Live on £4,000 for a year - 2009, Part 3

slowlyfading

mmm caramelised pears...

jtb2412

Wow ! Must be the day for giving/receiving fruit etc today :T - we've just been and collected a huge basket full of cooking apples and 2 carrier bags full of elderberrys, all from freecyclers :j :j. I did take some jam to say thank you, like to give a little something back :beer:

Elderberries will be made into jelly (no wine making equipment here yet, been looking out at car boot sales but not spotted any so far) and the apples will go to making pies, crumbles and I want to store a few until I've got some room in the freezer (which is still full to brimming ). I did fish out some odds and ends earlier (few golden raspberries, blueberries, blackcurrants, blackberries and some rasperries) and made a small batch of mixed berry jam - had a little taste and its divine ! Did free up a little bit of room but has now promptly been filled with some naan bread that I got whoopsied in Mr T earlier this evening (popped in for some lemons for the jelly).

Not sure what to do with pears but caramelised sound yummy !

Thriftylass know exactly what you mean about the social spending - I think we've spent our quota for the whole year in this month alone :eek: . Thanks for the hint about the bbc site and typing in ingredients, I'd forgotten all about that. :beer:
BMF sorry to hear about the doggy, hope he's fully recovered soon.

chamichelle sending you a hug, hope everything goes your way for the immediate future xx

SM glad to hear the canner has arrived ! I think I might have to start looking into this as another freezer slipped through our fingers on freecycle tonight - a big larder one which would have been ideal but you can't win 'em all . Will keep trying for now and hope that I can make the most of the space I've got.

Right off to get these kids to bed, roll on term time when I can have my evenings back :rolleyes: :rotfl:.

Take care all xx

cw18

thriftylass wrote: »

How about caramelised pears with vanilla ice cream, pear cider , pear and almond cake, pear and lemon jam, pear butter or pear chutney.

I've never heard of/seen any of those other than caramelised pears (prefer poached, but my one attempt was a total flop) and pear cider (don't drink).

Did see a mention of pear butter on a thread in the last couple of weeks (not sure which, nor even if it was on MSE), but if it's made with butter I probably wouldn't eat it (don't like butter )

Think my biggest problem is going to be total lack of space in the freezer for anything I stew, and I was going to head out and see if I could find any blackberries tomorrow (saw some right alongside a road this evening, so I know not all local areas have been totally raided yet). Thought I might try apple and blackberry jam this year (my plain blackberry last year was very sweet, and not my cup of tea at all) as well as an apple and blackberry crumble (or just the combined stewed fruit with plain yoghurt to save me some calories)

thriftylass

cw18 wrote: »

Did see a mention of pear butter on a thread in the last couple of weeks (not sure which, nor even if it was on MSE), but if it's made with butter I probably wouldn't eat it (don't like butter )

Pear butter is a spread for toast for instance, a bit like jam.

• 1815 g medium pears, quartered and cored
• 400 g sugar
• 2 g grated orange zest
• 0.8 g ground nutmeg
• 60 ml orange juice

or this one (I'm sure the cook time mentioned here is wrong though)

I guess you can also just can them. When I was a child we used to eat canned pears as desert after tea.

grandma247

sophiesmum wrote: »

... must get more jars!

Told you:p
Glad it got here safely anyway.

grandma247

cw18 wrote: »

Not sure what to do with the pears, other than some kind of sponge pudding and/or a crumble

You can bottle them and you don't need a canner just a deep pan. I did some last year and put a one inch piece of cinnamon in each jar and they were beautiful.

grandma247

thriftylass wrote: »

or this one (I'm sure the cook time mentioned here is wrong though)

The cook time is right but I would not leave it on high. When I made mine I left it on low, I would think it would scorch cooked for that length of time on high.

cw18

Do you really need to blend the pears first?

grandma247

cw18 wrote: »

Do you really need to blend the pears first?

blend them for what?
Sorry just re read the recipe. I just sliced them. I think I may have used a potato masher when they were cooked but I cant remember now. I would think it depends on how smooth you want it.

cw18

The recipe that thriftylass linked to says to puree them in a blender before cooking?