Crab Apple Jelly and Plum Juice

Spent the day watching the sun disappear into an orangy bushfire haze, the mercury hitting 39, and creating havoc in the kitchen.

My first job was to start on the processing of the 13kgs of plums that are currently scattered about the kitchen.  Words cannot really describe what it is like to be boiling 6kgs of aforementioned plums and being assisted by a very enthusiastic nearly four year old - headache inducing comes close.  Sigh. Still, I managed to keep her out of harm's way mostly.

These particular plums are going to be turned into jelly - so am straining out the juice through muslin.  In the photo the pulp is in the muslin that has gone a fantastic shade of red and is sitting in a colander in the top of one of my stock pots.  Its about to go in the fridge and in a couple of days I'll add the sugar and turn it into plum jelly.  The peg is entirely superfluous and was hubby's contribution to the process.

Whilst this was going on I had defrosted some crab-apple juice that dad gave me ages and ages ago - this stuff is so tart that it makes lemons look like complete wimps.  So I added a LOT of sugar, boiled it until it reached 104.5 degrees precisely and then bottled it.

So, six, five, no six jars of crab-apple jelly...

And scones with crab apple jelly for afternoon tea.

:)

I've also been making two Smitten Kitchen Chocolate Pudding Pies for a family thing.  Normally I am not overly fussed with my pastry. HOWEVER - mostly because the Universe is punishing me for losing my rag with the kids when they ripped a branch off my beloved lemon tree this afternoon - the crusts collapsed mid-cook and I had to whip them out of the oven and squish them back into crust shape with a fork, then promptly had a rare blonde moment and over cooked them.

I just know these little suckers are going to leak.

SIGH.

Still, I do plan to fill these with chocolate and sugar, and top them with enough cream so HOPEFULLY no one will ever know.  It'll be our little secret. K guys? K?