Thursday Catch up

Still have Internet problems and machine is a little quicker but cannot now post photographs on the blog.  Cannot work out what has happened as I can get as far as choosing a photo for loading and then it does not bring up the screen to say it is done and the screen freezes so you cannot get out of it, so until I can sort out what the dickens is going on we will have to be photographless!  However I think that the supplier will be coming in, in the end as OH still cannot use his machine.

The mustard was completed successfully and I now have 10 little jars ready for the Pantry. I am quite pleased with the flavour I really do think that it will go with sausages and mash and onion gravy. I have left it predominantly as a grain mustard but  I have made one lot of Piccalilli the River Cottage recipe and I have the Spicy Piccalilli ready to process and finish off tonight the recipe from Waitrose that I posted the other day. I prepared all the veggies last night and put them under the salt. I was in two minds as to whether to do it or not but I thought this might be one that I would eat as it does have the addition of stem ginger.  They are all in a large plastic box brining.  It looks quite colourful.

Once that is out the way I have some more cucumber and red cabbage to put to the salt and then I can finish that off tomorrow evening.  That will be a couple of more things out of the way. 

Tonight I also have to weigh out my fruit for my Christmas Cake which I hope to bake on Sunday. This is to soak the fruit in a little brandy and get the fruit nicely soaked before the actual making of the cake. I know its early but I want to feed the cake properly over a few weeks. I am also trying to get as much as I can do done whilst I can so that I can literally tick it off the list and for the best part forget about it. I then want the cake decorated by the beginning of December so that I can concentrate on other goodies to make. I do have my bottle of Guinness ready for the Christmas puddings but I need more bowls before they are made.  I also use Cider which adds a lovely flavour.

I am hoping that OH will be able to get me some more horseradish so that I can prep that up as well.  Thing is with me is that I try something new then decide I like it and that's another thing that makes it to the Make It list for the next year. Very few items end up getting left out.  The more I do the more I want to do.

That means the cabbage will get processed and popped into the box with the salt ready for processing tomorrow evening when I get in.  The cucumber will be in a colander in a separate container to drain away all the juices but will also be processed.  I also have a tray of eggs to process into pickled eggs tomorrow evening so I have quite a bit of work to do still.

 

Tomorrow evening I will start off an apple chutney with some sweet apples that need using up.  Waste not want not.

And Saturday I am going to have a go with my dehydrator.  I think I will start with some dried apple slices - I have plenty of apples to use up.  It will be good to play.  I have lots of other things to do too but we will see how we get on.

I think next week during the evenings I will be starting with the preparation of the pickling onions and the shallots. There is 4 stone to prepare so far. So it looks as though I have my hands full again.  Glutton for punishment.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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