Anyone else doing home made foody Christmas gifts this year?

[notjustme]

We're pretty tight on funds this year so I'm planning on putting together a nice little 'hamper' type thing for each person, nothing daftly huge but a nice selection. Going to get some nice ribbon and some cellophane bags and make them all christmassy

Anyone else doing the same? What are you making? My mum specifically prefers savoury nibbles, so planning on making her more cheesy biscuit type things than sweet things, but MIL likes fudge and peanut brittle and that kind of thing so I'll be making that kind of thing for her...not sure what to make for my gran though!, she is the queen of christmas cakes etc so can't even try to compare to those!

Ikea do good kilner jars and I second the bulk buying of Tesco value products for the jars although I am disappearing under a mountain of value brown pickle!

I'll happily act as guinea pig if needed Fessa

Notjust - the biscotti recipe I linked to keep for a month. I think we'll start this coming weekend

Lorraine Pascale's chocolate & marshmallow fudge is really easy! I just made some and it came out perfectly, normally I struggle with fudge as I've no thermometer but you don't need one!

Tip to clean the pan after: boiling water from the kettle swirled around melts everything off nicely, use a heavy based pan or you run a burn risk.

There is absolutely no need to spend loads of money at the likes of Lakeland on bottles, jars and boxes. Recycle! You may have left it too late for this Christmas, but start saving likely containers.

I keep a box in a wardrobe where I store packing boxes (the ones from washing powder tablets are very rigid and strong, and perfect for sending items in the post), you can easily cover these with Xmas paper. Jars kept in a box in the shed. Over a year, we get through enough olives, tartare sauce, mayo etc. to provide homes for homemade chutneys and all that malarkey.

Any clear screw-top bottles are washed and squirrelled away for sloe gin type gifts - anything up to 500ml, smaller bottles go further . Tesco cider/wine vinegar bottles are lovely shape and about 330ml. Just save em up through the year.

I always make sweets; fudge, candied orange peel coated in choc, choc truffles, and peppermint creams (DD decorates the peppermint creams). I don't think it saves money though, and it takes hours! Love it though - and yummy smells make me feel v Christmasy. DH does dread 'fudge night' though, he'll have no suppers cooked for him next week!
This year I'm also making necklaces for SILs.
Packaging is key with homemade stuff IMO, and good ingredients.

The only problem I had with reusing old jars was getting rid of the smell of the previous occupant! I made damson jam, and used some nice jars which had previously been used for some kind of spicy paste thing, even having been sterilised, boiled, washed in the dishwasher and sterilised again, the jam end up being curry damson jam after a week or two

curried damsons - yum?! next time you'll have to keep those ones for something savoury. Either that or eat the damson jam much faster!

has anyone tried making chocolate salami?

www.britishlarder.co.uk/chocolate-salami/#axzz1ffyN5tJq

looks very like chocolate refrigerator cake, only with posher ingredients, only rolled up into a sausage

sigh! that works

Chocolate salami looks yum!!!

Definately going to do the idea of getting tons of tesco value jam/lemon curd etc next year for the damson jam - far cheaper than buying jars online but fairly benign in terms of jar scent!

I've made mini Delia Smith Christmas puds and cakes for both sets of in-laws, plus her truffles (which freeze well), and jars of mincemeat, AND Fay Ripley's Chocolate brownie which have been a resounding success and will hopefully freeze nicely too. Cellophane bags from Lakeland and pretty ribbon and that's me done! I have also sewn 4 little Christmas stockings and will put a lottery ticket in each.

I have a terrible jar habit and just can't help but pick up storage jars from charity shops whenever I see them so I have tons. I'm panning on doing chocolate covered candied fruit (orange peal, ginger, etc) for my dad and a big jar of chocolate lollipops for my three nephews.

Non-foodie but I also made a rather nice mug candle at the weekend for SiL.

Jdub - I'm planning on making mini xmas puds - what did you cook yours in?

We've done sweets before - choc truffles, fudge, coconut ice, peppermint cream etc. The look and taste really good and people are quite impressed. Not sure how much all the ingredients cost though. DP bought kilner jars for them from Asda, which must have been quite cheap and in the past I've made cardboard boxes tied with ribbon.

We made gallons of sloe gin last year and have been encouraging people to drink it for some time, so don't think we'd get away with giving that as a gift. It is really Christmassy though and definitely a recommendation for next year if you haven't made it this.

A few years back we made some pink and white Coconut Ice, bought some smallish kilner jars from Ikea and decorated them with some Cath Kidston offcuts on the lids. They looked very nice I thought, and the ice tasted lovely. I had to fight the kids off while I was putting it in the jars!

Recipe here

Definitely agree about saving your jars through the year. We do sloe gin. Used windfall apples for chutney (with dried cranberries), and apple and rosemary jelly which is absolutely gorgeous. Blackberry jam in the autumn. In previous years, I've done big batches of mango chutney when they've been on offer in supermarkets. We did a huge batch of marmalade about a month ago, and it was fab. Chilli jam is easy and looks wonderful. As we get close to Christmas watch out for fresh cranberries on offer - these are great in chutney. Closer to Christmas I'll be doing batches of fudge. DH has also just knocked up a batch of preserved lemons, for Moroccan recipes.

If you want slightly more decorative jars, Ikea is your friend, and I'm using a lovely nested tin set from there to put the fudge in - has mad Father Christmasses going round the jar.

Definitely worth doing, but it's worth being frugal and doing it throughout the year when things are free/cheap/in season. By the time Christmas comes round, our spare bedroom is awash with all sorts of lovely, interesting jars and bottles of home made gorgeousness and it means we are never short of an emergency present.

I'll be watching this with interest. We're all staying with the GPs this Christmas, so I want to bring some nice houseguest type presents. Was going to do cheese straws, nigella's pistachio and choc fudge and the white choc fudge as featured on here.

Dad's diabetic, does anyone have anything more exciting than my cheese straw idea? (tho he loves those, so they will be there too!).

People looking for jars - it might be worth asking the neighbours. Just thinking how I recycle a few every couple of weeks.

notjustme For persistant spicy smells or anything that's contained vinegar, a soak in a strong bicarbonate of soda solution usually does the trick. Mind you, if you use the jars for something like pickle or chutney, probably wouldn't be an issue.

I have made and put in pretty jars/ bottles for friends and family the following:
Lavender sugar
Citrus sugar
Smoked salt
Vanilla, lemon and fennel salt
Raspberry vodka
Coffee liqueur
Blueberry and mint vodka (nicer than it sounds!)
Spiced orange vodka

Still to do:
Choc truffles (the Delia recipe)
Might do some of Nigella's spiced bar nuts
Biscotti
Comedy Christmas biscuits made by 3yo DS
Homemade Baileys for the SiL.

I've paid a bit extra for some really gorgeous little kilner type jars for my sugar and salt but I figure that I'm not getting 'proper' presents so it's OK. I'm using nice bottles that I've saved during the year for the booze and some pretty sweetie bags for the biscuits and truffles.

I've done plum vodka and it tastes lovely. My friend did rhubarb vodka, using frozen rhubarb, cinnamon and sugar. left it for only 3 weeks and she said is yum already.
I used the Ikea jars and filled them with say quality street (got a massive tin and split up). then wrote the persons name with metallic pen.

How did you do your sugars and salts falala? where did you get your jars from?

notjustme - I used a slow cooker (for the first time) and it meant my house wasn't dripping with steam. Just keep an eye on the water level, but it worked a treat!

PercyFilth - thanks for the tip, will deffo try the Bicarb solution next time! Funny thing was at the time they didn't smell at all, but then two weeks later I gave a jar to my parents and they opened it and it smelt like curry! Not helped by the jam being pretty tame smell wise, so it was very obvious!

I'd have been tempted to wing it ;) There is a very fine line between sweet and savoury, say with damsons you could have made damson jelly, damson cheese or damson jam - all are sweet but two are meant for savoury use!

Food/drink with a long shelf life is best. It's a lovely idea getting a package of biscuits etc, but I've been on the receiving end and it's the worst time of year to be given something you need to eat NOW because there's so much food around already!

I would steer clear of things which are too festive as well - most people have had their fill of mince pies by Xmas day!

Good point Xmasbaby11 - never thought about that! MIL is easy as she likes all the toffee/fudge/peanut brittle type foods that can keep for a while, and there's always people on hand to help eat that kind of thing too! I guess the bigger issue is my parents, but then we won't be seeing them until NY so maybe by that time they'll have eaten all their xmas goodies and be grateful for some nibbles. Definately going to try and make a few things in jars etc, my mother is rarely impressed by any gift, so it won't be too much of a loss if it all goes in the bin once we've left

PercyFilth - I never thought to wing it, useless at lying on the spot so I just offered to take it home with me but they wanted to keep it so it can't have been that bad. Lesson learnt either way!