Apples and Pears

We have been blessed this week with a rather wonderful crate brimming with apples and pears from mum-in-law's garden. Its been a bumper crop for both this year and I've been busy devising more and more schemes to make the most of them, having distributed the bounty as far and wide as possible amongst friends and neighbours. One of the things I love about this time of year and its abundance is the passing on of tips and recipes for storing, freezing, preserving and baking of produce.. I am learning so much. We eat a lot of porridge in the winter, so I have stewed and frozen plenty of fruit to put on top. We only have a small freezer, though .. already made a huge batch of chutney, so looking up new recipes. Please share yours if you know some good ones?

Have found this book from the Soil Association invaluable this year as it has good illustrations of the different varieties of fruit and vegetables and tells which are best for which sorts of thing. Also, as well as full-blown recipes, it has lots of quick and easy ideas for enjoying produce simply (which is ideal when you have a glut and aren't able to spend too many hours in the kitchen!), such as yesterday's upside down cake (recipe to follow)

Pear and Ginger Upside Down Cake

Thickly butter an 8'' sandwich tin and sprinkle liberally with light soft brown sugar.
Lay peeled, cored pear halves attractively on top (I did slices).
Beat 4oz each softened butter, light soft brown sugar, wholemeal SR flour with 2 tspns ground ginger, 1tsp baking powder and 2 eggs.
Spread over the pears.
Bake at 190degreesC(375degreesF/Gas 5) for 20 minutes until just firm.
Turn out.

Supermarket SOS

Got the chance to try out some remedies this week, in my battle with a horrible flu thing. Not having my usual stocks of herbs and remedies, for one reason and another, I was unprepared and at something of a loss - but its amazing what you can still do with just a quick trip to the local supermarket these days. Fresh sage, fresh lemon thyme, a squeezy pot of organic runny honey, a couple of lemons and a big lump of ginger. And a ferret around in my box of essential oils. Here are some things that really worked ..

Strong cup of sage tea with a dollop of honey stirred in for a sore throat - gargle with each mouthful before you swallow.

Lemon Thyme tea with dollop of honey stirred in for nose, throat and chestiness - this one was better made in a pot and allowed to brew for a good 10minutes.

Steam inhalation for congestion - washing up bowl, hot water and a few drops of Rosemary, Eucalyptus, Peppermint essential oils - towel over your head and inhale!

A few drops of the same oils in a table spoon of carrier oil (I used sweet almond but sunflower oil would do) as a chest rub and in the bath for when you start coughing and/or it goes to your chest.

For mornings when your cold is so bad you think you will never be able to get going: lemon juice and several slices of root ginger in hot water, strong as you can take it with a nice dollop of honey mixed in. I peeled and crushed some of the ginger to get the juice. You can feel this warm you up all the way down to your toes - and its great when you can't taste anything anymore, because you will definitely taste this.

And as soon as you feel the slightest suspicion of a cold coming, take a garlic capsule every day I'm sure this lessens the impact and gets rid of it faster. I also tried a Nigel Slater thing - roasted a whole head of garlic, then popped the flesh out of each clove and spread the puree onto toast. It was absolutely delicious and I sure being in the warm kitchen smelling the roasting garlic in the oven didn't do me any harm either.
Hope this helps someone else out there feeling poorly and miserable!!

Please contribute any tried and tested cold and flu remedies that you set store by?