Preserves and Painting

Halfway through January and time to use some of the stored fruit and preserves. I brought some apples from the shed and made my apple and cinnamon squares. These make a lovely pudding on a wintry day and freeze well so there is always cake available.

Although the apples look blemished they are good under the skin and still taste wonderful. I changed my recipe slightly. I sprinkled the mixed sugar and cinnamon on top of the cake mixture instead of on the apples. A crispy, sweet topping. Works well and the apples were not sour.

My original recipe for these is on my post with the title “Cones and Cakes”. Just scroll back if you’d like to try it.

I also used a jar of my preserved tomatoes. I had plenty in the greenhouse during August so I bottled some. The colour, flavour and texture were still excellent. First time I’ve preserved tomatoes and very pleased with the results. I shall do more if I can this summer. I mixed them with onion and sweetcorn to stir into pasta with the pesto I made and froze last summer. Delicious.

If you love pesto and are tempted to buy one of those expensive growing Basil pots from the supermarket, here’s a little advice to make the most of it. Never allow the Basil to become chilled as the leaves will turn black and it will die. If you give it a small drink of cold tea every day it will last for weeks and you can pinch off the leaves as you need them. It will thrive on a warm windowsill.

Outdoors the weather has been mixed. Very mild and wet for a few days at the beginning of the week. Opportunities for lovely raindrop shots.

Some crisp, sunny days since with lots of wildlife activity. I think the birds are calling for mates already. I’ve heard a few new songs in addition to the lovely Robin who sings every day in our trees. The seed feeders are in constant use. I took a couple of photos through the window. Not as sharp as I would like but nice to see the little Bluetits coming and going for peanuts.

The bigger birds have been fighting over territory and food so I find lovely downy feathers floating around the garden.

While most of the plants are dormant it’s nice to look at photos of how they look in their prime. My Clematis “Freda” is just a tangle of bare stems now but will look wonderful in Spring. Here you can see how it looks now and how beautiful it will be again soon.

If you saw my post last week you might remember that I was painting a picture of a vase of summer flowers. I normally like to add a background to my paintings because for me it doesn’t seem complete without a setting. This time though I felt it would detract from the shapes and colours. I liked the sharp definition on the bright white paper. So here it is:

I hope you haven’t got the January blues and you’re finding lots of enjoyable things to make the winter pass quickly. With you again next week.