What’s Cooking – Plum Nutella

Do you remember a few weeks ago I shared with you a Quick and Easy Cinnamon Biscuits recipe that we made together with Iwona from Smakowite Jadlo? This wasn’t the only thing we baked / cooked together during her visit. We made a lemon curd cheesecake, beetroot soup, breakfast onion & cheese rolls and… my favourite – plum nutella, which I would like to share with you today.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg plums
• 120g sugar
• 1 tbsp cocoa

Method:

First things first – wash your plums well and pat dry with kitchen cloth.

Then remove all stones and cut your plums into halves.

Place them in a large frying pan, add sugar and fry gently for about one hour stirring every 5 minutes or so, to avoid any burning or sticking.

Then when most of the juices have reduced and your plum mixture begins to thicken a little, add the cocoa and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Place in a glass airtight container and allow it to cool.

If you have made a bigger batch you can place your plum nutella in several glass jars and pasteurize them so it lasts for longer. In order to do so:

1. Wash your glass jars in boiling water ensuring they are totally clean and sterilised.
2. Fill your jars with hot plum nutella.
3. Close the jars up, making sure that all the lids are as tight as possible.
4. Place your jars on a baking tray and cook in the oven preheated to 180C for around 10 minutes
5. Or place in a large cooking pot (with a teacloth at the bottom so your glass jar doesn’t touch the pot bottom directly) fill with water, almost up to the rim and allow to boil for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven or cooking pot and allow it to cool.

This way you can enjoy your plum nutella for longer, or any jam type creation for that matter.

This plum nutella is perfect with pancakes or as addition to cakes, cupcakes or muffins or simple treat it as a jam and enjoy it with a slice of nice bread.

Alphabet Project | S is for Scrumping

Scrumping – Stealing fruit, especially apples, from someone else’s trees.
Oooops 😉

Alphabet Project is hosted by PODcast

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Who / What Am I? 15/08

Good afternoon everyone!

Today I would like to start with a special question for you.

When sharing isn’t a good idea?

You might think that sharing is a positive thing, it is sign of kindness and love and good behaviour, but believe me sharing isn’t all that good!

Mark likes to share; he is not a greedy person and if he could he would really give away all he has. I love this about him but come on there has to be some boundaries.

He is off sick. He has flu, at first I thought that he has a case of man flu; you know the one which you can cure with some good TV shows and lots of Hot Toddies but no… He has a real flu and Mark being Mark has decided to share!

For this moment I am still up and running but I can feel this pending doom encroaching and there is no stopping it.

So, you see sharing isn’t all that brilliant in some situations.

😦

Moving on…

Melissa was right last week! Blackberries won the day! Have a look…

This was actually taken during the dog walk. There are so many blackberry plants around the field where we go for walks, it’s wonderful. All I need to do is take a plastic container with me and whilst the dogs run around doing doggie stuff I can pick a box full.

I really like this time of the year when “food” can be just picked from the bushes, shrubs or trees. There are some lovely plums growing close by too 😉

According to Huffington Post the leaves and barks of the blackberries can be also consumed. Apparently they are good for treating mild inflammation of the gums or even a sore throat. I had no idea about it, did you?

Now it is time for a new picture puzzle.

Who / What Am I?

Stay safe and enjoy your weekend!

Alphabet Project | M is for Mango

The mango is a juicy stone fruit

belonging to the genus Mangifera…*

Alphabet Project is hosted by PODcast

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Who / What Am I? 01/08

Good Friday everyone!

What a fabulous day! Yesterday I overcome with a huge craving for some smoked salmon, so today I left the cave in order to procure some. I bought a beautiful Lapsang Souchong Tea Smoked Salmon by Heston and some rustic bread, try saying that three times quickly. Immediately upon arriving home, I added double butter to the ripped apart bread, carefully arranged a piece of my smoked salmon and set about devouring my dream food. Oh my, do I feel so much better now and the best part was that it was delicious. I don’t get cravings like this very often and even if I do, I do not act on them most of the time, but I must admit this small self indulgence felt really good and put me in a brilliant happy mood!

Oh, and I also bought a bathroom light for our on-suite so we will finally be able to finish it… unless of course someone tells us yet again that that is the wrong type of light. I have already bought a light but according to an electrician it is not suitable for this small bathroom, which will get really steamy once the power-shower is on. So keep your fingers crossed for me and hope that the second time round I will have made a good choice.

Now let’s get back to the important part… mystery picture from last week… hmmm as it ended up it wasn’t such a mystery after all… I blame the Kiwi Fruit for being so boring looking 🙂

Well done to everyone who guessed kiwi.

Kiwi fruit is actually a really amazing little fruit. It is rich in magnesium, it is a great source of folic acid, it contains a lot of vitamin C and fiber (apparently its amount is as high as in many whole grain cereals) and to add to this it is rich in potassium, which is great for lowering a blood pressure. *

That’s it for all things kiwi related…

This weeks’ shot is greener, actually it is very green, full stop. And no, it is not the inside of a kiwi fruit ;-), or is it?

Have a great weekend everyone and if you get a chance to do something nice for yourself – do it! It feels amazing.

Alphabet Project | K is for Kiwi

The kiwifruit or Chinese gooseberry (often shortened to kiwi)

is the edible berry of a woody vine in the genus Actinidia.*

Alphabet Project is hosted by PODcast

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Alphabet Project | G is for Giving

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
Winston Churchill

Alphabet Project is hosted by PODcast

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Alphabet Project | F is for Fruit

A fruit is a part of a flowering plant.

In common language usage,

“fruit” normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of a plant

that are sweet or sour and edible in the raw state.

Alphabet Project is hosted by PODcast

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Who / What Am I? 27-09

As you know my life kind of took its own course lately and I am still playing catch up…

I missed last Friday completely… I am sure it come and went I am just not so sure when…

I am back now… or at least trying my best… so normal service should be back on schedule from now on.

Two weeks ago we had our last Who / What Am I? picture…

A few of you were almost sure that it was an egg… in some sort of cooking process… sorry, wrong!

There was someone who came close to the answer.

It was Dimple. She said “Seeds of some fruit?” which is an almost correct answer.

The mystery picture was of a young jackfruit. See for yourself.

A few months ago we discover this fabulous Thai Wholesale place in a nearby village. When we walked into this place we had no idea what half of the products on the shelves in there are or even what you would do with them, even what they are called was hard to read! but we really liked the place and like to try new things… so we bought some of this weird and wonderful stuff to try and make something from it once we bring it home…and Mark had had time to research.

Anyway … now it is time for this week’s shot…

I hope it will be easier…

Who / What Am I?

Who / What Am I? 23-08

And we have a winner!

The Lonely Dogs got it right! Mystery picture was in fact a coconut, very young one but nevertheless a coconut! Well done!

I am so happy someone guessed it. Otherwise I would have to show you the 3^rd picture of it… which was of the inside of the coconut and I believe it would only have made things worse for you all…

For none believers here is the full shot of our mysterious nut 🙂

This week we will stay with the topic of white. I hope this one will be a little easier…

Drum roll… and here it is… Who / What Am I?

Have a great weekend!