Getting Ready for Christmas Part One

 It is that time of year again, when the most is made of harvest or indeed we are starting to gather items together for the Christmas Pantry in my household.  

It has been a funny couple of years and our Christmas was very low key last  year which I think may well happen again this year. This house is really too small for entertaining although we do manage to squeeze people in. It is much better to probably get back to a more moderate type of Christmas where we have a go at doing stuff ourselves and celebrating Christmas the way we want to.  That does not stop you setting the scene and making nice things its just that you get a little more selective as to what you do or do not do.  It is also a time of celebrating what you have, rather than moaning about what you do not have. You can always make something out of nothing.  Christmas is for me however, more about family, that is the really important thing.  Christmas is primarily  for children, but that does not stop us as adults from letting that inner child escaping now and then and getting involved with the magic and customs of Christmas.  Indeed, I think it is a lovely way of getting away from real life for a bit and focusing on the here and now and not the problems.  We all need liberating from real life from time to time.

I have already made a tentative start on collecting a few items together. This is something that I traditionally do year in year out from the end of August up to Christmas itself. I buy a few extra bits every week and add to the shopping basket and I try and get everything done in good time pennies permitting. It is something my Nan and my Mum always did as well.  Needless to say all the stuff I usually put up in the freezers, and all my pantry preserves are made for use during the year but I always keep a portion of each back just for Christmas or for gifting as well.  This way on you get lots of goodies to eat through the year and there is always a wealth of choice on ingredients when it comes to doing the Christmas cooking.

The dried fruit I have had for a little while since August (yet again taking advantage of offers on the fruit) for the cakes, puddings, mincemeat, baking.  I also  make some ice cream sauces out of various dried fruit and spirits or syrups for the pantry shelf.  Rum and Raisin is lovely over plain ice cream or Brandy, Honey and Golden Sultanas.

A little pre-planning also helps to take advantage on the sweetie front in particular of any offers that may be going on in the various shops. Particularly for making some different cakes and incorporating the sweeties into them i.e. the Terrys white chocolate oranges or indeed the slices.  They are very useful for decorating and taste good too.  Plans are in hand to get some other sweets but not too much which can also be used in cake making etc.

Cake decorations and trims also fall into this band of pantry planning, things like hundreds and thousands (used to decorate iced buns, ice creams, and slab cake or a sponge cake). Chocolate vermicelli (used for home made Rum balls and home made sweeties as well as for decorating cakes). Iced flowers, blocks of decent cooking chocolate etc.  I do this for a couple of reasons.  One, so that you can get what you want a little at a time and secondly, so that items are gathered in  time so that it does not hit the Christmas budget solely in the month of December. Space things out a bit and look for items with long stop dates.  Plus it is good to buy supplies when there is an offer on the particular goods you are after i.e. cooking chocolate.

The other day, I gave in and have bought a couple of Christmas magazines to see what they have to offer but I will do a separate post on them. The middle  magazine Simply Christmas came with a set of wooden decorations which can be used for crafting. The magazine has some very good ideas within it for using these.

So for the Christmas Pantry shelf, I have added two milk chocolate Terrys oranges at £1 each in the Co-Op at the moment and two of the white chocolate versions at £1.50 per orange.  I have also bought two bags of the individual slices which were also on offer.  I have also bought a couple of large bags of Jelly Tots for decorating Fairy Cakes or a slab cake.

However, I also revel in making my own things for my Pantry Shelf and perhaps am in my true element when I can potter in the kitchen with ingredients and with a little alchemy turn them into pots of tasty goodness.

I have bought in the Guinness which I use for making the Christmas puddings.  I have a lot of the fruit in house already and I am intent on getting both the Christmas puddings and the cakes made this month so that they are out of the way.  May well try and do them, this weekend. I also keep fruit in for making tea cakes, and tea loaves as well as for use in puddings and of course the mincemeat.

I will also use some of the Guinness in a chutney recipe I have come across on the Kilner Recipe site 

https://www.kilnerjar.co.uk/.  

The site has been updated since I used it last but here is the direct link to the Hearty Onion and Ale Chutney 

https://www.kilnerjar.co.uk/recipe/onion-ale-chutney

I would just say that it is wise to make copies of recipes that you want for your own use as you find them as often the site has been updated and recipes end up not being found which I find very frustrating.

Even though I have not been back very long, I have already paid a visit to my local shops to see what they have in store.

The veg shop in particular I am interested in at the moment.  There is a lot here I can do stuff with.  Eggs for Pickled Eggs, Beetroot for more Pickled Beetroot and Roasted Beetroot Chutney. Red Cabbage for making Pickled Cabbage this is especially nice on top of a winter leaf green salad.  The bright colour really lifts the salad and makes it look very festive; pickles are something that the OH likes and I always try and have a fair supply of these in for him as with him being diabetic, the sugar is a no no for him.  

I also need to buy in some eating apples for drying in slices and in cubes. I shall look out for reduced apples to do these with.  If I can get the bowls from the veg shop this makes things a lot cheaper. Both can be used in home made Muesli or Granola and for decorating home made wreaths etc. Also for use in cakes and the dried slices can be used for wreaths, and garlands.  

Oranges can be turned into pickled sliced oranges which are lovely to decorate the top of a home cooked piece of ham or gammon with a clove in the centre.  Cloves give a beautiful flavour to home cooked ham or gammon.  They can also be dried for Christmas decorations or for decorating the outside of your Christmas packaging to give to loved ones.

Lemons I intend to make Lemon slices in the same way as orange slices and also some Lemon slices for the drinks bar. 

They also have cooking apples, which I need for making another batch of home made Mincemeat.  I am planning on trying to do one preserve a day at the moment, especially as I have so much to get on with in the house. That will probably commence next Monday as I have a lot of washing and ironing to do again as a result of the long holiday.

They also have pickling onions in, so I shall snaffle some of those as well. My shallots are already ordered from them. There are a couple of other things I need to do as well, but will get the first batch of cooking out of the way with first.

I have quite a stack of preserves in any event (although not as many as usual) and over the next couple of days my under-stair cupboard is to be sorted out to store some of my kitchen equipment and also some of my preserves.  The cupboard is ideal for storing preserves in but I have a lot of equipment I do not want to get rid of. I must say that a lot of it is specialist preserving equipment. It is taking up valuable space in the kitchen itself and so I have decided that some of it can go in here out of the way until I need to use it.  Hopefully the kitchen will be less cluttered this way on and everyday things will be accessed easily.

I have also been browsing some of my long held Christmas magazines from previous years and I have found a chutney recipe that uses aubergine, courgette and tomatoes.  That might be made up this week as well.

I have also found to my surprise a stack of tomato plants that have grown themselves after the fire.  I think that there must have been some tomato seed loose in the shed.  There are quite a few green tomatoes so I will also harvest what I can and make a small quantity of green tomato chutney.  My Nan used to make this and it was a favourite.  Pear Chutney was another one.  

It would also appear that one of my Ballerina apple trees has also got a reasonable harvest so I will also fight my way down the garden and harvest them as well and get them processed as well.  Two items that are an absolute bonus. Nature is a wonderful thing.

Lots to do as usual, will not manage to do as much as I normally do until I replace a lot of my lost canning jars, but I will get there.

Catch you all soon.

Pattypan

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