31 Jul 2012

Hestia...and jam today....and tomorrow

So I made gooseberry jam.  It was largely uneventful other than the fact that I seemed to get jam on everything - my clothes, the seat I was sitting on....the hamster.....

TADAAAAAH!



Two full jars, a wee tiny jar and a half jar - result!


Pink, sticky loveliness!

The small jar is for Juno, my mother, and the half jar is for Not-My-Boyfriend-Ron (her boyfriend, Ron)

Remember the snapped branch with the peaches? Here they are now!


Ok - so, I laid a tray down on top of one of them. 


I am also asking Sonshine to help me around the house.

Yesterday evening, for example, I asked him to tidy all the stuff off the dining room table and to set it for us both.

This is the result.


Nothing lined up - hasn't even moved a biro pen out of the way!
Cutlery the wrong way around
No condiments
No drinks sorted
All the stuff that had been lying around has just been shoved into a single pile.

I think he's some way off being good at Front of House work.


19 comments:

  1. Ali -

    The jam looks great ... and it always gets all over everything int he process of being made! That is a given!

    Sonshine at least attempted to do the table - he needs a few more attempts before he is ready to set the table for guests. ;-)

    I decided that I was going to have some of the rhubarb sauce that I made about a month ago while I was cruising through my e-mail this am. Yup - it was growing things. Top back on, into the garbage it went! I took another one from the freezer to thaw out - a small bit of rhubarb makes an incredible amount of sauce! ;-)

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    1. I made jam once that turned into some kind of booze! It went in the bin after it blew its lid off!

      Rhubarb sauce recipe please!

      AX

      Delete
  2. ROFLMAO Oh dear, you have NO IDEA what a messy table looks like - I'll send you a picture some day (the table will not be visible). I assume the jam is for immediate consumption because it won't keep with just a bit of clingy over it. You need to heat the jars, put the jam in hot and screw on the metal lid. As it cools a vacuum will form and the "safety button" will pop back in. Then you can shove it in a cupboard for years.

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    1. I live with a small boy. We both have a sweet tooth, those two remaining jars will be licked clean in 4 weeks :-D

      I did manage to sterilise them this time....thought I might have exploding jars in the oven at one point, but it was just a rogue tray at the bottom of the oven starting to distort in the heat lol!

      Delete
  3. LOL what Ania says, or you'll poison yourself :-)

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    1. or *she says mysteriously* poison SOMEONE. No names, but looking at ships.....

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  4. Jam looks delicious. I can just imagine how lovely it would be!

    Sonshine's table laying skills probably answer a fundamental of logic we old women can't recognise - a clever use of energy to avoid unnecessary movement and pointless effort? Placing the mat and cutlery round the pen is sort of genius I think.

    Just snap a pic with your phone and tell him you're sending it to Clean Amy LOL! xxx

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    1. You are one of Sonshine's most loyal supporters, but SURELY lifting the biro pen would have improved things?!

      It's his birthday on Friday so I was expecting something less....half-assed.... :-D

      Delete
  5. What's wrong with the table?

    At least it ddn't have a motorcycle engine lying on it.

    I think Sonshine should get extra brownie points (with jam)for doing such a great job.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. The days of motorcycle engines on the table are LONG gone!

      He's got a garage with a space heater for all that sort of thing now. Besides, it's HIS dining room table - he can bung an engine on it if he likes. Might get me one step closer to the lovely old farm kitchen table that I so covet!

      Delete
  6. when do i get my jar? i'll send you some plum butter in return, ok?

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    1. I suspect that they'll stop my jam at customs. Nothing to do with importing food, just the general DANGER involved in eating anything that I've prepared :-D

      Plum butter sounds delish!

      Delete
    2. ha! i'm sure it's lovely. it certainly looks lovely.
      the reason i make plum butter is threefold 1. i am polish and it is a requirement for the continuation of my citizenship (especially in light of my inability to consume vodka)
      2. it is dead easy and 3. it is one of the few preserves that require very little sugar. you basically wash and pit a whole mountain of italian (prune) plums, stick them in a cast iron pot in a low heat oven, and stir occasionally for several days while the water evaporates and you end up with something that looks like black tar. then you add just enough sugar to make it taste good (depends on the sweetness of the plums), plop into jars and seal and voila! you gots yourself some plum buttah!

      Delete
    3. That sounds loooooovely. Am very partial to Polish delicacy known as Sliwki? Plums in chocolate. Bluddy gorgeous :-D

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  7. You're a bloody fusspot you are--I remember you posting a picture of a line of washing which Tarturus had put out and that was all wrong, the way it was hanged. Do it yourself woman!

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    1. Whose side are you on?! Remember, I can wield kitchen knives.... and am very dangerous with a sponge cake :-)

      Ali x

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  9. Nom, nom, jam looks yummy! Now all you need is some fresh, homemade bread :)

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