Yesterday I was asked what sort of items we added to our Christmas baskets last year.  For the life of me I couldn’t remember.  I thought it would make a great post to share the recipes we canned last year for our baskets and also, what we have going already this year.

Everyone seems to love receiving the Christmas Preserves Baskets that we make up each year.  I love to make gifts for people and receive gifts made from others.  There is something really touching knowing that someone spent time and effort to make a gift just for you and the fact that chances are while they were making it, they were thinking about you!

Sandie

I’ll start with the recipes from last year and provide the links to the recipes and then I will preview what we have made so far this year and what we are planning on making!

The first recipe was one I found on Pinterest for something called Onion Jam.  It is great on burgers, sausages and I suppose anything else you might like a healthy dose of onion and bacon on!

Recipe: https://ohyestheydid.ca/2017/06/11/onion-jam-with-bacon/

Next up was the Horse Radish.  That was an interesting venture.  I swear that it cleared my sinuses for years to come… it was potent!

We received a bunch of horse radish and a horse radish plant from some friends and I made use of the actual Horse Radish to can for our baskets.

Recipe: https://ohyestheydid.ca/2017/06/19/never-again-blocked-sinuses-horse-radish-pickledcanned/

I like to make homemade Cranberry Sauce for the baskets as well.  It is a nice touch to have with Christmas dinner!

Recipe: https://ohyestheydid.ca/2017/09/30/fast-easy-cranberry-sauce/

We made three kinds of jellies for our baskets as well.  One of them starting with a strong steeped Gingerbread tea.  We ended up with a flavourful Gingerbread Jelly!

Recipe: https://ohyestheydid.ca/2017/08/19/gingerbread-jelly/

We made a Cranberry Raspberry Jelly using a jug of cranberry raspberry juice! It added a very colourful addition to the baskets!

Recipe: https://ohyestheydid.ca/2017/07/12/cranberry-raspberry-jelly/

And just to try something different, we made a Coffee Jelly with…. you guessed it…. strong coffee, with some vanilla and cinnamon.  Yum!!!

Recipe: https://ohyestheydid.ca/2017/09/30/coffee-jelly-with-cinnamon-and-vanilla/

We made some Pickled Beets for both last year and this coming Christmas.  Another very colourful addition to our baskets!

Recipe: https://ohyestheydid.ca/2018/10/01/pickled-beets-canning/

And some Dill Pickles… because who doesn’t like Dill Pickles???

Recipe: https://ohyestheydid.ca/2017/08/20/homemade-dill-pickles/

So far this year I have made 15 jars of Pickled Beets and two kinds of relishes.  The first one being a Zucchini Relish made from the gigantic zucchini I grew this year.  I have a few more of the giant zucchini so I think I am probably going to make another batch of this sometime this week!

Recipe: https://ohyestheydid.ca/2018/09/10/zucchini-relish/

And a Cauliflower Relish, thanks to Chris asking me over and over to make some lol! It does look a lot like the Zucchini relish but trust me, they are very different!

Recipe: https://ohyestheydid.ca/2018/10/09/cauliflower-relish-canning/

And finally… the remainder of the items on the To Do list for this years baskets.  I/we still want to make some Mexican Pickled Vegetables aka Taco Pickles, Salsa, Marmalade, Sweet Chili Sauce, Cinnamon Hard Candy and I am thinking about trying to make some rock candy…. just because it looks like a really cool thing to do lol!

We also add some baking to our baskets as well…. usually some banana bread baked in small loaf pans, sometimes a flavoured biscotti, and this year we are also thinking about some flavoured oils and maybe a recipe for Gingerbread Cream Liqueur!

All of these items combined should make for some delicious Christmas Preserve Baskets!

Sandie