Pancakes for breaKfast

With the kids or on your own we can celebrate food over this strange time of lockdown. You can make pancakes for breakfast, especially at this special time of Easter!

2oz plain flour, 2 eggs and a little milk makes 6-7 small pancakes. Double that for more, halve it if you are on your own (give left overs to the birds) 🙂

I use gram flour as I can’t eat wheat but use any plain flour!

mix it up together with a fork squashing any big lumps, little lumps don’t matter.

Turn on the pan on a high heat and add a tiny bit of oil (we are cooking them not frying them) and spread it out over the pan. You might have to add a little more during cooking all the pancakes but remember a teeny tiny bit!

put a large spoon of mixture into the pan.

Your pancake needs turning over with a spatula as soon as little craters start to appear like the ones I’ve ringed around.

Only leave it like this for a few seconds and then put on a warm plate and make the next one.

Note: When the pan looks like it’s smoking, don’t panic, just turn the pan down a little but not a lot, you need it hot.

Then you can put them on the table with all your chosen toppings 🙂 You can use savoury toppings if you prefer.

Note: in your enthusiasm, don’t forget to move the pan safely of the heat.

For the more fussy among us, just jam is ok 🙂

Happy eating!

 

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Greengage Jam

For want of repeating myself on regular intervals, I’ve made my regular greengage jam. Not so many greengages this year, but enough to make a good quantity of jam.

Eating them fresh is like eating little balls of nectar
and eating the jam,  it’s extremely sweet and something very special!

Can’t wait till it cools:-)

Greengage Jam

A little late but here it is!

What a great harvest of greengages this year, lots to process, but lots stored in the pantry! I must admit, sometimes I really don’t feel I have the energy (or time) to do the preserving when it has to be done. But my inner desire to do it wins over, and once I get started there’s no stopping me!

The longest part is taking the stones out.

The bet part is eating it! 🙂

Here’s the recipe below.  As I’ve marked on the recipe always have a couple of  extra jars prepared as our jars in the UK are not lb jars any more.

Gooseberry and Bay leaf Jam

I am beginning to think that I need to do something with the fruit I have in the freezer, to make room for this years potential fruit harvest. I know it seems a long way off but it’s good to be prepared.

I have quite a lot of jam recipes but I do like to have a look at the internet to see if there are any new Ideas. This is where I found gooseberry and bay leaf jam

My crop, as you may have see when I harvested them last summer are dessert gooseberries, which are purple rather than green and are a teeny bit sweeter.

In the recipe it says to top and tail them before making the jam, which I did, but I wonder if that is really neccessary.
The sugar is added with the gooseberries and bay leaves, melted and bought to the boil.
Here’s my finished jam.

It is honestly delicious, so I’ll be making more  🙂

Marmalade Making

I’m sure I’ve posted about my marmalade before, but I do like to encourage people to enjoy life and do some lovely things. This is my favourite recipe from a little folder of recipes I bought not long after we were married.

I’m giving you lots of pictures as well as the recipe to encourage you to have a go!
I always put my chopping board on a tray to save any juice that runs while chopping.
After removing the pips (see bowl on the right) you can either slice them by hand or in a food processor.
The oranges and pips soak over night (I cover with a clean cloth to avoid any contamination).
Adding the sugar to melt before bringing to the boil. You can use Brown, raw or white sugar depending on the colour/strength of marmalade you like.
The finished stuff!

Here’s the recipe, just ignore my scribbles!
Enjoy and happy home making! 🙂

Apricot Jam

A reminder of the box of apricots I bought last week.

I decided I wanted to make some jam and some chutney. So I prepared the apricots,  I quartered some because they don’t break down easily. put the ones to make chutney in the freezer and made Jam with the rest.

Here’s the recipe I use

When the apricots are bubbling away the smell is amazing!

I made nine jars all together… (I know there’s only five in the photo!)

….and I still have 2 1/2 lbs of apricots for my chutney!

I work out that each jar cost me approximately 63p (which includes the cost of the sugar) and thats for some rather yummy jam full of vitamin C!

New produce labels

I’ve been catching up with my preserving, because of the limits of the broken arm scenario I didn’t get much done in the autumn.                 

Keith has designed me some new labels….

I really like them, what do you think? I haven’t shared the recipes as the fruit is not in season, but if you want them just let me know.

Homemade Rhubarb Jam

Picked the last of the Rhubarb a couple of days ago to make some jam. I’ve made lot’s of different jam before but not rhubarb. Try the recipe from cookitsimply It’s easy peasy…

and delicious!

Empty Jam Jars

This is a really obvious tip bit I urge you to do it.

Get your friends and family to save you their empty jam jars. They soon mount up and you will have to do some preserving just to give yourself some space! Not only jam jars but pickle jars, sauce bottles …… and then the worlds your oyster, you can preserve anything!!!

Apple Jam

We had been given alot of cooking apples by a friend in the autumn and still have quite a few left to use. I haven’t done the right thing and wrapped them individually like you should, I’ve just had them in a basket in a cold porch. I’ve had to put a couple on the compost heap, but other wise they’re fine.

Here is the Apple Jam recipe I used. I like to use as simple a recipe as I can so that I have to buy as few ingredients as possible. If you haven’t made jam before I must encourage you because it’s cheaper, very rewarding and tastes yummy.

Here are the apples cooking before putting the sugar in , you can just smell them can’t you? (The peel and cores are in a muslin square)

And here is the finished product. The recipe does 14 jars, so there’s enough to store and to give as a gifts to  friends or family.

Any questions about jam making are welcome, just ask away!