Taking into account a person's food likes and crafting a homemade gift for them can be a thoughtful, touching gift for the holidays. The joy is not just in giving the gift, but also in making it. For the spice-savvy person in your life, here are 10 homemade spicy gift ideas from harissa to honey-chile butter. Do you have any zesty homemade gifts you make? More

Last week in our Serious Heat column, we gave you a chance to win a bundle of our favorite tongue-scorching sauces if you told us your favorite thing to do with it. Well, 249 of you responded, and this was our randomly selected winner's suggestion. Thanks to all who entered! "In Russian (salad) dressing." —HJR... More

[Flickr: add1sun] To say we're obsessed with hot sauce at Chile Pepper magazine is putting it mildly. However, it's around this time of year when we gather an insane amount of sauces for our March feature, the "Hot Sauce issue," and become absolutely giddy over the stuff (which could just be from the high of sipping so many). For weeks our lives revolve around creatively tasting and testing the variety. A little dash here, a mega dash there. We've done so much with them. Here's a quick list of 25 things we've found to do with hot sauce. Bonus: Hot Sauce Giveaway If you tell us your favorite way to use hot sauce in the comments, you'll automatically be... More

Before you leave the house for any party, you do the routine check: keys, wallet, phone, mints. Now you can add hot sauce carry purse to that list. Because what if they hand you a burger and don't have bottles of tongue-burning, chili pepper-laden condiments waiting? "They ain't got no hot sauce! I told you we should have called first...C'mon woman, get in the car, we got to go!" Bernie Mac, who died Saturday morning of pneumonia, was freaking out in this SNL sketch until his lady whipped out her sweet Tabasco accessory, where each compartment is insulated and calibrated for maximum hot sauce freshness. Bernie even had something for guys who didn't want to schlep around a girly... More

Hot sauce? Hot air? Both? Barack and Hillary are tied for 12 percent, and Newt's hanging on, just barely, with 4 percent. Independent candidate Nunov Deabove? He's missing from the mainstream media but has a respectable 9 percent here. These aren't AP polls, but hot sauce sales for the presidential-themed bottles at Dave's Gourmet.... More

Sitting on chef Chris Schlesinger's desk is a framed picture of a hastily scribbled, stained recipe for his Inner Beauty Hot Sauce: Five pounds of Scotch bonnet chilies, one gallon of yellow mustard, plus molasses, brown sugar, honey and spices. The method: Throw it all in the blender, and serve: "I don't know why people buy hot sauce. It's ridiculous when it's so easy to make yourself." More