Category Archives: Jam, Jelly & Preserves

I was visiting the other day and nestled on the kitchen counter were jewel toned bottles of marmalade. I asked what flavour they were and was told it was Ma Made. Ma Made? My mind went in several different directions. “Have you never heard of Ma Made?” I was asked. “No”, was my reply. Thus […]

Fruit jellies are something I have toyed with making for many years, ever since I received the Candy addition of The Good Cook/Techniques and Recipes by Time Life Books, published in 1981. This recipe is one of the reasons I substituted apple juice for black currant juice in this previous post for black currant jelly. […]

Over the past two days I have shared some black currant recipes that I had been playing with over the long weekend. The jelly and curd left me with cooked berries that were definitely still useful. This post is all about what other options are available for the left over mash. Black currants grow locally […]

I so enjoy black currants as a flavour and even had several bushes in a previous home. They do not require full sun and do well in shadier areas, unusual for berries. They also do not generally need a lot of attention and can be left to their own devices. Black currants grow wild across […]

Mincemeat has an interesting history, a bit of which we will get to in a moment. I thought though that I would start with the pears as this mincemeat has no meat in the recipe. I first came across a pear mincemeat recipe in a Ball recipe book at least two decades ago. It was […]

Beltane is about honouring life. All around you there are signs of abundant fertility. Beltane is the place between the fullnesses of spring and summer, where possibilities are sparked and conception happens. Heiros Gamos, the sacred union of Earth and Sky is celebrated.  Bees pollinate flowers so fruit can be harvested throughout the remaining agricultural […]

Fusion cooking has brought many delicious treasures from around the world into common use in non traditional ways. One example are preserved lemons. They hail from North African cuisine and are probably most well know for their use in Moroccan tagines. Preserved in salt and lemon juice and usually made from Meyer lemons they can […]

In honour of Cheese Lover’s Day (January 20th) but good for any day (don’t you think?), a tasty savoury variation on thumbprint cookies! Four things came together that got me thinking. We are headed towards Imbolc and cheese is one of the foods of the season. Definitely not this cheese as it is an aged […]

According to the Telegraph.co.uk, “The story goes that marmalade was invented in 1700, when a storm-damaged Spanish ship, carrying Seville oranges, sought refuge in Dundee harbour. The cargo was sold off cheaply to James Keiller, a down-on-his-luck local merchant, whose wife turned it into a preserve.” Now the story may be true for commercial production […]

Lemon Curd is by far the most well known variety of this heavenly filling. Christmas dinner was never complete for my father without a cold from the fridge spoonful of lemon curd inside a freshly warmed tart shell. Before Seville orange season comes to an end, I wanted to share a different option with a […]