Kitchen time

One of the items Rachel got in her Food Hamper was a box of cultured buttermilk. Finally - the same buttermilk we would get in SA for rusk making. So finally today it was time to make those rusks. And the smell of them drying in the over in the afternoon was just delicious. It's always funny to mention rusks to most kiwis as for them a rusk is a hard biscuit you give to a baby to chew on. Perhaps it's a good thing they don't know how good they are. Although the way Brendon and I enjoy them I don't know how long the batch will last anyway.

This afternoon I helped the older girls prepare some apples for drying. I knew we had done something with lemon juice the last time (to stop them going brown) and so quickly read up on-line. (For those who are interested - you soak them in water with a bit of lemon juice for 5 min.)

In my reading I found the idea of putting jelly powder on them. As I had an open packet of strawberry jelly in the cupboard we gave it a try. They were by far Ruth's favorites. We also did some plain ones and then quite a few with cinnamon. (The picture is actually from tomorrow - with them all dried and ready to EAT.)