Preserved Lemons.

I have been laying low for a few days. Mama and The Princess had the most terrible cold a couple of weeks ago which they kindly passed on to The Gorgeous Boy, who in turn was most generous and passed it on to me . Hmmm! Who says we are not a sharing and caring family!!! I of course...being "super girl" have almost shaken mine off. I just don't have time to be sick!

Monday saw me having a real "pity party". Sore throat, snuffy nose, slight cough, oh, and the aches and pains. A whisky sour and an early night saw me surfacing the next day in higher spirits with only the aches and pains. I spent the day quietly catching up with paper work. Wow. This morning after a big sleep in I surfaced much brighter, ready to take on the world again. Howzat for fortitude :-)

Deciding that I had "recovered" I wandered over to the veggie garden to inspect if the were any urgent jobs that needed doing. I cropped a few mushrooms and as is the usual course of events...I got side tracked. I am not sure how it quite started but I ended up unbaling one of the huge rolls of sugar cane mulch and spreading it all around the garden beds on the footpaths.

This is something we have been doing ( after watching Pete on Gardening Australia do it between his garden beds to keep his feet clean) for a while.. The theory is that after it has broken down you just shovel it onto your garden as compost. The sugarcane mulch does two jobs for the price of one. That sounds good to me. Since we had extended the garden area when we put up the fencing and the existing mulch had broken down with all the rain of late, it seemed a good time to top up. We do have a red clay type soil in that area which is very "sticky" on your shoes. Every time I headed out the gate for the next wheel barrow load, Tiggy would jump up and head over to the house. It took me a while to realise what he was up to until I checked my watch. It was almost 2 pm! He wanted his lunch! Talk about side tracked.

This afternoon I had a go at preserving lemons. It is something that I have been wanting to try for a while. I watched the chef on The Kerri Anne Show do it......it looked simple. Just cut up your lemons, pack with salt, pack into a jar and top up with water. I can do that.

Just to be sure I googled it, as one does. They suggested using additional herbs and covering it with extra lemon juice. Hmmm What to do?

I opted for no herbs. My theory is...try that the first time. Next time try WITH herbs. I had bought ten lemons and only eight would fit into the jar. So compromising between both recipes I juiced the last two...poured the juice over the whole lemons and topped up with about a half of a cup of cold, boiled water.

I'm not too sure. What do you think? I don't know why, but I kinda expected the liquid to be clear. Now logic tells me that it would be cloudy because of the extra lemon juice and the salt would wash out from between the lemons as soon as liquid was poured over. But I just hadn't thought about it. I EXPECTED it to be clear! Maybe it will settle out with time. I do have to point out that a) I have never seen preserved lemons "in the flesh". Only on TV and then without my glasses on and b) I have never used them in cooking. This of course I will remedy but I really don't know what they look/feel like. You have to learn sometime!

S'all for now as I need to go lock up the shed and light the fire. Its not particularly cold but just damp. It will be a cosy night in front of the computer for me tonight as I am not much of a footy fan and I believe it is that maroon and blue state match thingy tonight!