Where Do You Keep Your Stash?

There has been a constant niggle at the back of my mind whilst reading the many & varied contributions to this most erudite of blogs. On those, possibly rare occasions when you don’t stuff the whole packet of biscuits down your gob in one session, how do you keep the rest in as near perfect condition as possible until you are tempted to scoff the rest ? Indeed you may keep some biscuits for ‘best’; the biscuit equivalent of the front parlour. Just how do you do it?

This is always a particular issue during Christmas festivities when one can so easily be tempted by the special large packs of different biscuit assortments. Well, Mr B is anyway & even the greediest of us surely cannot consume the whole of one of those? So, they have to be kept. As I pass numerous of those storage facilities, big, yellow & other varieties, whilst driving round the wilds of SW London I am reminded constantly of this most pressing problem. It even occurred to me that it may even be that there are some of those storage rooms filled with someone’s favourite biscuits!

So, what are the alternatives: the biscuit tin which will sometimes have specially designed ‘bits’ to help keep the contents fresh; the biscuit barrel which I think is just a posh name for a tin; a plastic box which may range from an old ice-cream container to the high-flying super-sealed any-size available type of box. Your biccies might just get shoved in a plastic bag or even stuck in a drawer opened & with no special care & attention. Some packets may find their way into the fridge if they have chocolate on them.

Personally I would like to speak up for the humble Klippet as the most worthy biscuit storage accompaniment. You take a few biscuits out of the packet & provided you haven’t ripped the wrapping in your ravenous attempts to get to the contents as speedily as possible, a klippet seals the end quickly & easily. No need to find room for large receptacles of any other type & a quick release mechanism allows for an almost immediate access when required. In posh company the biscuits can just be easily decanted onto your best china plates. Easy, cheap, practical, what more do you want.

The Apparently Mysterious Ms.B

Tin of Christmas Presents

I have an admission to make.  I am the worlds worst at buying Christmas presents.

I am not proud of this and it’s not that I have that many to buy but still I leave it far too late.

So as the clock ticks towards closing time on the last shopping day before Christmas I join the queues of likeminded (and rarely sober) shoppers to find a “small something” for Aunties who I haven’t seen since the same time the previous year.

What do they get? A tin of biscuits.

But not just any old biscuits. No, it has to look as though some supreme effort has been made. (I guess it must be a guilt thing)

Nothing is too good for dear old Aunty.  Every year I buy tins of “Luxury Belgian Chocolate” biscuits or “Duchy Shortbreads”. You have doubtless seen the ones I mean, they are ones with pictures of  idyllic country cottages or a regal red deer stags on the lid. Every year I try to rationalise paying way over the odds for what is essentially just a “packet of biscuits” in a fancy tin but expediency wins the day.

Or should I say won the day.

Because recently we were called upon to help move one of the aunts to a care home. Care homes are only designed to take a minimum of essentials, so cupboards had to be emptied and lifetimes’ keepsakes disposed of. All very sad, but what we found when we emptied one cupboard were 10 unopened tins of biscuits.  A history of 10 Christmas’s past.

Why? “Well dear, they’re far too good for every day eating – I was saving them for a special occasion”

Moral of the story – a packet of digestives can make for a far better Christmas present than a whole lorry load of “Duchy’s”. (sorry HRH) – at least they’ll be eaten.

Simon Suter

Can’t Catch Me

I make my own gingerbread men at Christmas, as well as gingerbread stars, trees and angels. I am known for my gingerbread; I made 100s of gingerbread hearts for the tea and coffee time after my wedding service, they all went and there were only 60 guests. Gingerbread biscuits and I have a lovely relationship, my secret recipe has never failed me and although our oven has been broken for 2 years (blush) I know it would still be stellar if I used it again.

Why is it called Ginger BREAD. I know it isn’t bread, it’s a darn biscuit that even goes soft over time (but still delightfully edible), not stale like a cake, or rock hard like a baguette. I write this for some release, I require reassurance, advice, guidance. I am I wrong – Gingerbiscuit men? Gingerbread men biscuits?

Plus is it evil that I refuse to share my recipe, even with a young mother whose child will only keep quiet in Tesco if he has one in his hand/mouth?

Plus my gingerbread men when crushed brutally make a fabulous base layer for a cheesecake. This brings up a frightening philosophical question : Biscuits can be used to make cakes, why can’t cakes be used to make biscuits???

Carrie