We had a little virus bug blow through the house on Friday. It wasn’t even that bad, but it was enough to give Miss Ellie a fever, so Daddy had to take a few hours of sick time while Mommy took Evie to homeschool co-op.
Ellie Belle was wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, very sad because she couldn’t go to co-op. So we (Daddy, Seppi and Winnie) cheered her up by cooking something from the Redwall Cookbook she got for Christmas.
Spiced Gatehouse Tea Bread, a favorite of Matthias the Warrior. Also, apparently, a favorite of Daddy the Warrior.
We made them with our currants that we harvested and dried this summer, which were quite tart, but Daddy is into that sort of thing. He likes dense, slightly tart, spicy sorts of desserts, so this was right up his alley.
Ellie’s fever returned Friday evening, so it pretty much cancelled our Saturday plans, but we didn’t mind. A family day is always welcome.
We had been planning on hosting Lord’s Day, so we already had the blackberry juice for blackberry cake thawed out. (At the height of blackberry season last summer we could not keep up with all the blackberries so we simply ran some through the squeezo and froze about 6 quarts of the resultant puree). Since we weren’t going to make cake with all of it, or at all now, We decided to make Spiced Blackberry Syrup instead.
We made this in quarts last year, but a quart is really too much for easy use. This year we canned it in pints, and instead of mixing the spices in the pot and then ladling it into jars, we put the spices in the jars and poured the hot liquid on top of them before water-bathing them.
There are 19 pints, so if you would like some, let Kathleen know, I’m sure she can cut you a deal. It’s pretty bomber served chilled with seltzer water or a nice brandy.
Little Farm in the Big City 