Rain, rain, go away...

[wiseheart]

To be fair, I don't really mind rain... unless I'm coming from the supermarket, with heavy shopping bags in both hands. I just hate it that every time it rains I have to worry about possible balcony leaking. Today it's rained about five or six times, interspersed with bright sunshine and lively winds. That is five or six miniature heart attacks. Fortunately, the rain was short and mild each time, but I'm really not up to this constant stress. *sigh*

In other news, I made strawberry jam again, to go with the Topfenknödel. We didn't eat the whole jar, of course, after all I used half a kg strawberries for it. But we both love jam with Kaisersemmeln or a Hungarian specialty called a puffancs, which is, basically, a very light and fluffy bun.

I also made the potato cream soup Mum loves so much, as well as a large bowl of muesli with apples, kiwis, bananas, mandarine oranges and peach and passion fruit yogurt. Yum!

And we had a visit from the physiotherapist. So yeah. Not much happening in Hobbiton, but that's okay. The outside world is hostile in these days.

Comments

[meathiel]

I'm not a jam eater for breakfast at all. I prefer cheese or ham or something. When I eat something sweet on my toast it's usually Zentis Belmandel. Like Nutella but better, imo.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

We both love jam but don't eat it too often because: a) it has too much sugar and b) someone has to make it first. *g*
Nutella & Co. are way too sweet for my personal taste, unless I use it for baking. Which I do. But eating it on toast or whatnot is not my thing.

[meathiel]

I don't have it very often.
In a hotel I mostly can't resist ... :-)

BTW — a few years ago I stayed in a hotel in Alba, Italy, about a kilometre from the Ferrero Nutella factory. That was fun. The air smelled of chocolate and nuts ...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

That must have driven you crazy. ;)

[akane42me.livejournal.com]

I keep jam mainly for the grandchildren nowadays.. But once in a while I'll have toast and jam, or a toasted english muffin with jam. I get some yummy jams from an orchard/market that are just great.
This summer when it's berry picking time I intend to go to a nearby berry/produce farm where you can pick your own, and pick my own strawberries to make jam. I will use my mom's freezer jam recipe, which barely cooks the fruit, and then the fruit mixture is put in jars and stored in the freezer. The downside is that you have to have the freezer capacity for it (which we do), but the upside is the jam retains its bright red color and the flavor is sparkling fresh.

When my children were young I'd pick 50 pounds of strawberries and make traditional cooked jam with half of it. Now I will only get enough to make six jars of freezer jam:)

That balcony! I think that thing is jinxed:) No matter what you try, it refuses to stop leaking. Arrggghhh!
This is really not a laughing matter, but your balcony needs a balcony! LOL

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Jam or other preserves isn't something I usually make — that was Grandma's specialty and she never got tired of it. For me, it is too much bother, really. But these Spanish strawberries, while looking great, have no flavour at all and are rather hard — too hard for Mum to eat them. So I either grate them for muesli or make one single jar of jam of them, which lasts us for quite a few days, unless I put it into a Swiss roll, which I intend to make with the new batch. This time I'll use Grandma's sponge recipe, not Mary Berry's, and if it breaks when I roll it up, well, neither of us really cares.

I've discovered Dr. Oetker's jam fix, which makes things so much easier. You simply puree the strawberries with the mixer, add the jam fix and the sugar, cook it for 3 minutes, pour the jam into a jar, seal the jar and turn it upside down — don't ask me why. The amount of sugar is only 1/4 of that of the fruits, too.

Yeah, the balcony is cursed, I'm afraid. It costs me my last nerve, as the Germans would say. As if I didn't have enough stress already!

[akane42me.livejournal.com]

I suppose you have already tried this, but I will ask: if you place the berries in a brown paper bag on the counter at room temperature for a day (or more) will they soften and gain flavor? I have read about the Spanish strawberry because of your post, and have learned they are a harder variety, so I don't know that anything will soften them up, but maybe they will gain a bit of flavor with the paper bag treatment.

The Dr. Oetker method sounds good! Less cooking time, less sugar. Maybe the upside-down storage reinforces the seal!

I have nothing but sympathy for you regarding that cursed balcony!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It is my experience that if you let them stay outside the fridge, they simply rot. :( But they are great for jam, so nothing is lost. Of course, the sponge cake ate the entire jar of jam I made, but at least it's delicious. *points at next entry*

[akane42me.livejournal.com]

Delicious indeed! I baked chocolate chip cookies:)

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

That's too bad about the balcony leaking still.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It is a nightmare.

[red-day-dawning.livejournal.com]

I’m finally able to log on here on LJ again! Was shut out and couldn’t work out why. But now I’m back to see all the things I’ve missed.
Rained here all day yesterday. Sunny today though, which is good, because I need to go shopping. Just finishing another coffee to get me in the right frame of mind to venture into the world. At least today I won’t need to carry an umbrella! Umbrellas are awful when you have a walking stick. No hands free!
Your strawberry jam sounds delicious. I love real jam. And strawberries.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

So do I. But I could never subject myself to the jam-making orgies Grandma regularly held. What little jam we ate we can buy, and while it might not have the same taste, it saves me the labour — and in the end it isn't much more expensive than the home-made version, seeing the prices of fruit in these days.

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

Making jam is one of the few things I use my Thermomix for. You put all the ingredients into the pot, that´s it. No chipping, no stirring, no burnt jam (usually). I do it for husband only, who loves jam for breakfast.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

That must be a useful tool. There are so many cool kitchen toys one could play with. Unfortunately, our kitchen is on the smallish side, so whenever I need something I don't use every day, I have to dig it out from the uncharted depths of some kitchen cupboard or the other. Most of the time I rather do everything by hand, it's less bother.