Fruits of my labour :)

O..K..the 'fruits' of my labour..literally! :) One luscious jar of passionfruit curd (or butter as it's also called), several jars of quince jelly, two jars of grape jelly/nectar...kind of not quite set enough to be jelly...tho thinking it could be nice mixed with balsamic vinegar to make a delicious dressing for a salad...like a grape jus !..mmm....anyway...here are some pics of my days work... Oh the first batch of quince paste I made in the microwave...excellent as you don't have to worry about it spitting all over the stove and your hands arms and face! (thank goodness I wear glasses!!)...this paste was a little low on sugar and I think that's why the colour is not so rich, but it is delicious with crackers and a nice sharp vintage cheese as shown here. Beth and I had a lovely supper of this two nights ago...she just had the crackers and cheese as she does not love mama's quince preserves...sniff! sniff!!...(rejected! ;))....but I, on the other hand, LOVED it!!...

Oh how luscious do these look??? Just oozing jelly and dying to have the cores scooped out and be simply added to some creamy french vanilla icecream...bellissima!!...

And then the passionfruit curd....here is the final result...I had some spread on delicious toasted ciabatta for my lunch...no need for butter as it's very rich (and full of butter itself!)...really good.

Here it was still bubbling away after removing from the microwave...it really is a great invention for preserving...takes so much time and precision out of the equation. This passionfruit curd made in 6 minutes!

And here my gleaming wee jar of quince jelly...just the most beautiful jewel like colours...with the grape jelly to the right...

A wobbling teaspoonful of jelly ready to eat...

Lined up like little jelly jar soldiers on my kitchen window sill...next to my bottled nectarines that Steve and I picked at Renwick on the way home from a short holiday up north....

And here they all are cooling, ready to have their lids popped on...

Oh I truly love preserving, jam making, jelly making, curd making...cheese making, butter too! think I was born in the wrong era! haha..mind you, back in the day, it probably wasn't as much fun ...doing it out of necessity is different to doing it as a wonderful pastime! Mind you...I think I would have loved it still...

thats it for now mi amici...

buonanotte...and good night :)

jessie xx