And Penguin Does It Again!

I already thought the Great Food covers I showed you a while back were amazing, but yesterday Jan from Poppytalk posted about another brilliant cover commission for a series of Penguin Classics to be published this fall. The covers are designed by illustrator and cartoonist Jillian Tamaki. If you visit her blog, Sketchblog, etc. you can see more of the beautiful embroidery she did for the publisher.

© Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)

Rhubarb & Custard Jam

I'd been planning to turn some rhubarb into jam for a while and finally got around to it last week. I based my jam on this recipe by River Cottage's Pam Corbin. I added vanilla because I was hoping to achieve the taste of rhubarb & custard sweets, which I like for their combination of sweet and tart. I was very pleased with the result, even if I say so myself and thought I'd share the recipe.

Rhubarb & Custard Jam

(makes about 5 small jars)

Need To Have

800g rhubarb, roughly chopped

juice of two oranges

zest of one orange

1 vanilla pod

1kg jam sugar (with added pectin)

10g unsalted butter

Need To Do

Combine rhubarb, orange juice and orange zest in a big pot.

Cut vanilla pod in half, scrape out the seeds and mix those through the jam sugar till evenly distributed. Add jam sugar and vanilla halves to the pot.

Place pot over a low heat and heat, stirring, until all sugar has dissolved and the rhubarb becomes soft, but is not yet falling apart. Add the butter.

Turn the heat up to high and bring everything to a rolling boil, which means that the jam will start bubbling ferociously and will rise in the pot. Keep stirring and boil for about 5 minutes.

Take the pot off the heat and fill the jam into sterilized glass jars straight away. Be very careful not to burn yourself, the jam and glasses will be extremely hot. The best method to get the jam in the containers relatively mess-free is using a ladle and a special jam funnel. You might want to place the jars on a kitchen towel in order to protect your kitchen counter, if it's of a delicate material.

Close the lids tightly and let the jam cool before having it on a thick slice of bread with some creamy butter.

P.S.: The jam labels are courtesy of How About Orange.

© Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)

Road Trip - Whitstable

This past Sunday we headed down to the coast, to Whitstable in Northeast Kent to be precise. Our choice of car music comprised Kings Of Leon, The Hold Steady, The National and Bruce this time. The weather was G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S.

We had our first open air ice cream of the year and ate fish & chips with a view of the harbour. It made me feel so content to walk on the beach, with the sun and the wind on my face. I got to rummage through a few antique stores and to have exactly one famous Whitstable oyster as a treat. Oysters are namely what the town is well-known for, apparently they have been collected there since Roman times. These photos are a happy reminder of the day.

© Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)