I wanted to make peach pie and so I bought a bunch of peaches. But then when I checked the next day - someone had eaten several. I got my bountiful baskets purchase and there was a small amount of pluots in there - not really enough to make a batch of jam. What I have is a fridge full of food but not enough of what I need. I have a little of this and a little of that but none of it adds up to anything.
(Ahem...clears throat) It is time for the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. I browsed through different recipes and finally found a couple things I could make with what I have on hand. I could almost make chutney...What is Chutney? Well, I saw the ingredient list but I am not sure what I was going to serve chutney on...or who to give it to. This whole exercise in water bath canning was supposed to help me make things I could give as Christmas gifts. Chutney - Indian food. Lots of Indians around here but not the right kind of Indians for chutney gift giving.
Back to the Ball Blue Book of Preserving: Hmmm...plum sauce, also called duck sauce. Served with Chinese food. I like Chinese food. I think I might like plum sauce. I scanned down the ingredient list and for once in my life I had the correct "bit of this" "bit of that". Plum sauce it is.
fresh ginger - love the smell
peaches, plums, ginger, garlic, chiles, brown sugar, ACV and mustard seeds
Finished product. I love that you can distinctly see the individual ingredients.
I absolutely loved this stuff. It is sweet & sour at the first bite, then the pungence of ginger and as the flavor fades - a zing of chile heat. I am definitely keeping some of this for myself!
Planning to make something with pears this weekend. Pear butter, canned pears, definitely something with pears. Any ideas?
I bought a box of pears from bountiful baskets - kinda going out on a limb here since I don't have a clue what to do with pears. I guess I will make it up as I go along.
Both my Pear Butter and Pear/Apple Sauce--didn't have enough pears, are really big hits! They were both fairly easy. Then I took the peels and cores and boiled them for Pear/Apple Jelly.
Life - life is chewing me up and spitting me back out right now. So very, very busy. I did follow your advice and make the pear butter. Caramel pear butter in fact. Will write more later but for now, right this minute - back to life.
Something from Nothing.
Long ago and far away I used to go to the store and buy lots of fabric. I bought fabric for what I was making that day. I bought fabric for future projects. And I bought fabric I thought was pretty. Sometimes a yard or so. Sometimes just a snippet. Now that I have no money for buying things I am amazed at my spendy ways of old. I am embarrassed I was such a hoarder but also I am thankful. When the mood (or the need) strikes me, I go rumaging through baskets of odds and ends and I lay bits and pieces this way and that. I screw up my eyes so my vision is blurry and I decide if the colors meld enough. If I really need a particular color - I go to the thrift store and peruse used cotton shirts and sometimes I find just the thing I was looking for.
Today's mood (or need) is an apron. Mine is smudgy and dingy all down the front. I wear an apron a lot. So, I want a new one. I imagined a white fabric with red cherries on it. I imagined I would do an elaborate trim at the bottom in black diamonds quilted down. But I have no fabric with cherries on it. I have nothing in that color scheme. And so I went digging through the baskets of scraps. This is what I came up with.
I like the prints and I like the color combination.
This is my initial square. What I need is to build it into a shape I could cut a bib out of.
This is the bib. I should be able to cut a bib from this. Then I will attach a skirt to it in a coordinating fabric.
This is what makes me happiest - a pile of string thin bits of fabric. I have efficiently used up those little bits and pieces I had laying about.
I will post more later when I finish the apron. But these are the things that make me happiest - making something from nothing.