Tuesday, October 22, 2013

A Domestic Rainy Day

Extracting Cherry Noyaux | Oysters & Pearls


It rained almost all day yesterday. So, I busied myself around the flat.  I did such necessary things as laundry, paperwork, dishes and such.  But then I also did the fun stuff.

I started 3 more bottles of ginger beer.  Mike has decided that liquor is just too expensive here to allow for his nightly cocktail ($30 for less than 720ml) so he will be joining me sipping a glass of ginger beer in the evenings.  So, have to keep the supply fermenting. :)


Gin o'clock: look out for trees drooping with damsons



I also took the sloes out of the freezer and separated the pulp from the pits. The pulp was then mixed with gin and sugar.  It will now sit until around Christmas time when it will be strained and we have some beautiful dark purple liquor to enjoy over the holidays.



Extracting Peach & Cherry Noyaux | Oysters & Pearls

I put the pits back into the freezer so that the outside shell will be easier to break when I decide to make homemade almond extract.  The inside bit of the pits of fruits such as peaches, cherries, plums is what is used for this.  I will need quite a few but I am now well on my way.

I then turned my hand to making a batch of homemade granola to enjoy for breakfast and for dessert with fruit and homemade yogurt.  Since the day had a feel of fall I seasoned it such with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger and with just a little brown sugar.  Once it had toasted in the oven I added the sultanas with orange peel.  We had some for breakfast today and it turned out great.

While all of this was going on I had a batch of blackberry jam going slowly on the stove.  Since I had no pectin to add I used time and lemon juice to do the job.  It took a little longer but we now have a largish batch of jam in the frig to enjoy with toast or to use in recipes.

I still have half of the blackberries to do something with so I will probably make some blackberry syrup today to use on pancakes or french toast.  I'm glad I bought extra sugar when I went shopping Sunday. :)

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