Sloe Rum

Yesterday Lucy and I went to her mum's friend's fields near Carrick as we were kindly given permission to pick cooking apples and blackberries. We also happened to find sloes growing in the hedgerow so we picked a container full although we had no clue what we would do with them. After some research on tinternet last night I found a recipe for Sloe Vodka but I didn't have any instead because I had a hughe bottle of white rum in the cupboard I decided to make some Sloe Rum. The recipe is from this great site please visit it:
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/superb-sloe-vodka-recipe-518

Sloe Rum

Pick sloes, wash and dry them (so as not to dilute the alcohol)- 445g



Use a cocktail stick to prick each fruit so juice can exit into the alcohol



Add sugar in the fruit- 112g





Add alcohol in my case rum! - 1 litre




Shake, this needs to be done one a day for 1 week then weekly for 3 months




Keep in dry dark place for 3 mths then strain the fruit off and put liquid into a clean bottle. Allow to ferment or just drink it straight away! You can add sugar to taste at this point.

Peach Breakfast Muffins

This recipe came from the fantastic muffin book -Muffins fast anf fantastic by Susan Reimer, I did slightly adapt this because I didn't have a few ingredients but the muffins turned out just great and were delicious for breakfast.


280g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp salt
85g granulated sugar
1 egg
150ml sour cream
50ml veg oil
140g peaches well drained and chopped


Heat oven to 375 F
Prepare muffins tins
Sift all dry ingredients
Beat all wet ingredients in separate jug.
Mix both together then add chopped peaches.
Fold together until just combined (batter will be lumpy)
Spoon into muffin cups 3/4 full

I added a sprinkle of brown sugar to the top of each muffin.