Lemon Marmalade

The first ever national marmalade week is being celebrated here in the UK. It kick-starts in the Lake District on 25th February for two wweeks. Not wanting to miss an opportunity I am making Orange Ginger Marmalade and a new Lemon Marmalade. I will be selling them at school to help raise money for our new Fairtrade Tuckshop.
Lemon Marmalade
Ingredients
900g lemons
3.4litres water
675g sugar per 450g pulp

Method
Wash and dry the fruit. Cut in half and squeeze out the juice. Remove the pips, inside skin and pith. Tie these in a piece of muslin.
Cut the peel finely or coarsley according to preference
Put the peel in a large bowl with the bag of pips and the juice. Add the water and leave to soak overnight
Weight the preserving pan and make a note of the weight.
Put the soaked peel, pith and pips into it with the water and juice
Bring to the boil and simmer until the peel is soft and the contents of the pan have been reduced by half - approx 1 hour
Lift out the bag of pips and pith squeexing it against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon
Reweigh the pan and subtract from this weight the original weight of the empty pan to calculate the weight of the remaining pupl.
Add 675g warm sugar to each 450g of pulp, stir until all the sugar has dissolved
Bring to the boil and boil rapidly until the marmalade is set when tested on a cold saucer.
Remove any scum and leave to cool slightly
Pot and seal whilst still hot

Makes about 6-7 jars.

Something a bit different try to celelbrate marmalade week.

Time to Relax

Where have the last few weeks gone? Back to school and busy , busy busy and then the I'nspectors 'arrived. Here in the UK we have 5 days notice that they are arriving. As teachers we do a pretty good job all the time, but during inspection its nice to just tweak things up a bit. I was all set a couple of weeks ago as I was running a Farmhouse Breakfast Week, making sure everyone had breakfast before starting school. I am also running a Fair-trade Tuckshop. I made some flapjacks using fairtrade ingredients which went a bomb. I will post the recipe later.
Happy week.

Cutting and Folding

Catching up on my blogs I came across
http://sharedthreads.wordpress.com
I was inspired and set ablout cutting and folding my old calendar. However I decided to make individual flowers with buttton centres. I put each flower onto a stick. I then decided to have a go the same idea using fabric. No photographs of this as yet as I m going to make several versions and tie them together to make a bunch - looking quite good so far.
Hope you like the flowers, if so have a look at Sharedthreads as she is an expert.
Happy week
http://sharedthreads.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/the-everyday-one-a-day-how-to-recycle-old-calendars/

Hapy New Year

Where-ever you are, what-ever you are doing and who-ever you are speniding it with I wish you a very Happy New Year.

Christmas Celebrations

Quiet celebrations sharing thoughts across the sea to Savannah. Not quite the same as when my son was at home for Christmas, but treasured moments. We opened our gifts whislt eating breakfast, laughed at the funny ones and said grateful thanks for the useful ones. We ate roast pork, with roast apples, parsnips and carrots, not fogetting the sprouts. This was followed by a snowy trifle made with blackberries harvested in the autumn. A late phone call announcing the arrival of a new baby boy for my neice - how wonderful and on Christmas day.
To-day we walked across Chanock Chase - 3 hours - with a friend and her two dogs. She gave us supper and I made a mincemeat slice which we had served warm with cream.
A perfect end to the quiet days of celebration.
A toast to absent friends across the world and those who are not with us any more. We love and miss you all.

Epic Hot Chocolate

I am packing a large basket of goodies to take with me to-day, as I am visiting my sister for the pre-Christmas chit chat. among the items will be a jar of Epic Hot Chocolate drink. I came across this recipe from Jamie Oliver. He was dipping waffles into his drink and it looked amazing. It is so easy to do and store in a jar until needed. Just make sure you have plenty of milk and once started you will find it difficult to stop, your guests will want more.

Epic Hot Chocolate
Ingredients
2 tabsp. Horlicks (malted drink)
2 tabsp. cornflour
3 tabsp. icing sugar
4 tabsp. cocoa
100g dark chocolate - grated
good pinch of cinnamon

Method
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and then put into suitable storage jar with air-tight lid.


To Use
Heat approx 2 pints of milk in a saucepan
Add approx 6 heaped tablesp. chco mixture and stir until just simmering
The mixture wil thicken slightly.
Pour into mugs and serve.
You can top with extra whipped cream and marshmallows, but it is very rich.

I, of course double the recipe and make sure I have plenty of mixture - it really is that good.

Christmas Game

Came across this game from Normandy Life so come on join in the fun and play along.


Care to play along?
Simply cut & paste the questions below.
1. Hot Chocolate or apple cider?
Hot chocolate - Epic Chocolate from Jamie Oliver
2. Turkey or Ham?
Neither this year we are eating Pork with crackling
3. Do you get a fake or real-you-cut-it-yourself Christmas tree?
Usually real, but this year tiny fake
4. Decorations on the outside of your house?
Holly wreath on the door
5. Snowball fights or sleddin’?
Snowball fights - we are expecting a white chritmas
6. Do you enjoy going downtown shopping?
No, little places are best
7. Favorite Christmas song?
White Christmas
8. How do you feel about Christmas movies?
Magic to have a tear in our eye at Christmas time
9. When is it too early to start listening to Christmas music?
November
10. Stockings before or after presents?
Before
11. Go to someone else’s house or they come to you?
My house
12. Do you read the Christmas Story? If so when?
Christmas Eve
13. What do you do after presents and dinner?
Walk in the woods
14. What is your favorite holiday smell?
Mince-pies
15. Ice skating or walking around the mall?
Would prefer to read a book
16. Do you open a present or presents on Christmas Eve, or wait until Christmas day?
Christmas Day
17. Favorite Christmas memory?
Spending Christmas with my son who lives in USA
18. Favorite Part about winter?
Cold, fresh air
19. Ever been kissed under mistletoe?
Many moons ago

Christmas is coming, just a few more days to prepare. I am busy making new aprons and will put in my sisters bag of goodies.