Monday 30 November 2009

Making Presents

It's that time of year when I think of the presents I'm going to make for the winter solstice celebrations.
The idea is often a bit scary for some of my friends but I take great pleasure in thinking up new ways to send thanks / greetings / love to my friends and family.
I have had quite a few ideas this year (little first aid bags with Arnica, plasters, Rescue Remedy in / lanterns made of beautiful hand died paper ) but settled on rosemary and garlic infused olive oil for my friends, I've been saving bottles for a few weeks and have them all lined up in my kitchen ready to be filled, and cinnamon and orange flavoured shortbread biscuits for family. I trialed the idea last week and made star shaped biscuits and brushed them with a copper or gold edible sheen. They looked and tasted very nice so I will be busy making those about a week before the celebrations.
Last week I spent a day with my sister and daughter making rich aromatic mince meat. This is an annual activity that the women look forward to. We enjoyed a delicious home made soup and bread which my sister made and then put on some wonderful wassailing in the background and got to work adding the ingredients to our large bowls. The mix has to stand for 12 hours and then cook on a low heat for 3 so we took our mixtures to our own home and cooked them there.
We will make the first batch of mince pies on 1st December and eat them watching a Christmassy film or maybe tell some stories round the fire.
Wassail