Homemade Wine

***This post is mostly about the making of alcoholic beverages but this should only be done by someone of legal drinking age and consumed responsibly***

Ahem, well now I have that out of the way... This has been a weirdly stressful day as my youngest munchkin has gone away with his school for a week long skiing trip and, as my friends know, when stressed I clean and when worried I bake or preserve but now it seems I brew as well. By the end of this week I dread to think of the spotlessly clean state the house will be in, how full the biscuit tin (considering I already filled it to the brim this morning with home made flapjacks according to my God mother's secret recipe) and how many demi-johns will be snuggled into places in the kitchen recesses.

I have not made mead before nor have I made wine from cartons of juice that you can buy in the supermarket but I had a go anyway and will post results when it is time to drink them in a couple of months. There were absolutely loads of recipes for mead so I took a few recipes and mixed them up a bit and this is what I did:


Mead 1 gallon (1 demi-john)

3 X 454g honey
2.5l water
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
100g sultanas
1 tsp yeast (I used the dried active yeast from the supermarket) activated in 2 tablespoons of hand hot water

Sterilised demi-john and sterilised air lock in a bung.

* I gently warmed the honey and water together in a large pan, making sure it did not reach boiling point, until the honey dissolved.
* Add the honey and water mixture to the demi-john with the juice, zest and sultanas.
* When the liquid has cooled to hand hot temperature then add the yeast and top up with water until 3 inches from the top of the demijohn.

 Add the airlock with a little water to stop bacteria getting into the mead.

After 30 days wrack it off; siphon into another clean sterilised demi-john. Bottle after a further week and drink after 2 weeks.




Juice carton wine (1 demi-john)

1 tsp dried active yeast
5 X 1l cartons of pure juice ( I made 2 batches, one of red grape juice and one of apple juice )
1 cup of sugar

Sterilised demi-john, sterilised air lock in a bung and a sterilised jug (if using a funnel then sterilise that too)


*put the yeast in the demi-john and add four of the cartons of juice.
* mix 2 tablespoons of boiling water in the sugar so it dissolves and you can pour it into the demijohn.

* top up the demi-john with juice (approximately half of the last carton) until the liquid level is 3 inches from the top of the bottle.

What I ended up with was this:

Trying to avoid the same confusion I had with peapod and dandelion wines last year by labelling the demi-johns!

After 30 days wrack it off being careful not to disturb the sediment at the bottom. Do not bottle until the airlock has stopped bubbling or, if you are using a hydrometer, the reading remains under 1.02 for 3 days in a row (i.e. it is stable). Drink after 1 month although if you can leave it for a few months it is supposed to be better.

I decided to do this after watching a few YouTube videos, most specifically this one  https://youtu.be/7XO1f_Vjeg0 so you can always take a look at this if you want to make some of your own wine.

I have a feeling this week may continue to be productive in my effort not to worry about my adventuring munchkin and my next pair of socks will soon be finished as the second sock is well underway. Not fretting, not fretting, not fretting.

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx

My Sock Drawer

Well, as I said in my last post, I was knitting a pair of socks and although I had made a pair a few years ago I was having problems because my needles were too long so I have treated myself to a set of KnitPro needles; beautiful needles which arrived after I had finished knitting my socks. It seems rude to have the needles just sitting there so it is only right that I knit another pair of socks. Maybe another two pairs to truly wear in my new needles. Or even a whole drawer full. Really as long as my feet are warm and snuggly in gorgeous hand knitted socks I am happy.
Here is the pair of lovely socks which I knitted according to the pattern I found here in a blog I read http://winwickmum.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/basic-sock-pattern-and-tutorial.html

Here's time for the big confession. With my OH away learning all sorts of important things on a course JR is glued even more firmly to my ankle like the most awkward ankle bracelet ever and after a very long day of sock knitting I decided to aid the creative process by baking brownies the super fast way in the microwave. It was a deeply indulgent evening that no exercise regime can combat but the munchkins and I were all very happy with the result.

150g butter melted in the microwave,

stir in 65g cocoa powder and 200g sugar

beat 2 eggs and stir them in to the mixture along with 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 100g plain flour.

Place in a buttered microwave dish and cook on high for 5 minutes (the more powerful your microwave the less time it needs) then let it rest for 10 minutes before eating. I added 100g chocolate chips which made the brownie even more gooey and we had vanilla ice cream.

I think this evening will see me starting another pair of socks using my beautiful new knitting needles and maybe have a glass of wine or maybe a raspberry-tini made with my home made liqueur.

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx

Mates before Dates

Today is that day of the year which has left me baffled and somewhat irritated for years. For some reason or other over the years I have not received flowers, nor chocolates, nor jewellery which is what the adverts tell me I must want which is a relief as I am not sure how comfortable I would feel to receive such gifts. As it seemed the day should be marked in some way I have developed a tradition of my own and bought a new chick flick on dvd, cooked a steak dinner then curled up on the sofa on my own in my pjs with a whole tub of Ben & Jerry's. Why? Why not? It seems that for Valentine's Day you must either revel in romance or pretend that you are horribly sad to be single but I could never get the hang of either of those options so I enjoyed every last minute of it even mixing it up some years by adding a soak in a bubble bath. Oh, yeah. One of my long standing pet peeves is the common practice of girls to disappear from their friends' social radar as soon as they get a boyfriend and they reappear only long enough around this time to show how well coupled they are by flaunting their romance before disappearing again as many do.

This year, I am engaged to a wonderful man so things are changing, not only that but my munchkins are old enough to think that some fuss should be made so I have company in the kitchen. According to all of the adverts it feels like I am supposed to be extra romantic because I am engaged. Um, yeah. Please do not think for one minute that my usual crafty ways will be abandoned in favour of this whirlwind of romance as I have a pair of knitted socks to finish (one down, one to go) and I am determined that today is the day; anything to delay blocking the two Christening shawls.The pattern for my socks came from Revelry (or can be found here: http://winwickmum.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/basic-sock-pattern-and-tutorial.html ) and the yarn is Regia Opal bought from a fabulous little craft shop on the A9 on the way home from a visit to the nearly in-laws. My resolution not to buy any yarn until I finished the Christening shawls and the shawl for my wedding has been tough at times this week but I have been able to stick to it this week although I am not sure if my OH could possibly be more surprised than me about this. It seems that even the yarn companies have decided that Valentine's day is another chance for them to sell yarn to us. It is all pervasive and I am surprised the pharmacies are not touting antacids to combat our upset tummies or paracetamol considering all of the adverts assuming we will all be eating and drinking our way through this romantic day.

This year my lovely OH came back from a night shift, we exchanged cards and gifts then he went off to bed. As a nod to today the munchkins and I baked chocolate muffins and made a fresh pot of coffee for his breakfast at half past one. It was a small but sweet gesture and as I type this he is watching the Rugby.

So, you see, there is a reason I will put my best friend and soul mate before any date on the calendar and not just because the calendar or the adverts tell me; every day is a day for love, romance and friends and I will not go over the top, nor will I scream non-conformity from the roof tops by refusing to mark this date (nb: those who buy the flowers but give them on a separate day, such as the day before or after, as a sign of non-conformity are perhaps not fully grasping the concept) because I am conforming to expressing my warm smooshy feelings for my lovely OH but it is one day among many.

Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

Hugs from Haggis Land

Jx

p.s. Chocolate muffins

6oz butter creamed with 6oz vanilla sugar (caster sugar with vanilla pods in it),
add 3 beaten eggs and 6oz of self raising flour. Mix until smooth.
Stir in 100g white chocolate chunks and 1 packet of dark chocolate chips.
This makes 12 muffins when baked at 180 degrees celsius for 20-25 minutes until cooked (test with a skewer).

Waste Not

It has been beautiful here but very cold so poor Mrs Jones, our friendly Rayburn, has been going day and night which has led to some fun cooking. As usual I did the food shopping but this week my munchkins have not been eating so much of the fruit so the apples ended up a little wrinkled and a lot less appealing. My OH does not eat apples unless I put them in my fruit tea loaf which is a recipe I was given many years ago by a friend and have adapted to suit my family.

The basic recipe is 1 cup of dried fruit soaked in a cup of tea, 1 egg, 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of brown sugar. Mix it all up and bake for 1 hour at 160 degrees celsius or until browned and a skewer comes out clean.

This is a nice very basic tea loaf without butter or oil but not quite to my taste. I like spice and much more fruit than that and with some apples to use up I chopped up the four small apples and one lonesome pear added 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of ground ginger and 1 teaspoon of mixed spice. I left this to soak for a couple of hours.

 

I ran out of brown sugar so I added granulated sugar; it's a different taste but this is not a cake which has to have exact ingredients.

 

It does not look pretty but then not that many cake mixtures do.

This made enough to fill 2 standard loaf tins and when turned out went to lurk in the cake tin to be devoured by hungry munchkins and OH for pudding or for afternoon tea.

Left: top of the cake, Right: bottom of the cake

As if this was not enough there were some blood oranges in the bowl and some lemons so I put them in a pan of water, covered them and gently simmered them on Mrs Jones for a couple of hours until soft. You know the plastic tubs you get a takeaway in? Well I keep them and use them for times just like this as the fruit was drained, smooshed up with the hand whizzer thingy and frozen ready to be made into Nigella's Clementine cake http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/clementine-cake-2559. I sometimes change the fruit for whatever citrus fruit I need to use up and if I do not have the almonds I will use the same quantity of polenta but with a teaspoon of almond extract so the flavour comes through.

This has been an odd week but I am halfway through the second Christening shawl so I am feeling hopeful that there is light at the end of this particular crafting tunnel. We opened a couple of bottles of the ale I bottled a while back one evening and it was good so I am a happy bunny.