What a Pickle

"So, how did your cooking go the other night?" I hear you all cry.

Wellllll. . . the cake took ages to make but was reallly well worth it - even when I noticed the baking powder sitting on the table UNUSED as I took the cake out of the oven. OOOPS. Sure, it didn't poison us.

Then, after the eggs were pickled I realised that WHOLE Mixed Spice isn't really the same thing as GROUND Mixed Spice and the resulting liquid was a tad - well - yuk looking. Still tasted the same though. You learn from your mistakes don't ya?

Oh - and another thing - it is best to read all the recipes before you follow just one. Seemingly it is harder to peel a cooked fresh egg and if you are pickling it is recommended you use older eggs - even from a couple of weeks ago. There is no way our eggs would stay around long enough for that malarkey!

I made another Apple Cake last night and realised why the baking powder had been left out of the first one. IT ISN'T IN THE RECIPE! It is listed in the ingredients but there are no specific instructions to put it in the bowl! How rude is that? It's a good job it wasn't something vitally important in the 6 steps to cake perfection. Dude, what if they had forgotten to tell me to put it in the oven! I could still be sitting there waiting for it to cook!

In egg-production news - David rang me at work to tell me there were four eggs waiting for us and one was HUGE. He weighed it for me and he was right, it is the biggest one we have had yet at 83g - the next largest is in the mid 70s. It looks humongous beside the wee 49g ones Lacey lays but we have no idea who laid it. It could be a double yolk-er from one of the normal girls or a new lay-er who is going to produce much bigger eggs. Am dying to see what is waiting for us over the next few days.

Eggciting huh?

we are on four, yes four, eggs a day now that Holly has come of age. AND the chickens had been pecking each other so they are now given the run of the garden from about five till bed time. WHAT a laugh! Sweetheart left the others eating kale with an “I know it’s time for bed but you can all guzzle on” expression as she strutted off to the roost. Wey hey for Apple. Paul is just back from helping to open the Geneva branch. Phone soon.

I would think that as long as the fruits are submerged in the alcohol any cool dark place should be fine. Monitor for evaporation.
The fruit mixture should keep indefinitely as long as it stays covered in the alcohol.
Because of the high sugar content watch for little fruit flies. So make sure you keep the fruit covered tightly.