Kitchen Diary

Its Friday and today is my last day of babysitting the grandsons all day. Sweet daughter has had a temporary job since mid December and so I stepped into the gap. I cannot say it has been easy with a 6 year old and a 22 month old throughout the holidays and I have fallen into bed exhausted each night but with a heart so full of love and a mind overflowing with happy memories. We have shared much laughter and tears, falls all over the place - including Jay falling into the jacuzzi - oh be still my beating heart!! Tyler my hero saved his little brother that day by jumping in and holding his head above water until I could haul him out! Then there was the time I found the same little monkey standing on the dining room table eating a white nectarine that he had stolen from the fruit bowl (he's a real fruitbat hehe!!) And a favourite trick is to climb out of his clip on high chair and onto the kitchen counter!! I tells ya, one has to have 6 sets of eyes tracking his movements at all times!!And he has absolutely no respect for freshly vacuumed and mopped floors. Those bright shiny tiles obviously just beg to be spilled on and for dirty little feet prints tracking all through the juice, water, bits of spat out fruit etc. But the sheer delight on his little face and the joy of hearing him sing and watching him dance when I crank up the sound for Lady Gaga's Pokerface just makes up for everything else......I think I am actually going to miss them!!! Of course it IS Pinky Friday as well so Ty will be staying over until tomorrow hehe.......a-baking we shall go then. We have a very dear friend who is turning 50 tomorrow and I have been commissioned to do chocolate cupcakes for her so that is what we will be baking.

So, I thank you all for being so patient with me while I have been unable to blog much or to visit most of you. I will be remedying that asap!! My wounds from my own nasty fall almost 3 weeks ago have healed well. Still have a bit of bruising on my knees but the scar on my forehead has healed very well and I am rubbing on Nimue scar cream twice a day and it is looking very good!! Brownieboy is back to full days at work and loving the challenges but he does get very tired and also falls onto the bed at 5pm when he gets home to give his back a rest. So all in all things are not going too bad in brownieville. The year has not started as well as we would've liked it to but we will just deal with each issue one step at a time!

Early in December one of my favourite bloggers, Bethany over at Dirty Kitchen Secrets, posted a recipe and great easy to follow photographs for something that brought a twinkle to my eye. I raced off and gathered what I could of her ingredients, plus some of my own......you all know that I HAVE to pimp as I go don't you?? and made my own batch of this absolutely brilliant chutney....WOW!! I am loving it!! Do give it a try, if you are a beetroot lover you are going to go crazy for this!! Thankyou so much Beth for introducing me to it :o) It was easy to make and so worth it!

SPICY BEETROOT CRANBERRY GINGER & ORANGE CHUTNEY

previously blogged here

1kg raw beetroot

250g Light Brown Sugar

Tiny Pinch of Ground Cloves

1tsp of Ground Cinnamon

¼ tsp Ground Coriander

Tiny pinch Fennel Seeds

1 Tbs Grated Ginger

3 Oranges- zested & juiced

250ml Red Wine Vinegar

250ml Water

2 Garlic Cloves- minced

2 Onions- diced

2 Red Chilies – finely slice 1 and leave 1 whole (use more if you want it spicier)

3 Granny Smith Apples- peeled, cored & finely diced

100g Dried Cranberries

2 Tbs Finely Chopped Dill - optional

Sterile preserving jars with lids

Preheat oven to 200^oC

Place scrubbed beetroot in an oven tray, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and roast for about 25 minutes until easily pierced with a sharp knife or skewer

Allow to cool until you can handle them

While you are doing this you can prepare the rest of the ingredients - ie chop onions apples, zest and juice the oranges etc.

Peel and finely dice the cooled beetroots

Place all of the ingredients (excepting for the beetroot) in a large deep saucepan – I used my pasta pot and it was ideal

Bring to a boil

Add the diced beetroot and bring back to boil, lower heat and simmer for about 40 minutes until the sauce has reduced and thickened – stir often

Stir in the finely chopped Dill 5 minutes before the end. I didn’t as I never had any.

Bottle and seal well.

Allow to stand for at least a month before enjoying

Delightful on crackers with soft cheeses or as an accompaniment to any meat, hot or cold. Also makes a fab chicken sandwich :o)

Enjoy the weekend blogland.

Special hugs & prayers to our lovely friend Batty and her family today. They said their final goodbyes to Papabat today at 2pm.

browniegirl xxx

Edit: I have been chatting to Markella from Land of the Gods blog - remember her??? She sends love to everyone, has not been able to blog because of work. She also sends condolences to Batty so I am passing those messages on to you all.