On the way home on Saturday we found some gorgeous Moor Park apricots for sale. So today - just jammin' in the cooking school with a crispy apricot crumble to the side. Yesterday many kilos were halved and bottled, but more jam was certainly in order. It's my favourite - I use it a great … Continue reading Apricots again, excellent!

Raspberry lemon cream tarts, sitting at the ready to take in to the ABC last Saturday for the Jams and Preserves talkback. As for savouries - well, amongst them were sausage rolls of course. Now I like a packet of ready rolled puff pastry sheets as much as anyone - so convenient and they do … Continue reading Little Sweet and Savoury Treats

I do love a good pie, pretty much any sort, savoury for preference (with the possible exception of apricot, which I adore). They're great for using up leftovers too - a case in point, beef curry pies made for dinner last evening. The filling matched well to the batch of herbed shortcrust pastry I'd made … Continue reading PIES!!

With preserving season now in full swing, I keep forgetting to put up photos of the Wednesday morning tea platter offerings. Today - a very large old fashioned pineapple upside down cake. I decided to double the amount of caramel, just to see what would happen. It bubbled its way up through the cake batter … Continue reading Pineapple Upside Down Cake – luscious!

And then there are the geese - adopted as goslings a few weeks ago. Reason - the ride-on mower tends to tilt a bit alarmingly in places when I mow in (what is loosely termed) the orchard. "Geese are great for keeping down the grass." said several friends. "They can be really nasty, geese can." … Continue reading And then there were geese….

Cilla the pig is practising her cooling technique for the forecast heat tomorrow. First - dig a trench with your snout, then tip out one of your large water containers to convert it to a bath in which to while away the afternoon, fast asleep. An extra touch - utilise the emptied container as a … Continue reading Meet Cilla the adorable Pig

Earlier this week - full on preserving. It's apricot season again, hooray - especially as Moor Parks are now readily available. 20 kilos were bottled in a flash, mostly as halves in a light syrup. Those that were a bit softer were stewed and this (sugar-free) pulp bottled, ready to make crumbles, tarts or pies … Continue reading Moor Park Apricot season!! The BEST!

Time for a little preserving this morning - gooseberries and rhubarb. Those horrid green little green scarab beetles are back, this time in the thousands, quite literally. The olive oil spray worked well, but now there's simply too many. They are devouring the raspberry canes and it won't be long before they start on the … Continue reading Gooseberries and Rhubarb and annoying beetles

Here are the recipes  from the talkback session yesterday. On is for the easy Christmas Pudding (my Nan's recipe), the batter for which makes and equally delicious cake. There are also two recipes for Melon and Lemon Jam. Please feel free to let me know if there are others that were mentioned that you would … Continue reading Recipes from ABC Radio Jams and Preserves talkback yesterday

A little bit of this, a little bit of that..... can come together to make something really quite tasty, without the need for meat. This last week or so smallish amounts of milk that have come my way have been turned into ricotta and (goat) feta. Cream was made into butter for the pastry. Then … Continue reading Vegetarian Slice days in the making…