A few weeks back I went to an event by
friends of glass and
really had a lovely time.
Friends of glass are an organisation who are committed
to promoting the use of glass in homes. I am so inspired by recipes in glass
that I have started collecting a selection of glass bottles and jars to store my
food in. Just when my jar obsession was calming down, lo and behold I got
another invitation by friends of glass to attend their Christmas event at Cactus
Studios -Michel Roux Jr's cookery school, where Saturday Kitchen is filmed. I
am not complaining I was rather pleased that I would get to learn some more
ideas for Christmas using jars.

On arrival I had a
lovely surprise as I met a fellow blogger friends Choclette who blogs at
chocolate log blog. As we entered we were greeted with the most wonderful and welcoming Christmas setting of candle light,
Christmas tree, innovative decorations in glass bottles, carols playing and
glasses of warm mulled cider. Whilst getting to know all the other guests we
mingled over shot glasses of red pepper soup with pesto. Followed by warm brie
with cranberries all served in pretty glass jars and breadsticks for scooping
up the creamy brie.
After the nibbles we watch a cookery demo by chef Bridget
Colvin and BBC TV presenter Cherry Healey . They made spiced parsnip soup with
pesto and parsnip crisps which we sipped whilst the second demo of pies in the
jars was demonstrated. For the vegetarians there was Butternut squash jar pie and
for the non-vegetarians Bridget showed a honey & mustard ham rock jar pie.
Whilst the pies were cooking in the oven ready for our
dinner we were shown how to create Cointreau clementines in jars. We enjoyed the lovely hot
pies with delicious wine and then it was hands on deck as we each created our
own jars of the boozy clementines. We had to pay extra attention to the caramel
as it can burn in a jiffy. I was really pleased that my caramel did turn out
perfect and there was enough to share with a friend whose caramel turned just little
too brown.
The evening ended with a lovely arts and crafts
demonstration by Amanda who showed us how to let our creative juices flow by
filling a jar with hot chocolate powder, chocolate buttons, and marsh mallows
and all beautifully decorated with ribbons and bows. Of course we all attached
a miniature bottle of booze to the jars to make the hot chocolate in the jar
just that little bit more special.
The evening was awesome and really fun and interactive. We
all left with all our lovely gifts and an additional surprise of a jar chutney
by Rubies in the Rubble, who create all their chutneys from unsold fruit that
otherwise would go to waste.
I would like to thank friends of glass for a wonderful
evening. It was most enjoyable.