Cherry jam

Whilst out walking the dogs on Saturday, we came across some massive cherry trees. The fruits were perfectly ripe so I rushed back to get a couple of bags and got picking! We picked about 6kg of black cherries but pitting them took so much time that I only made about 1kg into jam... 

Take 1kg of cherries, pitted, and boil in a big preserving pan with 200ml of water until the cherries go soft. I mashed half of mine but left a lot of them full as I like chunky jJam. Then add the juice of 3 lemons and 1kg of jam sugar and bring to a rolling boil for about 10 mins or until the jam reaches a set. Then pot into sterilised Kilner jars [this recipe made just over 2 jars of the same size as below] I can't wait to have some of this in my porridge in the morning :)

                       

Proud sister

This little beauty is my [not-so] baby sister who has today graduated from Cardiff University with a law degree

Despite the fact that she has completely overshadowed me, and her grad picture will be bigger than mine. I don't care. I am so proud of her :) 

Guilt free chicken tikka

Luke and I have been trying for ages to start eating healthily, but who can resist a lovely Chinese or a Nandos after a hard days' work?!

I found this recipe in a slimming world book and thought I'd give it a whirl. 

And it's such a simple recipe:

Mix bite sized pieces of chicken with some natural yoghurt, tikka curry powder, some lime juice, some grated ginger and some crushed garlic. Then grill for ten minutes. 

It's completely sin free too :)

We had it with some salad and some diced tomatoes, cucumber and red onion. 

(and a glass of wine. Sshh). 

A perfect summers evening

We've been so busy this week that we haven't had a chance to get out and enjoy the warm(ish) evenings.

Last night we had Luke's parents' dogs for a sleepover and our evening mostly went like this: 

^ raspberry picking     

^ a juicy bowl of homegrown raspberries v

^ and some dog walking

So tell me, how have you been spending your summer's evenings?