Carrots, and a new recipe!!

 ***CARROT CONFITURE***
        By Laura Calder


   I talked about making this carrot confiture, and I am trying this from a T.V. show "French Food  At Home"... I love how easy the recipes look... Laura Calder makes a lot of the process look like you can do it at home (and not in a studio). So here I am..... trying it..
   I have all the ingredients except the lemon zest but how would we know if we don't try it any way...

My crazy carrots and all the ingredients

    So I slices up my carrots like it said to, and I threw them in the pot brought it to a boil, boiled them until soft...

sliced carrots, with enough water to cover them

    I then needed to puree in a food mill, well I don't have a food mill, I used my submerge-a-blender( I don't know what it is called but it is the hand held puree machine thing...)

ingredients measured out

   I blended it, threw the sugar in and the lemon juice, brought it to a boil. When it came to a boil, that's when I started to time how long to boil it, I cooked it for approx. 10minutes. I took it off the heat and then added the almonds and cognac let set up and cool..  

boiling and becoming "Glassy and Jammy"as said by Laura Calder

    The end product... Now I didn't do the canning process, so I'm storing them in the fridge. We well eat them up as soon as possible. I could have done the processing, but I didn't have new lids for the jars and well, you just don't use old lids do you now? 

Done! I got 3 1/2 8oz jars not 2

   This recipe is easy to make and I recommend trying it.  The thing I think should've been added is the lemon zest, it would have added that zing and texture to  it. It reminded me, as my husband said, "like an applesauce", so I think that I would make it chunkier and I think I will boil it about 15 to 20 min instead of 10 min and not on so high of heat,  maybe a medium heat ( I had it at medium high...)

Ingredients

• 1 pound carrots, peeled
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 Zest of 1 lemon
•  Juice of 2 lemons
• 10 whole almonds, chopped
• 2 tablespoons Cognac

Directions

1. Slice the carrots and put them in a saucepan covered with water. Boil until very soft, then run through a food mill to purée. Stir the sugar into the purée in a saucepan. Add the lemon zest and juice, bring to a boil, and cook until glassy and jammy. Remove from the heat and stir through the chopped almonds and the Cognac. Cool. Enjoy on bread with slabs of cold butter.

I found this spongy goo, awhile ago, on my rosemary and Guess What It Is???

Spittle Bugs...

           ( A.K.A. Frog hoppers)
What in the world is this sponge looking stuff on my rosemary?

Did  some investigating about this particular mystery... and well, Lets just say,

           "Who is this?" and "What is it doing on my rosemary?" Jus' kidding... I found this...

spittle bug (AKA frog hopper among many names...)

 
   
   Thank goodness, this insect doesn't do much damage, and their numbers are usually small. You can use the hose and spray the plant down it will dislodge them, really pesticides are probably excessive, unless there is a unmanageable population. They only last or stay a few weeks, then they are gone. They like pine trees, and junipers, that will explain being on my rosemary...

As of now I do not see any type of goo or these insects!! Hooray, I didn't even use pesticides!!

How's that?