New year, new cookies!

Another of Jerry's excellent Christmas eBay finds was an old fashioned cookie press. A proper metal one too, not a plastic one, and it came with about 8 different discs for different shapes.

 

He also googled some recipes for me too as it didn't come with instructions, and apparently the mixture and consistency is important when using a press. Here's my first attempt - just a basic vanilla shortbread. With practice I think I will be able to turn out some posh looking numbers! Oh, and they taste pretty good too!

 

Practical Presents

I hope everyone had a happy Christmas. Here at M&Js it was a quiet day, but there were some lovely practical presents to enjoy.

My obsession with kitchenware seems to provide and endless supply of gift possibilities. This year I received something I've been wanting for a long time - a maslin pan. It's pan made just for making jams and chutneys, with a wide mouth to speed evaporation. I am delighted!! Here it is getting it's first workout (rhubarb and berry jam).  Even after boiling the jam the handles were cool enough to hold without gloves, and you can easily pour straight into jars when bottling. This will be a much used item in Margo's kitchen !

Can you believe mama and papa Jerry bought this out in their luggage from the UK?!!

I also received a lovely new 11L stockpot to use for cheesemaking (and stock of course) and a new saute pan.

Of course, no Chirstmas would be complete without some new recipe books. I received the River Cottage bread book (looks brilliant - I've read most of it already!), Nigel Slater's new vegetable book (I'm drooling over his lovely bordered veg patch), and the book from the BBC TV series grow your own drugs, which also looks great at first glance - at last something useful to do with all those St John's Wort plants growing like weeds! Keeping an eye on them here is a very funky kitchen timer my friend Lucy sent me.

It wasn't all garden though - check out my new boot-wellies!

Jerry didn't miss out though - he got a scythe! Once he's learnt how to use it I'll have my very own grim reaper  LOL

My sister-in-law clearly has a sense of humour, as she sent us these:

and finally for the last word in cute, check out my mum's puppy (a miniature schnauzer). He's not a real dog, of course (how small!!), but he is cute.....

Mandolin marmalade

One of my lovely friends dropped round yesterday bearing gifts - a kilo of limes - so I decided to make a batch of lime marmalade.

This is the first batch of marmalade I've made since I received my fab kitchen mandolin from the lovely Jerry. It made the process of slicing the limes to soak a breeze.

There will be no more complaints about too-chunky marmalade in this household from now on!

I used about 900g of limes, 2.25 (!)kg of sugar, and 3l of water, and I now have 9 jars of lime marmalade cooling on the bench. Hope it's OK!

Jerry's latest creation

Out in the blogosphere recently I came across a nifty item someone had made - a stand to dry your plastic bags after washing them. It was such a great idea, so I showed a picture to Jerry and asked him to make me one.

Here it is - pretty nifty eh? It's certainly easier than trying to prop them over cutlery or plates.

Low-energy kitchen christmas!

This year the lovely Jerry out did himself with low-energy kitchen gadgets to help me while away the spare hours in the kitchen!

A new collapsible shopping basket, for those trips to town - and in it a manual food mill for making pasta sauces and purees - and my favourite new gadget - the apple peeler/corer/slicer/ It's brilliant - and kids that come to stay will love it!


My GORGEOUS new whistling kettle (although the dogs are a bit non-plussed by the new whistling sound) which has replaced my electric kettle (and the added bonus is more bench space!), and my brother and soon-to-be sister in law got in on the kitchen theme and gave me this fab spoon rest (and some toastbags and some green and blacks chocolate). My mother and father in law were in on the theme as well, with a kitchen timer that lets you time up to 4 things at once - great for multi-tasking!


A V-slicer with multi-attachments will make slicing those tomatoes and fruits evenly for drying a breeze! And Jemima Puddleduck is watching over the lovely painted tiles my sister and brother in law and nephews gave us - one a chook and one a pig. Aren't they lovely?


Aren't I a lucky Margo?!!