Bliss

A deep feeling of peace and calm. The slightest of tans. Feet polished by sand. Pure, utter relaxation.

S and I have spent the last week with my family at the beach. We drank champagne and ate oysters watching the sun set. We took long, leisurely walks on the beach. We ate a massive feast for Christmas Eve, then did it again on Christmas Day and not to be put off, had a whole second Christmas on the 28th. I read 4 books, probably as many as I had managed to read all year. It was bliss.

I don't really have the words to say how after a hectic, draining year, the last week has replenished my soul - so here are some photos. I hope your Christmas has been as truly wonderful as mine.

Pimm's

I'm a relatively new to the Pimm's bandwagon but I can say that I have taken to it with gusto.  If you have never drunk Pimm's before it is a a gin-based drink containing a secret mixture of herbs and liqueurs.  You generally drink it in a 1:3 ratio with lemonade (7-Up for any US readers), usually with some added fruit.

My first experience of Pimm's was at my gorgeous friend Floss's wedding.  They were married in a garden ceremony at11am.  Straight after the ceremony we had the wedding cake accompanied by Pimm's and lemonade.  I will never forget standing in those gorgeous gardens, eating fruit cake and drinking Pimm's.  It was a really unique wedding and it definitely started a love affair with Pimm's for me.

These days I love to fill my glass with fruit, making it into a kind of Pimm's punch.  A few slices of orange, a couple of strawberries, a stick or two of cucumber and some mint all topped with Pimm's and lemonade makes for an incredibly refreshing beverage.  It really is a perfect summer cocktail, sweet and fruity yet with that distinctive tang.  As a matter of fact I might go pour myself one now!

Blackberry Vodka - the conclusion

So remember last summer S and I spent many, many weekends out picking blackberries?  We made all sorts of yummy things with the bounty but one of them required some patience - our blackberry vodka.

Well today all that waiting paid off as we set about extracting the now deliciously flavoured vodka from the berries.  You have two choices when you drain the vodka.  You can pour it through muslin and have a lovely clear red but we feel that you miss out then on all the berry flavour (plus the vodka that has really soaked in) so instead we tend to mash the berries through a sieve.  You get a more cloudy but delicious result this way.

However today S had a brilliant idea.  A quick phone call later and we had my Mum's juice extractor!  No time later and we have 2.5 litres of delicious blackberry vodka in the fridge.

Now the question is just what to turn it into?  We have made a start with blackberry vodka, lemon and tonic but there will be many more experiments to come.

Blackberry Vodka

There are many delicious things that I make with our harvest of wild blackberries, but one of our favourites is blackberry vodka.  Simple and oh, so delicious, here is how to do it.

Get a large clean glass bottle with a wide mouth and a good lid.  I use 1.5l bottles that used to have cranberry juice in them (annoyingly Ocean Spray has switched to plastic now, but V8 juice comes in similar bottles).  Layer your blackberries in with castor sugar.  You want enough castor sugar that all the berries get a light coating.  You will have to shake the bottle around to achieve this, but don't worry about mushing up the berries, that actually helps in the process.  Now leave them a day or two.  The sugar draws the juice out and helps the berries to start breaking down - basically getting them ready to impart their berry deliciousness into the vodka.

Once the berries have started leaching out all their yummy juices, top up the bottle with vodka.  My jars were really packed with berries so it only took a bit over half a litre to fill up the 1.5l bottle.  This isn't a job for a top shelf vodka - leave your Grey Goose in the cupboard - but you don't want to use paint stripper either - save that for your tulips.  A reasonably priced standard vodka will be amazing after this journey.

Now comes the hard part - put the bottle in the fridge and wait for a couple of months.  You will see the berries become a lighter colour over time as their flavour and colour goes into the vodka, and really you do need to leave them at least a couple of months for this process to work.  When you can stand waiting no longer, strain the berries off and you will have some delicious, delicious blackberry vodka.

My favourite serving method is over ice with a squeeze of lemon and topped with soda water.  But it also makes one hell of a martini.  Really the options are endless.

Oh and as for those berries that you strained off?  Try mixing them through softened vanilla icecream for a boozy berry icecream dessert.  So much yumminess.

Jiggly, wiggly jelly!

Oh dear, two booze related posts in a row - well 'tis the season!

As I've written before a great event isn't just the event itself, the lead up, anticipation, planning and preparation are all really enjoyable parts too.

One of the most anticipated events each year is my friends' New Year's Eve party. I had always found NYE a bit of a let down - until I got my first invitation to this party. It is fabulous. There is always a theme and everyone goes all out on the fancy dress. It is a night that you know will be brilliant, so from about July on the hosts are questioned about theme, theories are explored and it all waits till the much anticipated invitation arrives.

I've spent a fair bit of time on my costume this year and I'm pretty happy with it. But I cannot bring myself to turn up to a party empty handed, so to NYE, I always bring the thing I have somehow become famous for - jelly shots. Yes, I do believe my culinary legacy will be in the form of exotic things set in jelly.

This year's jelly shots are rosewater and raspberries for the non-drinkers and lemon, absinthe and basil for the serious drinkers. They look beautiful, taste pretty excellent and will no doubt go down a treat!

Boozy Boysenberries

Today I popped by Mum and Dad's to pick boysenberries. From a small vine planted years ago, they now run rampant through about a quarter of the garden. You would think that this would mean that we get overloaded with berries each year, but in recent years the drought has taken its toll, both on the number of berries and also in lack of food for the birds. We would race the wildlife for the few berries remaining and usually lose.

But this year's rain has delivered berries galore and is obviously feeding the birds with other things because there is a huge crop.

We have had bumper crops in the past. Previously we tried to preserve them in a variety of ways, most notably the year Mum and I made jam. It was notable because our first attempt was a dismal, runny failure. So we added more berries and boiled it further - still runny. Third time lucky we boiled up our batch again, this time adding a setting agent. It certainly did the trick and set our jam to a consistency somewhat like concrete!

Not keen to repeat the jam disaster, we had to find another way to preserve the berries and Dad came up with a doozy - a boozy doozy to be precise. In our house, boysenberries now become vodka. Oh yes, boysenberry vodka, it is as good as it sounds. And with this year's bumper harvest, the fridge should be stocked with berry-tastic vodka for some time to come!

Cocktails

I've had a quiet day today, because I had a fairly big night last night.

It was a cocktail party at J&R's place. They throw wonderful parties and J is a brilliant cocktail maker. She is very creative, makes jewelry, does calligraphy and paints, and she certainly lends all of that creative flair to her cocktails.

Given the cold weather the cocktails were winter themed. There was:

Hot buttered rum - oh yeah, so good
The Cure - a fantastic warm take on lemon, honey and whiskey with a few other ingredients in there
Mulled Wine - always a favourite
Plum Pudding - another warm cocktail based on plum pudding vodka which I make from this recipe.
Creme Brulee - I didn't try this as creamy cocktails aren't my thing but it was very popular

It was a wonderful night, lots of fun and a great indulgence.