OK so over the past few months the lovely fruit trees in the back yard have ripened and blessed us with its bounty. There are a few choices that can be made from this 1- eat fruit straight from the trees, and actually we have been the kids ate the green gauges before i even had a chance to preserve anything if i was to. 2- give it away, i have given away when i have remembered. 3- preserve them!!
My good friend Liz Walker gave me a preserving book for my birthday this year called Year in a bottle by Sally Wise. Even though over the years gone i have put my hand to making jams most of the time they never have quite set the way i would like, for example last year i made plum jam and it sort of turned into a sweet sauce, a few years before i tried marmalade and i used it for cordial. Well with the jam instead of chucking it i still jarred it and just use it for a base to marinades. But you know we all have choices in life that we have to make, i could have looked at those trees in the yard and watched the fruit drop off them and go and buy my jam and chutneys, or i could put in a little elbow grease and actually do something about it. I had a new book to use so below are some of the fruits of my labor pardon the pun. I can honestly say that even though i really enjoy cooking i thought preserving would be a drag. One day twice a month and none of it was boring. the apricots my mum picked for me went to my favorite apricot jam (home made) and the most lovely chutney i have tasted, the apples are up and i will feed Baydan with the apple sauce while he gets on to solids (all for free) and then the yellow plum jam and the i guess normal plum jam are divine. Thank you Sally wise for being the vessel i used to get me inspired and excited about preserving.
Friday, April 16, 2010
my pantry is getting full
From left to right Apricot jam, Crab apple jelly, Apricot chutney, savory plum sauce, and behind the crab apple jelly there are 6 jars of plum jam.
And then on my right we have some of the apples and some yellow plum jam, behind some of the apples i have apple sauce.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Ok so if your kids are anything like mine they get a silly amount of chocolate every year. So i we actually do have a rule in our house and it goes something like this, EAT AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE! Even with this rule we always have sooo much chocolate left over. So for the longest time now i have been baking with the left overs. Yesterday i went to chicken feed and bought more eggs! like we needed them, but they were so cheap, ( i also do this every year). So last night i made a batch of choc chip cookies for school next week or whenever, and today the rest will go into some lovely banana cakes, with the left over from camp that have now gone brown bananas. You know!, with the chocolate baked into delishesness like this it doesnt really matter what type of chocolate it is, cheap choc, a brand you never eat it doesn't matter you wont know the difference.
Easter camp 2010
Our two tents, One for sleeping and one for storing and changing. I am quite sure we need an upgrade now.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Donnachar
This is my beautiful new nephew. His name is Donnacha and is about one day old here, and lives in Ireland. He is the first baby from my sister Yasmin and her husband Denis. Her labor came on slowly for a while and we were all camping at the time with no phone reception. My mum and dad kept driving up the road to get reception to see if yassi had the baby. Any way he is here now and he looks a bit like my niece Mymona when she was born, but with Yassi,s nose. Any way I am a proud aunt again, better get sewing i thought i had 4 more weeks, this will be a good way to break in my new sewing machine.
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