LEMONS AND LIMES.....

I made Lemon Curd today, it is a family favorite. I bought Sunkist Lemons from California yesterday for this reason. I am a great believer in eating local produce yet when it come to lemons I prefer to buy the imported ones, I find the ones grown here lack in juice, they are very dry and often very thick skinned. I remember once having to buy 2 kg of them to get 300 ml of juice! I make lots of different jams and chutneys but this is my most requested. It amazes me how so few ingredients (below+sugar) can make something so wonderful. The recipe I use makes 4 regular sized jars of Curd. I had to make fresh home baked bread to go with it now didn't I?

So the bread maker is on and everyone keeps nipping into the kitchen and checking the countdown display on the machine to see how much longer they have to wait for fresh bread....

My bread machine has been stored away for over 2 years. When I lived in England I used it at least 3 times a week, I had 2 favorite recipes that I continuously used: a basic white loaf and an oatmeal loaf. We emigrated here and waited forever for our shipping container to arrive and I remember the day after getting the bread machine out of the box and putting it on. The loaf was a complete disaster, closely resembling an house brick. I tried again over the following weeks, many times, tried all the different brands of bread flour and the results were awful every time. Then someone told me that the flour in New Zealand does not have a high gluten content and that is why it would not rise the bread. So I went to the Mediterranean food shop and bought some 00 Italian flour. I have used this flour to bake bread by hand and it came out perfect. That is what is in the machine today and I am feeling hopeful of the outcome.

On my travels this morning I made an impulse purchase... yet more wool. I did have a specific project in mind though (so that justifies my purchase!) I bought 12 balls of Cleckheaton Country Silk 8 ply in a gorgeous shade of green which matched my limes perfectly:

The yarn was on sale (I think it was half the normal price) which made it a great bargain purchase plus I had a gift voucher for that store. I have just cast on for the February Lady Sweater (please excuse the shabby garden seat cushions in pic above, they really need a wash!) The only thing I am not sure about are the nobbly bits in the yarn, I am hoping they will grow on me. I usually opt for smooth yarns. It is really nice and soft and I am going to try my best to get this finished before I start my KAL shawl on the 20th March, so that gives me 10 days.