Strawberry Jam.....

I went with Pippa (used to be my boss at the Walkington) to a fruit and veg shop in Vic Park on the weekend. Used to go there quite a bit years ago.

Anyway they had 500g punnets of strawberries (that's the big ones) out for $1.49...can you believe it!!

I bought 3, and Tori and Shayla ate one punnet that night with chocolate dipping sauce :)

...and I made this with the other 2...

just added around 800g sugar to the washed and halved 1kg strawberries, add a splash of fresh lemon juice.....simmer for a while.....

While the mixture was cooking on the stove, Brody rang.....this is what I got when I went back into the kitchen.....

I took the large jar down to Geraldine's and kept the two small ones....Gerry had made bread and her own butter!!!!.....could it get any better....

Sandy

More free lemons....

this time to make lemon butter.....

This is the recipe I followed....

Ingredients
4 eggs

¾ cup sugar

½ cup lemon juice

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind

125 g chopped butter

Method
Place eggs and sugar into a heatproof bowl.
Place bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and whisk constantly until sugar has dissolved.
Add lemon juice, lemon rind and butter. Whisk mixture for 20 minutes until smooth and the butter has melted and thickened enough to coat the spoon. Do not allow the mixture to boil as it will curdle.
Pour warm mixture into hot sterilised jars and seal immediately.

Delish.....

Sandy

When life gives you lemons....

make lemon cordial!!!

A friend gave me a couple of bags of lemons, and then one of my bosses brought in 2x bags of the biggest lemons I have ever seen.

So after dinner Tori and I cut and juiced......

We added sugar and then simmered......

And ended up with 1 bottle of full strength lemon juice and 3 bottles of lemon cordial

I haven't even touched 2 bags of lemons and the bowl is spilling over..

I will juice some more and freeze it and then when I am getting more eggs will make up some lemon butter.

Speaking of eggs....we lost a chicken today.

Tori rang after she got home from school and the new next door neighbour's dog and jumped the fence and killed one. The dog was just sitting in the pen looking out. The chicken was dead on the ground, I think it maybe just shook it and broke its neck...it was pretty floppy.

So I dug a hole next to the passionfruit and buried it.

The neighbour came over and was very apologetic and offerred to pay for another one.

I am going to wait until after we get back from NZ and probably buy a couple of small chicks.

Sandy

Mandarin jam....

Last night I made up some mandarin jam. We have a tree at work, very neglected little thing it is, but heaps of fruit. No one at work seems that fussed in picking them, they are rather small....so I thought they would be perfect for jam.

This is the recipe I followed:

1kg mandarins

500 - 600 gms sugar

juice of 2 lemons

Zest 2-3 of the mandarins (mine were small, so I probably zested 5). You need a good tablespoon.

Peel the rest of the fruit. Throw all into a blender and process to a puree. Mine wasn't really smooth.

Add puree, sugar and juice to saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Then reduce heat. Simmer approx. 30mins until jam sets. Mine was definately longer.

At this point I thought I didn't have a real lot, as I wanted to take in a jar to everyone at work, so I sliced up another 6 mandarins, skin and all, and threw in.

Simmered some more.

To test, I put a plate in the freezer for a couple of minutes, removed and put a teaspoon of jam on it. When it had cooled I ran my finger through. If it holds, then it is supposed to be ready. Mine wasn't quite, so cooked some more.

I rinsed out my jars (already clean) and placed in a warm oven. Then when I took them out of the oven I filled with hot jam!

Lovely....

Will take in 3 jars to work today and pick some more mandarins to make some more for myself!!

I have seen recipes online, that don't peel the mandarins. So next time I will try that, just to save a bit of time.

Sandy

It's.....fig season!!

Finally, the figs are ripening up on the neighbours tree!! Which so conveniently hangs over my fence. And what is a girl to do but pick them?? And get the kids to climb up on the shed to pick more :)

This is what we picked off today.

And this is what I made with some of it....Microwave Fig Jam!

Really yummy!! I only kept 1 jar, I gave the other 2 away. :)

Sandy