All the homemade Christmas people over here please, lets share our ideas :) - SECOND EDITION :)

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

OLD THREAD

We were all on about pinterest, jars, and where we are up to in our christmas planning :)

Lets go...

[Thzumbiewitch]

I still use Robertson's mincemeat but must try and get around to making my own at some point

[DawnOfTheDeementedDead]

I've made my own mincemeat this year. It's currently all jarred up and in a dark cupboard awaiting maturity. It smelled divine when making though.

[CheeseandGherkins]

Hehe, the link is here it's really fab and if you make it now it will be perfect for Christmas, it's nicer if you leave it a while after making it. It's really lovely and also similar to her christmas pudding one which is also on that site.

Thumb I think the one I have is Robertson's actually, it looked like a good one :)

On a similar note, what could I do with 12 jars of lemon curd? Bought them from Tesco to use the jars! Think they were only about 22 pence each but I feel wasteful just throwing it away

[CheeseandGherkins]

Dee it does smell lovely when making mincemeat, I love the part where you leave it in the oven for hours and hours at a low temp, whole house smells like Christmas :)

[DawnOfTheDeementedDead]

Lemon merainge pie?

[Thzumbiewitch]

can you make lots of lemon meringue pies, C&G? Pretty sure that lemon curd is needed for that. :)

[CheeseandGherkins]

Never made that before, what else would I need for it? Would it freeze do you know?

[electricslide]

I hope peI've done my first ever chutneys and am getting started on vodka. Do you sterilize the bottle that the vodka and sweets/spices is left in? I was going to use a coke bottle and don't suppose I can put it in the dishwasher. Do I need to Milton it?

[electricslide]

Aaagh!
Try again... I hope people don't mind me reposting my question on this thread:


I've done my first ever chutneys and am getting started on vodka. Do you sterilize the bottle that the vodka and sweets/spices is left in? I was going to use a coke bottle and don't suppose I can put it in the dishwasher. Do I need to Milton it?

[Ittybittysmum]

Thanks for the link Cheese!

[FlubbaBubba]

Bookmarking (sorry electric no idea about vodka sterilising)

Can't wait for my oven to be working again, then I can really get on and start the baking side of things :)

[CheeseandGherkins]

I think dh washed his in hot, soapy water first and then added the vodka/sweets, figured that with all the opening and closing and stirring and adding it wouldn't stay sterile for long anyway!

[cartblanche]

Marking my place on the new thread. Feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment. I have been going mad buying ribbon, buttons, linen, jars, material, pinning left right and centre but have reached a state of inertia. The only thing I have really made is plum jam and Xmas pudding vodka (which is stewing).

I think I need to do myself a timetable! I think I will set myself a target for this week of:

Making some (at least 5?) heart and star-shaped Xmas decorations from red felt, gingham and hessian. There, have put it down in black and white now so HAVE to do it!

[electricslide]

Thanks Cheese. Think I'll go for washing in v hot soapy water. Going to do skittles vodka first.

[ZimboMum]

cheese could you let me know how the mincemeat biscuits turn out as I am thinking of making them too!

[CheeseandGherkins]

The biscuits were really, really amazing. They don't look like much but they taste lovely. 3rd batch just come out the over (I did 12 at a time) as the kids and dh (and I had 1 or 2) polished them all off! :o I quartered the amount in the recipe and made that many, small teaspoons of mixture and be careful as they spread a lot!

[cleanandclothed]

Can recommend mincemeat flapjack for those that like mincemeat. 400g mincemeat, 200g glace cherries, 150g butter, 6 tbsp golden syrup, 450g oats. Heat everything but oats till melted, stir in oats, pop in tin and cook at 180 for 20 mins. I always end up adjusting amounts to fit what I have but it tastes good however I do it!

Todays success was membrillo (quince paste). Recipe looked a right faff as it started with peeling, coring and chopping, which after attempting I quickly realised would take ages and leave me with very little quince to actually use. So I just chopped, cooked with water till very mushy, and then sieved through a reasonably coarse sieve. Looks (and tastes) lovely so seems like it worked!

[HopeForTheBest]

Marking place :)

[HopeForTheBest]

Has anyone ever made (and bottled/jarred (?) ) home-made mustards?

We were given a selection of fancy-pants mustards as a present last week. They are from a local gourmet company and don't have any preservatives etc in them. I opened the fig mustard and have since had to hold myself back from eating it straight out of the jar with a spoon.

According to the label, it contains:

water, figs, raw cane sugar, mustard seeds, lemon juice, sea salt, pepper, chili

Another one we opened was garlic and chili mustard, and again is heavenly.

They are more like a sauce-like rather than what I would usually think of as mustard.

Anyway, I thought this might be a nice alternative present idea.
Has anyone ever made anything like this? I'm wondering about the sterilising (as mustards aren't actually cooked).

[GrownUpNow]

Marking place. x

[addictediam]

Just marking.

[LiamW]

HopeForTheBest - Not sure if this recipe is of any use - www.essigfarms.com/recipes/condiments/307-chili-garlic-mustard

Appears to have the basic idea and you could adapt it to try and get a similar result to the gourmet ones you were given?

[theancientmarinator]

Zeeky use your Baileys for this which is delish and also looks good with cranberries mixed through: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/68602/baileys-and-white-chocolate-fudge

egg I LOVE your sparky jam idea!

[acsec]

Zeeky I make Bailey's chocolate truffles - YUM!

[ToriaPumpkinLantern]

Loving sparkly jams!

I forget who asked about labels and wanting olde worlde look ones, I keep coming across them on Pinterest. If you do a search for labels there are loads of printable ones that come up. HTH.