Storing Apples

I was hoping to post this marvellously thrifty idea last year however, due to the horrible weather in the UK last summer the apple harvest was so poor I didn't have any apples to store.  This year however there is a bumper crop.  The orchards around here, of which there are so many, are literally dripping with fruit and it makes my heart very happy to see.

I build up my apple store in September or October of each year and it keeps us in apples until Christmas, so it's really worth doing. 

To build your own apple store you will need some shallow crates or boxes (I use blue plastic crates that the stall holders at our local market use and give away for free), newspaper and apples suitable for storing.  "What apples are suitable for storing?" you ask.  Generally the crisper varieties work best, apples with softer or fluffier flesh don't, in my experience, store well.  Choose apples that are unblemished for your store, no worm holes or bruises.

Once you have picked your apples select those you want to store and wash them well, I had a little helper as you an see.

 

 Lay them out  in a single layer to dry.  Wait until they are well and truly dry (the slightest bit of moisture could ruin your whole store so DRY apples are the key).  You may need to turn them to get all the water out of their dimples.  Once your apples are really dry take your newspaper open it out flat and tear or cut it in half so you have single pages.  Wrap you apples individually and lay them in a SINGLE layer in your trays or boxes - that part is also very important for a successful apple store.

Here is how mine looks, for reference.  Keep filling trays until you think you have stored enough.  The reason why I like these blue trays so much is because the stack but still allow air flow.  They may not be pretty but they work well. Oh and did I mention they are free ;)

Store your apples in a cool dark(ish) place such as a shed or garage.  Check your store regularly and remove any soft or rotting apples, sometimes a bruised one slips through.  Don't panic as long as you take it out as soon as you notice it it shouldn't do too much damage  Another thing that can ruin your apple store is mice, beware!  

Happy autumn everyone!

 

Oven Cleaning Tips.

We have had a few sunny days lately and & the bulbs are starting to appear in the garden, you can almost hear the earth groaning on its axis and know that spring will soon be here.  I have been itching to get stuck into my spring cleaning but I am stalling myself because I just know the months of mud and mildew are not over yet & its probably a little too soon.

So I satisfied my urge to deep clean by giving my oven a lovely clean.  My now gleaming oven makes me smile every time I open it - I am not embarrassed to tell you.  You may remember the post I did last year about cleaning your oven with bicarbonate of soda and water.  Well I have been using this method very successfully for about a year now & it's working well.  The thing I love most about it is that's its easy, chemical free and very inexpensive to do.

In essence I sprinkle the inside of my oven with bicarb in the evening & then spray it with water and leave over night - get the full instructions (and some other handy kitchen cleaning tips) here.  The next day I scoop out all the gunk that has lifted of the bottom of my oven and then rinse it well with mild soapy water.  I have found you need to rinse thoroughly to remove all the bicarb otherwise you get a slight residue when you next use your oven.

The inside of my oven is now clean so I turn my attentions to the glass. I remove the glass from the door and using bicarb, water, a scouring pad & some elbow grease I scrub the glass of my oven.  If the glass is especially mucky I make a bicarb and water paste which I smear onto the glass and leave overnight.  To give it extra sparkle once I have removed all the muck I spray with a little white vinegar and polish to a nice shine.

The thing I always struggle to get clean are the oven racks.  They are rather fiddly and time consuming to clean in my experience.  The other day it occurred to me that these could go through the dishwasher (I am still new to dishwashers - do forgive me if this is very obvious to you all).  I put my oven racks into the dishwasher with my dishes on a normal cycle.  They came out looking better than I have seen them looking in a while & further more the rest of the grime came off so easily with just a sponge!  they are now shiny and like new - as is the rest of my oven.

Reading my previous post about how despairing I was about the state of my oven and conventional oven cleaners I am so glad I found the bicarb method my oven looks 100x better than it did this time last year - & so thrifty too ;)

Grab a bargin

Do you ever hunt through the reduced section in the supermarket but pass something up because you can't use it immediately?  I do.  However recently I've tried to think outside the box a little and thought I'd share the results with you.

Now of course meat and fish can be frozen - just check it hasn't previously been frozen.  Cheese can also been frozen even soft cheeses like Brie and Camembert.  Fresh herbs can be frozen in ice cubes or hung up and dried.  Try freezing them in olive oil so they can be thrown straight into the pan.  When it comes to fruit and vegetables you may have to be a bit more creative.  I recently got 5lb or strawberries for £2 at closing time at our local market.  I made strawberry jam most fruits can be turned into jam.  I  also got two melons for £1 and made melon granita.  Vegetables can always be made into chutney's or pickled or cooked and then frozen.

  

Recently I also found double cream reduced.   Cream has a very short shelf life and can't be frozen however double cream (not single) can be turned into butter.  Instead of spending hours shaking a jam jar I used the plastic whisk attachment on my very cheap and basic food processor - what I'm saying is any food processor will do this.  Whisk the cream in the food processor it will go thick and then all of a sudden you will notice it solidify and the buttermilk separate - magic!  Drain off the buttermilk - don't throw it away it makes great scones!  Now you need to get rid of all the buttermilk from the butter to do this add a small amount of cold water to the food processor and blitz for a few more seconds, drain the liquid off.  Keep doing this several times until the liquid runs clear.  You are almost there.  Now take the butter and squeeze out the water do this with your hands over a bowl.  Now shape and chill.  Butter like this tastes fresh and creamy - a real treat.      

Now get baking those scones and then enjoy a famous cream tea!

Elderflower Cordial

I always feel the preserving season is really underway when the elderflower come out & I make Cordial.  I use this same recipe, below, every year.  I am afraid I don't know it's original source as it was given to me but it is a good recipe and makes a fragrant and delectable syrup which you dilute to drink or that you can pour over ice cream for a wonderful summer treat.  It keeps for months and months as long as your bottles are well sterilised but can also be frozen.  This recipe makes about 1.5litres.

You will need...

20 large elderflower heads

1.8kg Granulated sugar

1 Litre of water

75g Citric acid (you will need to buy this from a chemist - tell them you want it for cordial)

2 lemons

Place the elderflowers in a large bowl.  In a pan mix the sugar and water and bring to a gentle boil, stir until all the sugar is dissolved.  Pour this mixture over the elderflower and stir in the citric acid.  Grate in the zest of both lemons and then slice the lemons and add the slices to the bowl.  Cover and leave for 24 hours before straining through a double muslin.  Decant into sterilised bottles and store in a cool dark place.

You can drink this cordial almost instantly once it has been decanted however after a couple of weeks the flavour develops a little more.  I can never resist a little taste when it's first made - it has a lovely freshness at this stage.

     

Please be careful Elderflower is a tree or large shrub with sprays of white flowers that later turn to deep purple berries, it has a distinctive smell.  Be certain that what you are picking is Elderflower!  Some people have mistakenly picked cow parsley as the flowers are similar but this grows up from the ground on tall stems.  Cow parsley is poisonous!  However, after a little familiarisation elderflower is very easy to identify so don't be put off, give it a go!

Make jam not war!

The preserving season is almost upon it & I can not wait!  I have been making Jam, chutneys and Jellies as well as drying my own herbs for about 3years now & it gives me such pleasure.  

It really is so easy although I've improved my technique over the years I've never had a bad batch.  Last year I made my own recipe for lavender jelly which turned out really well.  

You may already have made some jam from early fruits such as rhubarb - rhubarb and ginger jam is delicious!  I always kick off the season with a batch of Elderflower cordial in June.  It reminds me of when I was expecting my 2nd daughter.  I was already a week overdue and having lots of false starts & going a little out of my mind - it was also very hot that year!  I tired all manner of home remedies to induce labour and eventually struck on the notion that if I started a project she was sure to arrive.  So I set about making Elderflower cordial convinced that whilst it hung overnight straining through a muslin I was sure to have my baby.  I didn't, it was another week before she arrived but we had some lovely cordial to toast her arrival.

image via decorative country living where you can also purchase these vintage french jam jars

Anyway now is the time to start collecting your equipment together and particularly collecting all the empty jam jars and glass bottles that you can lay your hands on.

Value - whats hot and whats not?

Every supermarket has a value or basics range.  How do you know what is worth buying and what to avoid.  Below is purely my opinion but I hope you find it useful.

Baked beans and spaghetti are fine in fact I've found value ranges don't have the excessive amount of sauce filling the top half of the tin that the more expensive brands seem to have.

I've not yet found a satisfactory value pasta sauce - if anyone knows of a good one PLEASE let me know however value pasta is perfectly fine.  As is rice and other dried foods

No frills frozen veg is fine although, I've found with the peas especially you need to cook them a little longer.

Value raisins and sultana's are perfectly fine.  If your children like to take raisins in packed lunches or as snacks in those little boxes use the value raisins to refill the boxes.  That is if you can stop your children destroying the box after they've eaten the contents. 

Cereals and biscuits are also fine.  In fact the biscuit barrels are very good for large families.

Value vegetables are also fine although sometimes need a wash.  Be careful with vegetable pricing sometimes something branded as value is not always cheapest and don't completely disregard pre-prepared vegetables they can often prove to be the least expensive.  Don't ask me how this happens I don't know but pay attention to the price per unit which will be displayed under the price.

Never, never, never buy cheap meat or fish.  This is one area where I believe you cannot economise.  If you do eat meat make sure the animal has had a good life & that you use as much of the animal as possible.  If you buy a whole chicken use all the meat and make stock from the bones.  If you don't have time to make stock immediately you can freeze the bones to use later.

 Another thing to be wary of it tea, coffee and chocolate I always buy fair trade where possible again it's a matter of principle.  Good news however is that Sainsbury’s basics ground coffee is fair trade and only £1.69!

Make your food go further.

I hope you will forgive me if food is the last thing you want to think about post-Christmas but I thought I’d share some genuinely helpful tips with you all.  Don't you hate it when you see an article entitled "money saving tips" and then you read it and find it's full of the most basic common sense.  That happens to me all the time so I promise none of that here I will only share what i know to be true and have found to be useful.

Listen carefully I shall say this only once... make a list - Duh!  I know that was obvious but it really does help you save money.  Plan your meals for the week, look through your cupboards and find out what you already have and what you need, make a list.  Stick to the list & leave the supermarket (or where ever you buy your food) and feel good!  I will return to the subject of meal planning later.

Now that’s the basics onto the genuinely good stuff.  Once you've got the food home how can you make the most of it & make it last...

Wine is very expensive so don't let it go to waste.  Freeze any dregs or half drunk bottles to use in your cooking.  I use little individual jelly moulds for this or ice cube trays.  Once frozen pop out into a freezer bag and label.  Keep reds and white separate of course.

Blitz stale bread in a blender and freeze it.  Use it to coat fish and chicken or sprinkle on top of a pasta bake or fish pie.  If you don't fancy that make croutons with it or go traditional with a bread and butter pudding.

Have you ever had to buy a whole packet or fresh chillies for a recipe that only used one.  Did you know you can freeze them and then refresh them when needed with a little cold water.  Or dry them by stringing them onto a length of thread and hanging them in a cool dry place.

Tender herbs (parsley, chives, dill etc.) can be frozen too.  Freeze them in water in an ice cube tray and pop them out as needed.

Did you know you can also freeze most cheese everything from Cheddar to Stilton to Brie, wrap in Clingfilm & freeze - simple!  Cheddar can be grated first if it's more convenient.  If you’re keeping your cheese in the fridge wrap it in foil to stop it sweating.

That’s the freezer filled now onto the fridge..

Bagged salad will live longer if you remove them from the bag they came in and replace them in a fresh bag.  In fact excess water in you fridge causes mould pop a sponge in the veg drawer of your fridge it will make everything last longer - cheap make-up sponges are great for this as they are small and, dense enough to hold the water.  

Be thrifty with your time and energy and plan ahead for a rainy day.  It takes the same amount of time and effort to make 1 shepherds pie as it does to make two.  So why not make extra and pop it in the freezer.  Then when you have a day when you don’t feel like cooking or the kids are acting up or you get stuck in traffic on the way home and need to be get in, put the kids to bed and go to a PTA meeting viola pull out your "here's one I made earlier" dinner and feel like a domestic goddess.