Getting organised

Now I have started filling up my diary, I can now go on to the checklist I prepared for myself and popped on the blog as an aide memoire for making things and doing things throughout the year.

A few years ago, I collated a list of things that I liked to do throughout the year or at least have the choice of doing so and the rough times of years for stuff to be prepared.  This list has not been updated for many years and I am going to revisit this and do so in the next couple of weeks. In any event I thought that I would share it as it is at the moment although the overhaul is to be extensive.  Once this has been done I shall update in a separate post.  I thought however that it might give some of you some ideas for your own planning regime throughout the year

UPDATED TIME PLAN FOR PREPARING THINGS FOR CHRISTMAS UPDATE 1

 

Month	Things to do
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August	Start to add items to the shopping trolley.  Items with a long stop date.  Even if you do one thing a week it will soon build up and be less to fork out for later on. Take advantage of offers on baking consumables and especially dried fruit which is often when the dried fruit offers are usually on the shelves.  Especially if you are going to make your own Christmas cake and Christmas pudding and mincemeat.  The more you get your pantry and Christmas items sorted before Christmas (if you can) the more cash you will have to hand to pay for Christmas presents (if not already bought within the month of December). These days we pay cash for Christmas and do not utilise credit cards.  I appreciate that it is each to their own here but it can get out of hand if you are not careful especially if there are children in the house, thinking just one more present here or there adds to the cost.  You have to set a budget and stick to it. You do not want to be paying for Christmas all year long.
	Make your own flavoured sugars.  Vanilla Sugar: I make vanilla sugar and use it when I bake in cakes and also decorating the top of and in home-made custard.  It costs anywhere above £5 these days for two vanilla pods and all I do is find a big jar put the sugar in and then push one of the vanilla pods into the sugar it is well covered and then put the lid on and leave it for a few weeks. You can also blitz it in a food processor. Lavender Sugar: Lavender sugar can be made the same way by sprinkling the heads of Lavender throughout the sugar.  To buy it costs an absolute arm and a leg.  You can use caster or granulated sugars.
	Tinned Goods: Buy tinned goods with a long stop date.  Having tinned fruit and beans, tomatoes etc in the pantry gives you a lot more scope, especially when it comes to making meals and baking as well.  Remember you have to eat before Christmas so it will get used up but the longer the long-stop date the better.
	Don’t forget the freezer stock up there too.
	Bottle peaches in syrup.
	Bottle pears in syrup.
	Spiced Pickled Pears.
	Mulled Pears.
	Mixed white fruits in syrup i.e. peaches, pears, grapes etc. No red fruits in this as they bleed into the white fruits.
	Mixed red fruits in syrup.
	Make home-made pasta sauce.
	More Apricot Jam and Apricot Chutney.
	Make Five spiced peaches.
	Make Chutneys from seasonal ingredients.  Especially peach chutney, use the fruit whilst it is available and does not cost the earth.  Look for bargains or reductions. Carry forward to September if not available to you at this time.
	Make piccalilli.
	Take advantage of Victoria plums and bottle some for later use in puddings but also to make some Victorian Sugar Plums for Christmas.
	Dry your own chillies for pickled onions and shallots.
	Make pickled onions and shallots. Carry forward to September if not available to you at this time.
	Make home-made wines and beers and ciders either from fresh ingredients or kits.
September	Look out for wild mushrooms especially puffballs they are delicious and can be preserved.
	Make Mincemeat from dried fruit that needs using up
	Make vanilla caster sugar
	Make vanilla granulated sugar
	Make cinnamon granulated sugar
	Make Cider and Perry
	Pickle onions
	Pickle Shallots
	Pickle Red Cabbage
	Pickle Spiced Eggs
	Pickle Chillies
	Chinese Five Spice Sauce
	Ketchup
	Brown sauce
	Chilli Jam
	Chilli Jelly
	Sweet Chilli Sauce
	Dried Herbs
	Make Christmas cakes.
	Make Christmas Puddings.
	Make Dundee Cake
	Bread and Butter Pickles
	Various Chutneys
	Vanilla Vodka
	Spiced Orange Slices and Clementine Slices
	Ginger Beer and Apple Pop
	Make ginger ice cream topping
	Make rum n raisin ice cream topping
	Make honey and golden sultana ice cream topping
	Hazelnut/Filbert in honey ice cream dressing
	Toasted Pecan and honey ice cream dressing
	Raspberry fruit Coulis
	Strawberry fruit Coulis
	Mixed fruit Coulis
	Blueberry Coulis
	Blackberry Coulis
	Passionfruit Coulis
	Lemon Syrup
	Orange Syrup
	St Clements Syrup
	Lemon and Ginger Syrup
	Grapefruit Syrup
	Start gathering twigs, larch cones, Acorn-husks, beech mast, and teasel heads for use in Christmas decorations.  Also, honesty.  I always buy nuts at Christmas and if any are left over.  I keep them and use them in decorations also. Old nuts not good for eating are extremely useful for decorating with.  With the aid of a glue gun, you can make some very different homemade decorations.  I have this year also sourced long sticks of cinnamon which will be turned into Christmas stars (Tiger Tiger) however they are available online in different sizes too.  I also have lots of small cinnamon sticks which are to be turned into some garlands with the addition of bay leaves, dried orange and lemon slices, and nuts.  Also buy star anise in bulk as you can make Christmas table balls by painting a polystyrene ball with gold paint and then sticking whole star anise to the bauble with a glue gun and then enhancing with a touch of gold spray paint.
	Start gathering a few extra items a week and try and take advantage of offers such as two tubs of sweets (i.e. Celebrations, Roses and Quality Street for £9 or £5 each. The Co-Op have said offer on at the moment but there are no guarantees that this offer will stay on until Christmas.  Therefore, seize the day. Take advantage if you can or other goodies.  I also use the Pound shop in this respect.  Always check the long stop date.  Often this will go into the New Year say to February or March if not later.
	Trial Nan’s fruit bread between 2 recipes
	Start collating suitable recipes for Christmas. Keep a separate list of links on  your computer or on Pinterest so that you can find the links to the recipes for when y ou need them.
	Start making home-made cards and presents
	As you buy presents - if you have the wrapping get them wrapped up one at a time.  Will save time at a future date.
	Start looking at Lidl and Aldi and other supermarket sites and start looking for a few bottles of wine here and there.  The reason I mention this is that things notoriously go up in the run up to Christmas, I know there are offers on as well but if you get some of it out the way at a cheaper price then all well and done.  Same with bulky bottles of pop whatever variant.  I notice that Lidl would appear to have some very good offers on sweet lines at the moment.
	Start Christmas Cakes and Christmas Puddings - 2 for Brother and 2 for us
October	If you have an open fire and young children in the house.  Make a song and dance about them writing a letter to Santa Claus and sending the messages up the chimney with their wish lists for what they would like or hope for.  Make an event of it for them.
	Start the kidlets making Christmas decorations from items gathered on walks, from fabric, felt from paper etc.  Start them early as it will take a little time but also keep them occupied and involved.
November	Make home-made sausage rolls and open freeze them without cooking.  Pack into a suitable number say 12 and bag them.  Then when you want some take out of the freezer and straight into the oven to cook.  This will save time when you have so much else to do.  Same with mince pies and coconut cheesecakes.  Also make some plain pastry cases large for things like Bakewell tart or some smaller cases to be filled with fruit or custard or the like.
	Make home-made Pork Pies and freeze uncooked.
	Make Home-made feasting pie and freeze uncooked.
	Make mince pies and do the same as well as coconut cheesecakes and pastry tart bases for jam tarts filled with your home-made jam.
	Make fruit curds.
	Make Nan’s Plum Bread Loaves 2 for my brother and 2 for myself
	STIR UP SUNDAY – CHRISTMAS PUDDING AND CHRISTMAS CAKE DAY.  I usually make mine before.
December	Beginning of December: Post out the Christmas cards and get them out of the way to family and friends.  Get this out of the way together with a personal letter to family members
	The week before Christmas say a couple of days make the pork pies, feasting pie, and cook the ham.
The night before Christmas Eve   23December 2022	Go to the market and do final shop in town.  Getting the fresh vegetables and other bits from town and any other last minute bits and bobs.
	Make up a batch of Hazlenut Liqueur.  This is not a long keeping liqueur a bit along the lines of Egg Nogg.  The recipe for this first appeared in the Land Love Magazine for October 2017.  Which recipe have popped on the blog.  Then sit and enjoy a glass or two.  You are allowed to have fun too.
	Make local deliveries of presents to family members near.
Christmas Eve 24December 2022	For us mostly a day of preparation.  Traditionally my family or the ladies of the family have always done the big bake for Christmas on Christmas Eve.

 

Once the diary is sorted will update this again, but thought it might be useful for some of you who like to plan things out.

Hope this helps.

Pattypan