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

Round Robins

On Saturday I did one of those things you always dream about doing, but rarely ever do... a FULL ON pyjama day. My reindeer print Primark jamas never once came off, the duvet was transferred to the sofa and the cuppas/hot chocolates were kept on a loop. It was beautifullll. Apart from when I had the clever idea of watching a nice Saturday afternoon film and chose My Sister's Keeper and I disintegrated into a blithering snotty mess.

Despite the pyjama situation, I was pretty productive - (as much as I love a day doing nothing, I can't actually do nothing. If that makes sense. I get too fidgety.) - and so got all my Christmas cards made. What started off as a simple idea steadily became more fiddly and time consuming, so it took me all morning to make twenty, but I'm a-pretty happy with the results!

I printed a template from online, and bought a mammoth piece of brown card. I then used red felt for the belly, stencilled and painted a wing on each, before sticking a card wing on top. I then stitched in the eyes, and just have the ribbon to attach. In total I spent about £3, and I've still got a load of card left over. That sounds like the worst boast ever. Check out my left-over card. Oo-er.

I just need to attach some gingham ribbon in a loop at the top -  the idea is that these can be hung anywhere, so can turn from card into decoration... fancy ehhhh!?

But someone's stolen my glue gun... (ie. I've definitely lost it).

PS How come I've only just got into Pinterest?!

x

Bublé and Baubles

Blog NEGLECT. I'm really sorry! A whole week and a bit. Eep. I had a dream that I'd done a post, which is my excuse for not doing one, as I thought I'd already done one.

But I didn't. So here's a real one! Oh my.

As much as I LOVE Christmas, I'm usually really anti all-things-Christmas until December 1st, but seeing as the Christmas adverts and decorations are inescapable already this year, I too was drawn into a bit of the old November festiveness. Last night my friend Leah and I cracked on a bit of Buble's Christmas album and got crafting. It was magical.

Another reason for the premature festiveness is the fact that I've decided we're going to host a Christmas party. It's our first Christmas in the flat, so I've invited people for 'mulled wine, wine and Michael Bublé.' The only problem is that I've never hosted a party before, and I think I'm taking it a bit too seriously. The food options are already being sourced, the playlist is being compiled and the decorations are being made. I'm seriously considering a pin the nose on the reindeer game. Too much? I'm going to be heartbroken if nobody turns up.

I want to get a real (albeit very small) tree this year, but have no decorations. Soo, to save money I decided to make some baubles! I picked up a pack of polystyrene 7cm balls from an art shop (10 for £3.50 - bargain) and then raided my knitting bag (yes I have a knitting bag) for some wool.

I then popped some glue on the ball, and wound the string around it. Now this is trickier than it looks as the wool has a habit of sliding off the sides. Push a length of wool through some of the wound wool and tie to make the hanger loop. I then decided to sew some mini pom poms on one. It's not exactly festive. Or traditional. But I like it in its own little way! 

Leah showed me up and made this beautiful red one, which reminds me of the top you get on an apple lattice. 

Tonight I'm on to the Christmas cards, and then after that I'm on to paper chains and then after that who knows. Our tiny flat is going to look like Christmas has thrown up in it by the time I've finished.

x

80% Full Of Wine (And Some Fireworks)

HAPPY MONDAY. This needs capitals so you shout it in your head, and then therefore believe that it is in fact a happy Monday. :)

After a lot of brain work, I concluded that at the peak of this weekend I was approximately 80% full of wine. It all stared on Friday with a work lunch at Homeslice, with the biggest pizzas and even bigger bottles of wine. Nobody decided do tell me that they measure how much you've drunk, and charge you by the ruler, as was. Therefore I thought it was rude to be bought wine and not attempt to finish the bottle. Nightmare.

Wine-gate continued on Friday night, where we went back to Steve's house and had a meal out with his parents. I LOVE visiting their house, not least for the fact that they have two of the most incredibly brilliant dogs I have ever known...Basil and Hector. They're two unbelievably fluffy and daft labradoodles who are just far too brilliant. 

Steve's mum has been doing some decorating, and bought this beautiful chair from eBay which can be customised with the fabric of your choice. Straight on the wishlist.

Saturday night was a house warming/fireworks party. Being a massive nana, I had half body outside the house, half body inside the house, to enable a swift leap to safety in the probable event of a wayward firework. With a small wine in hand to calm my nerves, naturally. Apart from on over-excitable catherine wheel it was alllll fine.

Sunday afternoon included lovely little wander from central London to South Kensington via the incredible lights of Harrods. It's kinda hard to miss them. It's officially Christmas!

If you've got a cuppa on the go, take 2 minutes and check out Them on YouTube... it's a brand new channel bringing you all the goss from Youtube's finest (and I also may or not present it!) It would be lovely if you had a watch though. Thank you love you and bye!

x