During these past few weeks as I cook more and more of the little 'extras' that we had been buying, I have come to realize a couple of important things. One, I have already mentioned here, the fact that making jam, mayonnaise, mustard or anything else that we might desire, is easy.
It is so easy, that anyone can do it and everyone should. I don't use anything additional in the jam, just fruit and often a little lemon or spices. For other foods to be made at home, once you have the raw ingredients, which by the way are also easily found - the rest is straight forward.
However, the one glitch in any of this (not really a glitch but might be for some) is that I have to look (search) for the implements and tools that enable me to do the canning at home safely. But, once I started looking around in earnest, I am finding the things I need. They are just not all in one place!
When I was mulling this over today, another thought occurred to me about cooking, eating and having the things we need at home to prepare the foods we would like to eat. Not many of us are that prepared anymore - kitchens have been getting smaller and less well stocked, but also, we have forgotten how to use many of these items or we have become reluctant to use them.
It really is as simple as looking things up online, and asking people when you are out and about. Today, in the shop where I bought a few more of my jars for canning, there were different and new jars and I felt reluctant and intimidated, hesitant to use them. So, I had put off buying them for a couple weeks.
Well, today I have the new jars, they are the flip top lids and are used a little differently from the other ones. I have just made some more jams from the left over fruit in the house (I never like to see things go off and be thrown out), so I will keep you posted on how I feel about these jars.
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| The new flip top jars - in lifters (tiffin holders!) |
So far, they are a little more work, however I do like the closures on these ones far better because it will be more convenient to use once the jams are open. Just now I made 3 jars of kiwi, peach, apple & ginger jam - but I used different implements in order to lift and handle the jars.
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| Filled with the jam I made today |
Why was I so reluctant to use this type of jar? I think that I just had it in my head that the other ones were easy and doing something new was not going to be the same. It is amazing how stuck we can become sometimes with an old idea or thought in our heads....
Well I am off to push myself a little further and see if I can figure out how to do pickles. Another thing I have been putting off, but not anymore, because I have all the ingredients in the house and they will be done.
All the best,
April
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