Jam Hot

The jam is made! H and I spent a morning in the kitchen last week and as I type this the jars are sitting looking at me all shiny and lovely. It was a bit stressful, I have to admit. I'm never quite sure when it has set or if we'll manage to get it finished without at least one limb or eyeball succumbing to a splash of molten sugar, but this time it was all good :)

WIP photos are here!




We decided that rather than giving the jam away, we'd sell it in aid of Care for Children's China Earthquake appeal. Care for Children is an amazing charity that facilitates fostering of orphaned Chinese children with other families, who either can't have their own children, or who are restricted by the one-child policy and would like to have a larger family (the one-child policy still allows for fostering and adoption). They have orphanages in the affected regions and will be helping in the aftermath of the earthquake. We're almost sold out but hope to make some more soon!

Coming Soon: Rhubarb & Ginger Jam

Do you like rhubarb? I for one think it's generally evil, though I am still traumatised from being force fed rhubarb fool at a convent in Whitby when I was nine. Apparently leaving it would have offended the nuns...

Anyhow, there is ONE way I like the pink celery, and that is when it's made into jam with a lot of ginger. I've been waiting for the price of rhubarb to come down so that I can jar some of this lush goodness. It seems that this weekend may well be the time, but to give you good people a head's up, here is the recipe, in case you feel so inclined:

1.1kg rhubarb (prepared weight)
1.1kg sugar (preserving sugar is best)
juice of 2 unwaxed lemons
25g root ginger, bruised and tied in a piece of muslin*
100g preserved or crystallised ginger

* If you don't have muslin you can use a pop sock or a foot from a pair of tights. Try to make it clean one!

• Wipe and trim the rhubarb and weigh it.

• Put into a large basin in alternate layers with the sugar and lemon juice. Cover and leave overnight.

• Next day, put the mixture into a pan with the root ginger, bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 15 minutes.

• Remove the bag, add the preserved or crystallised ginger and boil for a further five minutes, or until the rhubarb is clear and setting point reached (test for this by putting a spoonful onto a chilled saucer. If the jam wrinkles when you push it after a few seconds it's ready).

• Pot in sterlised jars and cover in the usual way.

Makes about 2kg.

I'll post photos of the finished result next week. Hopefully there won't be a repeat of the marmalade fiasco, which resulted in three times as much as expected, and no jars left in the house :-)

Summer?!

Is it just me, or has it gone from winter to summer in about five minutes? Surely it was snowing four weeks ago, or was that my imagination? The weather is gorgeous, but I feel slightly 'in-shock' at its speedy arrival. Last night, I got home by the skin of my teeth on the last tube and strolled through the sultry air to my flat. It was too hot to sleep, so I made some tea and opened the cupboard to find two crumpets that I had my little heart set on... imagine my disappointment when I found they'd gone mouldy! Hmph. Turns out we live in a tropical climate now, I had no idea. We'll be putting bread in the fridge like the Aussies next.

Yummy Sunday

I do think part of my psyche is firmly stuck in the 1950s, when women stayed at home to bake perfectly iced cakes for their clean children, and got up early to waddle about in a housecoat whilst making eggs and bacon and toast and coffee, before falling into bed exhausted. Hmmm. Not quite, but hey I still love a good Sunday afternoon bake off. Yesterday I was hunting through the usual round of blogs, when I happened upon a link to this beauty. Just take a look... go on. Those cakes! Green tea and lavender! Chai spice and chocolate! Vanilla and honey pecan cream! Lush. My feable attempt at a Chocolate peppermint cupcake is above. They tasted extremely yummy.

A monkey and a cat

Cecil was no ordinary monkey. He thought it best to explain this to strangers when he first met them.
"Can't you dance, or sing, or bang a drum?" they would ask.
He would shake his head resolvedly and try not to notic e the look of disappointment in their pudgey faces. Some days he wanted to be ordinary. He wished he had nothing better to do than jump and skip and hop, like the other monkeys in New York. But even if he tried, they would laugh at his stripey dungarees and point at his short tail. No. Cecil was an intellectual monkey, whilst his cousins ate bananas and stole chips from daytrippers to the park, he read Focault in the library.

Mr Jeffrey was Cecil's only friend. Friends are important, but Mr Jeffrey was especially important because he was Cecil's only friend in the whole city.
"I wish I was a monkey so I could read Foucault like you" Mr Jeffrey said. But he was only a cat, and everyone knew that cats couldn't read Foucault.
"Hello magazine is much more interesting" Cecil said encouragingly. But Mr Jeffrey never believed him.

One day they were walking together through Central Park and Cecil was trying to explain Queer Theory for the four-thousandth time, but Mr Jeffrey didn't get it, again.
"Ok," he said, trying to think of another analogy that didn't involved slavery or Jewishness or the nature of red hair, all of which are like Greek to a cat with white fur who can talk.
"Imagine I'm a monkey. But I'm no ordinary monkey."
"Which you're not..."
"Yes, exactly. Now imagine you're a cat."
"Which I am..."
"Exactly. Imagine we get together and you learn to read Foucault in the library and I read Hello instead."
"Yes. I'd like that."
"Well, Mr Jeffery," he said, with a smug twinkle in his eye.
"That is Queer Theory."

Mr Jeffrey beamed. "Take me for sushi to celebrate! You know how much I love fish."
"Ok. Cool, we'll put it on my Amex."

Cecil was no ordinary monkey.

For John, with love