Ingredients:
6 Grapefruit you can use either pink or yellow
1 kg granulated sugar approx

Directions:
1. Wash the grapefruit under a cold tap and dry

2. Use a potato peeler to remove the zest in strips, I use the Y shape ones that you pull as I found it much easier than the straight ones.

3. Cut the zest strips into match stick size pieces, I found it was easier to use kitchen scissors.

4. Peel the remaining thick pith from the grapefruit. Make sure you do a good job getting rid of the white pith, because it tastes bitter.

5. Finely chop the segments and remove any pips. I used a food processor so as to retain as much juice as possible.

6. Measure the volume of grapefruit flesh and juice in a jug and add an equal amount of sugar to a large preserving pan along with the prepared zest. Bring to the boil stirring until the sugar has dissolved and boil rapidly for about 10/15 minutes until the marmalade sets when tested.

7. Spoon into sterilized warm jars.

I have made several batches of this due to getting a box of grapefruit from the market for £4 there were over 40 fruit in the box. For a nice variation to the flavour stir in a couple of shots of whiskey just before you start filling the jars, the alcohol will boil off but the flavour will remain. This marmalade will be a soft set and that is how I like it, if you prefer a firmer set then use jam sugar with added pectin.

Ingredients:
1 kg cooked beetroot
500 g onions
500 g cooking apples
the juice and zest of 1 lemon
500 ml vinegar
2 level teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 level teaspoon salt
225 g raisins or sultanas
225 g granulated sugar

Directions:
1. Peel and grate the beetroot in a food processor and set aside. Now finely chop the onions, next peel, core and chop the apples.

2. Put all of the ingredients except the beetroot into a large heavy saucepan or preserving pan.

3. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar had dissolved.

4. Reduce the heat and simmer for half an hour.

5. Add the beetroot and simmer for 1 hour longer or until the chutney is thick.

6. Spoon into sterilized warm jars.

This is delicious with a ploughman’s lunch and makes a nice change to the usual sliced pickled beetroot.

Ingredients:
2 kg onions
50 g butter
225 g sugar
125 g dark brown sugar
500 ml red wine
250 ml balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon. extra virgin olive oil

Directions:
1.  Slice the onions thinly, I used a food processor slicing attachment to reduce the tears.

2. Place a large, non-reactive pan over medium-low heat. Add the butter and olive oil.

3. Once the butter has melted, turn up the heat to high to medium-high, add the onions and salt. Stir to make sure the onions are coated with the oil. Cook covered with a tight lid for about 20 minutes. Remove the lid and continue to cook stirring every 5 to 10 minutes until the onions begin to turn golden brown.

4. Add the sugar, brown sugar, red wine, and balsamic vinegar. Stir well to make sure the sugars dissolve into the liquid. Cook over medium heat until thickened. You want it to be as thick as custard.

5. Spoon into sterilized warm jars.

For a variation replace half the red wine with port or add some chillies to spice it up a bit.

Goes well with strong cheese and is great in a sausage sandwich.

Today we have 2 tunnels and 2 aqueducts, there are only 2 locks on this last bit of the Llangollen canal.

Nice long days cruising, now moored on Llangolen canal, rain for only about an hour today something tells me that tomorrow will be a little more wet.

We spent the last hour giving locking and handling instruction to several Alvechurch hire boats, seems they all were sent out with zero instruction.

Tried to send a picture message and it failed but it does at least let you retry, it did finally send this morning so it might have been load on O2 or they were not ready for the update.

Can now subscribe to caldav calendars this is the first useful feature and means I now know who is on-call when I need them. Landscape keyboard in mail and messages will be great with my fat fingers, no landscape keyboard in the settings app . Still can not have a sig for mail per account, come on Apple that would have been useful. Spotlight is good can now find that elusive email just as easy as on my desktops.

So far its not that much of an upgrade for me but I guess i will find more of the 100+ new features over the next few days.

The Shroppie Fly © Copyright Roger Kidd

Went to the food festival at Greenfeilds today to see if there was anything new or different this time, some olives stuffed with jalepeno peppers and some chilli jam. There were a few less stalls than the last time, most of the regulars were there no fish stall and only 1 new stall that i could tell selling pickles and preserves. That was just before lunch so decided to get a pub lunch. We almost went to the Junction Inn at Norbury Junction but Elianne said she wanted to go to the Shroppie Fly at Audlem, it is a regular weekend lunch place for us and has been part of our canal holidays for the last two years and will be again this year. Food was up to the usual high standard but a little slow coming out, but that is to be expected on a sunny sunday afternoon. Nice pint of Timothy Taylors Landlord to wash the roast pork down.

Then off for the obligatory walk on the towpath, had a chat with a couple on an Ownerships boat, nice idea but still dont think that a share in a boat will give us the freedom we want. Elianne managed to get a ride on a boat back up through lock 14 and that put a big smile on her face.

Elianne and Mia on the fore deck of Shadowfax

Well boat is now booked for this years holiday. Shadowfax from Chas Hardern Boats on the Shropshire Union canal at Beeston. We are going to do the 4 counties ring again this year posibly anticlockwise (not decided yet) and include the Llangolen canal as I want to go over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. We went to see the boat at the yard last night, almost the same layout as Beeston Castle from last year but this boat feels much less cramped, little things like the galley has shallower worktops and cupboards making the walkway just a few inches wider. The bog also looks to be in a better position but will have to report back on that after use . Most importantly this boat is a semi-trad so I will have somewhere to put my tea^wbeer.

I posted this from the iPhone app originally as I will probably have better coverage on the phone than on wifi. Only issues with the app were not being able to adjust the position of the pictures and no way to add the links. Still its better than no connectivity and pictures taken with the phone will have GPS location on them to help with iPhoto places.