Old Style preparations for Christmas 2012!!!!!

meg72

lisakay wrote: »

Mum gave me a bag of carrots that were starting to go a bit ick. she had already peeled them to make them last a bit longer. they are now 3 jars of carrot chutney something else to add to my christmas hampers

Would love the recipe for this please, I often have carrots to use up.

lisakay_2

I think I found it on mse somewhere and I've forgotten to save it!
ok, so I'm pretty sure the ingredients were
1lb carrots
1 onion
1 apple
1/2 pt red wine vinegar
3/4 lb brown sugar
tsp salt
tsp allspice (or might have been mixed spice)
tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
tsp treacle

the recipe was to grate and steam carrots first, but i put a knob of butter in the pan and fried them off then added all other ingredients and cooked over a very low heat for about an hour or until thick and sticky.
put into warm sterilised jars and seal, store for 3 months before using.

oh, wait, there was raisins in it. 8oz added 10 mins before the end of cooking.

I'm a bit of a bugg*r for changing recipes so i used a pale vinegar and white sugar to keep it paler and more orange and used sultanas instead of raisins. and i didn't have quite a full lb of carrots so i grated a bit of swede in as well. had a taste before it was jarred up and was very nice will be even nicer when it's matured

edit, was definitely allspice

thriftylass

:T Ooohhh, just found this lovely thread. My parents are coming to the UK for the first time this christmas so have to be mega organised. Hope it's ok if I join in the christmas preparation fun. I'll have a good read through later on and be back.

TL

miss_emmajane

I love reading through this thread, but haven't commented before - doing a bit of prepping where I can as I am on a tight budget but done this so far:

- Bought cards and wrapping paper in Jan sales (as usual)
- Bought some cute, and cheap Christmas cookie/sweet bags from eBay to put home made presents in, or popcorn/sweet mixes for the little ones.
- Got a couple of presents in the Debenhams sale a couple of months ago, including the cutest hat and glove set for OH's goddaughter
- Bought some minced meat for 30p from Tesco (read that on here!) for baking, also got some for my Mum
- Spent my Tesco club card voucher (only £3 this time as I never shop there much anymore) on Elizabeth Shaw mint crisps and After Eights which are both on offer/roll back. A bit of a treat for our coffee table/cosy nights/when guests come but it was a nice way to use the voucher.

I really love prepping for Christmas throughout the year as it means come December you're stress free, and have all the little things that make Christmas lovely without the massive bill!

buggalugs

Not got much to say, I'm watching and reading with a big smile and a warm fuzzy feeling. I adore Christmas and the prep and run up are so much fun. Thanks for the thread and the lovely feelings it is generating

Molly41

Well huge sort out of my wardrobe resulted in me finding 3 presents that I had stashed for my DD and had promptly forgotten about:T:T:T

However she was nosing around this morning and homed in on them (She is 20!) but I was very restrained and told her they were for xmas :xmastree:

meg72

lisakay wrote: »

I think I found it on mse somewhere and I've forgotten to save it!
ok, so I'm pretty sure the ingredients were
1lb carrots
1 onion
1 apple
1/2 pt red wine vinegar
3/4 lb brown sugar
tsp salt
tsp allspice (or might have been mixed spice)
tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
tsp treacle

the recipe was to grate and steam carrots first, but i put a knob of butter in the pan and fried them off then added all other ingredients and cooked over a very low heat for about an hour or until thick and sticky.
put into warm sterilised jars and seal, store for 3 months before using.

oh, wait, there was raisins in it. 8oz added 10 mins before the end of cooking.

I'm a bit of a bugg*r for changing recipes so i used a pale vinegar and white sugar to keep it paler and more orange and used sultanas instead of raisins. and i didn't have quite a full lb of carrots so i grated a bit of swede in as well. had a taste before it was jarred up and was very nice will be even nicer when it's matured

edit, was definitely allspice

Many thanks will have a go at this, sounds good and I love Chutney, if its really good then I might not be giving it for pressies.

Tink_04

Hi everyone well thanks to the grabbit board I have all of DD's presents in and her birthday pressent too! Have all my wrapping paper and cards, no tags this yr as cards got recycled before I got to them. Just need to do my list of everyone now that I have dd sorted. Loved the Xmas eve hamper did them last year and they were a hit £ shop has kids combat toothbrushes 2 for £1 - think ill make snow man soup this yr for dd as she would love it.

bossymoo

I am nearly done for the children too, I think. And today I've bought some bits for our Xmas Eve hamper: some sponge fingers, party biscuits (fox's party rings, less that half price in sainsbobs), carnation caramel and some nice marmalade with big shred bits mmmm.

miss_emmajane

The Christmas Eve hampers sound lovely - what exactly are they for, yourselves like treats or do you give them out? I moved out for the first time this year so am hoping to start up my own little traditions with my OH.