bisque into two 4-cup jars, leaving about 11/2 inches of space from lid and freeze.

REHEAT soup. Whisk in creme fraiche. Top with chopped scallions and serve with crusty bread.

Yield: Makes 4-6 servings (about 2 4-cup jars)

George Fisher's Cheese Straws

Fisher got this recipe from Anne Lee of Charlotte more than 20 years ago. He notes that the straws can be made ahead and freeze well.

1 pound grated sharp cheddar cheese, at room temperature

2 sticks butter, at room temperature

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

PREHEAT oven to 500 degrees.

MIX cheese and butter thoroughly. Set aside.

COMBINE flour, baking powder, salt and red pepper. Add dry ingredients in small amounts to cheese and butter mixture. If the dough is too stiff for a cookie press, add a few drops of water. Place dough into a cookie press and squeeze long lines of dough onto cookie sheet.

PLACE cookie sheet in oven and immediately reduce heat to 350 degrees. Cook for 10 minutes but watch closely. When cheese straws begin to lightly brown, remove from oven. Cut into 3-inch lengths. Cool on a wire rack, then pack into gift tins or boxes.

RESET oven temperature to 500 degrees for next batch. Repeat.

Yield: 10 dozen