Blackcurrant Jammmmmming..

Today we went fruit picking with a bit of veg aswell it was a splendid day, a great day out..

When I came home I made Blackcurrant Jam here is the recipe I used

Ingredients:   1kg (2lb) blackcurrants- 
750ml (1 and a quarter pints) water- 
750g (1 and a half pounds) preserving or granulated sugar-
a little brandy to seal..


Method:
Put the blackcurrants and water into the preserving pan, bring slowly to the boil stir until the sugar has disolved, then reduce the heat to a simmer for 20-25 minutes stirring occasionally until the mixture has reduced by a third.

Add the sugar to the pan, slowly return to the boil, keep stirring until the sugar has disolved, then boil rapidly for 15-20 minutes or until setting point is reached.
Remove the pan from the heat, and leave the jam to stand until coldish..
Ladle the jam into the sterilized jars, Cover each jar with a waxed paper disc dipped in brandy then seal..

The shelf life for this is two years, but when opened must be stored in the fridge.

Job done ;D

'The person I would most like to meet'

Never fading, never loosing his energy and 'Raw Power' you have to admit when it comes to Iggy Pop there's  no-one quite as outrageous and wild, but I love him...

Almost every rock and punk band, of the past or present has either knowingly or quite naturally been inspired by him, and I cannot see anyone who has managed to capture the essence of Iggy and bottle it in quite the unique way he has done.

Iggy is 64 now, and is still selling out, wherever he goes, and his music is still enjoyed by his oldest of fans.. I saw him play many times over in my youth, and went to see him a few years ago at Hammersmith, and thought he was as breathtaking then as he was, when I used to follow him to his every London concert 35 years ago.

After living in New York for 20 years he now lives in Miami in a Mediterranean style bungalow with his partner Nina and a houseful of cats and dogs.

He has always been my fantasy, and if asked the question, who is  'the person I would most like to meet' ?
he would undoubtedly be my number one ....

My beautiful little baby..

There's a little chicken I think you should all meet, he hatched last week and although he was originally one of ten eggs he was the only survivor, so he is all alone..
He is the tiniest little chicken ever, which is why they are a little harder to hatch, he is a 'Serama' chick.

Serama bantams chickens are truely delightful especially for people in urban areas, as the cockerel has a much quieter crow, and they are so small that they need much less of a living area, they are friendly and confident, and come in so many different colours and two white parents can have a speckled one and you never know what will occur which makes breeding them fun, except that they are very difficult to hatch.

They lay cute little eggs much smaller than a normal sized egg, and I think they are lovely.. here is the Wikipedia link about this fascinating breed  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serama

My little chicken has another 10 potential little friends in my incubator, and fingers crossed he will be joined in the next few weeks I will keep you posted.

Nice book shame about the quantities!... ;(

I received this book and was delighted with the content until I actually began to make a cake.The quantities for Grams didn't match up with the Pounds and Ounces equivalents eg: Butter 715g/1lb 7oz.. Flour 175g/6oz so I thought 'now which one do I follow?'

The other ingredients that were in teaspoons and amounts like the numbers of eggs required were obviously fine but if I got it wrong by the conflicting measurements the whole thing given how scientific a cake can become when it comes to the right amounts could be vital.

I called the publishers 'Murdoch Books', and they were very nice but seemed unaware that EVERY recipe for everything was faulty, I also noted that this has been reprinted over the last 10 years about 11 times over and NO-ONE noticed it ..

Over the phone I was told to follow the metric quantities but then I just felt as if I couldn't trust the whole book, the kitchens that tried and tested the recipes were in Australia so I was told, and now to be honest the book is nothing more than a great book of nice photographs and ideas.
Shame on the publishers.. for putting a book together that they really knew nothing about..

Lovely Pics though.......