Tips off any of you that are good at home made stuff please!

[Trygg]

(OK, first sorry for the crap grammar in the title :/)

I'm thinking this xmas rather than buying people tat they dont want id love to go down the homemade jam or vodka route. I'm not great at cooking and dont have many store cupboard ingredients, but im not totally thick and im very willing and excited

for example with all the vodka recipes what 'quality' vodka do u use? is tesco vodka not going to cut the mustard?

and where do you get jam jars from for cheap? tbh i think me and dp may get through two shop jars before xmas which isnt much use

anyway sorry for wittering any tips would be VERY aprreciated

cheeers!

You can always use all that value lemon curd to make jam tarts or a these so it doesn't go to waste.

Agree on the prawn paste jar! The little spice jars from Ikea are really cute here.

oh acsec you genius! i have squillions in my cupboard but it didnt occur to me, god im a useless ikea employee haha! cheers

i know i didnt really feel right binning it all so i think il make a ton of lemon cakes

Oooh if your looking for things to do with lemon curd...Perfect for parties. Mix equal parts of lemon curd and cream cheese, then spoon into little meringue nests and top with summer berries. Delicious!

Thank you lol :o

If you take the lemon cakes to uni you'll be very popular and make more friends to give vodka to! :)

chirpchirp that does sound delicious!

im going to have a party with just me tonight so i can have the lemon meringue nests and cinamon butter....drool.....

good plan acsec .... or better still everytime i see my dissertation tutor bring her a different pot of xmas stuff

thinks she would like to be the dissertation tutor

Right! I've decided people are going to have combinations of the following:

Cinnamon and Honey Butter
Cherry and Cinnamon Conserve
Rhubarb and Vanilla Jam
Christmas pud flavour Vodka
Strawberry Vodka

With the older relatives having little jam/butter trios, and close friends having a big bottle of vodka with one jam all wrapped up in a kilner jar, and everyone else fitting somewhere in between..

What are the rest of you going to do this year?

Sounds fab! What's the recipe for the cherry and cinnamon conserve?

I'm making courgette and apricot chutney(hoping my friend has grown too may courgettes again this year so I can have some), chocolate liquor truffles and possibly ginger and nut chocolates.

cherry and cinamon compote
1kg cherry , stoned
1 cinnamon stick
zest and juice 2 lemon
500g jam and sugar with added pectin

1.Put a couple of saucers into the freezer. Roughly chop about a third of the cherries. Put into a large pan with the cinnamon stick, broken in half, the lemon zest and juice and 150ml water. Bring gently to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 mins, stirring occasionally, until cherries are softened.

1. Add the sugar, stir until dissolved, then increase the heat and boil hard for 4-5 mins until the conserve is softly set. To test this, take a saucer from the freezer and spoon a little jam onto it. Push your finger through the jam; if it wrinkles on the surface it is ready. If not, reboil for a few mins more, then test again. Spoon into small clean warm jars, seal and label. Once open, keep in the fridge.

Also acsec if youv got lots of courgettes there's this one... where marrows can be substitued for courgettes according to the recipe? "A traditional way to use up marrows, or courgettes, that have grown too big for their boots" Apparently!

Marrow+Ginger Jam

4 unwaxed lemons
1.8kg marrows , peeled and cut into sugar-cube-size pieces
1.8kg jam sugar (with added pectin)
large knob fresh root ginger , about 85g, peeled and shredded

1.Pare the zest from the lemons with a peeler, then juice them, keeping the juice, shells and any pips. Tie the shells and pips into a muslin bag. Put the marrow into a preserving pan with 2 tbsp of the lemon juice, then cook on a medium heat, stirring often, until the pieces are turning translucent and soft but not mushy. Bubble off any juices before stirring in the sugar, the rest of the juice, the zest, ginger and the muslin bag. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

1. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 10-15 mins or until the marrow has softened completely and the jam has reached setting point (see Tips, below). Pot the jam into warm jars (see below). The flavour of the jam will mature and intensify over the next few months, so tuck it away in a dark, cool place.

a lot of reviews on the marrow jam saying that because it has lots of water in it naturally you might need to boil it for longer, btw.

its meant to be cherry and cinamon conserve not compote! duh..

We make stuff every year, as I got fed up with shopping and giving people things they didn't want. So one year we did chutney, made onion, chilli and tomato, that sort of thing. I made labels for them on publisher, then put fabric on top tied with ribbon, in a bag from a cake shop (the catering type) and made little biscuits to go with them. then closer family got three chutneys in a basket with cheese and biscuits. this year we will make sloe gin, as picked a load at the weekend, and I have heard you can then dip the sloes in chocolate to go with the gin. I love the vodka idea, we will definitely do that too, as I am worried that we don' have enough sloes. we also have some rosehips, might try to make rosehip syrup to go in vodka.
How are you making your xmas pud vodka? sounds interesting!

its off this MN thread .... i havnt tried it yet but it just sounds brilliant!

I'm going to do Cookies in a Jar (the sort where you layer all the dry ingredients in). I'm doing an oatmeal cranberry one because it looks festive. :) And making hand warmers for my Dad; he goes ice fishing a lot.

I'm going to make peppermint bark with DS and put it in cute bags with ribbon and a tag saying "made by DS" for his teachers, etc. And I might make these for friends with pets.

Chirpchirp I might pop into the ikea store in Edinburgh later - can you remember where in the store they had those bottles?

WWLD They are downstairs in the market. As you get to the first corner where all the pots and pans are, just opposite there is a selection of glass containers, jars and bottles. They are just there next to the regular Slom bottles.

Has anyone got any ideas for how to present these? I've decided how to decorate the jars themselves with little tags etc, but doesnt seem right just giving them in an ASDA carrier bag lol? Any MN genius that doesn't involve silly money?

Also, i'm thinking of using this bottle for some people then then the 1L Slom bottles from IKEA for people i like more

If you ask in shoe shops they will give you shoe boxes for free, wrap the shoebox without the lid on and put some festive tissue paper inside, arrange jars and bottles in box then wrap with clear cellophane. Kind of like this

Oh brilliant !

Happy making Trygg :o

Brilliant Chirpchirp, I'll get down there this week.