Project144: plum jelly

Years ago they had an advert on TV with woman fron the 1800's cooking in the kitchen.  Somebody asked 'what did they do for work?'.......'They cooked!'......'And what did they do for fun?'......'They baked!'......

At work they laugh at me because I bake, cook jams and do pickles when I can not sleep at night!  I hate lying in bed tossing and turning!  It feels like a waste of time!  I'll usually pray for a while(I believe that things coming to your mind to pray for at 2-3 in the mornings really need your prayer!  Not stated in the Bible anywhere, just one of my habits!....and I do not think such a bad one!)......If I am still lying awake after an hour, I just get up and go straight to the centre of our household.....the kitchen.....and I find myself something to do!

I've been lying awake since two this morning, so I decided to come and do my favourite baby marrow and patty pan pickles, as I harvested quite a lot during my night duty week.  Too much for the family to eat it fresh and I don't believe in freezing them as they become soggy after defrosting.

I started by filling the washing machine and turned the dishwasher on after adding the boys last coffee mugs of the night.  I then made myself a nice cup of coffee and decided to drink it first in front of the computer before starting with the pickles.....started blogging!  Is this addictive?  I wonder.....

I'm quickly going to share what I did my last off week during a sleepless night!

One of my friends are blessed with this enormous plum tree in her back yard.  Year after year she waste all the fruit as it is too much for her alone and she is not the domestic type!  She is a paramedic and lives for her job!  She is an excellent one though......

So she decided that I am more domesticated and pitched up at work with almost 10 kg's of plums!....For me to do something with! 

There has been so much, my kids polished half....has diarrhoea of the overdose...I've cooked jam....bottled whole ones in a wine sauce and cooked plum jelly!  All of them a great success!  I'll share the other two as well!  But not now as I want to do my pickles!

Here's the jelly recipe.....

Cut your plums in smaller pieces without removing the skins and the pips.  Measure the amount and use 200ml of water for every 1 litre of plums.  Cook it over medium heat until soft. 

I do not have a jelly bags, so I used a muslin cloth in a sieve to drain it.  Discard whatever stays behind in your sieve.  Now measure your filtrate.

For every litre of filtrate use 200g of white sugar.  Heat slowly and stir it in the beginning until sugar is dissolved.

Cook it without stirring it until soft ball stadium(when you put a small amount on a cold saucer and it forms a firm ball without running).  Scoop off the foam from the top when necessary.

Bottle when hot in sterilised jars and allow to cool down before sealing it.

Now let me be off to do my pickles.........