Slow living - Month 8

Linking up with Christine at slow living essentials again this month.

What a month this has been, a lot of sickness has been around this winter but i think i can say we are all finally coming out the other side ( touch wood). With the weather getting warmer and the days getting longer i can feel spring in the air and with it comes a long exhale. The warm weather and sunshine feels so good after a long winter.

So to review this month.

{Nourish} - Lots of baking and delving into old recipes for 'Sibyl's biscuit tin' has renewed my interest in good basic, baking. Making delicious simple baking with minimal ingredients and good techniques. It has also given me a chance to think about the details of cooking and why we do certain things such as creaming, whipping and sifting. I think the jubilee scones have been my favourite this month. There was also cheese and play dough to round out the month.

{prepare} - It was all about the apples this month - apple paste, apple syrup, apple sauce and apple jelly. I was also lucky enough to try some truly delicious picked onions. Not something i have eaten a lot of, but oh my, i think that will all change once i get this recipe.

{reduce} - We have been making more effort this month to add as much to the compost as i can. Every peeling, tea bag and carrot top as gone in the compost bucket. This month i'm also joining the 20 day organise and clean your home challenge with the organised housewife. I think it's just the inspiration and motivation i need to get this spring cleaning started.

{green} - After some rather hefty power bills we have been more aware of the power we are using. Turning down the thermostat on the heaters and putting on a jersey. Using the fireplace with some of last years wood to make the place more cosy. Turning off lights and avoiding using the drier as much as possible.

{grow} - The first batch of seeds have been planted and little seedlings are busy growing. This year we have going to grow more heirloom tomatoes, capsicums, basil, parsley, dill, eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers and tomatillo's will ensure a range of tasty meals come summer.

{create} - Things have been a bit quieter on the crafting front this month. I have been quietly working away finishing off some binding on a large quilt and planning new projects. This week my craft group is coming together for us all to learn how to make some cute baby trousers. A few UFO's are waiting in the wings for the final touches as well.

{discover} - I have just today picked up a copy of the book - Handmade Beginnings  by Anna- Marie Horner from the library. This book has been very popular in blogland where everyone seems to be making quick change trousers like these ones from retromummy. I can't wait to give them a go for myself.

{enhance} - Craft group continues again this month and i have an outing with some friends coming up to go to the big quilt and craft fair. Fun fun and possible a little bit of shopping...

{enjoy} - We just had a wonderful week away with my family in Hawkes Bay. It was wonderful for Cohen to spend some time with his cousin, grandparents and aunties and uncles. It was tough coming home on our own but we were welcomed back by many good friends. Did i mention the craft fair? Yay crafts!

See you all next month.

Preserving apples- part 2

yum , more applely goodness! now that we have completed the apple jelly and syrup you are left with a whole lot of apple pulp.

If you have a mouli, lucky you! nows the time to use it. If not you're in the same boat as me and need to push the apple pulp through a sieve with a spoon.

It takes time and elbow grease but you end up with beautifully smooth applesauce. It's that simple. You can eat it, freeze it, bake with it, feed it to the baby of the house or you can go a step further and make apple cheese. I divided the mixture into 2, froze one lot and made apple cheese with the other.

Apple cheese

Apple cheese is like a solid apple paste. Called a cheese because of the way it should slice. It also goes perfectly with cheese and pickles.

Apple cheese is also easy to make - weigh your apple sauce ( i had 500g) and add sugar (you need about 3/4 of the apple weight) so i used 350g sugar. Add to a pot and simmer, simmer, simmer. This can take a while and needs frequent stirring. It will go glossy and a darker caramel brown. The apple cheese is ready when you draw a spoon through it and it leaves a clear gap.

Pour into moulds ( i use little tubs or bowls) and store in the fridge. All going well it should set firm like a soft cheese for slicing and hold it's shape when pushed out of the mould. Give it overnight in the fridge before eating to aid the setting.

So there you have it, 4 products from 1 batch of apples - Apple jelly, apple syrup, apple sauce and apple cheese.

I hope you will give this a go, it really is so simple to do and the results are so much better than the store bought stuff ( if you can even get it!).
Feel free to email me if you have questions or need any advice. Preserving is a wonderful tradition i hope more people will get involved in.
See ya all xx

Preserving apples- beyond boiling part 1

Everyone who does preserving has probably at some point bottled some apples. It's such an easy way to quickly use up surplus fruit. But a recent post from over the way at Inner pickle reminded me of the other wonderful things you can do with apples. And as it happened i had a bag that needed using up.

Wanting to make the most of these apples i came up with 4 recipes from one batch of stewed apples - jelly, syrup, sauce and cheese.

First up cut all the apples seeds, skins, cores and all and chuck them into a pot with some water. I had 3kg of apples and added 8 cups of water. Boil away until the apples are soft and well cooked. Allow to cool a little, then get set up to strain the juice from the apples.

Tip 1 - use a bigger pot than you think you need as the apples swell a bit and rise to the surface - as you can see.....

This is how i drain my apples but there are many ways to manage this. Get a large bowl and put a sieve in it. Line the sieve with clean muslin cloth and pile in the apples and juice. The juice will drain through the muslin and collect in the bowl below. If this is all you have you can leave your apples to drain overnight wrapped in the muslin or you can string it up on something and let the liquid drip through (as above).

Because i had such a large batch of apples i used both methods. Apples wrapped for the night.

Tip 2 - Make sure your bowl for collecting juice is big enough to not touch the muslin wrapped apples as the juice level rises.

Leave to drain overnight.

In the morning measure out your juice - i had 10 cups. I used 8 cups of the juice to make the same jelly recipe from inner pickle - seen here. This recipe was pretty good but i found it needed a long boiling time to reach a gelling point - about 1.5-2hrs. It made about 6 cups of jelly.

I always boil my jars to sterilise them and then fill them while the jars and liquid are both very hot and seal them immediately. Preserving guidelines recommend a waterbath method to be safe but i don't do this with my jams and jellies which are made with low risk ingredients and are eaten in well under a year.

From there it is a quick hop, step and jump over to making syrup - whatever liquid you have left measure into a pot with 2/3C sugar for every 1 cup of liquid. Bring to a gentle boil and cook for 20mins, stirring frequently. The liquid will become thick and syrupy. Then turn off the heat, cool and pour into clean bottles and store in the fridge for up to a month.

It looks like liquid gold doesn't it? Just beautiful and delicious on pikelets, scones or toast. You can use it anywhere you use honey. It has a light fruity sweetness that is just delectable. hmmm icecream, put it on icecream too!

I'll be back over the next few days to show you the finished jelly, applesauce and apple cheese recipes all from the same batch of apples.

Till then, sweet appley dreams. xx

Green with envy

Well the end of the summer crop is drawing to a close and the plants are all starting to look a little worse for wear. Last week we came close to the first frost of the year and the tomatoes took it badly. So this week i went out and picked everything that was left on the vines. Green, red and yellow tomatoes all went in the basket.

In considering what to do with them i went back to an old favourite, green tomato chutney. This is a classic from the NZ Edmonds cook book and definitely worth a try if you've never had it before.


Green Tomato chutney


2.25kgs green tomatoes 
6 onions, finely chopped 
1.25kg apples, peeled and chopped 
2 cups seedless raisins 
1 cup crystallised mixed peel 
4 cups brown sugar 
4 cups malt vinegar 
2 tablespoons salt 
1 teaspoon black peppercorns 
2 teaspoons whole cloves 
2 fresh chillies or to taste 


Put all ingredients except spices into a large pot. This recipe uses whole spices but it never have them so i always use slightly less of the ground variety. If you use the whole spices you need to put them in a muslin bag to boil with the rest of the ingredients and remove it at the end, if you use ground just chuck them in. Boil steadily for about 2 hours, stirring frequently until it reaches a thick jam like consistency. Pour into hot sterilised jars and waterbath for 15 mins. This is an all time favourite and is amazing on scottish oatcakes with cheese.


Because i had a mixture of coloured tomato i decided this recipe needed a more appropriate name.

Yum i'm hungry now, might go whip up some oatcakes. I know a few people who would be very keen on a jar of this!
Take care everyone. xx

Sleepy moving

Well my little boy has 2 teeth now and the sleepless nights continue. He wakes 2-3 times a night and thinks it's morning and starts singing and moving round the cot waiting to be picked up. Usually a brief resettling does the trick thankfully and later in the morning sometimes a bottle is needed. But i can't convince him to go back to sleep anytime from 5-7am. I know for many out there this would be when you start your day but trust me this is not a house of morning people and previously my bubba obliged and slept till 7-8.30am ish. I'm hoping its just a passing phase but if it's not it will be time for me to learn to become a morning person. Little man is totally worth it but a sleep in now and then would be nice. Anyway enough of the pity party, when i have sleepy days and feel a bit lethargic i like to stay home and potter around. The key to making it through the day is to keep moving so that's what i did. I started the morning by reading this weeks wholefood course notes and recipes. Another yummy round of meals lays ahead. So i thought i'd try out the everyday bread recipe. It's a bit different to my usual recipe, it has a bit of kneading but not much and the result was much lighter and softer. I think i'm onto a winner with this one.

Soft and flavoursome it was yummy for lunch with a spread of hummus. After that i moved onto making some passata which is something i've been meaning to do for ages with our abundant tomato crop. First to pick the tomatoes.

Excuse the grass from where a few hit the ground on the way in as i was running from the rain. Then to find some trusty instructions on how to proceed. A quick search turned up a great tutorial by Christine at slow living essentials. So onward to bottle boiling and tomato simmering.

Then some serious elbow grease to press the tomatoes through a sieve.

Then onward to complete the bottling and admire my handiwork. I know i'm not the only one who enjoys staring longingly at fresh preserves.

Ah glorious red jars. Now to work out what to use them in..... hmmm soups, stews? I know i'll come up with something.
Take care people xx