CHRISTMAS CRAFTS

I promised to post up some crafts for people. I know theres institutional abuse survivors reading this blog, well, doing a bit of nice art work or craft helps me feel less stessed out, plus you end up wityh something nice at the end of it.

I have a friend who usually makes homemade jam and she gives me a couple of jars for Christmas. It's much nicer than anything you can buy, as she puts lots of fruit and as little sugar as possible in it. She did some strawberry and pineapple jam one year, it was delicious. Here is a recepe for jam, if anyone wants to have a go at that. I reuse jars, if you are not using the lids you can use any food jar, even pickles, as long as you wash the jar out very carefully, then I always fill the jar with boiling water from the kettle to sterilise it. I use cling film to seal the jars, if you put it on while the jam is hot and pull it taut, and wrap an elastic band round it it will keep for ages, though if it's nice it probably won't, because the person you give it to will eat it all! If you cut a circle of pretty fabric out and place that over the top, secured by an elastic band.

Ingredients:

1lb fruit
3 tablespoons water (dont add this for raspberry jam)
1lbs sugar with pectin added if making strawberry raspberry or pineapple jam
Method:
1.Wash and wipe the fruit. Cut into pieces if its something like plums or apricots.
2.Put into a pan with the water and simmer very gently until the fruit is soft. Add extra water if you need to.
3.Add the sugar, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
4.Bring to the boil and boil rapidly until the jam sets when tested.
5.Remove the scum.
6.Pot and seal while still hot.

Here are some more craft ideas that you could make as Christmas presents