Rocky Road Recipe

Rocky road is another yummy Christmas treat to make. You can enjoy this any time of year, but sharing it around is a great (and cheap) Christmas idea.

Ingredients:

500grams (18 ounces) melted chocolate (you can use milk, dark or white)
200grams (7 ounces) marshmallows, chopped (or use mini marshmallows)
¼ cup desiccated coconut
2x 55 gram (2 ounce) bars Turkish Delight*
½ cup roasted peanuts (other nuts can be used if you prefer)

Method:

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir until thoroughly mixed through.
2. Pour into a shallow slice tin that has been lined with baking paper.
3. Place in refrigerator and leave until set.
4. Use a warm knife to cut into squares of desired size.

*You can use glace cherries instead, if you like.

This looks nice in cellophane with ribbon or you could use a small cardboard noodle box to present it in.

Your own gift baskets

I find gift baskets and hampers very exciting! Once you unwrap your gift, you find many more surprises awaiting. Pre-made gift baskets are generally quite expensive when you consider the contents, a much better idea, of course, is to make them yourself. This not only saves money, but makes sure that all the contents are useful to or wanted by the receiver. While everyone's tastes are unique, I would like to provide some theme ideas to get you started, you can customise them with your own ideas too.

Firstly, even though I have referred to these as gift 'baskets' you don't necessarily have to use a basket to contain all the gifts. You can use a variety of cardboard or metal boxes, bowls or plastic storage containers to hold all the gifts. It is even better, in my opinion, to use a container that the recipient can reuse, so it forms part of your gift too.

Gift Basket themes:

Stationery - could consist of small notebooks, funky coloured paper-clips, highlighters, a refillable pen or stickers.

Bath & body - could consist of bath bombs, bath salts or crystals, a face mask, aromatherapy candles, massage oil, a pumice stone (for scrubbing feet), talcum powder or a deep conditioner for hair.

Food basket - could consist of canned nuts, pretzels or potato chips, chocolate in a block or box, beef jerky, marshmallows, nuts still in the shell with a nut-cracker, a can of soda or caramel popcorn.

more to come...