Tuesday 22 December 2015

Fruits + Vanilla + Memory Lane

I will start with a trip down memory lane, coming from a traditional Scottish family Christmas time there was certain foods that we always had and we associated with this time of year
Scottish Tablet or as we called it Swiss Milk Toffee
Its not a toffee at all and its not a fudge, it has a crumbly texture
 Its made with Condensed milk, sugar, milk and butter and once brought to a rolling boil you have to keep stirring it and once it has started changing colour you remove it from the heat and beat it until it starts to set.
It is very sweet and high in calories but a lovely treat.
There are plenty of recipes on the Internet for it.

Next is non alcoholic Ginger wine, mum was never a drinker the occasional snowball or cherry B, we never really had alcohol in the house, I am not really a drinker either , I always loved this drink again it was only made in the winter, Sophie over on My Empire Of Dirt reminded me of it the other day and I had a bottle of the ginger essence in the cupboard
This is so easy to make, sugar water and ginger essence, Its nice cold over ice and is also nice as hot drink on a cold day, I have know some have it with a tot of whiskey. 
If you want to give it a go they do the essence on Amazon.

Talking of essence I thought I would do some vanilla essence
I had some vanilla pods, sliced them down the middle, popped them in a small bottle and went to top it up with vodka, only to find there wasn't enough, I poured in what I had will pick up another bottle and top it up, shake occasional and it will be ready in a few months.

Yesterday we got into town to bank some cheques
and called into the fruit and veg wholesalers to buy a net of carrots for the animals
The dog has one every day and the goats and Alpacas have them, they are only a couple of pound for a big sack, we have a few of them as well
while we were there we picked up
 5 punnets of Raspberries for £1 now in the freezer
 Grapes £1 for this lot I am going to do some grape juice with them
Box of tomatoes £1 I will make up some Salsa I think
There was a box of apples £1 again we will feed them to the animals
Melon 60p
Cucumber 30p

It looks like its back in the kitchen preserving this week :-)

 

10 comments:

  1. Wow, you do get some bargains from the wholesalers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Where does Christmas fit into all this?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I got 8 lbs of plums from there last week, and am still working my way through them!

    Interested to see your Vanilla Essence, and that Ginger Wine. The Tablet must have taken you back to your childhood.

    I will try and pop up with your card tomorrow, but won't be able to stop (and don't want to get in your way so close to Christmas).

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have not been to the fruit and veg place for a while. I will be there once the silly season is over. Now I have to find the recipe for ginger wine.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love the fact that the dog has a carrot a day :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow - you've been busy. The fruits and vegetables look great. I've never made grape juice.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a grand shopping trip that was! I was going to make vanilla essence a while ago, not got round to it yet, but still have the vodka intact in the cupboard! Didn't know you could get ginger essence. I love ginger wine, but it is not available here in France, so I might compensate by buying some ginger essence!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, that's a good load of bargains you got there :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great deals. Hope you have a lovely Christmas and a Happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time and leaving a comment I do appreciate it, I may not always answer comments but I do read them all.