I Made...Chilli Jam!

I started Christmas shopping in October, so I'm not entirely sure how it's wound up being the 21st December and I've still not quite finished, but hey hum pig's bum. If you're in the same shaped boat, then just pop out, get yourself some sugar and start cracking out pots of chilli jam!

Here's how to do it... (Thanks to Nigella for the help).

1. Sterilise your jam jars.
To do this, wash them in warm soapy water, rinse, then pop in the oven upside down at gas mark 1 and leave for 30 minutes. (This is very important to do. I'm not sure why, but it is. Hygienic and nice.)
2. Core and deseed 150g of red chillies and 150g of red peppers. 
3. Whizz them up in a blender until all little and red and flecky. 
4. Put 1kg of jam sugar in a large saucepan and pour over 600ml of cider vinegar. Heat gently until the sugar dissolves. (Don't stir. Again, not sure why. )
5. When dissolved, pop in the chilli and peppers and bring to a 'rollicking' boil. (Nige's words not mine).. 
6. Boil for 10 minutes then take off the heat and leave to cool for 40 minutes until the flecks have all dispersed throughout the jam. 
7. Spoon into your jam jars and seal with lids.
8. Merry Christmas! 

Cut the chillies and peppers. Or make faces with them.

Add flecks to the dissolved sugar mixture

Rollicking.

Flossie Teapot Top Tips...

- DO NOT touch ANY part of your body between the time frame of chopping the chillies and washing your hands.
- Don't force the blender lid on as it will get stuck and you will regress into a guilty child while your dad lectures you on the importance of NOT FORCING THINGS.

PS. If you'd like to see me ride a human reindeer and do the season's most dubious David Attenborough impression, then click HERE and it'll take you over to Fun Kids' YouTube page. I know.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve!

x

Weekend Roundup: Pin The Nose On The Reindeer and a Fine Christmas Cheese Selection

I'm slowly losing patience with myself. My nana-isms are getting worse. Firstly, I played scrabble on Friday. Now don't get me wrong, scrabble is a great game and I'm still pretty immobile with my leg, but still. I played scrabble on a Friday and lost. (Nertz is apparently a word). We had a Christmas party in the flat on Saturday (more on that later... hold those little Shetlands), and I spent a large part of it whittling about a) when to put the sausage rolls on and b) why nobody was eating my Christmas cheese selection. Finally, I've forgotten what was on my Christmas list (I got quite excited and wrote it about two months ago) and am dismayed to find out that I've asked for... a cook book, some knickers and two nice bath towels. I kid you not.

Anyway, back to the Christmas party. It was a blooming lovely day, seeing lots of faces and drinking mulled wine for nine hours straight. There was even a decorate-your-own-Christmas-biscuit station AND a pin the nose on the reindeer. Don't nobody say I don't know how to throw a party. Perhaps the best bit was when someone decided to put on the 'partay' playlist on my Spotify, only to discover it was 42 tracks of McFly's greatest hits. I honestly don't remember compiling that. I just think Spotify knows me too well.

I also added to the festive decorations with a homemade tree garland from the leftover card I had from making the robin Christmas cards.

Lastly, I was back presenting Them this weekend after a week off. If you'd like to have a little look while on a mulled wine break you can check it out here... http://bit.ly/1brvIvq

I'm off to try and revise my Christmas list

x

Christmas and Crutches

Some of you may or may not know that me and my left knee are not the best of friends. For those who are unaware, I dislocated my left knee quite badly 5 years ago, and since then it has the wonderful habit of slipping out occasionally, often while I'm cracking out some of my not-quite-strictly moves. Well on Friday it decided to do it again pretty badly during a pirouette or similar move. So here I am, in a cast, with crutches, with only Phil and Holly for company. 

As much as I love feeling sorry for myself I'm going to stop. Because despite being sofa-bound, Christmas has still managed to arrive in our little London flat. 

I had my heart set on a real tree this year, so Steve went out and dutifully bought this little baby for me. I somehow underestimated the whole bauble/tree ratio, and my 3 homemade baubles aren't quite cutting it. But I think he has a bit of charm about him all the same! 

Before all this palava happened I managed to get on the ice at Somerset House for some outdoor ice skating. I hadn't been ice skating since I was 14, so did a rather good Bambi impression for the first ten minutes. It's SUCH good fun though, and if you can get to Somerset House, it's worth it just for the setting. Skating around to a lit-up backdrop of the building is pretty beautiful. Pop it on your list of things to do. 

I'm determined to play hostess with not the mostess on Saturday and host an afternoon of mulled wine, mince pies and Mariah sing alongs so everyone can admire our tree and his bountiful decorations. I'm going to insist on no dancing allowed though (well for me anyway) as I'm quite fond of my other knee.

 Hope you're all having a marvellous Christmas run-up so far! 

x