New, New Thirfty Gifty for Christmas and All Ocassions 2011..Santas Challenge...

fedupandskint

susan42 wrote: »

fedupandskint - mint syrup - whats that?

Mint syrup was out of the River Cottage Preserves book. Not tried it yet but it was very easy to make. 50g of mint leaves shred and crush, sugar and salt and lemon juice. leave to macerate for 8-10hrs then pour over boiling water and leave for a further 12 hours. Then syrain through a very fine sieve - much finer than mine was and bottle up in a sterilised bottle ready to go with tonic water, lemonade and in green tea to make peppermint tea!

Sorry can't be more specific about the ingredients than this

SugarSpun

Fedup, is there a ginger syrup also available in the book? I am wondering if it is worth the purchase.

rufusdog52

Evening all

Mary - glad OH is feeling a bit better, must be of a weight off your mind too.

Susan - must have been something in the air, I was up sorting out my craft room today too. I was given a pile of clothes by different people so I was cutting the bits of fabric out of them that I can use and chucking the other bits in the bin to save some storage space then sorted out a couple of other boxes full of fabric too. Had bits in there I had forgotten about.

fedupandskint

SugarSpun wrote: »

Fedup, is there a ginger syrup also available in the book? I am wondering if it is worth the purchase.

No there isn't unfortunately. However it is my absolute favourite preserves book!

Rhubarb relish finished off today which was a bit more watery this time than it was last time I made it. I had to re boil it today to make it thicker

Next on the list is garden pesto for some time this week

SugarSpun

I'll look online, we buy the ginger cordial whenever we're in the UK and it is both expensive and a pain to transport back, so if I can make it here then that would be super cool and very :money:

Thanks for saying

mum2one

Hope everyone ok,
Mary - glad oh getting better, and sounds like there looking after him this time.

Susan - Fab bargain, and xmas bags, and all the tidying out, ur putting the rest of us to shame

rufus - ditto about the tidying up,

Your both making me feel guilty, thou have planned 2 days this week to gut the bedroom, did start but lost motivation.

Shouldn't laugh, but don't know if anyone is watching / watched Holiday hijack, - there at Gambia, theyve been to places where I went to, and so funny at the place they stayed in local house, that was a posh compound by some of the standards.... and when Miss Hoodie saw it, I'm not staying there. no toilet paper!!

Did explain the hotels have toilet paper, but she has decided that the Gambia is not a place for her, so nice seeing places been to, amazing. xxx

fedupandskint - someone has been busy love the sound of the rhubarb relish

mum2one

Its that time again... Santas Challenge...

Again, please treat it as pick and mix, I will try to be gentle...

Pick a room
Susan and Rufus, have beaten me with this one they've done their craft rooms, choose one room that needs decluttering, and set yourself a target date and a treat.
(mine is my bedroom, - did empty the wardrobe and thats as far as its gone!!, so planning 2 days this week, my treat.... (very lucky!!), raid the Tesco vouchers and look for a holiday for next yr for Miss Hoodie and me, mini treat be a box of Elizabeth Shaw mints - via Home Bargains cheaper there!!)

Christmas Shopping - Food
Know this may sound mad, but think about starting a list of extras that we all buy for christmas, and set yourself a challenge to cut the list from an "I want to an I need list"- as shops will soon start bringing in christmas items, but check use by date

Sales
At the moment a lot of shops are doing the summer sales, some items may be a bargain price, but ask the question do I really need it.

Argos
The Argos book gets changed next week, although they have had a clear out, I'm sure as soon as the new book comes out there be an even better sale...

Holiday Treats
This is the time of the year when we all wish we had bottomless wallets, but anything that you can think of that can be free or cheaply, share your best tips,

Kitchen Cupboards
It wouldn't be a Santas challenge if we didn't have at least one cleaning job, how many of the items do you really need, - for us its cookie cutters and icecream containers...

Pre-holiday checklist
If anyone is travelling with children, whether its a day trip or the holiday, hopefully no-one will get stuck major traffic jams, have a "I'm bored kit" ready, make sure you have spare batteries, or everything has been charged.

Revamp the Xmas List
By now we should be well underway with Christmas presents, so take some time to check lists, see what you need to get, and how best money saving we can make the presents.

xxx

Anglea

Hi everyone

Elysia hope you are having a good day :bdaycake:_party_


Mary glad to hear OH is better (finally), what a relief for you both. Not surprising you didn't get on with that busy shop. I find those difficult at the best of times let alone with mobility problems and a lot of worries as you have.

Sugarspun how is your OH now he's home?

Susan, what a brilliant site, love the Bert and Ernie idea, it's so clever yet very simple.

Fedup - I've had that River Cottage book out of the library, lovely to read, don't think I ended up making anything but really liked it.

Picked some more blackberries on the way back from the shops and managed to put my hand in some nettles

Hi Legendmum, how many elves are going to live in your house? (that must sound weird for any one finding this via the 'new posts' button

Mum - haven't seen Holiday hijack, what channel is it on?

mum2one

Anglea wrote: »

Hi everyone

Elysia hope you are having a good day :bdaycake:_party_


Mary glad to hear OH is better (finally), what a relief for you both. Not surprising you didn't get on with that busy shop. I find those difficult at the best of times let alone with mobility problems and a lot of worries as you have.

Sugarspun how is your OH now he's home?

Susan, what a brilliant site, love the Bert and Ernie idea, it's so clever yet very simple.

Fedup - I've had that River Cottage book out of the library, lovely to read, don't think I ended up making anything but really liked it.

Picked some more blackberries on the way back from the shops and managed to put my hand in some nettles

Hi Legendmum, how many elves are going to live in your house? (that must sound weird for any one finding this via the 'new posts' button

Mum - haven't seen Holiday hijack, what channel is it on?

It was on channel 4 at 8pm, - they offer a free holiday, these really posh people who are 5 star only holiday makers ended up in gambia 5 star hotel, then on the 2nd say there met by a local, and they have to live and work with them, it was a real eye opener, as you saw off the tourist track, which I was lucky enough to experience in 2005, i even ended
up at en evening party of a taxi drivers wedding, in this village middle of nowhere, I was the only white woman, there about 200 people there, and I have never been made so welcome anywhere.
if you get chance to do 4 on demand, its brilliant, ok i love Gambia, but to see the change in the people who wanted the free hol, was amazing, just shows how we takes things for granted. xx

SugarSpun

Thanks for asking Anglea he's gone back for an outpatient appointment this morning, they saw something on the CT scan that they want a better look at. Hopefully it will confirm the bad-but-not-too-bad diagnosis and all will be well soon.

Santa's Challenge:


Pick a room


I decluttered everywhere last week while DH was in the hospital and couldn't object! If I have to do it again I choose the dining room. It's where we keep our bookshelf and I swear the books are mating. I've already spotted two that survived the last cull and shouldn't have.

Christmas Shopping - Food


Good plan :T we don't need a lot of extra stuff, but we do need things like chocolate coins for the kids' parcels and stuff for the advent calendar. I want to meal plan as well, thinking goose or duck with a salady starter and an eggnog cheesecake for dessert. Christmas Eve is always reindeer-shaped pasta bake, and I am already getting SO EXCITED.

Sales

I got sucked into the Body Shop £5 off £15 and 24% cashback last night No more though, from now on I will be strong.


Argos

Can't get Argos here, probably for the best.


Holiday Treats


I think the National Trust is doing their free days out stuff through August. Also, we have annual tickets to the museum and zoo locally; they work out great value.

Kitchen Cupboards

We have loads of unnecessary crap in the kitchen but it all belongs to DH and since he does all the cooking he gets to say what stays and I don't get to argue.


Pre-holiday checklist

We're not travelling this summer.


Revamp the Xmas List

List is complete and everything but the chocolate coins are bought; if we get the house we want then I'll start wrapping presents and writing cards once we're in it.

Thanks for the challenge mum2one. That programme about Gambia sounds really interesting.

EDIT: I TOTALLY FORGOT that I need to get DH a Christmas gift from the toddler Maybe I'll get the suitcase now rather than for his birthday.