Brought to you by Coles
I have to start by telling you… I can
barely type this post given that the skin on my fingers is practically nonexistent
thanks to a run in with a pot of hot caramel.
But because it is Christmas and in the
spirit of good will and all that other happy stuff that goes on at Christmas
time, we shall continue.
Right?
Right!
Teacher’s gifts, hostess gifts, and
neighbour’s gifts. Gifts for the GP, the physio, the chiropractor, the dog
groomer, the cleaner, the basketball coach, the long lost Uncle and the reliable
Garbos. The list of people I seem to forget until the last minute when it comes
to Christmas pressies goes on and on and on and… you get the idea.
You would be seriously broke if you went
out and brought something for all of those people. And apart from the money
burning holes in your pocket kind of situation… what the hell do you even buy for all of those people???
Well I am partial to a good old fashioned homemade
gift. Something made with love and joy and blood and tears and half the skin
from your fingers.
I’m not making this sound very appealing am
I?
No need to answer that.
In the December Issue of Coles Magazine
there are pages upon pages of DIY gifts from the kitchen and BAM… just like
that, the problem of what to buy for all those randoms mentioned above has
miraculously been solved.
As you were.
No WAIT.
I haven’t finished yet.
I have a story to tell you first (of
course) and I want to show you some of the homemade gift recipes I tried out
for myself.
OK so first up we have the Blackberry
Raspberry and Vanilla Bean Jam. We are not friends this jam and I. Alright, we are
kind of OK with each other now that
my mum came to the rescue.
You see the thing about recipes is that you
are supposed to follow them.
Ha Funny that right?
Yep each and every step has a purpose… and
usually that purpose is to make sure you actually reach the desired result at
the end of all your hard work.
But then you have a know it all Martha Mudguts like me who’s all “yeah yeah… like you
really need to stick a couple of lemon seeds in a muslin cloth to successfully
make Jam. It’s Jam. How hard can it be?”
And when you do just so happen to miss that
one important step that is vital to ensuring your jam sets, then you can
officially wipe the know it all part
from your name.
OK my name.
Yep I skipped that one important step and
when my jam didn’t set I rang my Mum and was all “MUUUMMM why isn’t my jam
setting sob sob”.
Thankfully my Mum spared me the lecture (mostly
because I omitted the fact that I skipped a step) and she saved the day with
some jam setter. And although it would have been easier and far less stressful
to just follow the darn instructions, I did end up with this...
Cue the trumpets people.
We have JAM!!
But don’t go anywhere just yet … I’m not quite
done.
We still have the matter of some Salted Caramel
Pretzel Bark which is responsible for me losing the skin on my fingers.
I’m gonna be honest with you here. It took
two failed batches of caramel and a whole wasted block of good quality
chocolate before I got this one right.
Again, I don’t think I *ahem* followed the
recipe right.
I had all the best intentions of taking a
photo to show you my disaster, you know in the spirit of keeping it real and
all that. But after I dropped the second disastrous batch onto the kitchen
floor and the dogs gave it a good licking, I didn’t think it would make for a
pretty blog picture.
So you have this…
A batch of Salted Caramel Pretzel bark that
I actually got right.
Don’t mind me if I look away at this point because
although this tasted insanely good, I don’t think I can ever look at it again…
I tasted far too much of it when I was trying to get that sucker right.
As I mentioned earlier, the December Issue
of Coles Magazine has a sack full of recipes for homemade Christmas gifts,
including the Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark and Blackberry, Raspberry and Vanilla
Bean Jam and the White Chocolate Christmas Crackles I made for a Christmas
party the other night. (More details on that in a post coming soon).
If Martha Mudguts is not your name and
cooking up gifts isn’t your game (see what I did there? Did you, did you?),
then fear not Pork Chop – there are a load of gift ideas you can throw together
for under $20 bucks, all made with items you can pick up at your local Coles
store or Coles online.
So that it Christmas gifts officially done
and sorted for me. Everyone is getting Jam… cause ahhh there’s not a whole lot
of that umm Pretzel Bark left.
It’s the thought that counts right?
Right!
Now one more thing before you bail on me…
how do you fancy winning a $1000 Coles voucher?
Coles is all about making Christmas easier
for us, and what could be easier than having what is in my opinion, one of the
most painful Christmas costs paid for you - The Christmas grocery shop!
Yep yep yep, Coles is going to do exactly that
for one lucky winner – provide you with a $1000 Coles voucher to cover your
Christmas grocery bill.
All you need to do to enter is share a photo on my Live, Love & Hiccups
Facebook page or on
Instagram of what you would like more of this Christmas.
Use the tag
#ColesMoreChristmas and that’s it!
You are in the running for the easiest
Christmas Ever!
Entries close 20th December 2014 and the winner will be notified by email/direct message.
This
competition is not exclusive to Life Love and Hiccups and one winner will be
chosen from entries submitted across 6 individual blogs. The
competition is open to Australian residents only and is a game of creativity in
which the judge’s decision is final.
Have you finished your Christmas
Shopping?
Had a go at any homemade Christmas
Gifts this year?
Have you got a stash of pressies ready
for anyone you may have forgotten about?