We made Jam

My daughter brought home strawberries and raspberries from Culross Palace gardens and wanted to make jam. I haven't made jam for about 25 years. Homemade raspberry jam used to be a regular occurance, but I never finished it, and then the kids were around, and I was too busy. So .... Jam sugar was acquired and of we went using the very simple recipe on the back of the packet. My cooking thermometer was broken long ago, so setting was done by a timed method - I didn't even use the 'wrinkle' test. Fortunately it worked.

 

 

Soft fruit - 800gms

Jam sugar -1000gms

Mix, heat slowly until sugar dissolved

Bring to a rolling boil

Boil for 4 minutes.

Pour into sterilised jam jar

Cool and seal.

 

 

 

This all reminded me of olden times. In the summer we used to go picking endless blackberries, diving into thickets with buckets, my memory paints them as large and juicy, but the blackberries you see in the wild now always seem very small and tart. The kids always seem horrified when I pick them - unclean, unclean!

The other thing we did when young was winkle picking, down on the beach with buckets, bringing them back to wash multiple times to remove the grit, then boil to sell in the shop. None of us drowned, unlike the winkle pickers of recent notoriety, but then we were 'locals' and knew the tides well. The only time I almost got caught out was when walking around the harbour slightly too late on the tide and having to climb the fence into the fields to get around the edge as the path was underwater. I would have been in trouble if I'd waded and got soaked shoes, also, the sand had a nasty tendency to turn into quicksand when wet, so it might have been a bit risky.

Pagham Harbour, a nature reserve, without boats

Pagham harbour, a nature reserve and no boats, seriously disappointed William and Jenny, they wanted boats not sand and wind, but I spent hours here as a child, walking or cycling around it, watching the tide and the birds, sitting and reading. The big house near the harbour used to be owned by friends of my dads and they had a cage full of parrots, and what I thought was a monkey, but, as I remember black and white, might have been a lemur.

Life was much freer then, I wandered everywhere, on foot or bike, frequently away for hours. We played in the farmers barns, building houses from bales of straw, fed the calves, collected eggs at the stables. Sometimes I had company in the summer when the visitors where down, they were regulars and there were 2 girls I met up with every year, who had summer homes on the beach, other times of the year I mainly wandered by myself. No one thought of danger or risks, no mobile phones of course, and one came back when hungry.

 

 

 

 

 

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New Year, New Start

I think I am back at a place where I can write again. I need to record thing past and present, to contemplate, pause and understand. So ..... Let's start with the simple things. A new recipe:

Pear and Raspberry Loaf

Pear and Raspberry variant.

Pear and Cranberry Loaf.

This can probably be made with any mix of softish fruits, (photo above - pear and raspberry, rather on the tart side). Incredibly easy. Great the next day for breakfast, takes about 10 minutes to make.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup fresh or dried cranberries
• 1 cup fresh or dried pears, diced
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

• 1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Use greased 5 x 9-inch loaf pan.


• 2. Put oats and milk in a bowl. If you are using dried pears put them in the bowl to soak and plump up before baking. Do leave for plenty of time at this stage.


• 3. Stir remaining ingredients into the soaked oat mixture. Mix together well and spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf pan.


• 4. Bake for 45 minutes, ( check after 35), until the top is golden and toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to
• cool completely.

What has changed? Really not a lot. We still live in the same place. I still work at the same place and I still knit, read and play inane games on an iPad.

Daughter number 1 has very nearly finished her clinical psychology training, and has a new job lined up for October in central Scotland. She will probably live in Glasgow. So, no more excuses for trips up to Lossiemouth. Of course, that doesn't mean we won't go. Still plenty of distillaries to visit, plenty of planes to watch and plenty of wool.

Last week we went up for 3 days,

• Visited Glen Grant Distillary - slightly disappointing tour although a interesting different shape of copper stills.
  
• Sat on the side of Duffus castle and watched planes. In between the roars beautifully peaceful, birdsong and wild meadows. Over the trip saw Tornados, Eurofighters, Hawks (both plane and bird varieties) and BAE164s (a smallish transport plane).
• Went to Knockando Woolmill, restored to full working order, and acquired some spun wool and a glorious tweed wrap in lovely autumn colours.
• Ate lots, the Bakehouse at Burghead did a lovely supper, pizzas and mushroom and venison stroganoff
• Ballindulloch Castle grounds not as good as expected, but an attractive duck pond sans ducks!

 

 

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Lemon Cake and Hats

Inventing things is fun, especially recipes so:

Mums very sticky Lemon, lime and coconut cake

125gms butter

1 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

Grated rind of 2 lemons

1 cup of SR flour

3/4 cup desiccated coconut

1 cup milk

Syrup

Juice 2 lemons and 1 lime

100 gms icing sugar

50 gms des coconut

Mix together, heat gently while stirring well.

Cream butter and sugar

Add eggs then lemon rind

Mix in flour, coconut and milk slowly

Bake in large loaf tin for 45 minutes

Soak immediately with syrup

Allow to cool in tin

I love baking, but its seriously not good for the waistline, so has to be an occasional indulgence only.  What is a more regular indulgence is knitting. I've been on a hat kick over the last week. Three so far, one Big Apple Beanie in cream, soft and cuddly for Gillian, who has just lost a cat of 17 years friendship. One blue Big Apple Beanie for me, needed a very simple knit to take to hospital with me, and this did the job. One Star Slouch in brown, green variegated for Jenny,a special request and made extra slouchy.

This is me, modelling the hat for Gillian.

And Jenny with her very slouchy hat.