A Speedy Gift Box

Just picture the scene. You've planned to give some edible treats as a present. You carefully chose the recipe, made sure you had all the ingredients, and cooked and baked with great care and attention so that the results were gift-worthy. Brilliant!

But have you thought how you are going to package and present them? You have some cellophane bags in the drawer but your baked delights are perhaps too fragile or sticky or will fall out of the lovely paper cases that you delicately placed each morsel in. Fear not! If you have a sheet or two of A4 paper all is not lost. You can fold it into a box.

My colleague showed me this a couple of months ago, much to my disbelief. He's an artist and apparently it's common for printers or painters to make such boxes for their ink or paint. The great thing about this is that you can just screw it up once you are done, keeping all the mess inside. Apparently they've been using these boxes (and no doubt screwing them up) for centuries.

However, no screwing up is taking place here, not least because I've found a great video on YouTube that will show you exactly how to do it.

I took a second sheet of paper, trimmed 1cm from one of the long edges and another 1cm from one of the short edges and then followed the same instructions. This slightly smaller box works really well as a base, with the original size box fitting as a lid.

Secure with a ribbon (or adorn as you see fit) and you have a instant gift box. Well, as instant as I think you are going to get without calling on the services of your fairy godmother and her magic wand!

Mission: Christmas

I'm lucky enough to have finished work now until 2016 and so Mission: Christmas well and truly began this weekend.

Alongside a trip to Ikea to buy more dining chairs, the weekend has involved furniture being rearranged to make room for more beds, a final check of the festive recipes to ensure the ingredients are either already in the house or on the shopping list, ensuring that all guests eat at least most things on the menu, the purchase of a Christmas tree, the putting up of Christmas decorations, and the bathroom being reassembled - the toilet and sink have been sitting in the bath for the past two months as new flooring has been laid, a new bath panel constructed, and the whole room painted.

Amongst all this activity I decided that I may need a few mince pies to hand to keep me going and to offer anyone dropping in to say hello or to exchange presents. Since these would have to be gluten-free for me to enjoy and gluten-free pastry is one of the most fragile materials on the planet (or so it seems), I felt that a traditional mince pie recipe may not be the best bet.

You may have noticed last week that I made Chocolate Brownie Mince Pies for my colleagues. These work well since the brownie and mincemeat mixture seems to hold the pastry base together pretty well. I was therefore on the lookout for something similar and found a gluten-free Frangipane Mince Pie recipe. Essentially, this is like a mini Bakewell Tart with mincemeat in place of the jam.

They are looking good so far, perhaps with the addition of a dusting of icing sugar once they are cool?

So, with the mince pies cooling I decided to finish making the Limoncello, which involved diluting and bottling it. A satisfying and pleasant job as the smell of lemons met my nose.

Yes, bottom left, that's a sneaky tot for the chef!

And, if I'm to get the presents wrapped this evening, I'd also need the accompanying Moroccan Spiced Roast Nuts, which needed to be - er, spiced and roasted!

So, the Christmas preparations are well and truly underway and, happily, that's a few things crossed off the list. My two big questions now are, will I get the rest done before The Clan arrive on Wednesday, and what on earth am I going to have for dinner tonight? Other than a Frangipane Mince Pie!

The Traditions Begin

This weekend it feels as if the Christmas traditions are beginning to take hold, although I'm now wondering how long something has to have been going on for it to gain 'tradition' status. If about 8 years counts, I'm on safe ground to continue.

I can't remember exactly when craft club started but I have a feeling that it must have been about 2007, and at each December gathering at least one of us ends up making a Christmas wreath. This year I obliged, inspired by an idea described to me by my mother after she enthusiastically returned from an inspiring day of creative demonstrations hosted by her local WI branch.

I successfully found and dusted off my metal wreath frame, bought a large ball of green garden twine, selected a few gold baubles from my collection and grabbed the red ribbon - I was ready to begin. Tying the end of the twine to the frame I began to carefully wind it around and around until I had an even shape, which ended up using all of the twine. I had imagined that this would be a fairly swift process but it actually took much longer than I had anticipated. Perhaps the mulled wine, nibbles and general chit chat had something to do with that? Oh, as well as protecting my ball of twine from becoming a new toy for the cat!

That done, I selected 4 golden baubles and suspended them using different lengths of thin red ribbon in the centre of the circle before adding a wide red ribbon from which to hang it on the front door. I did play around with several versions of ribbon bows but ended up deciding that the minimalist look worked best. Simple and, hopefully, robust enough to withstand the wind and rain we have been experiencing recently.

And so, the first Christmas decoration is now up at ElleAyJay Towers!

The next task was to create something festive and edible for the office. I'm not really one for Christmas cards, particularly for colleagues as you invariably end up inadvertently missing someone out. Instead, I try to make something edible to leave by the tea station for everyone to tuck into.

Last year I had to cater for a vegan so opted for Pruffles, also known as Prune and Chocolate Truffles. These went down very well but a couple of colleagues looked a bit disappointed when they appeared since a few weeks earlier I'd been talking about a recipe I have for Brownie Mince Pies. I vowed to make them this year so that's what I've been doing this afternoon.

Quite simply, you make a batch of pastry and line 24 muffin tins as if you were making mince pies. You then make up a batch of chocolate brownie mix (use your favourite recipe) and add in about 200g of mincemeat. Fill each pastry case with the mincemeat-flavoured brownie mix and bake for 20-25 minutes, gas mark 4/160C. Leave in the tins for about 5 minutes before popping each brownie mince pie out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

If you are so inclined, you can top each one with a blob of whipped cream and a sugar-coated cranberry. However, this batch needs to be transported to work in a cycle pannier so I'll be giving that bit a miss. As it is I'm a bit worried that they may not survive the journey and am beginning to think that truffles may have been a better idea after all!

Christmas Preparations

I'm having a bit of a clear-out in preparation for hosting a houseful this Christmas. As a result the weekend has been rather dominated by sorting, reassembling and cleaning old furniture ready for collection by the local hospice. It has felt rather cathartic but I can't tell you how many trips to the loft were required to find missing bits or the right screwdriver or alun key. The result is a kitchen jam-packed with chairs and I can't get into the sewing room for tables. I just hope they agree to take it all as I've not really come up with a Plan B. It is certainly not all going back into the loft or spare room!

However, I'm pleased to say that other more creative Christmas projects have also been squeezed into the weekend. The first project was triggered by the fact that I had managed to source suitable Christmas cracker gifts for everyone and I was itching to get them assembled. This was a fairly swift task thanks to the discovery of Christmas cracker kits a few years ago. In fact, a year following an attempt to make some from scratch, which was very fiddly with less than aesthetically pleasing results.

I feel the best bit about home made crackers is the option of putting a higher quality and recipient-appropriate gift inside. Therefore, I swallowed my hand made, purist pride the second I spotted that first cracker kit and haven't looked back since. This year's kits are courtesy of Oxfam so I can also feel that a tiny contribution to charity has also been made (although I'm sure it was very tiny since the kits only cost £3 for 6 crackers).

I'm obviously not going to reveal the contents of the crackers here - some element of surprise must be able to remain even if I do know what's in mine! However, the result of my efforts was a pleasing festive pile of cardboard tubes complete with gunpowder, hats, jokes and (hopefully appreciated) mystery gifts.

Surveying my list of Christmas projects I quickly realised that the Limoncello needed 10-15 days to 'mature' and so I'd better get on with it. However, first I needed to free up the container in which I was going to make it and this meant doing something with the contents - Spiced Cranberry Vodka.

This was made in September and had been quietly doing its stuff, with a helpful shake of the jar every week since. This is a complete experiment as I'd lost the original recipe (typically now found!). It was time to strain and bottle the resulting dark amber liquid but not before a quick taste, revealing that it's pretty potent in a warming and spicy way. I'm sure it will slip down nicely if it ever decides to get cold this winter. Alternatively, I quite fancy trying a little tot in a champagne flute, topped up with Cava or Prosecco.

With the jar washed-up I could finally turn my attention to making the Limoncello. This was a recipe left on my desk by a colleague back in the spring. She knows I like to make things but I think this particular recipe was inspired by our office Christmas lunch last year. Our party was (un)lucky enough to be eligible for free Limoncello shots for the whole table. I thought it was a great way to finish the meal, being quite partial to an occasional nip of this lemon liqueur, but what arrived looked and smelled just like lemon floor cleaner. I can't possibly comment on the taste comparison since I've never tried floor cleaner and soon wished I'd not tried the free offering either!

I'm hoping my home made effort will be better.  The restaurant in question has set a pretty low bar so, let's just say I'm quietly confident.

This has to be one of the simplest things I've made: peel the zest off 10 unwaxed lemons (yellow peel only - leave the white pith behind) and pop in a 1.5 litre jar; add 1 litre of vodka and 1kg of white sugar; seal the jar and store in a dark place, shaking daily until the sugar has completely dissolved. After 10-15 days filter through muslin and top up with 1.5 litres of spring water.

If the results are good enough, some of mine will be bottled as gifts, the rest being reserved for the Christmas trifle - a layered bowl full of tangy lemon, cream, yoghurt, blueberries and soft amaretti biscuits. I can't wait!