Rant over

Ok rant over.  I'm over it.

This appeared on Facebook and it pretty much says it all.  Must have been a message!



Lots of people get tired and can't find clean socks or a couple of stray rissoles....right?  No need to carry on about it.

I've just had the best weekend.  Lunch with one of my gorgeous daughters for her birthday on Saturday.  Plenty of 'me time' on Sunday. Sewing, knitting, art making and letter writing.  Sitting by a beautiful log fire in my Jim-jams.
Bliss!

PS  Just for the record, last time I 'copied and pasted' a quote from Facebook, it disappeared from my Blog a little while later. If it happens again......sorry!

Two Jobs

I'm working two jobs at the moment. 

That statement was just for anyone left in the Southern hemisphere that I haven't already told!

I'm holding my eyelids open with matchsticks.  I wish I could show you with a picture...but I can't focus.

I'll be back.  I miss Blogging...weird I know.  And thank you to the beautiful regular followers who keep checking my Blog each day, and find...absolutely nothing.  Sorry about that. There is nothing happening in my life at the moment except work, eat, sleep, scrummaging round for batteries for my meditation CDs, looking for clean socks, hoping there is another leftover frozen rissole in the freezer so I don't have to cook, getting annoyed with the Postie because he hasn't delivered my new 'Apronology' book.  

(Like I need  new apron).   

A Glut of oranges.

We have such a glut of oranges at the moment. Despite arguing with the pesky fruit fly all season, we have still managed to get a huge amount of healthy fruit.

So I had a big 'orange weekend' this weekend.

I peeled the rind off all the fruit fly affected oranges to make a citrus cleaner.  It's easy to make.  Just fill a jar with orange peel (the thinner the better as the essential oils are in the orange part of the peel, not the white part), and top up the jar with white vinegar.  The peel needs to steep in white vinegar for a couple of weeks before it's ready. When the vinegar has taken on some of the orange colour, strain off the peel and put the vinegar solution into a spray bottle.  It can be diluted 50/50 with water and used to clean as you would use a shop bought bathroom or kitchen spray cleaner.  I don't use this on wooden furniture though.  I think it could be a bit too strong for good quality wood (not that ours is!)

I also made some orange chutney with the good oranges.  I can't wait to try this.....I just love anything orange flavoured.  Especially Cointreau on the rocks!

The following recipe made these five jars above plus one more medium sized jar which is already in the fridge waiting to be sampled.

FRAN'S GENERIC CHUTNEY RECIPE

1 kilo fruit (see note)

1 onion

1 cup sugar

2 cups vinegar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon salt
A handful of sultanas
Spices to suit fruit (see note)

Method:  Chop fruit and onions.  Simmer all the ingredients together until nicely thickened to a good consistency. Depending on how much liquid is in the fruit, this usually takes about an hour.  Pour into hot sterilised jars and seal.  

Note :  Any type of fruit can be used.  For this orange chutney the 1 kilo of fruit consisted of four large oranges (with peel) and one pear. The spices I used were 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 1 teaspoon ground cardamom, 2 teaspoons minced chilli and 2 teaspoons minced garlic.

Of course larger batches can be made, but I prefer to make smaller frequent batches as the extra fruit becomes available.  Then I don't end up with a great big all day episode in the kitchen.  Plus it gives me a chance to experiment with the spices and flavours.

And there's still more beautifully home grown oranges in the fruit bowl.  Checked, double checked and just perfectly ready to eat!