Friday 15 February 2013

Of homemade things...or How to sweeten your weekend

Oh, I love homemade things!  Yesterday, I attempted making butter for the first time after reading Rhonda's post at Down to Earth a few days ago.  I had some thick double cream left over and with a bit of elbow grease (due to lack of food processor), I turned it into butter.  Wow!  I am really pleased with the result and shall be making my own butter from now on - it actually turns out that even buying organic cream still makes the butter cheaper than the cheapest "value" brand stuff in the supermarket.  Plus, I end up with bonus buttermilk to use in making soda bread (if you missed the recipe for the soda bread, please click here). Thank you Rhonda for the fabulous instructions!

Little wells in icing sugar...

I have also discovered the joy of making your own lozenges or throat sweets.  It should come with a health warning - truly addictive.  I have now made three different ones (told you it was addictive): honey/lemon/ginger, peppermint tea and also rosehip ones.  The best thing?  Apart from maybe a thermometer you don't need any special equipment.  For the mold, simply use a plate of icing sugar or corn flour and any rounded object to make little wells into the powder (a bit obscure but I used the rounded end of our coffee scoop).  The liquid sugar mix (careful: very hot!) is then poured into the mold and left to cool and the powder also helps to stop the sweets from sticking to each other.  How amazing is that?  I found the instructions online when I was browsing and came across the recipe and instructions at a website called Instructables (you can find the instructions here).

...filled with hot sugar mix
...end up being sweets
So, I hope you will have fun over the weekend and maybe even some time to try making these.  Whatever you do, have a fabulous time!



6 comments:

  1. Well done, you are amazing and very talented. Did you like the taste f the butter? I suppose I mean did it taste like the best pure butter? Those sweets look delicious, I wish I could taste one! Have a lovely weekend - we have our 8 year old Labrador Milly ill, so back to the vet tomorrow ( high temp 41 deg celsius and not eating her dried food).

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  2. Thank you - I think most of the time it's just pure luck :-)

    The butter is really lovely & does taste like lovely pure and fresh butter. The sweets are really nice and easy to make...I got a bit carried away trying different ones :-)

    Poor Milly - I hope she's ok! Kirsten x

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  3. Oh I bet that butter was good! How nice that it works out to be able to make the soda bread to spread the butter on. ;) I do hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day and that you have a great weekend!
    ~Jan

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    1. Thank you - I was really surprised by how easy it was to make the butter! Homemade bread & butter is definitely the way forward :-) Have a lovely weekend too! Kirsten x

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  4. Kirsten,I wanted you to know that I’ve nominated you for a Liebster Award. I have posted about it on my blog today with questions for you if you want to participate. I know these things aren’t for everyone but I really love your blog and wanted to give you an award. Check it out if you would like.
    ~Jan

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  5. Hi Jan" thank you so much - that's very kind of you! I' m not sure yet what's involved but will definitely participate! Thank you so much for nominating my blog! Kirsten x

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