Busy in-and out-of the kitchen

Sitting up waiting for my tomato sauce to simmer and thicken long enough to bottle. Not much action today, just cooking.

I found tomatoes cheap last week so another batch of sauce is on the BBQ. My husband's family refuse to have sauces and chutneys etc cooked inside so they all do it on the BBQ, I personally like the smell, but still I am constantly venturing outside to stir my sauce-go figure! The rules from the MIL overcome the wishes of the wife...sometimes!!
Here it was a few hours ago-proof I have to use the BBQ~~~
Once again apple season here, only feels like yesterday I was overburdened last Autumn, cried out for recipes and the darling Kim's big quilting adventure came up with the Apple cake that nearly lead me to a larger size in pants!! Good though!
Now I am unsure what happened here with the missing section of strudel....
my daughter saw the missing bit and quoted for me,
"hmmm, you are going to say it was rats, cats or mice....otherwise you were testing it to be sure it wasn't poison!" I just smiled and said, "yes, the sacrifices I make for you!!"
It is actually low fat, amazingly enough...(lucky, you say)!
Speaking of fat. This is what remains after I took the big container of leftover Easter eggs out of the cupboard, amazingly, I never ate them neither did their little owners so the family voted that they should be turned into Caramel slice. Good plan, i can freeze that in sections and not just snack on the eggs everytime I need a sugar fix.

The chocolate melted down beautifully and here is a little slab before we decided to share it out for afternoon tea-yummy!

i made some fig jam as well in between stirring and strudel, my friend has a birthday tomorrow and loves it, she is a learner quilter so I made her one of the fabric buckets in her colours with a matching charm square on the jam. I think that could work well for our upcoming School mother's day market. The jam fits perfectly in the fabric bucket.
I'll finish off with one of the stone walls we saw on our way down to the Church picnic. An old volcanic area, they utilized the cheap labour in the early settlement days to make these walls. Most are reinforced with some added wire now to keep the long legged dairy cows in but many still remain in some form. I love them, wish it had been a better light day...and that we weren't running late for the service.....
Well, hopefully the sauce is nearly ready to bottle, i am almost cooked out! Have a great day, Tracey