Bottling Garden Beetroot

My vegetable garden only produced enough beetroot for one jar. Maybe next year I'll grow more or harvest more!

Bottling Recipe:
1/2 cup sugar (white)
1 cup vinegar (I use white)
1 cup water
Salt & pepper to taste

To preserve beetroot you follow all the usual preserving methods such as sterilizing the jars etc. There is plenty of information on the Internet for different methods of bottling (canning) beetroot...

I just heated up the vinegar/sugar/water mix and added it to the cooked beetroot (chopped). I will be eating this quicky (I love beetroot) so I haven't worried too much about my sealing the jar. This glass jar is getting old and I need to buy a new seal for it.

My favourite way of eating beetroot is on melted cheese on toast. I just slice the cooked beetroot onto the melted cheese and add plenty of white pepper...Whats your favourite way of eating beetroot?

Love beetroot especially home
preserved

Pickling Green Tomatoes

This is an old recipe given to me by a friend many years ago on how to make Green Tomato and Pineapple Pickle. A little time consuming, only because you have to sprinkle the green tomatoes with salt for two hours...I left this batch overnight though and it was fine. Luckily I've been saving 'Craigs' marmalade jars so I didn't have to buy any glass jars this time.

Green Tomato and Pineapple Pickle
4 1/2lb Green tomatoes
2 1/4lb Onions
3 Cups sugar (white)
1 1/2 TB Turmeric, Curry, Mustard
1/2 Cup flour
2TB Golden syrup
Vinegar (white)
450g Pineapple (large tin)

* Chop green tomatoes and onions and put into a bowl
* Sprinkle over 2TB of common salt (plain)
* Leave for 2 hours and stir frequently
* Next pour off the liquid and put into pot
* Barely cover the tomatoes and onions with vinegar
* Add 3 cups of sugar and simmer
* Add 1 large tin of pineapple pieces or crushed plus 2TB Golden Syrup
* Mix in small bowl, 1 1/2 TB mustard, curry, turmeric, 1/2 cup of flour
*  Add a little liquid to make a smooth flour/spice paste  
* Then add to the pan and boil 10 minutes.
* Bottle and seal when cold

Note:
I think large cans of pineapple are now 425g. I have no time stated for simmering, I simmer my tomatoes and onions until they are soft. I like to use white onions too.

A mixture of tomatoes, Taupo & Beefsteak

The whole house smelled of pickle
actually it was quiet a refreshing small

Drain the soaked Green tomatoes and onions
and put it all in the pot

Cook for until all  the tomatos and
onions are soft and the mixture has
 thickened. Now it's ready to bottle...

Hmm...I always make a mess when
pouring hot pickle into the hot sterilized jars 

This year it doesn't look so chunky..
I used crushed pineapple instead of pieces
It's  been cooked a lot longer too...

All bottled and ready to label...It's so
nice to use up all my homegrown
tomatoes....This year was a big crop
about 30kg!

Nautical Swap

Here is my lovely nautical basket from SewExhausted. This made it's way to New Zealand from California full of many wonderful things...Buttons, a nice pincushion and much more. Such a surprise to get lip gloss, Anyway I am never without lipstick, so I just love this gloss. This is very special thank-you to you girls! Happy Sewing...

House of Pinheiro: International Craft Swap

This is my effort for the 'International Craft Swap'  featuring the colours, blue, white and red.

The wine bottle cover is over in California now, made for Kerrielee at Sew Exhausted. I used a large sized empty wine bottle (on the right in the pic) to draft my pattern from. No...I didn't drink the wine it was corked (2004) and it all went down the drain.

I was happily sewing away and I was almost finished when I decided to go outside for a 'breath of fresh air'.  I was so busy taking a photo of the wine bottle when 'someone' who was sitting outside doing school stuff nearby piped up and said, "You know that's a large wine bottle your using there". "No it isn't" I replied and then rushed off to compare the bottle to another wine bottle. Sure enough she was right!

Here was me thinking that wine bottles must be smaller overseas. Because all the wine bottle cover patterns I  found on the Internet were way too small for the size of my wine bottle. It's a long time since I've drunk wine, I have no idea about the bottle size...

I found an easy tutorial over at sewplicity and used this pattern as a guide also.  Though I have added a different style of tie for a more nautical look, and my turn over at the top is much shorter in length too.

A wine bottle cover for a big bottle of wine...
'Wear me whatever way you like'

Japanese Knot Bag

 I made the 'Japanese Knot Bag' out of an old skirt made of a type of Chinese brocade fabric. The skirt was really lovely but I made the short side, not slanting down far too short. It fitted very tight too so I threw it in the disaster rag bag...It sat there for years until today when I re-hashed it into a Japanese knot bag...Here is the pattern.

While I was Blogging...

I was so busy blogging that I burnt my pickle, I plain forgot I'd put the pickle on to re-bottle because the lids didn't seal. I don't have to worry about that now though. 'Burning and Blogging' I'm starting a new trend...

Lucky I still have a kitchen and it was two jars
 of pickle. The rest are all sealed well

What a mess lucky it's not an
expensive pot!

 These lids are not sealing which is so annoying.
They are now scratched from my first attempt. Not
a very good fit I suspect...