Home made Cream Liqueur - MERRY CHRISTMAS!

As a certain brand of cream liqueur seems to have become a necessary part of many people's Christmas, but with finances tight for so many, I thought I'd share these recipes as a Christmas treat to all my readers and writing chums.  ENJOY!

Cream Liqueur Recipes

Recipe 1 ~ Irish Cream Liqueur

3tbsp Espresso Coffee Powder

15g Dark Chocolate ~ chopped up small

397g Can of Sweetened Condensed milk

1tbsp Vanilla Extract

175ml Irish Whiskey

Mix and melt the espresso powder & dark chocolate into 175ml of hot water then leave to cool.  Then blend with the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and whiskey. 

Lovely!  But a bit too much caffeine for me, so I played around with the recipe and came up with this - which is even better!!!

Recipe 2 ~ CHOCOLATE CREAM LIQUEUR

Mix 3 dessert spoons of cocoa powder into 250ml hot water and leave to cool.  Then blend with condensed milk, vanilla and whiskey as above.

OR ~ Recipe 3 ~ OUR FAVOURITE! Instead of vanilla and whiskey just use 175ml of Morgan’s spiced rum.

Smug Christmas Shopping!

Almost everyone’s feeling the squeeze these days, but there still seems to be a real pressure to provide huge piles of presents for loved ones.  Books have always been a favourite present between me and my other half, but a big pile of them wrapped and waiting under the Christmas tree would cost a fortune wouldn’t they?

Well no!

For the past few years we’ve both gone to our local library on their last opening day before Christmas and selected six books for each other.  It’s been really interesting reading books that I probably wouldn’t have selected for myself, and being able to choose a selection of books that I could never afford to buy for my other half.  We always wrap them up and put them under the tree just like normal presents, but once they’ve been read we don’t have to find shelf space for them!

We try to read all the books before they’re due back, but occasionally have renewed a few so that we manage to savour every word.  This makes the dull weeks of early January a real joy, and provides us with fresh input to stimulate our imaginations for new projects in the New Year.

Doing this supports other writers who get a small fee when their books are borrowed, and it also supports your local library, so it really is a super smug way to do at least some of your Christmas shopping!