Birthdays

It's a strange thing-many of my friends have birthdays in April, and even more of them are born under the sign of Aries-The O/H call us The House of Children. This relates to Aries being the youngest of the star signs.

I have no comments except to say that as a rule- I want it now, I want it in red, I'm always right and i'm really good at pouting. And i can hold a grudge until the end of time. ha ha ha.

The reason i bring this up is because i'm busy making birthday cards at the moment.

 It's my birthday in a few days and i have no idea what i want. However i am going to Cake International at the ExCel in London as a treat to myself. I will go on my own as i always do something for myself on my birthday. so much for trying to lose a little weight. May have to try a little (or a lot) harder.

Chilli Marmalade

So, i have a few kilos of Seville Oranges and after making the usual marmalade, then some with cranberries, and a very nice set with Quince, I had 6 oranges spare. So here's what i did.
600g seville oranges, 2 fresh chillies, 1tsp chilli flakes, 1" root ginger peeled.1tsp freshly grated nutmeg, 2tbsp. lemon juice, 500g preserving sugar.
Cook the oranges in a pressure cooker in enough water to almost cover the oranges, mine took 25 minutes at high pressure.
When oranges are cool, cut in half and de-seed, scoop out the pulp into a bowl and blend with a stick blender. This will look creamy and frothy. Don't Panic.
Slice or chop the peel as desired-i only use about half the peel, cut the halves into 1/4s then slice thinly-or as desired.
In a large deep saucepan, put the pulp, peel, sugar, nutmeg, lemon juice and a pint of water.
Blend the chillies and ginger together and add to the pan.
Bring everything slowly to a simmer, make sure the sugar has dissolved, the boil for 1 minutes.
Test for a set.
If no set, boil for another 5 minutes.
If  ready, put into hot sterile jars and put the lids on.
Label when cool.
This made 6x8oz jars or about 6 cups.

Door Hangers

Door Hangers

I was asked if i could do a couple of samples of these for my local Guides. I sometimes do crafting with them and they will be doing these at camp. I cut mine from cardboard as i didn't have a couple of door hangers too hand. The roses are from a packet of tissues applied with watered down craft glue and the other one has various cut out bits applied in the same manner. I made four but thought these were the best examples.

well well well

This is my attempt to document wot i did with my year-food wise