The kittens are now running around the bedroom freely and I have to tread very carefully the whole time I am in there. They seem to be stuck in a constant loop of sleeping in a pile, waking, hitting each other in the face and then sprinting up and down the length of the room. It is an adventure playground for them in there, full of things to try and climb up, dangling fabrics to whack and chew on and shoes to snuggle in.
When the Elderflower trees start sprouting their fragrant pretty flower heads, it marks the start of the English summer. So abundant, this tree lines many a public park or roadside. Once you are aware of it you begin to see them everywhere. So why not pick a few blossoms here and there and make yourself some delicious sweet and fragrant cordial at a very small cost and with minimal equipment needed…?
I recommend using a recipe like this one that uses citric acid. It is easy to find in the Home Brewing sections of shops such as Wilkinsons here in the UK and is inexpensive.
Here is what you need:
1. Shake the flowers and remove any debris and insects. Place into a large bowl
2. Place the sugar and water into a large saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring at times to help dissolve the sugar.
3. Whilst the sugar is dissolving, strip the zest from the lemons and place in the bowl with the flowers.
4. Slice the lemons and add to the bowl also.
5. When the sugar has dissolved and the water is boiling, pour over the flowers and lemons. Add the citric acid and stir well to mix. Now cover well and leave at room temperature for at least twenty four hours and up to five days. I left mine for two days.
6. When you have left it for long enough, get some sterilised bottles ready. I used three wine bottles. Strain the liquid through a sieve and some muslin or a new j-cloth that has been rinsed in boiling water. I caught the large items first in a colander. Ensure all of your equipment is clean also.
7. Use a clean funnel to ladle or pour the strained cordial into bottles. Label and decorate if you like…like this one here, which I gave as a gift with some gin and instructions of how to make a cocktail and recipe ideas.
Elderflower cordial is delicious simply topped up with soda and ice, can be added to gin or vodka and topped up with champagne or tonic water. It can be used to sweeten fruit for crumbles and other deserts and is also good poured over ice cream.
I’m going to try making some fruit jellies with mine:
Making a stock from a leftover chicken carcass is really easy and a damn sight tastier than salty, flavourless stock cubes and jellies. Until last week I had never done it before. I cannot believe it! I’m going to do it all the time now.
I stripped the meat from the bones and put them in a large pan with a couple of chopped celery sticks, a roughly chopped onion, a couple of carrots, a load of garlic, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves and a big handful of black peppercorns. Basically, following a standard recipe but doubling to quadrupling all flavour enhancing ingredients. This is my number one cooking tip.
Add a big pinch of salt and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently for, well, Gordon Ramsey says half an hour but all other recipes say two to three hours. Use your own judgement. I felt it was still a bit bland after half an hour and continued to around two hours, as I was making myself late for work otherwise.
Don’t throw out the meat either. That can be saved and frozen, ready for pasta sauces, pies, soups and so much more.
I strained it and left it in the fridge, and the next day I skimmed off the fat that had formed on the top. Some went into jars for the fridge, to be used in soup and the rest I reduced down to a thick concentrate, which I froze into ice cube trays for popping into future recipes. Not having enough ice cube trays, I cut out some of the plastic trays that chocolates came in and used those too…a double thrifty hit!
For chicken Noodle Soup I took inspiration from the following two recipes and used the leftover chicken meat and also added Chinese Five Spice.
Oh yeah…I also forgot to buy noodles and threw in some spaghetti instead. Nobody cared.
Chicken noodle soup recipe – Recipes – BBC Good Food.
Quick & easy hot-and-sour chicken noodle soup recipe – Recipes – BBC Good Food.
Now make a wish x
Susu, our adopted pregnant cat got so big I began to panic that she was never going to give birth. I dreamt of kittens every night for three weeks solid and feared that she would do the deed on one of my lengthy work shifts ( I am often away for twenty four hours or more at a time). She finally retired to a birthing box under the bed one Tuesday afternoon, after bothering Clark all day with constant meowing and following him around in distress. He says he literally had to herd her upstairs to where the safe places were and waited until she accepted her fate and settled down for her ordeal. I returned home that evening and sometime whilst dinner was cooking, went up to check on her and was met by a smell that screamed “WOMB” and the tiniest little “meep” noises. Susu was soaking wet, had a weird look on her face and was hugging this soggy little thing that looked like a wet hamster. The cutest scene I have ever witnessed. This was only the beginning though, as she had six more to pop out, one of which was dead, so sad.
Under the bed was not so good a home for the brood as we could not easily keep an eye on them so we carefully moved them into the wardrobe after a couple of days and they have lived there happily ever since. There is a fluffy blanket in there and lots of room to practice walking and for Susu to spread out for feeding time. Poor little creatures have had eye infections which meant transporting them all to the vets…and then daily ordeals of ointment application. Two more died…one after a day and the other held out for a week. Both were not feeding, despite our efforts to get them on a nipple and attempts at bottle feeding with formula milk.
We now have four very healthy extremely cute little kittens. Their eyes have opened and they are plodding about, getting the hang of walking. They’re not bothered by fuss or play yet but they will be. In the meantime I try to get photos that are not all blurry with my crappy camera and a variety of props to show scale, such as this football. Speaking of which…who’s is this football…I don’t play and I have never witnessed Clark play either!?!
