Dreary grey weekend? Bring it on! Horrid weather outdoors
means chutney and jelly indoors!
Who cares if we couldn’t go on a lovely outdoor walk? I got
my exercise Saturday by peeling and chopping copious amounts of quinces and
pumpkins (with the help of a dear friend, which made the job so much easier
with a chat and a cuppa!).
Oh dear, we couldn’t find fresh horseradish root for the
chutney recipe...so I substituted grated ginger.
Did you know that you can freeze ginger? Rather than it
wasting away in the fridge, pop the root in the freezer. When you need a bit for
a recipe, grate it using a microplane grater, skin and all. It grates into a
lovely fine powdery consistency that melts into the dish, leaving all the
peppery goodness of fresh ginger without the juicy, stringy mess!
Is that a distant roll of thunder I hear? Doesn’t come close
to the comforting sound of a gentle thundery simmer from the preserving pan on
the stovetop...
And, like magic, all those ingredients morph into a rich,
thick, tangy, spicy melange of autumn’s bounty. Yes, I can wax lyrical about
chutney...
Quince and pumpkin chutney. All these little bad boys need are labels and tops made with a variety of crocheted lovelies and fabrics. And then I can tick a number of Christmas gifts off my list!
But wait. Sunday has come and it’s even stormier than
Saturday. More quinces to the rescue!
How can these knobbly, hard, tart little fruits go from dripping
cloudy yellow juice into a bowl to this:
This is my first attempt at quince jelly, and though it’s
not as crystal-clear and bubble-free as I’d like, at least it’s not cloudy, so
I’m happy! A few jars have gone to a friend; one jar is open and already half
gone in our fridge...
Very tasty breakfast eaten in the exceedingly dim light of
morning.
And I’m not going to apologise for the dull photo quality –
this is English weather, and there’s only so much fiddling with photo qualities
we UK bloggers can manage!
So I call on us to embrace the low light, then I guarantee
we’ll see it as an atmospheric choice on picmonkey and other photo enhancing
tools: The English Grey Effect.
Time for more toast. Happy crafting!
Chrissie x
