Gingerjo’s Blog

Today I thought I’d go tropical, since winter is drawing in and I could do with a taste of summer. So I’m attempting to make Mango and Lemon Liqueur.

I bought three large ripe juicy mangos and chopped them up into squares. They were so ripe that they disintegrated so I mushed them into mango pulp in the bottom of my 2.5l ex-gherkin jar. Then I added 1l of good quality light rum and topped the jar up with vodka. I would have used more light rum, but I’d run out. I toyed with adding caster sugar, but mangos taste slightly of honey so I threw caution to the wind and added 300g of honey instead. The mix already tasted pretty good, but was missing something - a bit of bite to counteract the sweetness - so I added the juice of two large large lemons as well.

I’m going to leave it for a few weeks in the cupboard giving it a good shake every few days. I don’t think this one will take long to mature as the mango juice is already mixed well with the alcohol.

Separating the two though - now that could be fun. I’m going to need some cheesecloth I think.

I’ve been experimenting with liqueur making for a while. A few months ago I added a big load of frozen summer fruits to lots of cheap vodka and a few hundred grams of caster sugar. Recently I seperated the alcohol off, added a bit more sugar and stuck the bottle back in the cupboard to mature for a bit. We’re drinking it now - it’s not the best liqueur I’ve ever tasted, but since I made it to use up the 5kg bag of fruit that Mark had bought it’s not bad. I’ve bought worse.

I’ve also made Rhurbarb Liqueur which is very nice - again lots of rhubarb, lots of vodka and lots of caster sugar. Stick it in the cupboard for a couple of months, then separate off the alcohol, adjust the sweetness, allow it to mature for a month or two and yum, rhubarb liqueur. It’s best if you don’t peel the rhubarb.

We also tried dried apricots in vodka - they needed something extra so we added a cinnamon stick half way through. Not bad and the apricots were pretty yummy too.

I’ve also had a go at making Blueberry Liqueur - I half filled a passata jar with blueberries, added some sugar and topped it up with vodka. This one seems to need quite a while to mature. A couple of weeks ago I seperated off the fruit and added more sugar but I think it will be Christmas before it’s ready. I expect it will be worth the wait though - the samples are very promising.

I’m currently making Plum Brandy - I decided to try something other than vodka for a change. I took 2 punnets of very ripe English plums (probably a 800g - 1kg worth), cut them in half and removed the stone. I put them in a 2.5l ex-gherkin jar. You need a bottle with a wide neck if you want to get the fruit back out again later. I added a couple of hundred grams of sugar - I’m not sure how much really. Then I added 750ml brandy and topped the jar nearly up to the top with vodka. As I recall I added more sugar after I’d given it a good shake to dissolve the first lot. That’s been stewing in the cupboard for a few weeks now, but is shaping up to be pretty damn good. I think with this one the longer you leave it the better it will get.

At the same time I bought a large punnet of blackberries (they were reduced and needed using). They also found themselves at the bottom of a 2.5l ex-gherkin jar. There wasn’t quite enough fruit so I added three apples as well. You seem to need to fill the bottle between 1/3 and 1/2 full of fruit for it to work well. That’s also currently stewing away. The colour has already drained out of the blackberries and into the alcohol which is now a rich red colour. I’m not convinced that the apples are adding much to the mix though.

And there are sooo many more fruits to experiment with…..

Arrggh. Why do I seem to do nothing but bloody housework all weekend? There seems to be self-replicating pile of washing and I’m sure greese oozes out of the kitchen work surfaces while I’m not looking. Certain types of housework I don’t mind, but some of the necessary chores really irritate me:

1. Taking the bin out - that’s Mark job. I loathe touching the bin. I can just about cope with putting a new bin liner in it after it’s been emptied.

2. Making the bed. Stripping the bed’s OK, washing the bedding is OK, drying the bedding is OK. But I hate wrestling with the duvet trying to get it back in the cover. And why do pillows seem to expand when you remove their cases making it really hard to squeeze them back in?

3. Tidying the living room. It should be such a simple task, but where do all the bits of paper come from? Everywhere you look there are bills, TV magazines, letters from Oxfam, kitchenware catalogues and supermarket receipts. What do you do with them? Should you file them, throw them away, build a bonfire, recycle them or leave them to evolve into a new paper-based lifeform?

4. Cleaning the microwave. I never even use it so why is the inside always covered in tomato splats?

5. Cleaning the fridge. Everything is kept in plastic packaging so just how does it escape to form a crud on the bottom beneath the salad/vegetable boxes?

6. Mopping the floor - it’s not really the mopping of the floor that is the problem. It’s the having to hoover it first to get rid of all the bits, then fill the bucket with water (which means you have to have done all the washing up first so that you can get in the sink). Then you mop the floor for a couple of minutes, and try to squeeze the mop out sufficiently to vaguely dry the floor, rinse the mop (in dirty water - what’s the point?) and slide around on the wet floor trying to get back to the sink to throw the dirty water away. Yes, you should refill the bucket so that you can rinse the mop properly, but by then you’re so demoralised by the experience that it’s all you can do to rinse out the sink.

7. Washing up. Is it me or do dishes dirty themselves? I’m sure we don’t use that many pots and pans and yet, there they all are crowding the worksurface, jostling to see who can get close enough to the edge to fall off and smash into a thousand tiny pieces when someone walks past.

8. Cleaning up a broken glass. You never do find every shard at the time, no matter how long you spend carefully hoovering the room. You find the last bit later - with your bare feet. Are feet magnetic for broken glass (and three-pronged plugs)?

9. Cleaning windows. Well, that should just be left to the professionals.

10. Cleaning the oven. Life’s too short. Buy a new oven.

For better or worse, in exhaustion and weariness, I’m enrolling on the CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing next week. I’ve finally got the funding from work and an offer from the uni. I’m quite excited, but also nervous of what to expect. I don’t know where I’m going to get the energy to study after work for 4 hours every Monday night - and that’s just the lectures. There’s the actual exams and general studying to fit in too.

Good job I’ve got a good memory really - gotta cram all that info in there. I need to finish SK183 before the end of October as well. Oh well, who wants to relax at weekends anyway?

Now that I’ve completed T189 I don’t see why I can’t share the images I submitted for my ECA with the rest of the world - so here they are - View Photos.

I’ve also put together a page of the photos that were near misses - I didn’t use them but it was a really tough choice in some cases - View Near Misses.

I’m not claiming to be a good photographer - that takes a creative flair that this little scientist will never possess. But I enjoy it and that’s all that’s important really.

Hurray for me!! I’ve passed the digital photography course I did with the OU a couple of months ago. I got a score of 84 - I presume that’s percent. Having worked as an Admissions Officer I know that the OU marks level 1 courses generously giving about 15% extra to encourage people and give them confidence in their ability to study - that means I really got a score of 69% which I’m very pleased with and is more than I was expecting.

Just have to get out there and keep taking photos now. Oh, and get on with studying my human nutrition course as well.

I remember where I was when I heard the news. I expect everyone does. It was one of those moments when the world changed, irrevocably and forever.

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LL and I, who’s party I went to a few weeks ago after a long time no see, went to see Forrest Gump at the cinema last night. It’s one of my favourite films and I’d never seen it on a big screen, so when I saw it advertised I just had to go. I bought a box of chocolates to take with us in honour of Mrs Gump’s most famous saying. And it’s true, in the dark of the cinema you really never know what you’re gonna get. Why do I always manage to pick a truffle?

It was wonderful to watch as always. I cried at all the usual bits, and afterwards felt utterly emotionally drained. I’m still feeling chilled out now. It’s such a lovely movie, so tender, so heartbreaking and hopeful, and so well cast and executed. I really don’t think it could have been made any better.

It was a late decision, but we set off for Tatton Park on Saturday afternoon for a bit of a mooch around the gardens. We were a bit surprised to find a fun day with fairground rides etc, but that was nice. It’s always a pleasure to see the old fashioned fairground rides. Mark was getting a bit broody I think watching the kiddies on the carousel and wishing he could be the proud daddy waving each time they went past. Maybe, but not just yet…

There’s lots to see - the mansion, a rare breeds farm, an old hall, the grounds generally, but we’d gone for the gardens - National Trust cards in hand. They are huge with lots of small feature gardens woven into the park - it’s nice just to wander around and see what you find. I could have lived without the Crazy Frog revurberating through the trees from the bouncy castle, and it’s a shame the park is directly underneath the Manchester Airport flightpath, but it was still lovely.

Best of all though the farm shop sells fruit wines and meads so I’ve finally found somewhere close by where I can buy them, but not so close that I will become a raving alcoholic and bankrupt myself.

This should be a simple question, but it isn’t. What we should eat has been clearly defined and how much energy we need is also easy to find out. However, combining these to say how many calories should come from certain types of easily identifiable foods - well that is a mission.

I’m on that mission but so far I’ve failed to find a satisfactory answer.
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