Gifts in a Jar,
The Day after Bonfire Night
and
Home-Made Irish Cream Liqueur
I had a wonderful start to the day yesterday, as some of you will have read I went to Malton Food Lover’s Market, an extraordinary event that was bristling with locally produced treats of all sorts, as well as locally reared rare breed meats, fruit, vegetables and cheeses……I will be covering the market in much more detail at a later stage as I still have hundreds of photos to upload and all my tasting notes to sort out, it’s such a hard job!
However, I must issue a word of warning to you all; on my return I discovered that my blog had been deleted due to someone hacking into my account…….I was pretty upset as you can imagine and was also very sad that someone could have stooped so low as to do this to me. It’s at this stage that I must fly the flag for social media and networking, a very kind person from Twitter alerted me to the fact that I may I have been hacked after seeing my pleas for help; they then sent me details on how I could possibly reinstate my account and blog ~ this act of kindness from someone I have never met before cancelled out the initial shock and anger that someone had deliberately deleted my blog along with it all my enthusiasm and hard work……a big THANKS!
Moving onto happier events, Bonfire Night last night was brilliant. The local firework show amazed and delighted us with loud whiz bangs, shooting rockets and hissing, whirling Catherine wheels……cordite and wood smoke hung thickly in the air and everyone had rosy red noses with happy smiles whilst wearing looks of surprise and wonderment. The bangers sizzled and the steaming hot soup was like a hug in a mug…..on returning home, a large slice of ginger parkin completed the bonfire feast, once again, I will share that recipe here a little later.
And so it is that after Bonfire night comes more gift making for Christmas……I am still making treats from my Gifts in a Jar series, edible gifts that are in a jar ~ home-made and always welcomed by my family and friends. I have two more hot beverages to share with you, tea and hot chocolate, but for today I am showing you an easy “copy cat” recipe for Irish Cream Liqueur.
This is always a popular gift, as you can imagine, and the original recipe was sent to me by a friend in Canada. Although there are many recipes for this home-made Irish style liqueur drink, this is the one that I prefer as it is not too sweet and is very easy to whip up as a last minute gift.
I am entering this as another recipe for Liz’s Thrifty Christmas, but I have to be honest and say that I am not sure that is cheaper to make at home than buying a generic bottle at one of the budget food stores in the UK! However, the joy of making this and knowing what what ingredients it contains still makes it a great gift to make, and it’s fun to decorate the bottle and add your own home-made tags.
Home-made Irish Cream Liqueur
Ingredients:
600ml Irish Whiskey, or Scotch Whisky
1 tin sweetened condensed milk (397ml/14ozs)
240ml single cream
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
2 tablespoons coconut cream or coconut milk
2 teaspoons good quality instant coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract/essence
Method:
Blend all the ingredients together and decant into a bottle; Store in a cool place, preferably the fridge for up to one month.
Add a label to say:
“ Store covered in the fridge and use within a month. Serve over ice or in a speciality coffee”.
Thanks for stopping by and allowing me to let of steam, see you later and enjoy your Sunday!
Karen
(NB:This recipe was originally written and submitted by myself and published in Country Kitchen magazine, November 2009.)
A Vintage Chic says
Oh, Karen…I'm so sorry that happened to you! Being surrounded by so many wonderful bloggers as we are, it's hard to imagine that there are others out there that take delight in messing up what we love, isn't it? What a wonderful soul that helped you! No matter what, there are SO many good people out there in the world!
Happy to see things are back to normal for you. LOVE your photos of Bonfire Night–hope I can be there one year to enjoy it in person!
Hope your day is just beautiful, my friend…
Julie
Dom at Belleau Kitchen says
i have been thinking about you all night since i read your twitter feed yesterday… I would be beside myself if someone did this to me to think of the loss!… and your blog is so beautiful… thank goodness you have it back!… your liquor sounds divine, the list of ingredients is enough to induce a Christmas based coma just reading it!… lovely x
Victoria says
So happy to see your post this morning! xx This recipe is the perfect gift for my sister-in-law!!! 🙂
Kate - Turquoise Lemons says
Hi Karen
So sorry that this happened to you however glad to hear of the positive twitter help and todays post is wonderful. i really need to start making some of your gifts in a jar. I am really looking forward to seeing the rest of them. I also absolutely love the second firework photo it looks fantastic. Have a good day. Kate xx
La Table De Nana says
Oh ..what a shame someone did that!
Kate@whatkatebaked says
Yeahhh- welcome back Karen after yesterday's scare! What a great recipe-I'm definitely bookmarking this one!!
Choclette says
Karen, that's terrible, what a horrible thing to do. Thank god for Twitter and so glad you managed to get it back. It was someone on Twitter that helped me rescue my dead iPhone yesterday, but really, I'm feeling quite speechless! I had a panic this morning because I couldn't get into my blog or blogger or gmail – took me a good hour to get that one sorted, but luckily my blog was still there. Am off to back my blog up quickly!!!!
Fantastic photos of the fireworks BTW and another lovely gift in a jar. The thing about making your own is,that although they are often more expensive to make, they are sooooo much better than much of what you can buy.
thelittleloaf says
I can't believe that someone could, and would, do that to you! What an awful thing to happen, but what a wonderful post to come back with :-0 This homemade cream liqueur looks absolutely delicious – the perfect Christmas present 🙂
Choclette says
Hi Karen – Having now gone to back up my blog, I;m unable to do so. Just wondering if that was the problem you had and what you did about it? I'm betting the following message:
Safari could not update this feed because the source file is no longer available.
Karen S Booth says
Julie ~ thanks, yes, after my initial shock, disbelief and anger, that act of kindness went a long way to make things right.
Dom ~ thanks, I WAS beside myself I can tell you ~ I could have had a whole bottle of that Irish Cream Liqueur to myself!
Thanks Victoria ~ I hope your sister likes this if you make it.
Thanks Kate ~ thank goodness for Twitter otherwise I would still be disabled and have no access to my google a/c too! Glad you like the liqueur.
Yes a BIG shame Monique, and unbelievable too.
Thanks Kate ~ I felt bereft when I realised my blog had disappeared!
Oh no Choclette ~ thank goodness that you manage to log in, I am not sure now whether this may be a google problem? But it is a catch 22 situation as we need google to use the blogger platform. Glad your blog was there eventually!
The Little Loaf ~ thanks so much! I was in shock I can tell you! Glad you like the look of the liqueur.
OH no Choclette ~ that was not the same message I had but I have had problems updating my feed today……how is it now for you? Let me know and I will see if I can find anything out for you.
Janice says
That looks so simple to make, not a huge fan of Baileys but it's good over icecream!
Sorry to hear about your blog problems,glad to see you back in business.
Ruth Ellis says
That's horrendous. Really glad you've got it back, but how horrible. The Irish Cream Liqueur sounds fantastic though :o)
Rx
Brownieville Girl says
So glad everything worked out ok for you … I was wondering why I couldn't access your blog all day yesterday.
Your Baileys substitute sounds perfect.
Working london mummy says
So glad you got it back, sorry to hear about the problems with your recipe files though. I think there are some strange hackers (I kept getting strange anonymous comments asking my my Twitter and FB ID's but deleted them and I keep changing my password nowadays too). Still it is crazy, why would anyone hack a food blog? glad all ok x
Dream Catcher says
Hello Karen is there a problem with your site as I haven't received any of your blogs for over a week now .
Karen S Booth says
No problems with my site now Dream Catcher, there was yesterday for about 6 hours, but as you can see from all the comments on my posts for the last week, my blog has been fine….is it the feed that is not working for you?
fiona maclean says
*hugs* I just don't see why someone would hack your blog Karen, it's nothing but goodness.
glad you are back
xx
Karen S Booth says
Thanks Fiona, I was shocked to say the least but thanks for your warm support and lovely comments!
Karen. X
Karen S Booth says
Janice ~ thanks! XX
Ruth ~ thanks also,it was a nightmare and I was so upset!
Browniewille Girl ~ more thanks to you too!
Hugs Working London Mummy and thanks! XX
Chele says
OMG! I've never backed my blog up once, wouldn't even know where to start, but to think that someone would hack in and delete your blog is simply outrageous. My mantra at times like this is that karma is a b1tch, may they get the pain ten fold!
PS – Totally stealing your Irish Cream though lol
Kentish Keg-Meg says
Glad all is well now Karen. I tried to read your blog a few times over the weekend but it kept saying. Blog has been removed.
A Trifle Rushed says
Oh Karen, I'm just catching up, how ghastly. I'm so glad your blog is back and working again.
Jude x