He Promised Me A Rose Garden ~ Rose Petal Jam

Habitat For Humanity
Habitat For Humanity

After ten years of moving from one rental house to another, we finally stopped kidding ourselves that we would ever go back to live in Europe…not to England…not to Malta…or to the South of France which is still one of  Kevin’s many dreams! We were only supposed to come to the States on a working visa for one year…and every year after that, every June to be exact, Kevin and I would sit down and go through the pros and cons of staying in the US or going back “home” wherever that was.

Gift From Our Friends
Our Friends Knew Best

So in June of 2004, the week before we were set to leave the US, our dear friends Jane and Richard, and Gina and Tom, threw us a Bon Voyage Party.  We had already packed everything and told our landlord we were leaving. Kevin had handed in his resignation, and both kids’ schools were notified.  But best of all, we had four one way tickets to England.

As we’re sadly saying goodbye to all our friends at our Bon Voyage Party, one friend walked over to Kevin and me and whispered a few magical words in our ears that I will never forget…

“You know you can still get a refund on your tickets right?”…

Kevin and I just looked at each other and without even uttering another word, knew that that was exactly what we had to do!  I still don’t know, even to this day, if Michelle has any idea how her words changed the course of our lives. Could’ve been the beer, could’ve been the wine…but the clouds lifted as did our hearts. At that point, we realised that we only had a week in our lease left and had to find a new house to live…and the big question was…do we rent yet again, or do we buy?  Luckily we already had everything packed so all we had to do was find a house.

By now I was done with rentals and wanted to feel like we belonged and maybe some space to plant a rose bush or two.  And that is when Kevin promised me a Rose Garden which he delivered most graciously.

Intrigue
Intrigue

And this recipe was born!  I’ve been making it since we moved to this house and every year right about now, when we get our first burst of roses, I go and pick the freshest and most beautiful blooms on the bush.

Before you start, make sure you have all the ingredients ready to use.   Clean and sterilize your jars and have them ready close by. Choose your most fragrant and vibrant rose petals you can find in your garden, this way you’ll end up with the tastiest and most gorgeous coloured jam.

This jam will yield about 3 small jars

Rose Petal Jam

Intrigue and Sweet Surrender
Intrigue and Sweet Surrender

1 cup fresh rose petals (must not have been sprayed with any chemicals)
3/4 cup water
juice of one lemon
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 package powder pectin
3/4 cups water

Puree rose petals, 3/4 cup water and lemon juice in a blender until smooth.

Slowly add sugar.
Blend until all sugar has dissolved.
Leave in Blender.
Stir one package pectin into 3/4 cup water.
Bring to a boil and boil hard for one minute.
Pour mixture into the blender that contains the rose petal mixture until well blended.
Do this very quickly as it sets up really fast.
Pour into prepared jars. Let set six hours until firm.
Will keep one month in the refrigerator, but I’ve kept mine much longer with no problems.

Rose Petal Jam
Rose Petal Jam

This jam with scones and some clotted cream is a match made in heaven and guaranteed to make any mother happy on Mother’s Day!

Lemon Yoghurt Ice Cream ~ Lemon Frozen Yoghurt

Meyer Lemon
Meyer Lemon

I woke up feeling very generous today…and am going to share with you two frozen desserts that are as good as they get!

Of course, I have to share a little story before I get down to the recipes…

I don’t like change.  If I can have my wish and eat it too, then I’d like to wish for no change in my life.  Sounds boring I know…but I like everything about my life…I like the way it’s going and if it continues going this way, then I’ll be the happiest person on earth!  I have everything I need and could ever hope for…so why would I want this to change?

Rita and Georgina
My Sister and I

 

The reason for this little bit of insight about myself, is because back in 1981, when my sister Rita got married, I did not speak to her for three months!  Well, she didn’t just get married!  She also moved hundreds of miles away and her leaving felt like I was losing part of me!   Ever since we were little, I was always her little shadow.  I looked up to her for everything and if I needed advice on anything…from boyfriends to jobs and pretty much everything else, it was her I would turn to.  She totally understood that not speaking to her for so long was coming from love.  She knew me inside out…and quirky or not, she loved me back!

 

Jeff
Jeff

Fast forward 2011…our friends Jeff and Leanne and their two young beautiful daughters decided to move to England!!  Yeah…you know what I’m getting at!  I thought I’d grown up and had total control of my emotions but maybe not so much.  I must say, I was better this time…but I think I may have shown that I was not very happy with their decision.  And I hope, that just like my sister, they know that it was out of love…

Leanne and Eliana
Leanne and Eliana

I’d asked Leanne if she had an ice cream maker and without hesitation, she quickly went in her storage cabinet and produced her Cuisinart Ice Cream Machine and told me I could keep it as long as I needed!  That same month, they decided to emigrate so I kinda inherited the ice cream maker although I see it more as looking after it until they come back! And I hope it won’t be that far in the future!  Thank you Leanne for trusting your ice cream maker in my care!  It works brilliantly!!

We’ve had a few very hot days recently and I still have quite a few lemons left on my Meyer Lemon Tree so I’ve been looking around for a good recipe for Lemon Ice Cream and one for Lemon Frozen Yoghurt!!  Bingo…I found just the two.  They are both soo good and refreshing that no tweaking was required.  You won’t be disappointed if you make these!

Lemon Yoghurt Ice Cream

Meyer Lemon
Meyer Lemon

Ingredients

  • 1 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 1/3 cup  full-fat natural yoghurt
  • 2 medium sized lemons, finely grated zest and juice
  • 1 3/4 cup  sugar (check for sweetness)
  • 1 1/3 cup whole milk

Whisk the cream in a bowl until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed. Stir in the yoghurt, lemon zest and juice, sugar and milk. Whisk until well combined.  Pour into ice cream maker and follow it’s instructions.
This makes two batches in my machine so if you don’t want to make that much, I’m sure you can half the ingredients.

Lemon Yoghurt Ice Cream
Lemon Yoghurt Ice Cream

If you don’t have an ice cream maker and still want to try making this recipe, follow these instructions:

Whisk the cream in a bowl until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed. Stir in the yoghurt, lemon zest and juice, sugar and milk. Whisk until well combined. Pour into a shallow plastic container, cover with a lid and freeze for at least six hours, preferably overnight, until firm. Remove the ice cream from the freezer, cut into chunks and blend in a processor until smooth and creamy. Return to the plastic container, cover with the lid and return to the freezer until required.

Recipe taken from here

Lemon Frozen Yoghurt

3 cups strained/Greek-style yogurt (or whole milk yoghurt)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice (or more according to taste. I use juice of half a lemon)
2 tablespoons grated lemon rind

First strain the yoghurt in a cheese cloth lined sieve over a bowl for about two hours.
Mix together  the strained yogurt, sugar, lemon juice and lemon rind. Refrigerate for at least one hour. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Both are very easy recipes. No eggs so no eggy taste…which I really really hate.  Just very refreshing.  The only thing is that it’s hard to stop at one bowl…so you have been warned!!

Recipe taken from here

Lemon Frozen Yoghurt
Lemon Frozen Yoghurt

How We Got A Grapefruit Tree ~ Grapefruit Marmalade

Grapefruit
Grapefruit

In 2008, we had a “For Sale” sign out on our lawn!  It was a bad time in Silicon Valley and hi tech companies were closing down regularly and laying off a lot of workers.  Unfortunately, the company where Kevin worked also closed down.

Mount Hood
Mount St Helens

We were very fortunate that within a few days, Kevin was offered a job with Web MD but the downside to that was that we would have to move to Portland, Oregon.  I have nothing against Portland except for the weather and maybe the thought of not having a lemon tree in my back yard.

Kevin did accept the job, but because it was still during the school year, I stayed behind with the kids until school finished and got the house ready to sell.

 

During that Spring Break, the kids and I went to Portland for a week to get a feel of the place.  The day we arrived, it looked like it was the perfect place for us.  80 degree weather…gorgeous market just a few minutes away from where we were staying!! What’s not to like?  Until the warm sunny skies turned to rain the very next day.  And then to hail on the third day, snow on the fourth, thunderstorm on the fifth, and to wrap things up, we went back to beautiful sunny skies on our last day.  We had experienced a whole year of weather in one week!! I guess Portland was showing me what it was all about!  Did I say that was in April??

So we said goodbye to Kevin and came back home and we continued our skype relationship for the next few months.

So what does this have to do with a grapefruit tree?  Well, I’m coming to that.

For Sale
For Sale

I was hoping against hope that we would not find a buyer for our house after that whole weather thing.  Every time a potential buyer would come to view the house, I would give them the evil eye!  And you don’t want to see my evil eye…it’s not pretty at all!  But we did get an offer and that was one of the saddest days of my life!  When Kevin saw how sad we all were, we came to the agreement that Portland was not to be, and I think that was one of  the saddest days of Kevin’s life because he loved and still loves Portland.  But always having the family’s best interest at heart, he packed his things and came back home. He did get to keep his job with Web MD and commuted back and forth for the next four years! Kevin, I don’t know how we can ever thank you for this!

And this is where the grapefruit comes in…

Grapefruit Blossom
Grapefruit Blossom

Kevin loves grapefruit!!  So to commemorate the day of his return, a grapefruit tree was planted!  It’s been over 5 yrs since that awful sign was on our lawn and this year was the first year that Kevin’s been rewarded with fruit!

And when you have grapefruit, you make marmalade!

Now I do not recommend this  recipe unless you really like grapefruit AND marmalade.  It is sweet but also quite bitter.  But funny thing about sweet and quite bitter is that once you take a bite, you can’t help but take another bite, and another, and another!  Vera true this ta’! I was almost not going to blog this recipe because I don’t like grapefruit OR marmalade, but after tasting it, well….you be the judge!

Recipe Source
Recipe Source

 

I got the recipe from here and tweaked it just a little bit.  I used golden brown sugar instead of granulated sugar and I used Curacao instead of Campari because I did not have any Campari.  I don’t think it made much difference.  I also halved the recipe in case it was a complete flop!

 

 

Grapefruit and Curacao Marmalade

Peeled Grapefruit
Peeled Grapefruit

3 pink grapefruits
1/3 c. Curacao
Golden Brown Sugar –about 2 1/2 cups depending on the amount of volume of prepared fruit.

Peel the grapefruit and cut the rinds into 2” pieces. Bring a medium sized pot of water to a boil. Drop in the rinds and boil for 1 minute. Drain and discard the water. Repeat two more times using fresh water each time.  When done drain the rinds well.

Taking care to catch the juices, cut the peeled grapefruit flesh into 1” slices and pick out the seeds. Discard the seeds.

Blend
Blend

Place the chopped fruit and accumulated juices into a food processor fitted with a cutting blade and process for 1 minute, until the mixture is well-chopped and frothy.

Measure the amount of chopped fruit and juices using a large measuring cup.  Return 1 cup of the fruit to the food processor. Pour the remainder into a large heavy pot.

Measure out the same amount of sugar as the total amount of the fruit and juice mixture. Place the sugar in the pot with the fruit.

Get rid of as much pith as you can from the drained rinds

Boiled Grapefruit Rinds
Boiled Grapefruit Rinds

Add the boiled, drained rinds into the food processor with the reserved 1 c. of fruit.  Pulse for two to three minutes until the rinds are cut into small bits.

Stir the chopped rinds into the fruit and sugar mixture in the large heavy pot. Stir in the Curacao.

Bring to a boil, stirring, and reduce heat to maintain a constant simmer. Cook for 25 minutes, stirring gently to prevent scorching and boil-overs. The color will darken as the marmalade thickens.

If you have any doubts you can test the marmalade: put 1 T. on a small plate, put the plate in the freezer for three minutes. The marmalade is ready if it no longer is runny.

Pour into sterilized jars, seal and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

This recipe makes about 3 small jars.

Bread with Butter and Grapefruit Marmalade
Bread with Butter and Grapefruit Marmalade

Pastini Di Mandorla ~ Almond Cookies

Pastini Di Mandorla
Pastini Di Mandorla

Aaron once asked me if almonds were a national source of income in Malta.  I wondered how he’d come to that conclusion until he pointed out that the desserts I tend to make always have some kind of  almonds or marzipan in them.  It is quite true that I do do that, but I think the reason why I love working with almonds so much is because they are so darn good.

Blanched Almonds
Blanched Almonds

Pastini Di Mandorla means Almond Cookie and it is another recipe I love to make from the book by Edward Calleja Success Bil-Helu 2, the other one being Pastini Bic-Cirasa…not only because they are super delicious, but also because they are a cinch to make.  

They require only one egg white, which means, you’re not left wondering what to do with so many  left over egg yolks.  Even better,  if you use liquid egg whites, then you’re left with no egg yolks at all!!

Also, as opposed to other almond cookies, these require no drying time at all…so if you fancy these cookies at 2pm, you can be happily eating them by 3pm.

Ingredients

Pastini Di Mandorla
Pastini Di Mandorla

200g pure ground almond
200g powdered sugar
zest of a lemon
one egg
one tsp almond essence
one egg white beaten for dipping
about 3/4 slivered almonds to use as topping
rice paper (optional if you use a silpat)

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Place the rice paper if using, on the baking dish.

Mix all the ingredients except for the slivered almonds together in a bowl to form a ball.  Do not be tempted to add more liquid as this is supposed to be on a dry side. If you add more liquid, the cookies will flatten and you don’t want that.  If you see that the result is too sticky, add more ground almonds.

Cut the mixture into four equal pieces. Roll into four long ropes.  Cut into two inch pieces.

Form into crescents.

Beat the egg white in a small bowl.  Place the slivered almonds in a flat plate.

Dip the crescents in the egg white, then again in the slivered almonds and then place on the prepared baking dish.

Bake for 15 mins until just golden.

Cool on wire tray and sprinkle some powdered sugar for presentation.

Pastini Di Mandorla

Next time I see Aaron, I’ll be making these for him!

Blossom Blossom Everywhere

 

Cherry Blossom
Cherry Blossom

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this much blossom in my garden.  When we first moved into this house, I knew close to nothing about gardening and I hope that now, eight years later, I’ve learned to at least recognise weed from plants.  After living in apartments and town homes for such a long time, I was so excited to have my own garden, that I could not wait to dig in and dig out what I did not like.

Surviving Amaryllis
Surviving Amaryllis

No I did not listen to Kevin when he urged me not to touch anything for a whole year and to just to see what the garden had to offer.  Instead, I got my nice shiny new shovel and started digging out multiple agapanthus plants which I really disliked and threw them out!

Lucky for me, that day my friend Kalpana came by to visit and saw my huge clump of green waste ready for Friday’s Pick Up and asked me why I was getting rid of so many Amaryllis!! Aaaagh…what…amaryllis?? What had I done?  I LOVE AMARYLLIS!! So I frantically went head first in the garden bin and picked up and replanted each and every one like the garden fool that I was.  That was my first lesson in gardening.  Listen to Kevin!

Apple Blossom
Apple Blossom

 

Oh apple tree!! The first year you gave us an abundance of the most delicious apples I’d ever tasted.  I had no idea how to take care of  you though.  In my eyes, it looked like you needed a good prune so I grabbed my clippers and prune I did!! I pruned you so hard that you didn’t give us any apples for the next FOUR years!!

Fig Leaf
Fig Leaf

 

 

Oh baby fig tree…I wanted to espalier you like I see at the garden centres.  How hard could that be?  My lovely husband even built me a sturdy frame to train you against the fence but I pulled so hard at those delicate limbs of yours that they snapped right into my hands.  So now you have been retrained into a standard tree and I must say you look very straight and proud, no thanks to me.  I’m still waiting for that first fig though but I think you might be punishing me for being so mean to you.

Grape Vine
Grape Vine

 

 

Oh grapevine!  How many times did I threaten to dig you up because of the way you tend to vine and cling to everything that comes your way like something out of a horror movie.  You have Kevin to thank  for that you know and I have to say he was right not to give in to me because you give out the most delicious grapes ever.  Even the birds think so.

 

 
So when I came out to the garden this morning, I was totally overjoyed to see so many blossoms.  It feels like my garden has finally forgiven me!

Yes I made plenty of mistakes in my garden…and I still do occasionally but hopefully not as drastic.  Luckily, trees are very hardy and laugh at people like me.   They seem to have an endless supply of leaves and fruit…how awesome nature is!