Food Storage in a Jar

I made sand art Brownies in a jar many years ago as gifts, but the thought didn't occur to me then that you can store other things like that as actual 'food storage'.  The majority of your ingredients are all in that jar, so it makes life really easy if you are living off your food storage, or makes life fun if you are cooking with the kids and all you have to do is simply tip the jar upside down and give it a good whack (or two...depending on how tightly packed the ingredients are).

I stumbled across this site, which has loads of helpful and varied recipes from soup mixes to sweet baking (like biscuits and brownie recipes):-

http://www.gone-ta-pott.com/giftsinajarrecipes.html

They make a great gift as well:-

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/10/22/homemade-gift-series-6-meals-in-a-jar/

Don't forget to include the instructions on your jars.  They're kind of helpful! ;D

Lolly Boxes - Great Christmas Presents to make

To make this lolly box you will need:-

1. A box/basket
2. Oasis (grey is better for dry arrangements, but green will work fine for this one).
3. Assorted lollies (licorice allsorts, candy canes, jelly beans, fruit rings etc)
4. Wooden skewers
5. Plastic wrap (cling wrap/glad wrap etc)
6. Secateurs
7. Tinsel
8. Christmas pick

Step 1: Prep your box.

Cut your oasis to fit snugly inside your box. I find it easier to use the box as a 'cookie cutter' and get the size that way.Step 2: Cover the oasis with a little bit of tinsel (to hide the oasis) and put your Christmas pick in the centre.

Step 3: Cut your skewers in half.

Step 4: Lolly time! Make sure you have all your lollies around you as it makes this project much easier (and you have to taste test a couple to ensure your gift recipient isn't getting poisoned lollies!)

Step 5: Cut your glad/cling wrap to size. I use a massive heavy duty roll of cling wrap that lasts me at least 5 years (in the kitchen generally), but any one will do the trick

Step 6: Lolly flowers. To make a 'jelly bean fruit ring flower', you need to skewer 3/4 way through one jelly bean.

Add a fruit ring...

Cover in plastic wrap...

Ta daaaaaaah!

Hint: If you wrap the plastic wrap over the top of the lolly then wind it down the skewer as tightly as you can, it will stay on better. Kind of like florists green tape.  Each lolly you use needs to be wrapped this way.

The end result:

You could wrap the whole thing up in cellophane if you wanted to. I do for ease of transporting it as presents for teachers at school. They look great just as they are, and usually take about 20-30 mins for a box this size.

Miniature Gingerbread Houses

Usually I make gingerbread men to take to our neighbours, but this year I obviously wanted to feel under a little more pressure, and decided to make miniature gingerbread houses instead.

They are soooo cute!

My gingerbread recipe is:-
125g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup golden syrup
1 egg yolk
2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in golden syrup and egg yolk. Stir in dry ingredients (flour, ginger and soda bicarb).
2. Press into a ball, knead on lightly floured surface until smooth. Refrigerate for 30 mins.
3. Roll dough between sheets of greaseproof paper. Cut gingerbread shapes from dough. Place shapes about 3cm apart on lightly greased oven trays.
4. Bake in moderately hot oven (180 degrees Celsius) for about 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on trays.

Royal Icing:
1 egg white
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
food colouring (optional)

Mix all ingredients together. You may need more icing sugar, as it needs to be quite stiff if you want to use this on mini gingerbread houses.

Here's the link to the pattern for the miniature gingerbread houses: http://images.transcontinentalmedia.com/canadianliving/food/gingerbreadcutouts.pdf

It suggests doing these as a gingerbread house party. What a great idea!
(the image is from the Canadian Living gingerbread house party suggestion)