Preserving
(Title inspired by the fact I sang a meaty “Get your freak on” parody while doing my cure mixing and meat massaging. It was so bad that even the cats, who usually “enjoy” my silly songs and certainly love it whenever I’m doing anything with meat in the kitchen, left the room.) I finally started [...]
Continue reading about Getting my bac-on – dry curing bacon, stage one
I wasn’t planning to make any jam from the mysterious plum-like fruit that grows outside our kitchen window but when John said he wasn’t sure if he could be bothered making wine, I had to do something with our first harvest. And boy, am I glad I did. It was about 1kg of mysterious plums [...]
Continue reading about This year’s wild plum/cherry plum jam
I mentioned on Monday that I made a batch of lemon curd while my frustrating, sticky marmalade was boiling away. Lemon curd is far easier and more fun to make than marmalade, and oh my wow, it’s delicious. It doesn’t have a long shelf life though – what with the butter and the eggs – [...]
1. Squeezing multiple oranges and lemons after a couple of days of sewing & gardening is a mistake I spent a couple of hours yesterday morning cutting back scratchy shrubs (including working underneath a holly bush) and I spent Thursday & Friday evening sewing (aka stabbing myself in the fingers with needles). I also have [...]
Continue reading about Six things I learnt while making marmalade yesterday
I love cooking but I have a surprisingly low tolerance for faff – particularly faff involving large quantities of sticky substances that need to sit for a long amount of time. I’m also very clumsy, live with an equally clumsy boy, and have less than graceful pets. In other words, preserves that involve the use [...]
Here’s the first recipe from my preserving marathon on Tuesday: spicy marrow chutney. With all the different spices, it’s got a very full taste rather than a one-note blast of chilli heat. It’s not the texture of either smooth jelly-like jam nor chunky like Branston — although it would be possible to make it like [...]
I'm Louisa and I live a Really Good Life. I grow, I craft, I cook and I make the most of what I've got instead of forever craving more.
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