Yo, Ho Ho!

After some extra buying of dried fruit and nuts I got ready to make a sloshedfruit241112Christmas cake, I prepared the ingredients..

 

 

Christmascake241112 I chopped the fruit as the raisins were rather large and  poured on copious amounts of alcohol, the zest
and juice of two oranges and left that to steep..

 

 

I creamed the sugar and butter, then added a little of the dry ingredients alternatively with the beaten eggs and the boozy fruit.

 

Christmascake2I carefully put the mix in the tin, I baked the cake, following the cooking times and oven heat but the cake does seem a little blackened on the edges, anyway, I poured more brandy on it and wrapped it in foil. I am leaving the cake now, and will buy some marzipan and icing to put on nearer Christmas.

 

I then made a Christmas pudding in the slow cooker.

More plums for plumbing!

plumchutney070712Today I made the richly spiced plum chutney.
I used home grown onions, given to us from friends as thanks for picking them up when their car broke down.

 

I doubled the quantities of the recipe, which made 10 jars. The recipeplumchutney2070712 states the chutney has to be left two weeks, before eating.

 

Plums for plumbing!

Earlier in the week, we noticed our neighbours in discussion, peering into a hole, where the water pipes are channelled to the individual houses. The problem was, that there was a leak in the plastic pipe, which was evident as the water meter was turning, but more obviously the acequia (water channel) was full of water. Having found the damage, we happened to have a connector which completed the repair. John our neighbour, later replaced our spare connector and was so grateful, he gave us plums off one of his trees.

plumjam1

 

 

 

Yesterday I consulted Kate for a good plum jam recipe, and began peeling some of the plums, I actually overcooked the jam, but it tastes lovely, I made two jars. I have read on the internet, I could use the thickened jam to make smoothies, plumjamadd to gravy and water down to make syrup.

 

 

Today I have halved, stoned and chopped the remaining plums ready to make plum chutney tomorrow.

One of the canaries was rubbing it’s eyes on the perch, so I consulted Basilio the pet shop owner, then Juan the vet, who gave us a prescription for eye drops for the canary, we will see if the drops help.