Let's Make Christmas

"Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat..."  Well, the goose may be getting fat but although we have had a goose for a number of years now, we have decided to have a turkey this year!  I really should get the Christmas cake made so it has plenty of time for weekly doses of alcohol.  However that it still on the 'To Do List', along with rather a lot of other things but I have started making Christmassy things.

As many of you know I enjoy all kinds of making things, cookery and craft.  I think the value of homemade became engrained in me as a child growing up in a family where making was a part of everyday life.  Fruit and vegetables were jammed, pickled, salted or, once we had a freezer, frozen.  I loved helping to make the sweet treats for Christmas especially as some such as Rum Truffles,  Date Balls and Marzipan Dates were only ever made at Christmas.  As I got slightly older I wanted to increase my repertoire and went on a few one day sweet making courses that were run by a friend of my grandmother.  Now I don't need much encouragement to start making and over the years there has always been at least some homemade gifts.  When I read Vanessa's Let's Make Christmas post I quite agreed with her comments and know that homemade presents are always appreciated.  Vanessa has organised a wonderful Christmas event, a great exchange of ideas and I am really looking forward to meeting fellow bloggers. 

I am hoping to take three homemade gifts along and the first must be Mulled Wine Jelly.  Made from the lovely crop of grapes in the garden,  despite the disaster of the jelly bag!

This is roughly based on a recipe for 'Grape Burgundy Jelly' from Harrods Book of Jams, Jellies and Chutneys.  A book that I have had a very long time.  It was published in 1986 and it was probably about then that I bought it and have used it a lot over the years.  Their recipe says, "The delicate flavour of grapes makes a lovely jelly, and the touch of red wine gives this luxury recipe a certain quality, as well as a beautiful magenta colour.  It is delicious on fresh bread or toast, and is also an interesting accompaniment to hot roast meats."  I have to add that it goes well with cold meats too, and we also add a spoonful to gravies, it is great with Pot Roast Chicken and all sorts of things.  Only tonight my younger son used a spoonful in the Mexican Pork Chilli he was making.

Mulled Wine Jelly

700g   ripe black grapes
300 ml   water
sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
150 ml   red wine
225 ml  pectin (if needed)


Remove the grapes from the stalks, and crush them ( I use a potato masher). 

Put the grapes and water into a preserving pan.  Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  Cool slightly and then strain through a jelly bag overnight.


Measure the juice into the cleaned preserving pan and to every 600 ml of juice add 350g sugar.  Stir in the lemon juice and wine.


Stir over a gentle heat until the sugar has dissolved and then bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes.  If using pectin remove from the heat and stir it in, skim if necessary and pour into warmed jars and cover.  As my grapes are fresh picked I find I do not need the pectin so test for a set on a cold plate and then pour into the jars and cover.

Last summer (2010) my younger son bought me an orchid, it flowered for a number of weeks and then I was left with just the leaves.  I kept it on the kitchen window sill and every week soaked it in water for an hour just like the information label had said.  Slowly over the summer a new stem grew, and then little buds, and then some more.  I have had orchids in the past but they have never flowered again so you can imagine just how thrilled I am with this one!

Isn't it a beauty and just look at all the buds still to open.  Now I have only given it water I wonder what would happen if I fed it as well.

Despite being a grey and gloomy end to October, Hubby and I went to Bedford this afternoon for a walk by the river.  It has been years since we have been there although it is not that far away.  The swans, ducks and geese were keen to see if anyone had any bread but we were a disappointment to them and they swiftly moved on to check out others.

 It was a good place for a walk with old bridges and new.

The trees were in full autumn splendour.

I was surprised that at the end of half term there were so many conkers on the ground.  There were dozens of them and lots of very busy squirrels who would sit most photogenically right up until the moment I was ready to press the shutter and then they were off before you could say, "bushy tails!"

This majestic fellow was very busy searching for his tea and reminded me of Kenneth Grahame's Ducks' Ditty.

All along the backwater,

Through the rushes tall,

Ducks are a-dabbling.

Up tails all!

Ducks' tails, drakes' tails,

Yellow feet a-quiver,

Yellow bills all out of sight

Busy in the river!

Thinking of 'The Wind in the Willows', is anyone else following the adventures of Mole, Toad and Ratty on their Grand Tour?  Well it all started with a great idea by Pom Pom, and if you want to know more then check it out here.

The boats were not being used today although I would have enjoyed a leisurely trip down the river.  Just as we were about to leave at 4 o'clock, the sun suddenly burst through under the low clouds.  You can just see in the photo that the street lamps were on and twinkly strings of lights were lit but the sun outshone them all.  It was good to have that extra hour today from the clocks going back but it was dark by the time we got home and that is the bit I don't enjoy.
 

A fun way to exercise!

Thank you Pat for brightening us up with this link.  When you look at Pat's amazingly beautiful work though you will see why she always brightens my day and inspires me.

One way to get everyone cleaning the kitchen!

With the threat of frost this week, I thought it was definitely time to harvest the grapes.  I did not want to risk losing them and there won't be many more days of sitting out underneath them.  I have loved having the new arch for the vine to grow over, especially as there is a seat built in.  An ideal place to sit awhile, you can put your feet up and hide away amongst the foliage.

The grapes were smaller than the last few years but even so we picked nearly 20 pounds!  You can eat them as they are, but a high proportion of pips to grape makes it hard work.  We have made wine in the past but other things were planned for this year's crop.

There's always a little helper!

My dear husband very kindly stripped the stalks away and yesterday I set to, cooking them up and dripping them through the jelly bag to extract the juice which of course is not the quickest exercise.  All was going well and one lot was left dripping last night so this morning there was just the final lot to go.  I set the jelly bag back on it's high stand, carefully using a jug I started pouring... the bag got to half full and... well I bet anyone who has used one of these stands before is now starting to laugh.  Why?  Well... the top of the bag has elastic in and you stretch it over the stand,  but sometimes they slip... no warning... just a little bit of redecoration! 

Well in my case it was rather a lot of redecoration!  As I was filling the bag a lot of juice had already run through into the large jug under it. The bag fell down with a good bit of weight behind it and SPLASH!!!  Cupboard fronts had beautiful dark purple streaks, so did the cooker hood, the worktop had a lake which dripped down across the floor and under the island unit.  Clean ironing on the airer was splashed, the cookery book (left open)  got a good coating and so did yours truly!  It was in my hair and dripping down my face!  Good job my top was pink! I shouted for help and fortunately everyone came running, then I couldn't stop laughing, it was so funny, and actually you had to either laugh or cry.

Hubby still cannot believe that the bag falling from the stand could create enough force to splatter the ceiling!

Luckily it did wash off, and luckily for me everyone helped to clean the kitchen. 

Eventually I could carry on, we took the added precaution of 8 pegs to hold the bag in place. So far the grape pulp (left after straining the juice) has all been cooked into Grape Butter, and the first batch of Mulled Wine Jelly has been made.  There's still a lot of juice left to jelly though so I think I shall be busy this week.

Catching up!

Where was I?  Some of you knew that it was good old Ally Pally (or Alexandra Palace to be precise) and why was I there?  Well, lucky me got to visit the Knit & Stitch Show!  My daughter had a school trip to the Show, unfortunately they only had 3 1/2 hours there, but she came back so excited and enthusiastic and desperate to spend longer there.  I didn't take much persuading! 

There are always so many artists, exhibitions and demonstrations there, and they are really encouraging to the youngsters. Everyone was happy to answer questions, talk through techniques and there was no pressure to buy, although my purse was considerably lighter by the end of the day!

We did buy Isobel Hall's new book, and Isobel made a lot of suggestions for materials and techniques to try for my daughter's current textiles project.  She was signing her books which always makes it special.

My daughter also chose two booklets by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn, which they kindly offered to sign for her.  I  had not expected them to sign the booklets, and my daughter was really thrilled to meet "all these famous people". 


(I am not very impressed with these images from Amazon - first time I have tried this and I am not sure what is going wrong)

It was also good to talk to Dale from Australia and there was a lovely couple from Holland selling Bark cloth.  This was a stall that had to be revisited from my daughter's previous visit and they spent a lot of time explaining about the cloth and other papers they had there, and suggesting lots of ways of using the bark cloth. The gentleman helped my daughter spread out every piece to make her selection and then knocked a third off the price.  Very kind and very much appreciated.  We had a really super day and people like these made it extra special and memorable.  My daughter is also now delighted to be a subscriber to 'Cloth' magazine - despite the huge numbers of visitors they recognised her from her first visit!

Anyway, back to my UFO; for those of you who don't know Ally Pally, at one end of the Great Hall there is a large round stained glass window with bright vibrant colours.

This picture was taken on my daughter's first visit.

At the opposite end of the Great Hall, there is a cafe and whilst getting a coffee I spotted the reflection of the stained glass shining outside above the trees.   I am not quite sure how it reflected out there as the lighting didn't look quite right and the ordinary window is not even in line with the stained glass, but it made a magical moment, and a lot of people were commenting.  I have been to Ally Pally a number of times but have never seen this before.