This was my recipe disaster at the weekend.  Despite throwing out and giving away kilos and kilos of crabapples we still have heaps on the tree so on Saturday I decided I couldn’t waste them … I would make crabapple jelly.

Picked and prepared the fruit (c. 2 kg) and tossed them and some fresh raspberries for colour (thanks for that tip, Chookie) into the pot and cooked it down for c. 90 minutes.  Then drained them through my strainer (tipping about 1/3 of them onto the floor in the process!). 

Left the remainder to drain overnight then on Sunday I put the fluid into the pot for the final 15 minutes or so of boiling with the sugar … that’s where the main problem was … I found I had misread the recipe and put the sugar into the fruit for the initial cooking on Saturday.

OK, I thought, sugar is sugar so everything will be alright.  Sadly, I didn’t end up with crabapple jelly, but I did end up with absolutely delicious crabapple sauce.  It was gorgeous and went so well with ice cream.

However, I have learned my lesson, so when (if) I make more crabapple jelly this weekend I will put the sugar in at the right time (although the sauce was so nice I am almost tempted to copy last weekend’s “invention”!).  Anyway, fingers crossed for a successful jelly making session this weekend.

Take care KAtie.
My brother came to visit this morning. We only see each other every month or so as it's quite a drive to his place. It took him 2 hours to get to my place this morning as there was an accident on the freeway.

I made this one and had some for lunch today.  I used Swiss Brown mushrooms and wanted to add the cream but didn’t add the pancetta topping.  It was a thin soup so I’ve labelled the packs for the freezer ‘cup of mushroom soup’. I enjoyed it Chookie, much tastier and healthier than the bought packets of the same soup. 

I've finished the Tenina loaf. It looks quite good. I'll post a photo when I cut it.

Tenina has just published a bread recipe with a 1/4 teaspoon of yeast. You make the poolish and then use that to do the bread. I've just made the poolish. It sits on the bench overnight, so I will be interested to see how it goes.
Yesterday’s biscuits and raspberry jam, that was berry jam.