My mother never ever liked getting a gift for Christmas that had anything to do with cooking, cleaning or eating . . .well except for chocolates that is. I never saw her turn down a nice box of choccies. She just didn't want to get the other stuff, like mixers or blenders, or jars of jam, etc.
Me on the other hand, I just love, Love, LOVE to get any gift that has anything to do with the kitchen or eating! I have had a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer on my wish list for years now, to no avail, but . . . I live in hope.
Candy Apple Red or Powder Blue or even yellow would do me fine. Actually who am I trying to kid, I'll take it in any colour I can get it! But I digress . . .
Food gifts. I just adore receiving them and I love putting them together for friends. I especially love the mix in a jar things, or goodies in a mug, or Mug-ems as they are also called. We did an activity in RS Society in August and I did a presentation on Gifts in a jar and it was quite popular so today I am going to show you two of my favourite Gift Mixes in a Jar, and in the spirit of giving, I am including my artwork Gift Tags for you to print out and tie on to your own gift jars. All you need to do is right click and save and then you can print them out 4 or 6 to a page via your own printer. Merry Christmas! (And there are two versions, one with American measures and one with British measures.)
The first one is the Oatmeal and Raisin Cookie Mix in a Jar, and let me tell you they are fabulous cookies. Very delicious. These mixes are so easy to make, and such fun to give and to receive. I really love decorating the jars up and making them pretty with ribbons and bows, etc.
You can decorate the up with Cute little Christmas Ornaments, or whatever. Little cloth caps, ribbons . . . let your imagination and creativity carry you away!
And if you aren't into cookie mixes in a jar, you can just make some for yourself. These cookies are fabulous. Very, very tasty indeed!
*Oatmeal and Raisin Cookie Mix In a Jar*
Makes 1 1-litre jar
Printable Recipe
100g of plain flour (1 cup)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
150g of soft light brown sugar (3/4 cup)
110g of granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
100g of raisins (3/4 cup)
160g of old fashioned oats
Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, soda and salt. Layer the ingredients in the jar as follows, tamping each layer down well before adding another layer. Half the flour mixture. Half the brown sugar. The raisins. The white sugar. The remaining half of the brown sugar and the oats. You may think it won't all fit, but it will. Just persevere. Screw on the lid tightly. Decorate as you wish and attach a label with the baking directions.
You might think when you look at each recipe . . . all that would never fit in a jar, but don't worry! It absolutely does! I use my Pampered Chef tamper tool and it packs everything in very nicely.
These Cranberry White Chocolate and Oat Cookies are my favourites. Oh my . . . but I could just eat them all up myself. Quite dangerous to have around once baked. I bet I ate three right away. I am such a naughty pup.
I bet even YOU couldn't eat just one though . . . but who's eating?? These are for gifts right? Yah, of course they are!! But really . . . I don't think anyone would begrudge you making a jar of the mix, or just baking yourself up a recipe of these for your own family. In fact, that might just be one way where you could guarantee a sweet surprise for yourself under the tree on Christmas morning! After all, as they say . . . Charity begins at home! Ho Ho Ho!!
*Cranberry White Chocolate Cookie Mix In a Jar*
Makes 1 1-litre jar
Printable Recipe
50g of plain flour (1/2 cup plus 2 TBS allpurpose)
40g old fashioned oats (1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
66g soft light brown sugar (1/3 cup)
63g of white sugar (1/3 cup)
75g dried cranberries (1/2 cup)
90g white chocolate chips (1/2 cup)
60g of chopped pecan nuts (1/2 cup)
Layer the ingredients in a clean canning jar in the order given, tamping each layer down into place before adding the next one. (I use my pampered chef tamper for this, but you could use the end of a rolling pin as well.) Screw on the lid tightly. Attach a gift tag with the mixing and baking directions and decorate the jar as desire
If you think you have seen this post before, you would be right. It is a repost from last year. I threw my hip out today and although I had plans to do some baking I am having a hard time just to walk at the moment. Arthritis is sometimes a real pain to live with. In any case I am resting it up and reposting this post from last year. I think some of my newer readers would enjoy it irregardless. Do feel free to copy and print out my art recipe card/tags I have included. God willing I will be back tomorrow with something new to share!!!
One last thing to tell you about that you may want to get in before Christmas. This was sent to me and I haven't had the chance to use it yet, but did want to tell you about it so if you wanted to use them for Christmas you would have time to do so! This is the Eddington's Christmas Tree Decoration Set, angels.
The set consists of 3 Angel cookie cutters ranging in sie from about 2 inches up to 4 inches, along with some red ribbon for hanging and a spigot to cut a hole into the cookies prior to baking so that you can hang them up after.
The cutters are made from Stainless steel and are dishwasher proof. I think they are really cute!
They are available at most kitchen stockists in prices from £2.40 and up!
Many thanks to Eddingtons for sending these to me!
When I was growing up it was a Christmas Tradition each year for my mother to make Tourtiere. My father is French Canadian and the Tourtiere was a tradition in his family. Tourtiere is a type of a meat pie which is served in French Canada during the Christmas Holidays, normally on Christmas Eve during their Reveillon celebrations, which last pretty much all night. My father is from the Saugenay Lac St Jean region of Quebec.
My mother was English however and staying up all night was not an option in our home. Neither was meat pie on Christmas Day, and so we always had it on Boxing Day. Truth be known it was a very important part of our Christmas holiday celebrations no matter when we ate it and it was something all of us looked forward to each year.
I do believe that there are as many recipes for Tourtiere as there are families that eat it. Some opt to use finely chopped meat . . . pork, or veal . . . and others use ground meat, sometimes just pork, and often a combination of pork and beef. My mother always used just beef. I like to use pork and beef. My ex sister in law always used chopped pork shoulder. (She was Acadian French.)
Some use dried bread crumbs to absorbe some of the moisture from their filling. Some use grated raw potato cooked in with the meat. Some grate cooked potato into the filling . . . I like to use dried potato flakes because you don't get any lumps of potato, but it thickens the filling nicely.
All will have finely chopped onions and ground cloves. Garlic, savory, thyme, etc. . . . these are optional. I do use them, but my mother only used the savory along with the onion and cloves. I also add a few chopped celery leaves and some parsley. It changes each year. I keep fiddling with it a bit here and a bit there in my quest for the perfect Tourtiere. I think my sister always makes the best ones, but alas . . . she is 2,000 miles away, so mine will just have to do. The Toddster isn't complaining!
I do believe that there are as many recipes for Tourtiere as there are families that eat it. Some opt to use finely chopped meat . . . pork, or veal . . . and others use ground meat, sometimes just pork, and often a combination of pork and beef. My mother always used just beef. I like to use pork and beef. My ex sister in law always used chopped pork shoulder. (She was Acadian French.)
Some use dried bread crumbs to absorbe some of the moisture from their filling. Some use grated raw potato cooked in with the meat. Some grate cooked potato into the filling . . . I like to use dried potato flakes because you don't get any lumps of potato, but it thickens the filling nicely.
All will have finely chopped onions and ground cloves. Garlic, savory, thyme, etc. . . . these are optional. I do use them, but my mother only used the savory along with the onion and cloves. I also add a few chopped celery leaves and some parsley. It changes each year. I keep fiddling with it a bit here and a bit there in my quest for the perfect Tourtiere. I think my sister always makes the best ones, but alas . . . she is 2,000 miles away, so mine will just have to do. The Toddster isn't complaining!
*Tourtiere 2013*
makes two nine inch piesPrintable Recipe
one egg yolk beaten with a bit of water to glaze
For the filling:
Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Place the two pies on a large baking try and bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4 and bake for a further 30 to 35 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden brown and crisp on the bottom.
I did a little one for Todd so you could see how flakey that pastry is and what the filling looks like. He really enjoys this each year, and of course he doesn't have to watch his waistline!
(My sister's pies this year! Yes we both like to take photos of what we cook and eat! It must run in the family!)
Note: If you only want to make one pie, just cut all the ingredients for the filling in half. Or make the full batch and freeze half of it for another time. You can also bake this in individual pies. My sister does and uses canning jar lids for the pans. Works perfectly!
I was recently contacted and asked if I would like to try out some sausages. HECK is a company owned by the Keebles who are a family of farmers and sausage enthusiasts. They produce a range osf 8 differen premium sausage varieties ranging from the traditional 97% pork to the more unique Chicken and square sausages. They also produce several gluten free varieties. You can read more about how they produce their sausages here.
We really love sausages in this house! Not the cheap nasty ones out there that are yuck, yuck, yuck . . . we are a bit more discerning in our tastes and those cheap and nasty ones just have a horrible consistency and are loaded with fat. We do NOT like those . . . so we are always up for trying something which is better. Getting to try new things is the best part of my job!
These are farmers market quality. It can't be bad and with Christmas coming up with all of the entertaining that entails, we were absolutely up for trying these sausages.
One package which was sent was their Smoky Chorizo-style sausages. Hearty and tangy with a smoked paprika kick. Gluten Free. (nice!)
These had a really lovely flavour. Nice colour. Nice texture and just enough heat, and a lingering afterburn . . . without it being overpowering in the least. Most pleasant. We quite enjoyed. I had only ever eaten the dried chorizo sausages that you can buy which come from spain and are pre-cooked. These were quite nice and I would buy these, absolutely.
Content: 85% British Pork Shoulder Corn Flour, Water Red Peppers (1%) Spices, Salt, Sugar Leek Powder Preservative (Sodium Sulphite) Stabilisers (Diphosphates) Herb Yeast Extract Colour (Paprika Extract) Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid) Spice Extract. Filled into natural pork casings.
Next up "The Family Favourite." Good old pork. Comforting, noble and satisfying, this is the original favourite, a classic that’ll never lose its shine. These are the kind that I would use to make my Christmas Stuffing with or my sausage rolls. They are also gluten free, which is nice. Those cheap and nasty things use far too much filler. I want meat in my sausage, not filler.
Our verdict . . . meaty and moist without being greasy. Just what you would expect from a good breakfast or supper sausage.
We both enjoyed.
Content: 85% British Pork Shoulder Corn Flour Water Salt Rice Flour Leek Powder Cream Powder (from Milk) Sugar Spice Yeast Extract Preservative (Sodium Sulphite) Flavourings Natural Flavourings Spice Extracts Citric Acid Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid). Filled into natural pork casings.
Next . . . the Plump Pork & Apple Sausage. Pork and apple are made for each other. They are a marriage made in heaven. The perfect marriage of savoury and sweet . . . did they live up to their promise?
These were gorgeous. Not greasy. Well flavoured. With just enough of a hint of apple flavour to bring out the best of the pork. Also gluten free.
Contents: 85% British Pork Shoulder Corn Flour Water Apple Flakes (2%) Salt Rice Flour Leek Powder Cream Powder (from milk) Sugar Spice Yeast Extract Preservative (Sodium Sulphite) Flavourings Natural Flavourings Spice Extracts Citric Acid Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid). Filled into natural pork casings.
Heck 97% Pork. These lip smackers were my favourite of them all. Meaty and well flavoured and lean. Moist and not greasy. They were the overall winners with us both. Once again gluten free.
Contents: 97% British Pork Shoulder Salt Cream Powder (from Milk) Spices Preservative (Sodium Sulphite) Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid). Filled into natural pork casings.
All in all we were very impressed with these sausages, and we would happily buy any of them. These tasty links are available at supermarkets throughout the country.
Thank you very much to Katy and to Heck Sausages for sending us these to try out. We now have a new favourite. Tis true.
Follow them on facebook.
Tweet them on Twitter @HeckFood
Check out the tastiness on Pinterest
Some sausage tastiness to get your tastebud juices flowing:
Oven Barbequed Sausages
Cider and Honey Braised Sausages
Bean and Sausage Hot Pot
(The chorizo ones would be fab, FAB in this!)
Hawaiin Sausage Casserole
Creamy Mustard Sausage and Pasta Hot Dish
Sausage and Squash Mash
Sausage and Bacon Toad in the Hole
Fruity Sausage Baps
Cherry Tomato and Sausage Bake
Sausage and Corn Bake
And that's just for starters! Thank you Heck Sausages!
I was recently send some really nice Tala Baking things to help with my Christmas Baking. Normally I like to put these things to use before I show them to you so that you can see how well they work, but I am running out of time and I do want you all to have the opportunity to go out and get some of these products to help you with your own Christmas baking if you can and so I am going to tell you about them now. I can say with authority however that I have never had a Tala Utensil yet that I did not like, or that did not perform impeccably or live up to it's promise!
This is the Tala Letterpress Cookie Set. With this set you can make personalised cookies with your own message.
Set contains three spring loaded cutters. There are one each of a heart, star and scalloped rectangle, along with a letterpress stamp, 7 pre-set words / phrases and 2 sets of alphabet letters in a bag. Perfect idea for a special gift, placesetting of for fun with children. The set is also dishwasher proof.
They are brightly coloured and look to be very durable.
You can slide an assortment of already put together phrases into the handy letterpress stamp, or use the individual letters included to create your own personal message.
You can cut the cookies out and stamp them separately, or you can slide the prepared stamp into a handy slot on the bottom of the cookie cutter which conveniently places it in the proper position on your cut out cookie. You can purchase these in a variety of places.
My search found them at:
The Craft Company for £8.14
Captain Cooks for £9.99
Amazon UK for £11.99
As you can see the price can vary a lot so do shop around.
Next is this handy set 3 Holly Leaf Plunger Cutters. Perfect for cutting out fondant icings etc. to help to decorate your Christmas Cakes or pies. There are three different sizes ranging from a very about 3/4 inch in length to about 1 12 inches in length.
These handy cutters feature a three holly leaf design with a veined effect.
Simply press into icing and use plunger to place the shape onto your cake without handling. They would be ideal for use with sugarpaste and flowerpaste. Easy to clean. Hand wash only.
These cutters are what I used to help decorate my Christmas Tortiere this year. (Tune in tomorrow for that recipe!) They worked really well as you can see.
You can also buy these in a variety of places in prices ranging from as little as £2.98 and as much as £5.99, so do shop around.
Finally there was this Spoon Shape Silicone Chocolate Mould. It has been my experience that silicone is always quite easy to use. This mould creates six chocolate spoons and has detailed instructions for making them printed on the back of the box.
They are also dishwasher safe, which is a bonus when it comes to using something as fiddly to clean as this might be. You can find them priced from between £2 to £3.95, so once again do shop around! Wouldn't a set of chocolate spoons be a great addition to a pot of homemade hot chocolate as a holiday gift? I think so too!
In any case I think they are all super! For baking ideas and tips, do visit the Tala page at Happy Baking Days.
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