On Preserves and Jam

Looking for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Post? It's here.

I can't believe that it is already the 16th of December and it has been 4 days since my last post! Crazy times. Here in Melbourne we are gearing up for Christmas, usually a hot summer day, and we still have the heater on in the office today.

I work in education so this last week of school is crazy busy trying to finish all the things before the students all go on holidays. So I have a stack of things to finish over the holidays, but at least I can do it from home and fit it in around some sewing....

Next week the holiday visitors start to arrive, my partners mum and sister on Monday and my parents later in the week .... a full house.

It must be the inspiration of all this domestic planning and preparing from scratch food and homemade gifts but I have also made lots of 'pantry items' in the last few weeks.

With a bulk purchase of mangos as a fundraiser came some Mango Chutney from this recipe. I had to have two goes at this one as a fell asleep during the first rendition and all the sugar stuck to the bottom of the pan. Cleaning the burnt sugar took longer than finishing eating the first jar, great in chicken sandwiches.

My Dad also loves fruity mince items so there has been some fruit mince set to cure in the fridge for pies when he get here next week, a Christams Fruitcake is settling in the sealed tin and plans are afoot for a boiled traditional Christmas pudding from Nigella's Christmas.

And because I had got in the groove I made some peach and passionfrut jam from the CWA Preserves

There is also some ginger beer curing under the trough in the laundry (just in case the fermentation breaks the bottles) inspired by this post from flowerpress. The first batch is ready for the fridge when I get home this afternoon!

Next up on my list is the menu planning, finishing the hadmade decorations and a few gifts as well as some projects set aside for the Christmas break.