lingonberries & plum kuchen

i made a detour driving home from rehab on friday and stopped at my brother's house in my hometown. mom had been busy picking lingonberries, she had left 2 pails for me to take home. since i had to work the weekend, taking care of berries took its time. i bagged and froze half of them on saturday evening, but had time for other pail only today. i had planned to mash and jar them with tiny bit of sugar (just to make them keep better, they are still super-tart), which i made today.

these here and a few more got frozen saturday







got the berries, jars and gadget out







i started with my bamix thinking that it'd be perfect for the job. well, it was until i pulled it up too soon and red splatters were all over. made me regret not putting on my apron, 'cause i do have one, quite many in fact. somehow i ended up making a mess on my clothes, the tiles etc. this seems to happen a lot lately (remind myself to take out some aprons and hang them in the kitchen)







next i took out my kenwood blender. in case you always read the manual and know that you should have the lid on, well, the "rule" is in the book for a reason... (more red on the wall)







got all this from one pail. this is approx 6 litres, i used 1 kg of sugar for the whole patch. certain someone can have them as tart as they come, i need some sugar to go along. they'll keep like this refridgerated until next summer. in fact, i still have some jars from last year (remind myself to make "whipped porridge" tomorrow)







downstairs fridge at the shack, barely room for beer in it...







alexis had made plum kuchen and posted it on her blog. i know, lame, but i wanted to try if this kuchen could be made of nectarines. here is what goes in the batter







my kitchen aid doing all the hard work







nectarine slices on pan, remember to put the "good" side down







batter poured on, starting the second rise







fresh from oven







nice pattern, but i do think i need to make some adjustments when i make this again. first, i used lime peel instead of lemon peel, that worked fine with nectarines, not so sure it would be equally good with plums. second, our yeast must be different and i need to use more of it (it did bubble up with water so it was working). third, oven temp and/or time needs to be adjusted, the bottom seems a bit raw. i will also used less butter, or maybe some other fat and less sugar or maybe canderell instead of sugar (see, last week is starting make me into a health freak, never!)







i did like this, the nectarines have a very peachy taste to them. however, i think it should have risen a bit more, taste is still great







today's lunch, thick bed of lettuce, half a chicken breast, half an avocado, some mozzarella, mini tomatoes and a pinch of chile powder on top, and some lemon vinaigrette