Blackberry Baccardi, Blackberry and apple pie and I've FINALLY finished that dress for the wedding.

I spent this morning trying to figure out what to do with my spoils from yesterday. Traff requested a blackberry and apple pie, I knew I wanted to make the baccardi after it's popularity and yumminess last year.

First I weighed out the blackberries fro the baccardi.
For every 2L of alcohol (Because you can do this with any spirit, it just happens that I'm using white rum- Vodka, Gin and Brandy work equally well) you need 400g of fruit and 200g of sugar (Some recipes say the same amount of fruit to sugar, but it doesn't dissolve properly so it's just a waste of sugar!)
I've also added cinnamon, and last year I added vanilla pods and cinnamon sticks- If you want to use cloves or anything solid like that I'd suggest either getting the "teabags" they sell for mulled wine, or making a muslin bag to put them in, or you might kill someone if they swallow a clove- or break all their teeth if you use the berries for a cake filling/trifle/on ice cream once the baccardi has all been drink!

I bought jars from IKea- £3 for each 2L jar- so thats much cheaper than branded jars or the ones they sell in Wilkos.
I sterilised the jars with boiling water first- but running them through the dishwasher will do the same thing as long as the food trap is clean- or you could milton them if you feel very strongly about it.

Whilst the water was cooling down in the jars, I prepared my apples from the woods- I peeled, cored and chopped them, and stewed them down with some sugar.
whilst they stewed I pre-heated the oven and made my pastry.
Traff's vegi, so I just make Pastry with margarine and plain flour- it tastes good but it doesn't go brown like pastry with lard in it- not unless you remember to milk and egg glaze it before you bake it.
I did not remember.
Put the pastry in the dishes, blind baked them for a few minutes, added the blackberries and sugar to the stewed apples and gave them a good stir- Rescued the pastry from the oven and added the fruit. I didn't make quite enough pastry for the top, so I went for a lattice.
Still looks yummy though!

I made Traff's pie and I made one for Karl, which I exchanged for a bottle of baccardi he won at one of the raffles at the white horse (after the quizzes) but had never drunk (He only drinks cider).

Pies ready and berries and jars prepped for the addition of baccardi I had a few hours before Karl's arrival, so I finished my dress for James and Lis's wedding- the blue sateen one- I made it a bit too short for weddings, it's more a cocktails and clubbing length- so I added a white lace trim to the bottom of the dress to give me a few more vital inches of modest coverage.
I really tried to get blue lace trim, but there was none to be had in the whole of bedford, so I've gone for a blue and navy ensemble for the wedding- I got a navy blue across body bag from primark and a white pashmeena to wear it with.
I was very tempted for some massive gold anchor earrings- to make it more nautical- but apparently it's not OK to have a dress theme for someone else's wedding unless they set one.
:(