Update on the jelly making! Using my new jars.
Lavandula spica, from Medical botany by William Woodville from Wikimedia Commons
Lavender Jelly
While the previous elderflower jelly could have jellied a bit more this lavender stuff I tried out can hardly be called a jelly at all. This seems to be a cycle for me every time I try cooking a new thing. First time it turns out fine because I follow the recipe to the letter. Second time I try to variate the recipe, it turns out OK. Third time I decide that I am a professional by now, I can make up my own recipe. I can’t and as with this lavender jelly it’s a disaster. Luckily, I then decide to go back to the original recipe with a couple of workable adjustments and then it turns out fine again.
Just for the record I have now saved this lavender jelly by putting it all back in the pot, adding some more pectin mixed with sugar, and given it a good boil until it reached setting point. I have also just learnt a easy way to see if it has reached setting point. I read it on the back of the pectin pack. Fish out a teaspoon of the jelly while it is still boiling and put it on a plate. Blow on it and if in a couple of seconds you get ripples in the jelly it has reached setting point.
Blackberry illustration from WIkimedia Commons
Blackberry Jelly
My first fruit jelly. This being my fourth attempt to make jelly it of course turned out a success. I went back to the measurements from Nigella Lawsons Chilly Jam recipe. 600ml liquid with a 1kg of jam sugar.
I had been out in the garden to pick the berries. Unfortunately the birds had been at them and some where starting to rot. However, I got enough for this portion. I boiled them with 800ml water and two apples chopped up roughly. After sieving I ended up with about 650ml juice. I melted the jam sugar in the juice and then allowed it to boil for about 10 min till it had reached setting point.
Since I was a child I have had this fabulous advent calendar that my grandmother cross-stitched for me. When I was a child my parents would tie 24 presents to it and I would open one every day up till Christmas. When my two siblings and I got older we would put one of our 3 advent calendars up in the kitchen and divide the presents out (5 people divided by 24 days = 4-5 presents each). We would then each have to buy 4-5 small presents for the calendar and get to open a present from the calendar each 5th day. Now I do the same with my husband. We each buy 12 presents and get to open a present every second day. This worked really well the first couple of Christmases we were together. But now it’s limited how many new kitchen utensils and small gadgets we really need so I came up with a new idea. Actually, it’s an old idea that my parents did for me and my sister back in 87. You take a LEGO set (house, pirate ship, or what ever you fancy) and divide it out depending on the instructions – into 24 piles. Then you wrap it up into 24 parcels that you put on an advent calendar or if you don’t have one of those a piece of string will do. You can put labels on from 1-24.
Yummy Walnuts
I had this wonderful recipe from my friend. It is easy to make. Tastes wonderful. Keeps in the fridge for weeks. A great gift to bring along to any dinner party or hide it away at home to snack on when no-one is around.
Burbank variation in walnuts, 1914 (Wikimedia Commons)
Ingredience:
Recipe:
Serve cold with cheese. Tastes wonderfully with a good brie and fresh baguette or with a blue cheese.
Hope you will enjoy this as much as I do.
Greetings from Birthe