Any how, back to it. Now that most of the heavy duty work around the house is very nearly done, the baton has been passed to me. The baton is in the shape of a paint roller. The husband hates painting. Fortunately, I don't mind it. However, the combination of emulsion, or worse still, gloss; and two small children is not a good one, so once again my evening time starts disappearing.
Today, I think is a day for two things. For the bag pattern I promised last week and a couple of quick jam recipes. Which one first... we'll go for the bag I think.
(My apologies for the lack of photos in this one). This is the pattern:
- Cut two main pieces, two lining pieces and two interfacing pieces from the pattern.
- Iron on the interfacing to the main pieces.
- Put main pieces right sides facing and sew from the * on the pattern to the point parallel with it.
- Box the corners using a line three centimetres from the point. (For details on boxed corners see the previous bag pattern.) Turn the right way round.
- Repeat with the lining pieces but leave a 10cm gap at the bottom for turning.
- Place the main bag inside the lining. Pin along the open edges and stitch.
- Trim the corners. Turn the right side out through the hole in the lining the slip stitch close. Iron.
- Measure down from the top and mark two lines at 4cm and 5cm. Sew a channel then use a seam ripper to open the side edge. Repeat on the other side. You then thread the rod from the frame through the channel and screw the nut on to the end making sure that the material is on the inside of the hoop.
- Job done!
Plum Jam
1kg Plums, which at the time of writing were a £1 a punnet at Tescos.
1kg sugar.
Wash your jam jars in hot water then put in an oven. I turn the oven on at that point, heat it up to 150 then turn it off and leave them for half an hour.
Stone your plums if you can. This isn't always possible, it depends on the plums, but if you don't you will have to count them out at some point, which is tedious.
Heat the fruit in a deep pan with a little bit of water until softened. At this point I go in with the stick blender. This is mainly because I have a husband and children who treat bits in jam as foreign objects and I end up with a lot of jars on the shelf with a load of skins in the bottom.
Add the sugar. You don't need to spend the extra money on jam sugar, there's enough pectin in plums to achieve a set. Heat through slowly. This is where it starts needing a bit more attention. I have ruined many a saucepan burning sugar to the bottom of the pan. Once the sugar has dissolved you can ramp up the heat and bring it to a boil. Keep stirring! Test for a set after ten minutes which is all this batch took. The easiest way to test is to put a saucer in the freezer, drop a bit of jam onto it, let it cool slightly and if the skin wrinkles when you push your finger through it the you have a set. As soon as that happens then you're done. you can pour it into jars and leave it to cool. For about £2.50 I got five jars of jam. Nice!
500g Frozen summer fruits
500g sugar.
This is obviously a recipe for all year round and a nice easy one. There's none of the de-stoning malarkey, just put the packet of fruit in a pan and follow the instructions above. Couple of jars, couple of quid.
Right, that's me done for today. Not posted for a few days and it all kind of rushes out. Hope you are all keeping safe and well.
Lots of love, Caroline. xx
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