Gifts in a Jar

Last Christmas someone gave me a gift of a brownie mix in a jar.
I loved it.
The brownies were to die for and so easy to make. Soft and gooey in all the right places.

So after begging the recipe off the friend I finally got round to making a gift in a Jar for my friend who just had her birthday this week.
I even managed to get the label to go how I wanted and managed to find some simple ribbon with 'Happy Birthday" written on it.

I was really happy with how it turned out.

I have managed to find loads of websites that have the recipes for Gifts in Jars. Some easy to follow others a little more difficult but the thing that has struck me is exactly what people are prepared to gift to others in jars. To me if you are gifting something to someone then you want it to be as simple a gift as possible. By which I mean the recipient should not have to add too many things to make the gift work (I don't want them to have to spend too much money just to use a gift I have given them!) The brownies I use only require the recipient to add eggs, oil and vanilla (normal basic pantry items)
Some of the recipes I checked out had an ingredient list longer than the ones already in the jar that needed to be added. So it definitely pays to check out the recipes to see if they fit with what you would like your gift receiver to have to do to make the gift work.

Quick Christmas Treat

At this time of year there are numerous morning teas, lunches and afternoon teas to attend.
And of course you are always asked to bring a small plate of some description or other!

Now I mentioned about some cool little recipes I discovered on Paisley Jade the other day.
This time I have discovered one of my own and will happily share it with you.

You require:

1 pkt Mallow Puffs

100g white choc buttons or melts

enough red or green smarties, M&M's, pebbles, Jaffas etc for 1 per mallow puff

Method:

Place the Mallow Puffs on a tray.

Melt the white choc buttons

Swirl white choc on top of Mallow Puff and add a coloured M&M.

Place on plate and continue with next one.

There you have it, simple little Chocolate Christmas Puddings.

Works For Me Wednesday

This is something I have picked up from a blog I view daily Over Whelmed with Joy. Ok she picked it up from a blog she views too, but that is how things get carried forward and a trend started.

Anyway, it is a way of letting you know about something that works for me, a little tip or product etc.

My WFMW Tip is something I actually saw someone else do one time and was a little puzzled to begin with as to what she was actually doing, but once completed I realised and thought "what a wonderful, simple but effective idea"

This is a tip that is useful when cooking, baking mainly.

I always find that when I have lined the tin with baking paper that however hard I try it never stayes in place and is even worse when I go to pour the mixture into the said tin.

So by securing the baking paper in place with 4 pegs makes for so much less mess and frustration.

The paper then stayes where I want it to stay until I am ready to put the mixture in the oven, then all you do is remove the pegs and place tin in the oven as normal.

So simple but so effective.