It's been a Pickle of a week....

Right then, the food shop is done, the washing is on so now I can Blog and himself can play war on his play station! (too be fair he had been building me beautiful shelves in a alcove all day)

I have been a busy bee this past week, work has been busy as usual especially with the BH Monday.

On BH Monday Gav and I went to our local Pick Your Own to see what they had left for the season and boy were we surprised. Raspberry's were still available so we had a punnet of them. The poor damsons had been all blown off the bushes except a few that were well hidden so I had a bag of them too now in the freezer waiting for a later date. Plums galore, I walked through the rows of trees picking different variety's and filling a huge bag. Then a spin round the farm shop for more goodies, and so reasonable too.

I was soo inspired by my morning out that I cam home and decided to make this.

I got a new toy last Sunday in Home Sense, a mandolin!!

They have always scared me before as you do hear horror stories about people chopping their fingers off with them.

But I bit the bullet and decided enough grating was enough, so now I can slice and shred as much as I like (with the finger guard obviously!!)

I pull the beetroot from the garden and still have some left in the ground to make another batch. Yummy.

On Wednesday my friend Alison from work brought me in 2 HUGE courgettes from her allotment.

I found a fab recipe for pickled courgette on the Internet and set to work Wednesday night with one courgette.

Here are the results.

They are thinly sliced with the mandolin along with shalotts from the farm shop & they are in a cider vinegar, mustard & chili solution.

On Thursday I found out that there are some apple trees in the grounds at work, so off I went scrumping in my lunch break!!!

I got a small haul as it looked like they had seen visitors recently.

Will be going back soon with a stick to get some of the higher fruit.

Friday evening I decided that the plums from the PYO really needed something doing to them so I decide to make Ruby Plum & Apple Chutney.

I started buy chopping & stoning all the plums.

Then I pealed & chopped all the apples from my scrumping mission.

I also added some figs that had been reduced in the super market, red onions, sultanas, garlic, ginger, spices, brown sugar & red wine vinegar and lastly some ruby port!!!

Oh my house smelt like Christmas.

My trusty preserving pan has had a busy week too.

I have to say I made my recipe up, and just let it cook for a really long time until it was thick enough to pot.

It thickened up really well, if I haven't made a certain type of pickle or chutney before I do use a recipe.

I used recipes for both the Beetroot & Courgette pickles.

I have loads more chutney & pickle recipes left to make.

I have decided to make all the Christmas Presents this year, be it hand cooked or handmade.

Friends & family seam really pleased with the idea.

I have some pickling onions in soak at the moment and I will pickle them tomorrow.

What are you pickling, Jamming or preserving at the moment??

Have a great week.

Luv

PS. Thanks for all the lovely comments on my hair cut xxx