Strawberry Rum

You need
Strawberries
and rum, obviously - I used white rum because then it will go pink with the berries
castor sugar - I used about 4oz
and a large jar to steep it all in.

Prick the strawberries all over with a cocktail stick, shake the sugar up in the jar with the rum
Add the berries and that's it.

Shake the jar every day for a month then strain the berries out. I plan on adding these to an apple jam - I'll let you know how that goes - and leave the liquor to mature for another three months.

Drink when you have nothing planned for the next day!

Bangers

I am at work and the phone goes. It is V

V: So I'm cooking the sausages
Me: Yes
V: But I forgot to stick them with a fork
Me: Yeeeers *thinks - great, an oven to clean when I get home*
V: What happens now?
Me: Well, have they exploded yet?
V: (agast) What?
Me: Well, why do you think they are called bangers?
V: No... no they haven't exploded (I can hear him thinking - she feeds me and my children explosive food?!)
Me: Well, stick 'em, cook them and serve them up
V: Oh...that's it?
Me: Yup, that's cooking m'dear.

When it comes to cooking, it has taken him twenty years to reach for anything more complicated than the tin opener and microwave. Give him another twenty and he might manage a roast.

I can't complain, he makes a fantastic cup of tea.

Bramble Jelly

I am still stupidly busy spinning and sewing right now but here are some pictures of the bramble jelly that I made a little while ago. I meant to post about that earlier but never got round to it. So what with the crafting projects being rather higgledy piggledy at the moment (there's not much that is photo-worthy in heaps of part stitched cloaks) I am backdating rather at the moment.

Ingredients:

Pick as many blackberries as you possibly can! (absolute minimum, 1 kilo).

Weigh them, put in a large heavy pan, and for every kilo add a chopped apple (including skin, pips and core), the juice of a lemon, and 250 ml of water.
Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the fruit is very soft and pulpy. Mash to extract maximum juice. Strain through a jelly bag (do not force through, but allow to drip — takes ages!)

Measure the resulting juice, and add 750g organic granulated sugar for every 1 litre. Return to a low heat, stir to dissolve sugar, then bring to a fierce boil.

Boil hard until setting temperature is reached (112 C) – or until a little of the mixture, dropped onto a chilled plate, sets with a slight wrinkle.

Pour into still hot sterilised jars. Allow to cool slightly and start to set before topping with a disc of waxed paper (if you like) and screwing on the top.

This is stunningly delicious on hot buttered toast and it is dead easy to make. I got the recipe from The River Cottage site. Do take a look if you are at all enthusiastic about food and/or food production.

Have a great weekend. Pick blackberries if you can!

Honey Bread

As promised, the picture.
There's a pity there is no scratch 'n' sniff option with computers. This smells lovely!

No picture yet because it is still proving in my airing cupboard but this is a lovely loaf. It is very sweet for bread but not sweet enough to be called a yeasted cake. I am taking it to evening service today as it is harvest festival.

1lb of strong white flour, though I have made this with plain too, I don't think it matters that much
1 sachet of dried yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons olive oil or you can rub 1.5 oz of butter into the flour before the wet ingredients are added
10 fl oz milk warmed
2 medium eggs beaten
3 tablespns organic honey (organic honey tastes better by miles)

• Plonk the dry ingredients in a very large bowl, glass for preference as it holds the warmth. Add the oil, honey, eggs and milk and mix together, first with a fork and then with your hands. Knead it for about five or ten minutes. The texture should change from sticky to pliable silkiness. Add more flour if it feels too sticky.

• Then cover it with a tea towel and leave it in a warm place for about an hour and a half until it has doubled in size. (See the need for a large bowl!) You can leave this to prove over night too, only leave it in the kitchen rather than somewhere warm like your airing cupboard otherwise it will spill over the bowl and make a mess all over your clean linen!
  

• Split the dough into three roughly equal pieces, roll into a long sausage, about the same width as...well ...as a sausage and then holding one end, plait the three sausages together in memory of the trinity.

• Place on a lightly oiled baking tray and brush the loaf with some milk. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 C for 30 minutes until it is toasty golden.
  

Really this is good enough to eat on its own but the addition of home made plum jam is just heavenly. I'll put a picture up when it is out of the oven.

Have a honey scented day won't you...

Blackberry Whiskey

For this you need:

sugar, blackberries and whiskey.
An ordinary blend will do. I like to keep my single malts neat.
And you need a suitable jar to shake the stuff up in

Add the sugar to the whiskey
and shake like hell.
Add the blackberries and shake a bit more

It looks a bit murky right now and Zac is unimpressed

Yuk!

- all the more for me at Christmas time.