It seems my cooking mojo may have returned. Yes, I have been cooking, no less than usual, but there is a difference between cooking out of necessity and for the health of the family, and cooking for fun. This weekend we did have some fun in the kitchen. With my enthusiastic little helper in the kitchen we cooked up a batch of strawberry jam. After seeing Christina's jam a few weeks back, and inspired by her bulk buying them when on special (my strawberry plants aren't even flowering yet) and the rapid decline of stock in our jam pantry shelf. It seems we are eating a lot of jam lately. We used the recipe from Sally Wise's A Year in A Bottle. You can also find the recipe here.
We also had some unseasonably warm weather here on the weekend. My further north readers will laugh at our twenty four degree "heat", but after several frosts this week it was a welcome change. There were lawns to mow (and now lawnmowers to fix, it seems), trees and seedlings to water and weeds to pull out. We are definitely entering into the growing season here.
Sunday lunch was a chicken stock (a 48 hour slow cooked one, that I almost forgot about) with rice and some homemade bread with garlic and (our garden) herb butter.
How was your weekend?
Yay for the cooking mojo! This is the second post I've read about homemade jam...it must be the season x
ReplyDeleteHooray for getting you kitchen mojo back. I completely understand what you mean!
ReplyDeleteThe photographs are lovely,
e
Beautiful pictures! And that bread looks fantastic. Makes me want to get back to my New Year's resolution of more baking with yeast.
ReplyDeleteIt's evident by your photos Tania just how wonderful your children's childhood is....they will look back in years to come with such fond memories I am sure :)
ReplyDeleteFairly quiet weekend in my neck of the woods.
x
tammi said it all. what a beautiful life. love the photos and your cooking is so so good!! xo.
ReplyDeleteYeah, 24degrees just doesn't cut it, at our place on the Mid North Coast NSW it was 34 degrees!! :) Julia's strawberry jam looks great, we made our first batch of strawberry jam a couple of weeks ago and its almost all gone. Strangely enough it actually tastes like strawberries.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a happy and productive weekend, hope this week follows the same way.
Cassandra
Bravo Julia on your Jam.
ReplyDeleteI'm chiming in with the same; your photography is beautiful! Swinging by after dear Dee mentioned your loveliness. I see she is right.
ReplyDeleteI never tire of seeing pictures of children in the kitchen - it's such a beautiful thing. Your little one's are going to develop such a fantastic relationship with food.
ReplyDeleteYear in a bottle is great, I've been eyeing it off at the abc store for ages now!
bread looks insanely delicious! x
Julia's jam looks delicious, well done what a great job you did:)
ReplyDeleteAhh yes it was definitely a bit hotter here,
31 degrees, I hope that this summer won't be a hot one it was nice to be outside though. We spent the weekend at home, hubby painting and a visit to the library. It was nice and relaxing. xo
That jam looks amazing. Beautiful pictures of your kidlets. Think the cooking mojo ebbs and flows, mines back a little too, must be spring.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I see a youngster in an apron it makes my heart swell! Lovely photos all around and I am glad to hear you got the mojo back! I can totally relate to the difference between desiring to and having to. Its a large distinction!
ReplyDeleteThere just isn't anything like homemade jam is there? I would have loved to have made jam with my mother! But I didn't make my first jam until I was 28. :)
ReplyDeleteHope the week ahead is as wonderful as your weekend!
Yum! Your garlic bread looks phenomenal! I know what you mean about cooking mojo, it can be hard to find at times :). Glad yours is back.
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