Ingredients

1.5 kg plums
1.5kg sugar
1 ¼ cups water

Method

1. Put plums and sugar into a large heavy-based saucepan
2. Bring to the boil and simmer until skins are tender (½ – ¾ hour)
3. Remove stones with a slotted spoon (the stones will have risen to the top)
4. Add sugar and stir well
5. Bring the boil again and boil quickly 10 15 minutes
6. After 10 minutes test for setting by putting a spoonful on to a small dish and put it on an open windowsill or in the fridge for up to one minute.  If the jam forms a skin and wrinkles, it is set. Repeat until skin forms
7. Remove from heat, skim off any excess foam and pour into hot sterilized jars
8. Cover with cellophane jam jar covers or aluminium foil (kept in place with rubber bands) or self sealing lids.

Makes about 10 375gm jars

Lemons, limes and grapefruit are more acid but oranges and tangerines are sweeter.  Which citrus you use depends on your own taste. You can mix the fruit according to what flavour you want.  This recipe uses New Zealand grapefruit and makes a medium thick marmalade.  You can use a lemon instead of half a grapefruit if you wish. This will give you a more tangy result.

Ingredients

1.5kg grapefruit
2.5 litres water
1.5 kg sugar

Method

1. Clean the fruit well and peel the rind
2. Remove the pith (the white floury layer under the skin) if it is very thick as this is very bitter and does nothing for the flavour of the finished product)
3. Cut into quarters and put into a liquidizer with the rind.
4. Pulse the liquidiser until the fruit has been cut into small pieces.  Don’t leave it on too long because you don’t want a mush.
5. Put the cut up fruit into a large heavy-based saucepan with the water.
6. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 ½ – 2 hours
7. Skim off any pips and large shreds
8. Add sugar and boil until setting point is reached (½ – ¾ hour). Test for setting by putting a spoonful on to a small dish and put it on an open windowsill or in the fridge for up to one minute.  If the jam forms a skin and wrinkles, it is set. Repeat until skin forms
9. Skim off any excess foam and pour into hot sterilized jars
10. Cover with cellophane jar covers or aluminium foil (kept in pace with rubber bands) or self sealing lids.

Makes 12-14 375gm jars

Note: Its best to have the saucepan no more than half full when the sugar is added to avoid a boil over and big mess to clean up.  If you don’t have a really large saucepan, use smaller quantities in the biggest saucepan you can get your hands on.

Ingredients

3 large lemons
½ cup sugar
100mls boiling water
600 mls cold water
ice cubes

Method

1. Dissolve the sugar in boiling water
2. Pour into a serving jug and add the cold water
3. Squeeze the lemons and pour the juice into the jug
4. Pour into long glasses and drink on a warm evening.

To serve, add ice cubes and garnish with thin slices of cucumber or a sprig mint leaves or nasturtium flowers.

There are marks on the inside of my glass oven door (between the two).  How can I get them clean without dis-mantling the whole door?

Judy suggested that:

1. If this is a relatively new oven, contact the manufacturer because I think this may be a problem with the seals around the two layers of glass.
2. If this is an older oven, then maybe phone call to a small appliance repairer would be useful before you try to dismantle the oven door.

Cam writes about his recent experience and gives instructions for dismantling the oven door.

“I recently had the same problem – turned out one of the seals had been turned in when the door had been put back together last time.  Often these rubber seals can degrade.  I was able to reseat the seal once I had cleaned the interior.

Unfortunately, the only solution I could find was to dismantle the door.
Most doors can be removed from the over by simply opening them and lifting the hinges up so they can be slid out of the oven chassis.  This may be a 2 person job due to the with of some doors.

Lay to door on the kitchen floor on an old sheet.  The outer can usually be removed from the door frame by unscrewing screws somewhere around the perimeter of the door.  Simply slide the outer off the inner to gain access to the inside of the door.  Make note of the way the door is put together.  Check all seals and clean the interior and make sure you repeat in reverse the disassembly instructions.  Refit the door by sliding the hinges back into the chassis.”

You can create a no-dig garden by building up layers of organic material till you have a pile that is high and wide enough to grow some vegetables.

You can build your raised no-dig garden beds within a frame that will keep the soil in place.

You can make the frame out of solid pieces of wood, old wooden railway sleepers, kitset beds or sheets of corrugated iron.  You can use anything that will be strong enough to stand up to being filled with soil and plants.

Or you can simply build up layers of organic material on any surface and sweep or rake the soil back into place when it starts to spread.

Or you can fill old car tyres, buckets or plant troughs with organic material to create a number of mini no-dig gardens.

The best organic material to start a no-dig garden is

• straw or pea straw,

• compost (bought or home-made),

• some animal manure (sheep pellets, chicken manure or other animal manure that is readily available)

• lots of wet newspapers, flattened cardboard cartons or an old piece of wool carpet.

Before you put your raised bed in place, cover the ground with some sort of covering that will stop weeds getting through into your garden.  A piece of old carpet is great. Or flattened cardboard cartons, a very thick layer of newspapers or you can buy commercial weed mat from hardware stores of garden centres.

This base layer is especially important if you are creating your no-dig garden over an existing lawn or a ‘wilderness’ area in your back yard.

If you are using buckets or plant pots you will need to create a bottom layer that lets the water drain through – such as, stones, large pebbles or pieces from old broken clay pots

Once you have your bottom layer sorted you build up layers of the various organic material until you have filled your container, frame or have enough height in your pile of organic material.

Leave it to settle for a week before you start planting.

Lettuces getting started in an old car tyre

All you need is a number of potatoes all much the same size so they will cook evenly.  Allow at least one potato per person.

1. Scrub the potatoes to remove any dirt, but leave the skin on.  Cut or tear the foil into squares  large enough to wrap each potato individually
2. Coat the inside of the foil with cooking oil and place each potato in the centre of the foil and roll up the foil around the potato.  You can season with herbs, salt and pepper before wrapping them up if you want to
3. Seal the edges by folding the excess foil over the potato
4. Place the potatoes on the barbecue grill and turn regularly until cooked.  Depending on the size of the potatoes, these can take from 15 – 30 minutes to cook.
5. Test with a metal skewer or thin bladed knife to check if the potatoes are cooked.  Alternatively, gently squeeze the potatoes – they will be soft when cooked
6. To serve, open the top of the foil and cut a cross in the top of the potato.  Squeeze the potato  to open it up and spoon a dollop of yoghurt, cream or butter into the fluffy cooked potato.
7. Garnish with parsley, basil leaves or sprinkle with paprika

Ingredients

One cake of your choice
2 cups icing sugar
Red food colouring
Hot water
Heart shaped chocolates

Method

1. Bake your cake in a square or round tin that is large enough for you to be able to cut a heart shape out of it.
2. While the cake is cooking, cut a heart shaped template out of baking paper or clean cardboard
3. Let the cake cool then cut it to a heart shape using your template
4. Make the icing with icing sugar and water, and when it is of a consistency that will let you spread it over the top of the cake and down the sides, add enough food colouring, drop by drop, until it is red (or dark pink)
5. Add more water or icing sugar if necessary for a spreadable mixture.
6. Spread the icing all over the cake
7. Decorate with heart shaped cholcolates.

If you are using a bought unfilled sponge cake:

1. Separate the two pieces of cake and fill with whipped cream.  You can colour this pink or red with food colouring if you choose
2. Sandwich the two pieces of cake together and cover with red icing as above

Serve with love