Friday 31 December 2010

Marmalade

In a moment of madness, I forgot entirely to mention making marmalade yesterday. I attribute it to the enormous number of other activities, if that's credible.

Anyway: I should immediately confess that we cheated. We used a tin of Mar-Made, but made additions. Firstly, we added the peel from two extra oranges, and two extra lemons. Then, instead of just adding water, we used the juice from the extra fruit, and made it up to the required quantity of water, before adding the sugar.

It seems to have worked really well: it got to the setting point a little quicker than the instructions suggested (just by a couple of minutes), probably due to the extra pectin in the peel we added. Very tasty (based on small samples), and now in jars waiting for an excuse to try some... Oh, and much faster than starting from a bag of citrus fruit, though purists might object.

Busy Year-End

A busy, but productive couple of days!

We went out to the garden centre, to take advantage of the post-Christmas sale. No plants (no beds), but some Christmas sundries that were reduced.

Once home, we've been Making. As with many other things, sloe gin/blackberry brandy were delayed from the autumn: we collected the fruit in mid-September, but had to freeze it. We changed the recipes for them, using 340 g of fruit (instead of 225 g), and 110 g of sugar, to 750 ml of spirits. The sloes were noticeably easier to prick, having been frozen, which may be a tip to remember. Last year, we made the gin straight after picking the fruit. As normal, the gin and brandy have both begun taking on the colour of the fruit, and (with regular shaking for the next month or so) they should be ready to bottle in about March.

In The Times' cooking section a week (or so) ago, there was a recipe for lebkuchen. I really like these German gingerbread biscuits, but—despite trying about five recipes—I've never found one that quite replicates the taste of biscuits bought from Germany. Accordingly, I was honour-bound to try this one. Result: a credible biscuit. Still not perfect, sadly, but very good. I shall, when time permits, note the recipe.

Lastly, we made about six pounds of mincemeat, in a display of extravagant organization. It will now have twelve months to mature! It started yesterday, with mixing the ingredients: they then mellow over-night, and we cooked it this afternoon in the slow cooker for about six hours. The alternative was in the oven for three, but the slow cooker seemed more appropriate (and is very abstemious with electricity use: about 0.1 kW, compared to the oven's 3.5 kW). It looks, smells, and tastes delightful, and I'm already looking forward to the mincepies. I finished it off (once cooled) with last year's blackberry brandy. As I said above, when I can, I'll note the recipe: we actually have several, courtesy of our National Trust preserves book, but this was actually from another book. Experimentation, perhaps, next year. The apples were from the hill side, so there'll be plenty more next autumn.

Wednesday 29 December 2010

Wine Bottling

Although it was ready for this step a month or two ago, I hadn't had time to get round to it. However, today I have: the blackberry, and blackberry & elderberry wines I made last autumn are now bottled. Straightforward process of syphoning the wine from the demi-johns into 75 cl bottles, and corking: minimal spillage, and I now have six bottles of the former, and four of the latter.

While I had all the kit out, I also racked the elderflower wine I made in July. It has an excellent bouquet (very elderflowery), a good vinous taste, and is also very dry. Possibly too dry, but we'll see. That, at least, is relatively easy to correct, and I was aware when making it that it was a dry recipe.

Monday 27 December 2010

Cider

After a very pleasant couple of days off, we had a more 'productive' day, tidying the study. Which I shall elaborate upon no further, as it wasn't that enthralling.

Instead: an excellent Christmas day, with very successful cooking. Amusingly, the day started with Liz asking what would happen if the gas ran out while cooking (propane cylinders outside feed the cooker, as we're not on the national gas network). Low-and-behold, the gas ran out while cooking lunch. A quick trip to fetch a spare, and hook it up solved the problem. The one that ran out was hooked up on 22nd December 2009, so the cylinder has lasted a tiny bit over a year. I reckon this one won't make it quite as far—we had a two-week cooking hiatus while the kitchen was being 'done', and with a stove-top kettle now in use, we'll burn it faster. Still, that should mean no repeat of this morning's hilarity. I shall now promptly order a replacement, so we maintain a back-up.

In addition to some cat-featuring coasters and table mats (Cats In Waiting from Ulster Weavers, and 'Ottoline' mats from the British Museum), a Paper Potter that I've had my eye on for a while, we received the excellent River Cottage Every Day. We've been watching the series, and the book seems to have all of the recipes, which until now I've had to write out as we went, which is never satisfactory.

Before tackling the study, we also started a cider kit I bought some time ago, but not got round to. It's a simple one: you mix the contents with sugar and water, and leave it to stand until primary fermentation's complete. You then put it into a pressure barrel with some extra sugar (secondary fermentation on this makes it fizz!), and decant as desired.

Friday 24 December 2010

Night-Before Preparation

Few more preparations for the Christmas lunch...we've made a batch of mince pies (and bread, but that's not unusual), iced the cake (actually yesterday, but never mind), and I've prepared the turkey (removed the breasts, and re-bundled as a bone-less joint; I also removed the wings and legs (going to the in-laws, who provided the bird, for use), and stripped the carcase of scraps for soup/casserole) and stuffing (a concoction, as normal, of bacon, turkey bits, onion, spices, and breadcrumbs—seems to have worked). Almost ready!

Thursday 23 December 2010

Pipes, Presents, Preparations and Pins

Mum and dad's visit yesterday went well (just quick, not least because it's snowy and travel's unpleasant); today's social worker visit has been rearranged to the New Year—she's fallen in the snow and aggravated an injury, preventing driving.

The house is now fully decorated, and there's an inordinate amount of greenery through the rooms. Upstairs, as normal, has escaped significant adornment, but there's a lot of holly, ivy, pine, and decorations downstairs. We finished making runners for the windows, too, which all look good, and enliven the sills.

This evening, we've done some of the preparing for the Christmas lunch, making a mango sorbet and chicken liver pâté. The latter, we've made before, very successfully and easily. It's good made in advance, and sealed under butter: once it's started, though, it needs to be eaten quite quickly. Which is fine, admittedly, and never a problem. The sorbet is new to us, and was splendidly simple to create...and will, I hope, taste good.

Unfortunately, the recent cold weather froze the pipes in the roof space above the utility room, and they chose this afternoon to thaw...revealing that both pipes had split. After staunching the flow, I had to reach into the loft, remove the split sections of pipe, and spliced in repairs. The only things I had available were, in fact, stopcocks, which aren't quite normal, but function well as over-specified straight connectors. This being a one-man job (the hatch to the space is a foot square, and one can't climb in), I left Liz wrapping the Christmas presents, and at least the tree now looks complete. Extra lagging is on order for the pipes: while I was up there, I've also installed loft insulation, as there was a minimum already in place.

Sunday 19 December 2010

Curtains

Finally, we got on with making curtains for the kitchen. Liz had started on of them, to check how it was going to work, a while ago, but we've spent the weekend working on the set. There are five windows in the dining room, which are all now finished (bearing some tweaking of the gathers). Unfortunately, we didn't quite get to the matching pair for the utility room, but never mind. The kitchen looks much better with curtains that are the right length, and all the same...

It's snowed again, too, and the track is not pleasant. We're not due more snow until Thursday, probably, but it's cold enough that what we have will almost certainly remain.

Of course, the curtains pretty much entirely occupied the weekend, so we've not got anything else to speak of done. It's a bit of a busy week ahead, predictably: we're at work Monday and Tuesday, then have visitors on Wednesday, a social worker coming on Thursday, and then preparations for Christmas Day (we're cooking the dinner...) will probably take up Friday!

Now: where did I put the wrapping paper?

Sunday 12 December 2010

Christmas Decorations

A busy weekend, partly spent outside, and partly in. We lifted the gladioli, which have been flowering since October. They hadn't really stopped, and we cut some of the flowers quite recently—but the snowfall has stopped them in their tracks, and I wanted to get them lifted as soon as possible, as they're not meant to be left out over the winter. As such, the thaw (the soil's no longer frozen, which helps!) was an opportunity. They're not looking in bad shape, considering they've been lifted before having a chance to die back naturally (one is meant to leave them for six weeks after flowering, to all the foliage to yellow and wither—but that would put us in mid-January).

Last year, we lifted them in mid November. Hopefully, they'll go into dormancy safely, and I can tidy them up (trim off the rest of the leaves, and extraneous roots), before putting them somewhere cold and dry until the spring.

After a general tidy-up (more leaves into the leaf-bin, some trimming, and the like), we came in, and have been making some Christmas decorations. We picked up some festive fabric while visiting friends. Some has been cut into two tablecloths (for the dining room), which will need hemming. Another piece has been edged with some red & gold holly print fabric, for a kitchen tablecloth, and several pieces of green & gold holly print have turned into runners to go along the windowsills. We had a few of these from previous years, to brighten the windows and complement the other decorations, and now have a complete set. Few bits still need doing (hems on tablecloths, mainly!), and I have a plan for some table-mats, but they'll all have to wait.

Thursday 9 December 2010

Christmas Cake

As alluded to, we made our Christmas cake on Monday. The recipe is on the recipe page, which I've also updated with some of the chutneys we made last month. There are two apple chutneys (the third, 'Grandma's Hot', will go up at some point, promise); and also a mango chutney which worked nicely.

The Christmas cake is the one we usually make (although I'm tempted to try a different one next year): it's very good, though it takes forever to cook. The original recipe suggests 3/3.5 hours, but it's never done in that. This year took about 4.5 hours, in what is turning out to be a pretty good oven. Never mind: it tastes good when done.

Monday 6 December 2010

Decorating

It's been a successful weekend, all in all. I've trimmed the new kitchen plinths to length, and then cut them to the right height (complicated by the non-parallel gap): I've put some 'loft' insulation behind the plinth on the sink units, as these (against the outside wall) get very cold, and essentially cause a draught. I've sorted out a join in the skirting board that was bothering me. I cut and installed a replacement end-panel (on the end of the units near the door to the sitting room: the original was veneered MDF, which I didn't like) out of pine-board, and trimmed & installed the filler panel on right-hand end of the other run. The 'spare' cupboard is now in the utility room (very useful); and, lastly, I've put up a high shelf where we took one down (above the units that include the fridge).

Having managed that, we put up a few hooks and nails, so some pictures, etc, are now hung, and the kitchen looks altogether more finished.

We've constructed a (frankly) huge swag from conifer and holly foliage, to go above the sitting room fire, and threaded some lights through it. It might be a little too large, really, but it looks good. The Christmas tree is in place (but unlit or decorated), and we've strung up holly boughs and branches around the sitting room and dining room. Starting to look the part! The rest of the decorations will have to wait.

As it was Liz's birthday, we had today off work, and popped over to Leeds' Christmas Market (good fun; some nice stalls, and we'll probably go again next year), before spending the evening with her parents. She's got some really nice gifts, including a tasteful pair of hand-knitted gloves, a very pretty embroidered table runner, and the Le Creuset stove-top kettle she's been coveting.

We also made our Christmas cake (yes, a bit late): more on that next time.

A pleasant weekend, although the snow's getting a bit much: here's a vote for a bit of a thaw...