Crab Apple Jelly

I was very excited to be handed a bag full of crab apples from a friend  in work yesterday. I decided the best recipe to try would be crab apple jelly. I ended up with 2 kg of apples after discarding the badies. Jelly has to be made in stages so I decided to boil the apples and let the juice filter over night.

Cover the apples in cold water and bring to the boil, gently cook for 30 mins until the apples are soft and mushy.

I have a jelly bag which is basically just muslin with handles, put the pulp into the bag hang it over the pan and let it drip into a saucepan over night. Never stir it or it will make the jelly cloudy.

In the morning measure the liquid that has dripped though and add sugar at a ratio or 7 to 10. 70g to every 100ml of liquid. I had 1 litre of apple juice so I added 700g of sugar. Add the juice of one lemon and I put in three cloves to add some spice.

Bring to a rolling boil, the recipe I found suggested 30-40mins of boiling but I felt this might be too long. Keep an eye on it as it can set quite quickly as there is loads of pectin in apples, which creates the set.

Chill two plates in your freezer to test for setting if you do not have a thermometer. To test put a spoonful of jelly on to the cold plate, after a minute or so touch the jelly and if it has set it will wrinkle. Turn off the heat and pour into steralised jars.

 Your done!! I love the colour its a really lovely pinkish red:)

My 1st Sewing Project

Last week on one of the blogs I follow I spotted a registration page for an online Home Ec class. It is run by lovely Leigh -Ann (LA) from Freckled Nest.I've been talking and talking and talking some more about learning to sew so I decided to just go for it!The sneak preview of the projects looked great and I've a whole sideboard full of fat squares I've picked up over the years, about time I did something with them!

So this is my first project, I decided to go for the tote shopping bag and 5 hrs later, YES I said 5 I had these bags.  This is made with two different materials.

this is my guitar rock 'n' roll tote

Now I just have to pick my next project.