Door cloth

Our bedroom door shrinks and swells with the weather.  At the moment it's shrunk and no longer latches.  Until recently, we kept it closed by jamming a handkerchief in the gap, but today I completed work on a much prettier solution :-)

It has a flap on the back so its thickness can be changed as the door changes size.

 

Here it is in use:

I learned to do three new stitches to do this: a woven leaf stitch for the green leaves, the cretan feather stitch for the red and yellow motif and cutwork for the holes for the door handles!  It was fun :-)  It took about 2 weeks to do but it's so much prettier than the hanky we were using before :-)

Feijoa skins!

Don't you think that feijoa skins smell delicious?  After you've scooped out the flesh, you're left with a skin that is tart and crunchy and not hugely enticing - and yet, the compost bucket always smells amazing after they've been dumped in it.

I've recently discovered how to extract that flavour and make some delicious concoctions.

Feijoa fizz
Loosely fill a 1L jar with feijoa skins.
Add 2T white sugar.
Cover with water (just cold water straight from the tap).
Leave (covered) in hot water cupboard two days.
Transfer liquid to a 750mL plastic bottle, discard skins.
Add 1T brown sugar.
Top up with tap water.
Return to hot water cupboard until the bottle feels quite 'tight' when you squeeze it (1-2 days).
Chill then drink.

With thanks to Nourishing Revolution.

The yeasts naturally present on the skin ferment the added sugar and turn it all into an incredibly amazing drink :-)


And if you don't have time to wait for fermentation, you can make a still drink in a matter of hours instead:

Feijoa drink
Place a few feijoa skins in a bowl and toss with 1tsp sugar per skin (you really need this much sugar - the skins themselves are very tart).
Cover with boiling water (approx half cup per skin).
Leave to cool, refrigerate and drink :-)

With thanks to OHBaby!.


Lastly, absolutely delicious on white bread (or melt-in-the-mouth consumed off a spoon - ask Martin!) is:

Feijoa jelly
skins of 15-20 medium feijoas (15 gives a mild flavour, with 20 it's almost spicy)
3 1/2 C boiling water
1 x 70g sachet pectin (e.g. Hansells jam setting mix)
4C sugar

Cover feijoa skins with boiling water.  Leave to cool (at least an hour; overnight is fine).
Pour through a seive into a big pot (I used our pressure cooker pot, which I think is 6 quarts).  Discard skins.
Add pectin, cover and bring to the boil.
Add sugar and return to the boil with stirring.
Boil at rolling boil 4 min. (or 2 min. for a softer gel).
Transfer to sterilised jars and seal.

Gives approx 5 cups.

Thanks, again, to OHBaby!.


NOTE: If you only eat a few feijoas a day, you can accumulate the skins in a bag in the freezer until you have enough to make fizz or jelly.