Cordial Recipes

I'm ashamed to say there is a bottle of commercial orange cordial sitting in the pantry, it's been there for ages. Last time I tried some I didn't like the taste at all, having been spoilt with the flavour of homemade lemon cordial.

Finally got around to making Lemon cordial tonight and decided to give Orange a go too. The recipe is very simple 1:1:1 ratio of sugar, water and juice.

Sugar Syrup
Heat equal amounts of sugar and water - I used 2 cups of each- in a saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved. Allow to cool

For Lemon Cordial I squeezed 5 Lemons - heated for about 20 - 30 seconds in microwave to get more juice. This gave me 400 ml of juice to which I added 400 ml of sugar syrup.

Strain juice through cheese cloth - I use 2 strainers , one finer than the other. The first catches the bulk of the fibre and the second the rest.

Pour into bottle and chill. Serve diluted to taste with cold water and ice for a refreshing drink. It will keep for 3 - 4 weeks in the fridge but I rather make small batches and drink it within 2 weeks. Can also be frozen for later use.

For Orange Cordial the recipe above is the same but it does matter on the flavour of the oranges used, tonight I added an extra 2 oranges to strengthen the flavour.


No wastage, use for the peels

Lemon Cleaneer

Lemon Peels
Vinegar

Into a jar put the lemon peels, jam as much as you can in. You can keep adding extra peels too. Top up the jar with vinegar, screw on lid. Then leave sit for a few weeks.

The end result is a highly lemon scented vinegar which is then diluted 50-50 with water and put in a spray bottle to be used as a general spray cleaner.

Can use orange, mandarin peels in the same way.

Favourite things.

While I was reading after breakfast this morning I thought about how neglected and unloved a lot of my house looked. Decided to make a start with the dresser in my dining room, first I looked over it to see if there was anything I didn't love on it and decided that most of the items were definitely loved.





My Old Country Roses Tea Cup set, a gift from my Mum for either my 18th or 21st Birthday, my Grandmother's lolly Jar. After Nanna passed away I was lucky enough (or was it fast enough?) to get a few coveted items, this jar I noticed a few weeks later sitting in Mum's kitchen after she washed it. I asked if I could have it, was told no that she liked it. I replied that she already had one, was told no she didn't, this went back and forth a couple of times. Until Mum in esparation said that she and Dad had bought it for my Grandmother not long after they married and in fact she had bought 3, one for her mother, one for Dad's mother and one for....... that's when she exclaimed "Where's mine?!!" remembering she always kept it on display but it was no longer there. I found it in a cupboard where she had put it away for safe keeping away after a close call with a toddling Grandchild.



The jug, tray and lace edged cloth also came from my Grandmother. The Windmill plate was a housewarming gift from Nanna when I invited her over for morning tea not long after I moved in here. She made me promise to look after it. Just after her death conversation got around to the fact that Nanna had noticed that items of hers were disappearing, she thought they had been broken or taken by others. Mum mentioned the Windmill Plate was one of those items, I told her I had it and had recieved it as a gift. We realised that Nanna's memory had been pretty shot and she didn't remember giving the items away, we now know where several of the items are. The lace cloth is handmade, either by Nanna's Grandmother or Aunt.



These glasses are so special to me, they are the first things I ever won. I was maybe 4 years old and won these at a school fete, they came in a basket shaped like a 3 leaf clover (long gone). Orginally 6 glasses one got broken long ago. When Dad used to make Rhubarb Wine we were allowed to have little in these little glasses on special occasions.
Turned wooden items made by my husband, photos of the most special people in my life, my 2 children - now 19 and 16.


Pretty teacup, vintage scale which I am not sure where it came from. May have bought it. The sweet little teddy who's name is Byron was originally made by me from a free internet pattern. I was so pleased with him and he has buttons holding his arms and legs on. The buttons came from a worn out favourite jacket. I remember the day I finished him I went over to my parent's place and was visiting with my Grandmother who was telling me about a day trip she had been on with a friend that day. She started telling me about the cutest little bear she had seen that was sitting in a teacup and how she wanted to buy one but wasn't able to afford it. I stopped our conversation saying I'd be right back and ran home (I live behind my parents, so not a long run) and grabbed Byron for her. She was so delighted with him and displayed him in a teacup. I only found him today after wondering where he was, I had thought he'd been put in with my Christmas bears and packed away but hadn't found him last Christmas. I found him stuffed into the bowl above which had been put in a cupboard. So happy to have him back.




Unfortunately the website, www.teddybearshug.com no longer exists but I was able to search for it with the Wayback Machine, heading back to 2006 where I was able to access the pattern.

A relaxed Monday.

It's Monday morning and I am curled up on the couch, Laptop on my lap. Nice relaxing day today, no work they needed to cut hours at work and I jumped at the opportunity. Will mean less money but there are those at work who need it more than I and it's only for a couple of weeks. I don't go back until Wednesday. It's cool outside today, overcast and grey, complete opposite of yesterday where I spent time outside sitting in the sun in a tank top. Not bad for mid winter.

I decided to clean out my laundry yesterday, had noticed a smell in there, turns out to be the washing machine. I've looked it up, apparently I wash on too low a temp to rid the machine of bacteria so have just run the empty machine on it's hottest temp with out of date Dettol, hopefully it will do the trick. Bleach or vinegar was recommended but I don't have any. From now on I'll do this at least once a month.

Rehashed entry from my other blog, gonna shut it down once I pull out all my favourite entries.

More Dishcloths and a restarted UFO

I crocheted 2 more of the navy bathroom cloths, was asked if they would run but no colour came out when I handwashed the first one. I did wash them and they were put in the dryer (been raining for days here), they did shrink but are still fine for use, they will stretch out with use.



I also crocheted this heart dishcloth, it did take a while - apparently I can't count and kept missing stitches but it came out right in the end. The pattern can be found here http://members.aol.com/JSchlossma/heartdc.html

UFO

I also tried my hand at a KNITTED one! Much more utilitarian than the heart and angel cloths but I am pleased with how it turned out. I wanted a simple cloth, easy to knit with some texture to it. Looked at patterns but didn't find anything I really liked so I thought I'd do it myself.



This is just knitted with 5 rows of garter stitch to begin with (I had 49 stitches), followed by repeats of stripes of stockinette and seed stitches. The stockinette was 5 rows, while the seed was 6 rows. They were bordered with 3 stitches of garter stitch at the start and end of the rows. Then finished up with 5 rows of garter. I had about half a metre of the thread left after casting off.


The crochet bug has bitten me and I was looking for more thread to crochet with, have a basket in my craftroom that holds odd balls and an unfinished tablecloth along with the balls for it. The last time I worked on this was while I was pregnant with my son, he is now 12. I had misplaced the hook for it and didn't get around to buying a new one, then the pattern went missing. I still knew I had the pattern because I came across it a while back. I was able to find it and looked through my needles because I had since been given some hooks. I had thought it was a 1.25 but turned out to be 100. I started on one of the sections and was happy with my progress until I compared it with the cloth, my crocheting has loosened, not that I really was concentrating on it I was watching tv at the time. I have to make sure the stitches are tighter. Started again and the new working is matching the old. To finish the cloth as per the instructons, I only need 6 more mediallions but I have plenty of thread, could do another matching one or enlarge the cloth to fit my dining table. (update I still haven't gotten back to this)


The date and time are now correct, I finally got around to properly setting it up, had it set for Pacific time and not Sydney time - there was an 18 hour difference.