What Preps are you doing this week

[Stasher]

Yeah, waddya get Junmist? Sounds intriguing............

Blackberries have finally arrived in force around us, so it's been blackberry and apple jam fest here. Stewed blackberry and apple for the freezer (am planning blackberry curd over the next couple of days). Also planning on blackberry wine

Started rosehip syrup last night.

Firstborn has been working on a house this week and has arrived with van loads of timber for burning! Our woodstore is already full and so alpha male has had to be quite inventive with new wood storage solutions

Candied peel has been a runaway success, tried dipping it in melted dark chocolate last night and the result was frankly outrageous! Will be making a new batch in due course for part of the Christmas chocolate box gifts

The grapes from the polytunnel (that were saved from the wild birds - or didn't get fed to the chickens) are now in one of the first stages of wine making on the back of the aga

I'm sure there's something else, but it can't be that important!

[ForgeCorvus]

Candied peel has been a runaway success, tried dipping it in melted dark chocolate last night and the result was frankly outrageous! Will be making a new batch in due course for part of the Christmas chocolate box gifts

Where did you say you lived again ?? ........ Sod SHTF, I'm coming to your place now

[Decaff]

Candied peel has been a runaway success, tried dipping it in melted dark chocolate last night and the result was frankly outrageous! Will be making a new batch in due course for part of the Christmas chocolate box gifts

Where did you say you lived again ?? ........ Sod SHTF, I'm coming to your place now

Ooh me too!! Sounds scrummy

[Stasher]

None left!

A friend was over after I had dipped and chilled. I asked if she would be happy with a box for Christmas and the answer was 'OMG, can you give me two, then I can hide my box from the boys!'

The chocolate wasn't glossy, apparently it has something to do with temperature (I just nuked the chocolate), but as with all things in life, looks are not everything! I will post the recipe in the next few days. It does take a while and is spread out over a couple of weeks. But worth it.

[Decaff]

Adding butter to the melted chocolate will give it gloss/shine, best to melt in a bowl over a simmering pan of water but don't let the water touch the bowls bottom or it will burn the chocolate and make it bitter and grainy.

[Decaff]

Decaff. Try putting opened cat food in sealed plastic container/ biscuit tin or suchlike. No need to freeze it. We had a rodent problem some years ago in our pantry. The kids were not sealing cereals properly. A proper storage regime for ALL dry foodstuffs cures it. Hope that helps.

I do this for his "eat now" food but there was this one time where I had an unopened box in the cupboard and we had these horrid creatures appearing all over the kitchen, they got into every cupboard. It was the unopened box, when opened it was alive and moving... All my dry food is stored in plastic boxes thankfully.

[Decaff]

Decaff: Your Freeze-to-store regime is aimed at crawlies isn't it ?
I'd try freezing some (as in a couple of portions) of the current use scran and then trying to feed it to the Mogsplosh next week

Good idea!! Yup crawlies are one of my ocd triggers... I will do this and hope he eats it!! It would be so simple if only he would eat wet food, in tins or pouches!!!

[DustyDog]

Just done monthly Tesco/Aldi shop, four pack of beans, rice pudding, the usual tins of corned beef (corned beef is sooo amazing, huge shelf life, full of protein etc) pasta, mince, chopped toms, all going in prep basket number 2, these are just the extra supplies bought in to store away. Will be the same again next month. Have got plastic lock and lock containers for the pasta, rice etc, we have mice...

[nickdutch]

Not sure if this counts, but I had read on wikipedia that green coffee beans last for 2 years, so I have been practicing home roasting using my popcorn air popper to roast them prior to possibly buying a larger quantity so that i never run out of coffee. My popper is a cheap chinese made thing that I got from B+M a while back, but it works and I seem to have two small batches of coffee of two different roasts. But I have learned that I have to do this outside as its a smelly process and a smokey one to a degree. My cheap popper seems to generate quite a lot of heat being a 1200 Watt model, but can only handle a very small quantity without the internal thermostat kicking in and turning the thing off.
So only one popcorn measure at a time otherwise it gets bad.
But I have two caning jars with the two samples currently degassing on my counter top in preperation for me using one of them in the morning before Church.
I haven't yet got myself a burr grinder, so I will have to make do with blade grinding for the moment.... and aeropressing

[metatron]

Been building out my workshop, mostly industrial equipment from the 60's and 70's like Myford lathes. Also picked up a suitable vacuum pump and condenser to make a freeze dryer.