Fat Chance For A Cold

We completed our Martha Stuart like weekend by making 8 kg of elderberry jam.



If you are prone to catch a cold, I highly recommend to make some elderberry jam now. Make it part of your breakfast routine and you will be save. Elderberry jam is probably the most delicious preventive measure mother nature has kindly given to mankind.

A Waste

The last couple of days I had to attend a course for a Requirements Management System called DOORS®. There is neither a brilliant nor a good tool on the market. From the usable, DOORS® is the one with the best marketing. Hence, my caring employer bought some licences (as like we were not yet at the brink of whatever). Courses about software tools are always boring. This one was even worse. Deadly dull would be flattering. At least the evenings and nights were stupendous. Otherwise, I would have to erase those two days of the timeline. Such a waste.

At least my mind was wandering and I got some ideas. Such as the on the picture. What might it be?



Added on September 23

These is the production of elderberry and mirabelle jam. Mirabelles are also called cherry plums.

Sorry for the delay. My deliriously beloved Toño and I are currently in Greeze doing absolutely nothing. We are amazingly good at it. Soon more about this...

Preserving

This weekend, Toño and I did not only reap the fruits of life...



... but also tried to preserve them. My brother has loads of eggplants...



and who is more experienced in handling fruits of this dimension than Toño (and I ;).



After a proper rub, the eggplants were chopped, blanched and filled into meticulously prepared glasses.



The glasses went straight into my mother's good old sterilizer.



After putting the glasses up to ¾ of their height into cold water, the lid and thermometer were mounted and the heat turned on for an hour.



Today, they will get their second hourly session (only tomatoes and zucchinis are already well sterilized after one).

We were well prepared for this. We've bought a book about preserving and consulted loads of experienced women, such as my mother, my sisters, Anigna, Tina and Christine. All these experiences and our passion went into these glasses.

While the glasses were in the hot water, we went to the elderberry tree.



We spare you the tedious part were we had to get the berries of the panicles, but only the good ones (think Cinderella without pigeons). After this experience however, cooking the jam was piece of cake.



Now, we are definitely prepared for winter.