… and Saturday as well.
Over the past two days I have mainly spent my time in the kitchen. I started Saturday by making the custard base for some vanilla ice cream*… because we had lots of eggs and some cream that needed using up (well, that’s my excuse anyway). Then I processed the tomatoes I had roasted on Friday and bottled up 25 jars of passata.
I put the roasted tomatoes through the passata mill three times to extract all the pulp and the small amount of skin and seeds left goes on the compost heap. I then reheat the passata and bottle it using the hot water bath method, having checked the pH is below 4.6 and therefore safe to preserve. I’ll do another batch later in the season and then we won’t need to buy tinned tomatoes for a whole year and we will have avoided a whole load of cans that would have had to be recycled (the jars are reusable).
Then I set the now cool custard to churn to turn into ice cream and then returned it to the freezer before starting to make nectarine nectar (just a fancy way of describing purée), which I bottled this morning (Sunday), and which I have just realised will be perfect for Nectarine Bellinis:
And finally, I bottled peaches and nectarines in light syrup combined with the left-over nectar (just one picture because of the stickiness):
bottled summer
And then I noticed that Mr Snail had dressed appropriately:
Now, I just have a lemon cake to make with the egg whites left-over from the ice cream and then I will be having a lie-down!
-oOo-
*I can’t eat ‘normal’ ice cream because of my lactose intolerance, but if I pre-treat the milk and cream with lactase enzyme, I can make my own that I can eat.
The Snail of Happiness 
writinghouse
/ August 7, 2016Yum! 🙂
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thecontentedcrafter
/ August 7, 2016Wowie Dr Snail!! Those photos hurtled me back in time to the 70’s when my late summer days and evenings were spent in the kitchen preserving and/or freezing everything that an abundant mother nature sent my way. We lived in the Hawkes Bay then, a rural paradise spread about with market gardens and orchards and our own quarter acre resplendent with fruiting trees and an abundant vege patch………… Good times!! It is wonderful to see you making all this delicious goodness to carry you through the coming year. I also like the sound of your homemade ice cream!!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ August 7, 2016I’m rather tired now – looking forward to being lazy and doing some editing tomorrow!
The ice cream is lovely – and so nice to know exactly what’s in it – just cream, milk, eggs, sugar and vanilla seeds.
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katythenightowl
/ August 7, 2016That all looks very tasty 🙂
It’s great to see and, even if it’s hard work doing such bulk cooking, I miss doing all that myself – especially the wonderfully fresh flavours 🙂
I don’t blame you wanting a rest! 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ August 8, 2016Yes, it’s tiring, but I really love doing it
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katechiconi
/ August 7, 201625 jars of passata is an extremely good result! When I bottle, it’s generally a chunkier tomato sauce, no skins but I keep the seeds in, and there’s also a heap of garlic and herbs in it. Probably something to do with the fact that I don’t have a passata mill (no space for more gadgets), otherwise I’d be making both chunky sauce and passata.
All the mango trees round here are in flower, the season is coming, and I can’t wait!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ August 8, 2016As always, I envy your mangoes.
I used to make sauces with garlic and herbs in them, but then I decided that if I stuck to a plain version I could use it as a base for anything… this is partly because I am rubbish at keeping track of what it what and have been known to grab an inappropriate jar in a fit of creativity!!
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livesinstone
/ August 8, 2016Wow! So much work but so worth it! It all looks so good!
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davidprosser
/ August 8, 2016Another really busy weekend for you.It looks like it was tee shirt weather there too so you really must have been sticky by the time you’d finished.. No wonder you needed a good long lie down. I hope you managed to enjoy some of the sunshine too.
I spent Sunday in Betws y Coed where there was a nice breeze by the river.
xxx Humongous Hugs to you both xxx
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The Snail of Happiness
/ August 8, 2016Although we had sunshine there was plenty of air movement, so I was able to keep the kitchen fairly comfortable.
By-the-way, I love your little profile picture 🙂
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crawcraftsbeasties
/ August 9, 2016Wooooah, that’s a busy weekend! Your passata looks delicious, and I love the sound of your ice cream… But the winner for me is the nectarine nectar! Nectarine Bellinis – YES PLEASE! Enjoy 😀
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The Snail of Happiness
/ August 9, 2016Well, come and visit with Paddy and Plunket and we can oblige!
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crawcraftsbeasties
/ August 10, 2016Oooh, I could be tempted! I’m just back after a couple of days away, so another holiday is looking mighty appealing 😀
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