This weekend there was a culinary first in my kitchen - I made Jam!! Blackberry and apple jam, the blackberries i picked myself on my walks with George and the apples were from the tree in my parents back garden. I got the recepie from the National Trust book : Jams, Preserves and Edible Gifts. The main problem I had was getting the jam jars I hadnt thought ahead enough to save old jam jars up - I had a peanut butter jar and an old chilli saice jar (I did wash them thoroughly!). Luckily mum to the rescue and she also lent me a heavy pased pan to boil it up in and a tin funnel thing to pour the hot jam into the jars. The Jam itself was easy enough to make the main faff is the jars - you have to sterelise them first (I had no idea about this but you just put some water in them and heat it in the microwave until the water boils) and then as you are making the jam you have to rinse the jars under the hot tap and dry them in the oven. They have to be hot when you pour the hot jam in incase they shatter. I used the blackberries, apples and silver spoon preserving jam. Cooked the blackberries and apples in water until they went pulpy then put the whole lot in the heavey based pan and stir in the sugar off the heat until dissolved. Then boiled rapidly for 6 mins before doing the set test (sauced kept in the freezer until chilled then put a blob of jam on and leave to cool before pushing it with you finger to make sure it has set). Wasnt quite done so couple more mins boiling and then another test this time it was ready. I thought this bit would be hard but its easy to tell when its ready! Used a jug to scoop it out then through th funnel into the jars. Wasted a lot on the first attempt as i spilt some. Made six jars in all and felt self righteous for making own jam :-) Had lots of idea on what use it for mainly cakes - version of bakewell and victoria sponge! With the left over blackberrys and apples made a crumble :-P
Finally getting round to updating by blog with news from Woolacombe! Had a fabulous holiday thanks to bro, becky and boys! Woolacombe is a lovely old fashioned seaside town on the north devon coast. Its all on the side of a very very steep hill leading down to the beach and the bay. It really is steep you wouldnt want to stay at the top of the hill and walk it would be a killer. We were lucky thanks to becky to be right at the bottom just a stones throw from the beach itself! Even that was hard work with a double pushchair! The beach is a good couple of miles of sand good for surfing though it didnt really get too high when we were there though still lots of surf dudes and lifeguards all year round so nice safe beach. I took the train down which was interesting the further into devon i got! Got there without hiccup and met the guys for lunch in Barnstaple then drove back to Woolacombe i had no idea what to expect but i loved Woolacombe the minute we got to the first view of it. Weather was OK not sunny but not raining which was the main thing and we went to the beach most days for a quick sandcatle and paddle. The beach tent was brilliant Harry had a lovely time asleep in the pram inside the tent and it was nice to get out of the wind a bit. Jamie seemed to enjoy the sandcastles though probably not as much and me simon and becky! Found some of the old paper flags to put on the sandcastles and the little windmills went down well too. Had some lovely food in Woolacombe fish n chips the first night was pretty good. There was a great coffee shop that we went to every morning and the pancake man was lovely too. Also had a fabuous though massive cream tea in a courtyard cafe 2 massive scones, jam and of course clotted cream was too much for all of us but tasted amazing. The Dinosaur and Wildlife park in Coombe Martin was brilliant too you could feel the wallabies (see photo) though it was 50p for about 4 grass nuts i took two bags for my 50p from the honesty box :-) as i know how much those grass nuts cost!! The wolves in particular were really something the man inside the enclosure with them basically lives as one of the pack and is totally accepted into the hirearchy of the pack - he has been on tv and there was a film crew with him. He looked filthy and probably smelled pretty ripe too. Was disappointed to see him later on in the zoo cafe - why wasnt he out huntung for rabbit or something? So that kind of killed the illusion. The animated dinosaurs were a disappointment for the adults who stupidly imagined them roaming around their enclosure. They are just models and the arms and head move a bit. My kite was also a success someone on the beach even asked where we got it from - everyone with their fancy stunt kites were envious as mine was the only kite flying ha! All in all brilliant and roll on next year!
