A Feast Day!!

Today is a feast day (everyone you have got to read my book The Pagan Diet© smile!) therefore I am spending my day cooking and preparing food. Actually it all started last night with the cinnamon apple butter...here's the story so far.

Chopped apples in the slow cooker

Last night I chopped up loads of apples, using about 4 different kinds (both tart and sweet cooking apples) placed them all into the slow cooker with generous spoonfuls of nutmeg and cinnamon. Then just enough apple juice concentrate and water to cover the bottom of the large crock pot. I turned it on high and left it until just before bedtime when I turned it down on low and left it overnight.

Cinnamon Apple Butter after 10 hours cooking 

This morning it was mush and well cooked, I turned it on high again for another couple of hours (probably 12 in total cooking time) and then let it cool down a bit as I got the jars sterilized and ready for the apple butter. 

Apple butter is different from apple sauce which does not cook as long - also, apple sauce is made from usually one kind of apple. With apple butter, the key is in the use of a slow cooker, the apples are gently cooked over lower heat for a long period of time until the apples breakdown, caramelize and thicken. Lovely! Adding spices only makes it more tantalizingly yummy! 

Cinnamon Apple Butter on spelt bread

Next, on the agenda today is our feast dinner which will be ready for tonight (it's a full moon too!). I have a butterflied leg of lamb that has been marinating in homemade mustard sauce for a few hours. This will go into a warm oven to be slowly cooked over the afternoon to be ready for tonights' feast.  I usually make roasted root vegetables to go with this type of meal (sweet potato, carrot, turnip, onion and pumpkin). 

Lamb in mustard marinade

Lastly, during my preparations for the day, I decided to make my own mustard, mostly because I already had all the ingredients at hand for the marinade and I wanted to give it a go. The last time I made this it was tasty, but did not thicken (there's that thick thing again!) as much as I would have liked. I think that I did not put enough dry mustard in or maybe too much liquid. 

Today, it came out perfectly, I just kept blending it (I used an immersion blender) until it was where I was happy with it. The children were not impressed because it was a little spicy from all the mustard, but that is easy to change with a little honey added in. This is the simplest thing in the world to make - why on earth do we buy it??

Homemade mustard 

So, that is where I am at right now, the feast is in progress, the lamb already in the oven, the apple butter has been preserved in jars with some left out for our dinner, and there is enough great tasting mustard for a month! 

Now to get ready for the rest of the meal, hmmm, dessert - ginger cake and peach ice cream? 

Enjoy this day!

April