raspberry jam for summer-filled jars

You guys, have you looked out the window?? Summer has arrived, and I have to say London looks freaking amazing in the sunshine. Give me a cold corona with a slice of lime and a patch of grass large enough for me to wiggle my bare toes in and I'm happy. Oh and icecream. And sunglasses. And maybe an afternoon or two picking fruit.

Oh yeah, the fruit. See Winter is all about extra layers and thick comforting blankets of chunky veg, while Summer is all about mozarella salad and fruit. Seriously, I live off berries and salad leaves for three months of a year (don't worry, I make up for it at Christmas).

So in need of a vehicle for all this fresh fruit... and extra points for being in a jar - I had a go at jam making.



Let me tell you, jam making is ridiculously over complicated. Like special funnel/ upturned stool/ muslin seive complicated. So when I see a recipe promising to be 'hands free' I am all over it, and this recipe from Nigella's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' was easier than promised and ruby red lovely tasting*

Jam is bascially equal parts of fruit and sugar and not one bit of scientific fidgegadgetry in between. Raspberries are low in pectin, which is the stuff that makes jam set - you can buy special jar sugar with extra pectin, or you could use a pectin rich fruit like apples. If not, you get a gentle set jam - but I most def prefer it this way!

1. Preheat oven to 180

2. Place 250g raspberries and 250g sugar in two bowls - place bowls in center of oven for 20-25 minutes

3. Take out both bowls, add sugar to fruit and stir

4. Pour into a warm sterilised jar (some more about sterilising in this post) and allow to cool before enjoying on crusty bread/ freshbaked scones/ spooned straight from the jar with a dose of slobbery

p.s. these amounts will fill one 250g jar - and trust me, if you are making this for a gift, make two because you will struggle to give it away*

*here's some gratuitous baby action to evidence the above claims:

 



a homemade pesto gift

So I mentioned in my last post that I was going to do a little series on gifts on the cheap. Of course, I'm not going to tell anyone these gifts cost less than a fiver each, and neither should you. It's the thought that counts. And the effort you put in, of course.

So the next couple of posts are probably my most favouritest to have worked on recently: gifts in jars. I know mason jars have trended all over every design/ party/ diy blog recently and are probably passe by now. I'll be honest with you, I'm not quite sure of the difference between a mason jar and a plain old jam jar.

One Christmas I nearly bankrupt myself financially and effort-wise buying new jars with gingham print lids and hand writing each individual label. You can do that too of course, and it does add a nice uniform touch to your gifts if you are batch cooking. But since this is all about the free and thrifty I would suggest you start recycling instead. Bonne Maman jam comes in jars with those pretty checked lids, baby food jars are great for little treats and my favourite are Douwe Egberts coffee jars because they have glass lids and look adorable with just a spot of ribbon and a tag (plus I get through at leat two a month). For this post I reused those little glass ramekins you get with Gu Souffles:

Whether you're repurposing your jars or not, they will all need to be sterilised. There are a couple of ways to do this; first in a medium dishwasher cycle, handwashed and dried out for 10 mins in a low oven or using your baby sterilising equipment. Once sterilised not even a finger can touch the inside of your jar, once sealed your contents are safe. If you're filling jars with hot content (such as jam) the jars need to be warm (i.e straight from the dishwasher) or they will crack.

Pesto has got to be one of the most overused ingredients in my kitchen, and for years I would buy jars of the slimey greeny grey overpriced stuff week after week. Then I came to my senses, started making it fresh and never looked back.

Traditional pesto is made with basil, lemon juice, parmesan, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and pine nuts. I will tell you now, pine nuts are ludicrously expensive and not at all in keeping with the thrifty theme. I opt to leave them out mostly, but I had a pinch left over and they look nice scattered over the top of whatever dish you are adding your pesto to.

I don't know whether to give quantities here, I never measure, just chuck it all in a blender, add oil until it's the right consistency and keep tasting. One garlic clove is usually enough, two shop bought packets of basil, or the majority of leaves from a fresh plant. You also get that feeling of smug satisfaction if you grow your own!

And of course, you don't have to use basil. In fact the pesto photographed here is spinach pesto (an entire bag's worth), rocket is good too and I've even seen dandelion pesto. Anything leafy will work, and you can mix a bit of whatever you have.

 To make this gift extra special I added some artisan spinach pesto that I repackaged in a paper bag and tied with a page from a vintage Italian cookery book. You could also use these supercute free printables from Giverslog.

chic on the cheap - the perfect gift dichotomy

Image source: unknown

I'll be honest with you guys, I kinda wish I was the sort of person who could grab a giftcard, stick it in an envelope, biro a name across the front and call it a present. I kinda wish I wasn't the sort of person who decides to handmake all of her christmas presents (for an extensive family btw) with a three month old and an impending cross country move. But two Christmasses ago, you would have found me under the tree, filling jars, stamping cards, painting pottery and making chocolates.

And let me tell you, the effort truly goes unnoticed (in my family at least). And really, I think most of them think I do it because I am cheap (my visa bill from the craft store begs to differ, but whatever)

And this got me thinking, about how to make an appreciated gesture, what the perfect ingredients are for the perfect gift. I came up with this dichotomy:

You will forgive the non-sensical entirely unscientific doodle-agram I hope, but the basic premise is the three elements: Money, Time and Effort - and I think a good gift incorporates at least two of these factors.

See, putting cash in a card fulfills the money aspect, but requires no thought or effort. A gift voucher generally falls under the same category. But say, your friend has just had a baby, you know she is inundated with teeny tiny sized clothes in varying pastel colours and you don't want to contribute to the pile of "thanks but he'll never wear that" - you can supe up your giftcard with an offer to drive her to the store and take care of the little one while she picks something she loves or actually needs. With no extra effort than if you went to the shops to buy something yourself, you have the money input, plus the thoughtful factor and therefore have a great gift.

And of course, with thought and effort you are not required to ease your guilt at crappy gift giving by spending the big money. So when your grandparents are celebrating their 40th anniversary, instead of splashing out on ruby coloured stemware, you could bake a cake inspired by the one they cut on their big day all those years ago.

Which, in a round about way, brings me to a little series I am doing. For a couple of weeks I will be featuring gifts and projects that need a little effort and thought require even less monetary input from you, and are always sure to delight.

So friends, let me know what are your favouritest gifts recieved? What do you think are the key ingredients for a great gift? Oh, and for your inspiration, some budget friendly ideas from the archives:

cuppa tea cookies : Guinness glasses : pancakes in a jar : homemade playdough : Rubber Duckie USB