These past two days I have been busy in our kitchen chopping and stirring various pots and pans full of tomatoes, onions and peppers in what I thought were mega quantities. For all my hard work though we don't seem to have ended up with an awful lot of full jars.
A basket of freshly picked goodies...our peppers have been plagued by earwigs.
A whole 1.5kg of onions went into making these four small jars of spiced onion relish.
This is tomato jam...and a pound of tomatoes has fitted into each of these jars!
This was the beginning of the task of peeling shallots ready to soak in brine before pickling in sherry vinegar in two days time.
I have also made six tiny jars of tomato and pepper relish.
Such a lot of work for the amount of food however I have warned hubby we will be using teaspoons to serve these preserves. I dread to think about the real cost of what I have made in labour. Definitely Artisan. I now take daily readings of our electricity meter and can see just how much electricity I used as well. They had better all taste exceedingly good!
Back to work tomorrow, then a week off. Really want to finish painting the bathroom.
Blessings, J. x
I used to regularly bake until we got a smart metre - now I watch it like a hawk and am horrified at the amount that the oven uses. So what I do is bake/cook several items at once and leave things cooking in the heat after I have switched it off (pasties/pies for OH's lunch the next day at work) it is a juggling act and requires some planning. Your preserves will taste all the better for their making!
ReplyDeleteAnything that heats eats fuel! Our lovely Aga is a beast, which has been severely tamed...I now turn her ovens on a couple of times per week and manage with the top the rest of the time. She stays hot for hours afterwards and can boil pans on the floor of the main oven for ages. Every little helps as they say. x
DeleteThey will taste delicious though. I'm making a concerted effort to only use the iven if I can cook a load of stuff at once. Arilx
ReplyDeleteGood old batch baking. There can't be many people who can just turn electrical appliances on at a whim left! x
DeleteIt will all taste delicious, I'm sure. And the smug feeling of making something yourself, using your own produce - priceless! :)
ReplyDeleteI do hope so Jules...the time and effort though! x
Delete