Christmas is coming! 2007 - merged thread

luxor4t

Bought the ideal 'something to unwrap' for my hard-to-buy-for parents today: a heavy ceramic umbrella/ stick stand.
It is rectangular and shaped a bit like a cereal packet with internal sections to hold individual sticks. I was impressed by the victorian style asian pictures on each side - look like old anthropological prints. Exactly right colours for their decor, the right size and shape for their hall, very practical but unusual and individual, very heavy so it will stay in place and not get knocked over ... and it only cost £2 in TKMaxx final reductions!!! It started out as £49.99.

Now all I need to do is wait for them to decide which vouchers they want this year.

Rache_2

Sallys Savings: two books I've spotted on The Book People (10% cashback on quidco) might be nice for your brother.

Tracing Your Family History
Anthony Adolph
This is an indispensable companion for all who are seeking a reliable, one-source volume to use while tracking down their family origins. Our price: £6.99 rrp: £20.00 SAVE : £13.01

Explore Your Family's Past
Reader's Digest Practical, informative and highly illustrated, this book explains how to gather clues from your family, explore archives, search the internet and create a family tree. Our price: £6.99 rrp: £14.99 SAVE : £8.00

computerwoman

furrypig wrote: »

Just wondered if anyone else had any Christmas food or recipe ideas they fancied sharing???

coconut ice bars they are great kids love them and adults...

450g/1lb sugar
150ml/1/4 pint milk
150g/5oz desiccated coconut
red food colouring....what ever colour you want really

Dissolve the sugar in the milk ina heavy saucepan over a low heat.
Bring to the boil and boil gently for about 10 minutes.
until a little of the mixture, dropped into a cup of cold water, forms a soft ball when rolled between finger and thumb.
Remove from heat and stir in the coconut.
Pour half the mixture quickly into a buttered 20.5 x 15cm (8 x 6inch) tin
add a few drops of food colouring to the second half. stir, and pour quikly over the first...
Leave until half set, mark into bars and cut or break when cold...
store in an airtight tin
Makes about 550g/1 1/4 lb

enjoy...

merry christmas

Sallys_Savings

Rache wrote: »

Sallys Savings: two books I've spotted on The Book People (10% cashback on quidco) might be nice for your brother.

Tracing Your Family History
Anthony Adolph
This is an indispensable companion for all who are seeking a reliable, one-source volume to use while tracking down their family origins. Our price: £6.99 rrp: £20.00 SAVE : £13.01

Explore Your Family's Past
Reader's Digest Practical, informative and highly illustrated, this book explains how to gather clues from your family, explore archives, search the internet and create a family tree. Our price: £6.99 rrp: £14.99 SAVE : £8.00

Thank you..I'll definitely take a look

sparklygirl1

I have a drawer with my christmas presents in. Got a few bits and picking stuff up as I go. I am loving Froogle.co.uk for main presents to get lowest prices. Just bought a joblot of ribbon on ebay for gift wrapping. Also my LO has designed her christmas cards and we are sending them off to be printed up. I love christmas.

sparklygirl1

Oh anyone got anything that can be prepared ealry food wise? ie puddings or mincemeat?

annaangeluk_2

computerwoman wrote: »

coconut ice bars they are great kids love them and adults...

450g/1lb sugar
150ml/1/4 pint milk
150g/5oz desiccated coconut
red food colouring....what ever colour you want really

Dissolve the sugar in the milk ina heavy saucepan over a low heat.
Bring to the boil and boil gently for about 10 minutes.
until a little of the mixture, dropped into a cup of cold water, forms a soft ball when rolled between finger and thumb.
Remove from heat and stir in the coconut.
Pour half the mixture quickly into a buttered 20.5 x 15cm (8 x 6inch) tin
add a few drops of food colouring to the second half. stir, and pour quikly over the first...
Leave until half set, mark into bars and cut or break when cold...
store in an airtight tin
Makes about 550g/1 1/4 lb

enjoy...

merry christmas

Mmm! They look yummy! Any idea how long these would keep for? (probably not very long as they look so pink and yummy!:rotfl: ) Would they need to be refridgerated or just in an airtight tin?

Thanks

computerwoman

annaangeluk wrote: »

Mmm! They look yummy! Any idea how long these would keep for? (probably not very long as they look so pink and yummy!:rotfl: ) Would they need to be refridgerated or just in an airtight tin?

Thanks

about aweek in the tin so if you kept them in the fridge longer...glad you like them but they don't take that long to make so you could make a bach up on christmas eve then another on boxing day if they are all gone...they are very yummy...they call them lemon ice bars in america using yellow colouring...this is where I got the recipe from originally then found some red ones in a cook book...enjoy:D

kethry

sparklygirl1 wrote: »

Oh anyone got anything that can be prepared ealry food wise? ie puddings or mincemeat?

yes: i have a divine recipe for christmas pudding that doesn't use suet or mixed peel, which can be cooked in a pressure cooker, slow cooker or just on the stove (steaming), and which i can pm to you (or anyone else for that matter). Yell or pm me if you want it.

As for mincemeat: you could do a lot worse than to try delia's Christmas mincemeat - this does have suet in it, but you can use veggie suet. Its a gorgeous mincemeat, has alcohol in it, and the biggest problem is keeping the OH out of it cos he loves it so much he keeps popping into the kitchen for "just another spoonful to make sure its alright" (mind you, so do i).

When you come to make mince pies, you can use delia's recipe for traditional mince pies. However, i do a variation on it which is really nice: grate some orange and/or lemon zest into the pastry (how much is up to you, but i would say about half to a whole orange/lemon) after the rubbing in stage, and stir in some mixed spice.. about 1/2 a tsp. when it comes to using water to bind the pastry together, try instead using a mix of dark rum and orange juice. It gives a lovely light crispy pastry, and with the mincemeat, makes a mince pie that is absolutely gorgeous. You can vary the top - you can seal the whole thing, as delia's done, or do a lattice topping, or cut little holly leaves out, stars, hearts.. let your imagination run free! The absolutely bestest thing about it, especially if you are the kind who doesn't have a lot of time but has visitors popping around, is that you can freeze them, uncooked, in their tins, then once frozen, pop into a bag. When you have your visitors, turn the oven on (gas mark 7), put the pies in the tins, brush with milk and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. fabby stuff.

Finally, for a christmas cake, you can make that now too. I do a combination of delia's classic christmas cake and nigella's christmas cake - it works for me, although i wouldn't recommend it to anyone else (it was a bit of a risk the first time i did it). Anyway, technically, either cake can be made anytime up to the beginning of december, i think, and as long as they're fed with brandy and kept well wrapped, will easily keep for that time - and probably be very improved for it! (think of the top tier of a wedding cake, being kept for the christening of the first baby - its the same kind of cake).

Other than that, most of the things i can think of to prepare early for christmas tend to be things like preserves - jams, pickles (onions for pickling will be hitting the shops soon, if they haven't already), chutneys (delia has a christmas chutney recipe that is gorgeous) - or stuff to freeze. You can lay in alcohol stores, things that keep long term like chocolates and so on.

As you may have noticed, i'm something of a delia fan (!) and i really would recommend her "christmas" book if you're doing christmas day for the first time (or even the second) - it has all the recipes you could want, plus a count down and ways to make it easy for anyone.

hope all that helps!

keth
xx

plumduff55

Hi, I use this recipe for MINCEMEAT every year, it's really easy and there is no cooking at all!

8oz currants
8oz raisins
2oz chopped almonds
6oz suet
1 tsp cinammon
8oz sultanas
4oz chopped dates
2oz mixed peel
8oz soft brown sugar
rind & juice 1 lemon
1 large grated cooking apple
half cup sherry

Just mix all ingredients together, leave for 2 days stirring occasionally then pack into jars. Will keep for 6 months.