In a jam, pickled, frozen, well preserved and other culinary triumphs

@Former-Member I've downloaded a PDF of Mrs Beetons some time ago, but I rather prefer having an actual book of it. 🙂

Agreed @Smc I printed out a few lovely old books from the Antique Pattern Library for the same reason. I do love my paperwhite kindle, but yes, for crafted things a real book is something else.

@Former-Member have no idea I'm sorry, about decaff coffee. I can't tolerate coffee anymore, but a small amount in a larger dish I can usually manage.

My preserves book may, may, arrive tomorrow - well, later today.

OOHHHH thank you @Former-Member for the report. I couldn't believe it could be anything else other than tasty though! The shopping order went in today with 1 x Caramel topnfill on the listing and cream to go with, so I will be able to try it one day soonish I think.

And, my Sally Wise book arrived today! It has an amazing amount of info in it!

I was slightly disappointed in that it is about A5 size and quite thick and heavy for my poor hands. it will be a place-it-on-the-table-to-read book unfortunately. But so much detail! I wanted to start doing things right away. i didn't though.

Must away, thank you for letting me know about the ice cream. I will only be able to have it intermittently too for all sorts of reasons. sigh.

have a wonderful night.

Oh, @Smc before I forget. I think I can recall you mentioning something about kknowing about foraging - is there a book you would recommend for me to learn from? I've always been so afraid of toxicity (drummed into me as a child) that I have not ventured very far into foraging and would like to learn much more about Australia's edibles.

sorry to be so quick, and for the tuypos- have to go for dinner.

Have a wonderful night!

@Former-Member, caution is always wise. This book is quite good for Aussie bush foods.

And this is the one I use for "imported" wild plants. Many British forage plants have become environmental weeds in Australia, and some are grown as garden ornamentals. People have sort of "forgotten" that they have edible qualities too. It's an old-ish book, probably out of print, but you can find copies online.

If in doubt about a plant's ID, best to leave it be, or take a sample of it to be positively identified by someone who does know. There have been nasty incidents when a toxic plant has been mistaken for an edible one. But once you're familiar with even a few locally available wild or weedy edibles, it can be a lot of fun being able to collect a bonus harvest. 🙂

Thank you so much for those titles @Smc, I know the 'if in doubt, don't' stance with foodages so that's not a worry here. I'm probably more cautious than I need to be. the books aren't available at my usual online book store, so will have to look around for them, That's okay, I have time, it's been a long time interest for me and now I decided I'd like to move forward with it.

I got the ice cream machine out this afternoon @Former-Member, the caramel and cream are on hand, it may get made tonight or tomorrow, depends on how well I'm travelling.

By the way, feel welcome to tag me here, I'll be stepping back from the forum for a bit but will still get emails on tags and both of yours would be most welcome ones to recieve.

Sounds awesome @Former-Member. I used to do that, it's wonderful to be able to make it to your own tastes.

I made the caramel ice cream last night, it was really lovely. We did 'taste' quite a bit of the whipped cream + carmel mixture before it went into the ice cream maker and I think it was more caramel flavoured than the ice cream. It's very very nice, a bit fatty for mouth feel, but still much more flavoursome and smooth than most shopbought stuff. I migth tinker with the recipe when I get inspired.

Travel well and safely.