Old style christmas hamper challenge

meerustar

I'm not playing.

I'm bobbins at making stuff ... my cakes come out like biscuits and my biscuits come out like cakes








(unless I buy them and just make my own labels instead ... anyone want to do a label challenge?)

Quackers

meerustar wrote: »

(unless I buy them and just make my own labels instead ... anyone want to do a label challenge?)

oooooooo ,what a [STRIKE]good[/STRIKE] naughty idea:D

Tuttifruitty_Theresa

Quackers wrote: »

oooooooo ,what a [strike]good[/strike] naughty idea:D

i agree and i'm going to put it on pretty lables lol

My hampers (yet to be started)
Nan - Knitted tea cosy and egg cosies, hm lemon curd, biscuits and marmalade and some bought special tea
Uncle - Pickles, banana bread, biscuits and any other food related pressies and knitted pig
Mum - no idea at the moment
Dad - again no idea
Brother - Bought beer, hm biscuits, cakes etc

I'm also thinking of making some candles, soap (from a kit i got at a summer fayre), knitted dishcloths, little knitted toys, pot pourri etc

xx

Tuttifruitty_Theresa

Quackers wrote: »

I'm going to play :j :j

Although I have only got one friend who will appreicate this.

So, she is going to get all my homemade goodies - I know she will appreciate them

If people could post ideas of things to make for the hamper it'd be much appreciated by me

Last year i did hot chocolate mugs, i bought sachets of options chocolate, little marshmallows, little belgium chocolates, teaspoon and mugs. I melted some cadburys chocolate onto teaspoons and sprinkled hundreds and thousands over the chocolate, when dry i wrapped the spoon in clingfilm. I also put some little chocs in the mug (wrapped in clingfilm) (the marshmallows also wrapped in clingfilm) and popped the lot into the mug. (must say thanks to everyone last year for their ideas) :T :T

xx
ps my nan who can't see very well actually thought i'd given her a dirty spoon and washed the chocolate off :rotfl:

earthmother

This year my OS hampers will have Rocky Road (OS board), double chocolate crispie cakes (OS or here - can't recall now), Spicy Cheese Stars and Lemon & Lime Curd

This is going out to all the adults in the family (they don't get money spent) and to eldests' school and middle son's playgroup, so I've got a bit of a bking marathon on my hands come December


Last year I did 'home made packet mixes' with the Weetabix brownie recipe (OS board again, lol) along with the cheese stars and some shortbread, and the kids made cards and crackers, which all went into various forms of hamper depending on who it was for.

I never thought to take pictures of most of it at the time (won't forget this year), but I did photograph the brownie mix (excuse the mess in the background ) -

midlandsfairy

can i play??

everyone looks like they have some amazing ideas. I'm planning on doing some OS food hampers as well this year.

going to try out a cookies in a jar type thing (never thought of the wheetabix brownie thing- did u have to adjust it at all?),
jar of pickled onions (thanks to kethry for the instructions),
crackers (will have to be bought as most presents have to be distributed to family too far in advance to give out hm cheese straws etc)
hot chocolate goodies,
some chutney
and possibly some chili oil (for other chili head members of the family only!!)

However am still struggling to find any nice jars/containers!!! your kilner type jar is lovely earthmother but all the ones i've seen are so expensive. anyone come across any cheap sources yet??

pukkamum

I would like to play though when i mentioned to my dh i was doing hampers for his family he said they just sounded like a lot of hassle (even though i know for a fact he won't be involved) and why not do as he does every year and go to boots for the 3 for 2 offers!!!! MEN!!!!!
I intend to make hokey pokey (nigellas) in pretty boxes for the teachers at school and cakes etc for others but would appreciated any baking ideas for diabetics as my nan-in-law has just been diagnosed x x x

kethry

Quackers wrote: »

Originally Posted by meerustar
(unless I buy them and just make my own labels instead ... anyone want to do a label challenge?)
oooooooo ,what a [strike]good[/strike] naughty idea:D

not commenting on buying stuff and passing it off as your own.. LOL.. but on the subject of labelling, for jars or bottled stuff - you could do a lot worse than blocking off a section on the jar with masking tape and painting over it with blackboard paint, and then writing what it is on the jar with chalk. I did my first ones like this the other day - photos to be found here. Its very easy - small pot of blackboard paint can be bought from Wilkos for 3-4 quid. Chalks are cheap, however, if you're writing in a small space, experience has taught me that the best thing to use is white dressmaker's chalk - you can sometimes buy this in pencils - or the chalks you can buy for doing good boards as a pen (pubs use them).

HTH

keth
xx

weezl74

tee hee, it is so loving of our DH's to try and spare us the hassle of doing it this way, is it not?!

Welcome to the challenge pukkamum, midfairy and tuttifruitty, I look forward to seeing photos!

Cheapest kilner jars so far, ikea 99p for 11cm half litre one, but it's pretty big for our uses!

Last year I gently melted sugar-free chocolate, then embedded a whole hazlenut in each (in an ikea star-shaped ice-cube tray) to make diabetic friendly chocs for DH's nan.

Hope that helps...

Weezl

earthmother

midlandsfairy wrote: »

going to try out a cookies in a jar type thing (never thought of the wheetabix brownie thing- did u have to adjust it at all?),
....
However am still struggling to find any nice jars/containers!!! your kilner type jar is lovely earthmother but all the ones i've seen are so expensive. anyone come across any cheap sources yet??

The jars I used were 0.5L, and everything bar the chocolate fitted (hence the homemade label on the bar). I worked out at the time that a 0.6L jar would do it all - you can get them as jam jars, but not kilner.

I don't know exactly how much they were (about the only thing I didn't keep my pricings for last year, typically enough), but they wouldn't have been more than a few pounds as we were really strapped for cash. They came from a local independant hardware/kitchen type shop - real alladins cave - so if you have similar near you it may be worth popping in. As far as I know, all the jars have gone back into use somewhere in the family, so it wasn't wasted money anyway.


If I do another jar thing this year, I was thinking of using jam jars and getting the boys to decorate them with glitter pens and glass paint. If I filled them as near as possible to when they'll be given, I could possibly get away without a proper lid too (clingfilm/cellophane and an elastic band, with a fancy cover over the top), which means I can reuse some old jars - will do a couple of trial runs beforehand though, just to make sure the ingredients won't go stale too quickly.