Plum Jam YUMMM!

I Love my family and neighbourhood, people are so generous!

 

My brother in law knows I like to make plum sauce, so when he heard our neighbour had these plums that needed a loving kitchen to be cooked in, he thought of me! :-)
There is about 10kg so to begin with I've made some plum jam... next is the plum sauce!

 PLUM JAM

INGREDIENTS

4kg dark plums
8 cups water
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3kg sugar
1-2 packets of Jam Setta (from supermarket if needed)

METHOD

1. Combine plums and water in a large preserving pan and bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered,for one hour.
2.Add the lemon juice and sugar to the pan and stir, without boiling, until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to the boil. Boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes to an hour or until the jam jells when tested.
3. Pour the jam into sterilised jars and seal.

Makes about 20 x 250g jars.

 

Tea for two!

 

 

 





Kitchen and Living Room De-cluttered !

Started de-cluttering in the kitchen!



 

Then moved to the living area ! 

 

 

I think I'm happy with the result :-)

 

Next.... Lounge and Dining area!

 

Hmmm.........now it starts to get harder! The lounge and dining area is where I keep my favourite china collections and I find it very hard to de-clutter, even the damaged pieces. :-(

 

 

 

 



 

Sauce Weekend

First signs of preparation for our Sauce Weekend (Labour Day weekend) starting Friday 8th of March. Stay tuned for more about this soon!

 

 

Basil planted........ check.

 

400kg tomatoes ordered........check.  :-)

Tomato Sauce

This one is for my lovely niece Jessica, who has an over abundance of tomatoes this season. She asked me if I had a good recipe and it  just so happens I do! 

For this recipe you will need to drink lots of chardonnay as the empty bottles make very good sauce bottles  :-)  
 

 

 

 You will need a large pan, one that holds at least 12 litres, but l suggest one even bigger than that if you have one. 10-15 EMPTY sterilised chardonnay bottles :-) .... or something similar if you decide not to drink the chardonnay. A long wooden spoon, a pouring jug, a funnel and some newspaper to spread on your work bench when bottling the sauce... it gets a bit messy.
 

 

I always use this jug for pouring whenever I make my preserves. It was my mothers and it's the one she always used. It must be at least sixty years old so of course the measurements on the jug are in pints. It never ceases to amaze me how one persons trash is another persons treasure!

 

INGREDIENTS

 10 kg ripe tomatoes cut into quarters 

1.5 kg onions, finely chopped

200 g garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1.5 kg sugar

1/2 cup salt

1.5 kg apple puree

1 bottle of Wilds Ezy sauce

 

METHOD 

 

Place tomatoes, onions and garlic into a large pan. Combine ginger with sufficient water to form a smooth paste and stir into the tomato mixture.

Boil gently, uncovered for 2 hours. The recipe I use said to strain through a course sieve at this point. I like a slightly more course consistency so I put mine through the food processor instead.

Add sugar, salt, apple puree and Wilds Ezy sauce, mix well. Simmer uncovered for approximately 2 hours or until it becomes a thick pouring consistency.Carefully fill into hot sterilised bottles and seal.

 

 Makes about 8-10 litres.

I find every batch I make varies in quantity so make sure you have a few extra bottles sterilised ready just in case. Also the amount of time it takes to thicken varies. Sometimes I add up to 4 tablespoons of cornflour mixed in enough water to make a pouring consistency at the end if it doesn't seem thick enough. Keeping in mind the sauce does thicken up slightly as it cools.

There's a lot of guess work really!

 

To sterilise the bottles I run them through the dish washer then once they're dry and just before the sauce is ready, I put them in a 200 C /400 F oven. With the screw top lids I put them in a bowl and pour boiling water into the bowl. Then let them dry naturally. If you're not using them straight away, loosely screw them back on the bottles till you're ready to use them. If you do this don't forget to warm the bottles again when you're ready to bottle your sauce. After the bottled sauce cool down enough to handle I make sure the lids are screwed on tight and wash them in hot soapy water, then set aside to dry.

 

Good luck xo

 

Time To De-clutter

 

 

 

OK, so I've been talking about de-cluttering my china collection for about five years now but this year I'm actually going to do it...... :-). Don't laugh H! Each month I plan to de-clutter a different area of my house, starting in January with my china collection.Over the years I've collected damaged cups, vases, plates, bowls, etc. as well as perfect items to decorate the house with. My intention is to recycle the damaged pieces and turn them into something useful. My daughter J gave me a lovely book for Christmas called Gifts From The Garden; one of the projects in the book is on how to turn tea cups etc. into little pot plants, so that's where I'll start. I might also try making cups and bowls into candle holders.



My Chrissy present from H.



 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My dear friend H and I are also planning a big year this year, using our creativity to do things like rejuvenate old furniture and other items. We like the idea of turning something useless into something useful and pretty. Also we plan to do craft work and sewing. If it all goes well we will be holding garage type sales to sell our handy work. Will keep you posted here.




Some of my handy work.
Old table from the garden.
 My first effort at painting and distressing furniture.
Very pleased with myself!


Some of my china
 to be de-cluttered

 

 

Our Darling Dogs



Introducing our gorgeous dogs, Maggie and her two pups Ginger and Cider. Aren't they just adorable, and only a little bit spoilt :-)  Recently daughter J moved back home from Melbourne and Cider belongs to her so she will be leaving us when  daughter J moves out again :-(. They are all the most beautiful natured  darlings and they keep us entertained, (very therapeutic!). They being the dogs.... and J :-)
   My niece's dog Killer, who happens to be Maggie's mate and the father of Ginger and Cider, was staying with us a while back and the little darlings had a few naughty moments with the chooks. After building the chooks Taj Mahal we finally purchased our first two chickens, Mavis and Myrtle, and had raised them for ten weeks. They were due to start laying any day.Unfortunately Mavis got out of the pen and Killer lived up to his name and played a little too enthusiastically with her. She is no longer with us. As you can imagine I was very cross. We've since bought two more chooks (Millie and Milo) and are now getting three eggs a day..... We've also made the chook pen fence twice as high as it was before!
Our dogs are a big part of our life and loves so you will be hearing more about then in the future.




Ginger isn't very happy with her Christmas present haha

Just returned from a day at the Spa.
Hair, nails and body pamper!

 

 In my next life I want to come back as a dog and live at my house!



The Vegie Patch

 

 

I managed to save some of my vegies before the heat wave hit this week.

 (around 45 Celsius all week).

The poor vegies are frying on the bushes!

Thank goodness for the cool change today ...I hope the vegies come back to life!