Black currant jam

We have no Jam in the house. Wow unbelievable. So I rummaged through the freezer and found 1.5kg of black currants. Aaron is away for work, the boys are in bed, so I whipped up 8 jars of jam. Yummy. I used my recipe here

Had some of the end bits all warm over cold vanilla icecream, so yes!!!

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A doing day

Today was a day to get things done. I intended to work most of today but the weather got in the way, so I work tomorrow and today I tried to do those things that have been hanging around.
First I went to aquacise with Dawn, it was pretty full on. Then I ...

Put Rimu door knobs on the hall cupboard doors. (Saved from when I redecorated Eli's bedroom)

Then I made a pile of crystalised orange peel. Yummy in Xmas fruit mince and hot cross buns. I don't approve of all the imported fruit and veges we have. We can grow our own, we should be supporting NZ growers. So I only every buy oranges when the NZ ones are in the shops. My mother gave me $10 for my birthday specifically for NZ oranges as she knows I love them. So when eating them I kept all the peel in the freezer and today I preserved them.

It is not quite spring and so fruit has not yet come on but we have run out of berry jams. I had some blackcurrants in the freezer, so I pulled them out and made 7 pots of yummy jam.

I then pulled down the Roman Blinds that I had made for our room as they were mouldy and yucky (that is what not having double glazing will give you). So I painted these wood mouldings as the new curtain rails will go on these and then they will be screwed to the walls. I undercoated, then I did two top coats. By the time I go to bed tonight I will have the new curtain rails up.

I completely dismantled the blinds and kept all the bits for some time when I decide to make others.

In amongst all that I did the usual - two loads of washing out on the line and in, mopped the floors, dealt with the kids, did dinner and lit the hot tub............ off for a soak now.

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Blackcurrant Jam and Dairy Free Banana Cake

The finished product

A great book

I have half a cow coming off the farm in the next few weeks so need to empty the freezer. Last year my blackcurrants were so prolific that I still had three containers of them in the freezer when I looked today. As we used the last blackcurrant jam on Friday, I figured that was what I would do with them.

For those of you with lot of blackcurrants what we normally do is free flow freeze (try saying that fast!) them and I use them instead of blueberries when making the blueberry muffin recipe. They are tarter and stronger in taste and we all love it.

Anyway this Jam recipe is a conglomeration of years of trying and a lovely Victorian Jam and Preserve book that my gorgeous friend Marie Pearce gave me as a wedding present (Hi Marie - still haven't finished making your birthday present, am working on those screens).

Rather than type the recipe out I have taken a photo of it. You should be able to read it ok. I use a higher portion of fruit to sugar than most recipes. I also don't stew the blackcurrants as long as most recipes as I do not want my fruit to be mush - I like fruit in jam to still be semi whole. More like a conserve.

Anyway this recipe is good and is not boiled so long that it goes hard in the jar the way it can sometimes. (My other hint is that I never buy specific jam jars. I just use jars that seal from chutneys, jams and sauces from the shop. They clean up and reseal very well)

The recipe

Dairy Free Banana Cake
I made this dairy free today as I did not have any butter out soft and I wanted to use the time the jam was cooking to make something. (and I had four bananas that needed rescueing)
into a bowl put: 1 and 1/8th Cups neutral oil, 3 eggs, 1 1/8th Cup sugar, 4-5 soft bananas mashed and whisk together. Into the liquid put 3 Cups flour, 1.5 teaspoons baking powder. Then put 1.5 teaspoons baking soda into 3 tablespoons warm water and dissolve, put with all other ingredients. Stir all well and pour into prepared tin. I used a ring tin as this is a large cake and the ring cuts the cooking time down. 180oC for about 40 minutes.

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