Little Mudlets’ Pickled Gherkins

From seed to jar

Fifty percent of the inhabitants of Mudville, love pickled Gherkins, myself and Little Mudlet, and so when she spotted a packet of Gherkin seeds at the garden centre, a few months ago, and realised we could produce our own pickles, Little Mudler asked if we could grow some.

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Magic Pudding explained.

 

Vanilla ice-cream is the perfect accompaniment for this pudding.

A few years ago I wrote a blog on Magic Pudding ….. or at least I thought I did but when I actually searched for the post, I realised that I had only done the recipe with a picture of a portion of the pudding. I hadn’t explained why it has ‘magic’ in the title!

A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Some of the treats baked for Christmas & the Mudlets’ house

Time has flown this year, more so than in other years I feel, and even Christmas has whizzed by in a blink of an eye and 2019 is just two more sleeps away. This Christmas I’ve baked new and old favourites and will be making more sweet treats for the Mudlets over the next day or so.

More pickled chillies for Mudville

A bumper crop.

Earlier this week Mud opened one of the jars of Jalapenos I had pickled five weeks ago, to add to his Chicken Fajitas and declared them a success. He told me they were tasty and hot, better than the shop bought ones we spend a small fortune on each year. With lots of chillies still growing in the greenhouses, and handfuls of the incredibly successful Curry Chilli in the freezers, I decided to make a second batch of pickled Jalapenos.

Pickled Jalapenos: from plant to jar in 40 minutes.

Sliced Jalapenos ready for pickling.

What do you do when you have a VERY successful chilli growing year and you find yourself with loads of Jalapeno chillis ready and dozens more following on behind? Well if you have a husband who happens to like adding Jalapenos to chilli con carne, fajitas, tacos and pizzas (to name but a few) which means you go through several jars of shop bought sliced Jalapenos every year, then the sensible thing would be to try and make your own pickled sliced Jalapenos.

Tea for four

Not perfect but I was really happy with how well this cake turned out

Little Mudlet turned 10 a short while ago and to celebrate this special birthday, I decided that not only did she need a more grown up style party and I would have to come up with a cake to match the venue. We settled on the idea of a pottery painting party for Little Mudlet, two of her friends and Middle Mudlet, at the local pottery studio/shop called “Live, Love and Create”, followed by a rather grown-up tea party at “Shipley’s Curiositeas”, a lovely little tea shop opposite the studio. I’ll cover the pottery and tea party in another post because THIS post is all about the cake ………..

Another year, another cake

Middle Mudlet was thrilled with her cake

When Middle Mudlet started secondary school last September, the one thing she was really looking forward to was the chance to study a musical instrument and specifically the guitar. The school she attends is a Music and IT specialist school and so all pupils are offered the opportunity to audition for music lesson and she sailed through her audition, even though she had never held a real guitar in her life. Now 8 months on, she has become quite adept and the sound of the guitar being played is the norm, as she puts in the practice required by her teacher, in readiness for her grade 1 exam.

Cottage loaves

I was quite pleased with the detail on these loaves

My derelict gingerbread cake village has long since vanished into the mouths of the Mudlets but the urge to try and produce something using the mould, that captured all the fine detail of the windows, roofs and chimneys led me to try a completely different approach. The absence of baking beans or spare rice meant that I was still unable to try baking an actual gingerbread village just yet but what I did have in abundance, was the ingredients needed to bake bread and specifically bread buns and so I though it would be fun to try and make some cottage shaped bread buns – some cottage loaves if you like.

A (derelict) Gingerbread Village for Chuck

A new toy for me: my fabulous gingerbread village mould

We received a surprise package the other day, a parcel of gifts from Chuck in America and one of the items was this really rather special looking silicone gingerbread village cake mould. I couldn’t wait to try it out but Mud reminded me that it was a Christmas Present and so I put it away and tried not to sulk too much. Then in an email to Mud, Chuck commented that he would be watching with interest to see if a post on using the mould appeared on my blog and that was all the encouragement I needed to get baking. I’ve never used a silicone mould of any description before and so I read up about other peoples experiences and with a mixture of apprehension and excitement, I set about trying to make a gingerbread village.

Pickle, chutney and sauce

I’ve pickled them, made them into sauce, used them in cooking and I’ve still got loads drying across two large plates

I’ve been quite busy just recently and realised this morning that I was  little behind in terms of my blogging, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to rectify this oversight whilst the Mudlets and Mud were otherwise engaged. The weather hasn’t been conducive to me getting outside and clearing anymore of the garden, although to be fair I haven’t had chance to get the manure and topsoil yet so there hasn’t really been much to draw me away from the warmth of the house. I’ve also been a tad occupied with knitting more fingerless mitts but this time on double pointed needles and starting Eldest Mudlets’ Christmas present, both of which will feature in their own posts, although the latter won’t be until after Santa’s done his rounds.