BLOGMAS....Day 9 Edible gifts

So a few years ago I made limoncello and a chutney from my favourite and most pretty Christmas book Kirstie's Christmas Crafts. I went straight to her Edible Gifts section, who doesn't love edible gifts? I picked what I thought were easy options, the limoncello and the boxing chutney but lets just say this is not for the faint hearted or someone on a budget-Vodka and tones of dried fruit are not cheap plus all the jars and bottles!! It was a lovely idea and my family did enjoy their gifts. The following year 2014 I had tried to do the same thing until I ended up in hospital and by the time I was able to go home the chutney was ruined!! All that effort wasted and I missed Christmas. So I had previously said that when I got my transplant I would try and make up for the disaster of 2014!!

So this year was that year!! I have been watching many Christmas cooking shows and I was watching the Hairy Bikers (who I love) Christmas Party (2013) and they were making a last minute chutney,. I thought that the recipe seemed quite easy and not to much complicated/expensive ingredients. The only thing is if you need certain ingredients then shopping in Lidl or Aldi isn't the best idea because they don't have everything need. Also if you're like me, you then go back to get more and it has totally disappeared or disapparate (people will only get this if you're a HP fan.)

Any way back to the recipe (from BBC FOOD), it had quite a simple list of ingredients and I thought it sounded like it had some really tasty flavours. I couldn't find cinnamon sticks in Lidl (that weren't for decorative use only) or whole nutmegs, so I was naughty and used mixed spice and ground cinnamon. They had the spices in them but just not quite how they recipe wanted-oops!! It's was an easy recipe to follow as only being (just under 3 months post transplant-couldn't deal with anything too taxing!) The only thing is, I wish I had got my bloody blender out sooner so I didn't have to go through the torturer of chopping onions and crying (EVERY TIME-Seriously what is that about?)

So I was also naughty because I added a few dried pears-Shocking I know!! The other things I did  is doubled the cooking time because there was a lot more vinegar to reduce and I added a bit of water to loosen it up near the end because it was getting a bit gloopy (my technical words are fabulous!)

So you may notice that this is only for two jars so me being me, I was like crap well I'm just gonna double everything and hope for the best!! This be why I wasn't aloud to take cooking at GCSE!! Any way the update is that I got a least 6 jars and one for us (hehe!) So going to do a second batch with my friend on Monday!! I did have a cheeky taste of it today and I've got to say it was yummy with a nice strong cheddar and a few speciality cracker (the kind you eat not the ones you pull-that would be weird, just for the clarification.) Thanks Hairy Bikers!!

Any way I'm hoping that my family will like them because they took bloody ages and I was so nervous about doing it totally by self!! Scary (can't blame any one else-poop!!) I'm all grown up now I've made a chutney by self. It's defiantly a chutney that Kirsty Allsopp would be proud of or even the WI I think!! So the last pic is me giving it my thumbs up in approval!!

I do have to admit something very bad:

I borrowed my pans (I used) from my mum back in 2013 (I believe) and never gave them back-sorry mum!! There mine now lol!!

Right on that revelation, Toodles my shiny north star xx