More Gifts From the Kitchen

So how are your gift preparations going?

My vanilla extract is still macerating away in a dark place but there is plenty still happening in the kitchen.

Elders are in bloom here now and the last of my late winter lemons have gone into the Elderflower cordial. Truly it is the nectar of fairies.

Here is the recipe I use.

On Sunday I foraged for spray free rose petals of divine fragrance.

It's that time of year again for making rose petal jam.

I have previously posted here.

I'll not lie to you. It took me a couple of hours to collect the petals and then FOUR hours of sorting, cleaning (read: de-bugging) and snipping before allowing the mass to macerate in sugar overnight.

I then had the crazy idea that I could whip this jam up before work this morning....

54 jars later....

not really but almost....

8litres of jam people!!!

What was I thinking. Before work. Really?

Just finding lids to match that many jars took forever let alone the sterilising.

But it's done.

TRULY WORTH THE EFFORT!

Food of the fairies

Can't you just imagine fairies sipping elder flower nectar from acorn cups and licking rose petal jam from velvety petal bowls.

I've already made my preserved peel last month. This year I also used orange peel and I have bought some special couverture chocolate from the famous Tasmanian House of Anvers and I'm going to half dip those. The bitter orange peel and rich chocolate will be a divine Christmas treat.

So get to gathering and foraging and cooking to make some unique and magical gifts from the kitchen. You still have four weeks to go.