Greetings and salutations and seasons best wishes from the land
downunder!

This year, along with some carefully chosen store-bought gifts, I again
made some home-made presents for family & special friends.
Fruit mince pies, rum balls and home-made ice cream were successful and
I happily handed them over.
I have been collecting some nifty stoppered bottles (Bickford's Lime
Cordial produced a huge batch of them in the lead up to Christmas and
as we drink a ton of the stuff, couldn't bring myself to throw out the
lovely bottles...) which I thought would be ideal for infused/flavoured
oil containers.

Heated up 2-3 litres of Lupi olive oil - not quite simmering, on a very
low heat. Meanwhile I roasted four heads of imported garlic (for the
flavour) as well as 6 heads of organic garlic (to add to the bottles
once I'd bottled the oil). Once the garlic was ready I popped 6 or so
cloves into the clean, warmed bottles, added 2 sprigs of fresh dill, 5
small hot chillies (store bought & bottled in sunflower oil) then
filled with hot oil.

Second batch I eated up 1-2 litres of Lupi olive oil together with 4
sprigs of fresh rosemary and 2 bay leaves from the garden, and let
steep on low heat for about 20 minutes.

When I bottled the oil it was clear as a bell. And looked fabulous.
Within half an hour the oil had become cloudy and opaque! One bottle
has settled out and is almost clear, the other 7 however are still
cloudy........hmmm.

Could the cloudiness be a result of:
mixing sunflower/olive oil (residual on skins of chillis)?
the garlic cloves being 'mooshed' - try as I might I couldn't get the
cloves out whole once roasted and much of them were 'paste'
using fresh herbs in the bottle - they let off an alarming amount of O2
once the hot oil got to work on them?

The oil smells & tastes wonderful - just not as pretty visually, as I
had hoped.

constructive criticism gratefully accepted - still have about 10 more
bottles in stock though I confess I am leaning towards filling them
with vanilla pods & castor sugar instead.

LadyJane
--
"Never trust a skinny cook!"

The gang all came for Christmas dinner - eight of us all up.
Cranked up the Weber at 9am and first in was the whole beef rump -
smeared liberally with 2 jars of wholegrain mustard.... around 2pm
removed the roast, added soaked Hickory chips then in went the leg of
pork and the turkey breast stuffed with fruit stuffing & rolled in
proscuito...
Mum had roasted 2 gorgeous organic chickens stuffed with garlic heads &
halved lemons to add to the table.
We had hot roast beef rolls with horseradish for lunch - along with
assorted nuts, dried fruits, fruit mince pies, rum balls & the odd
bottle or four.
Around 4pm added the roast potatoes in one pan, and balsamic, brown
sugar and butternut pumpkin in another pan to the weber...
Tossed together a quick green salad, sliced up some vine ripened
tomatoes, lebanese cukes and shaved parmesan with a light balsamic
dressing..
we were all way to stuffed to the gunnels for dessert so Mum's
Christmas pud will get the taste test this weekend, New Years eve.

Spent Boxing Day moving son from home in Brisbane to the Gold Coast
where he has a new job at the casino... but as yet nowhere permanent to
live - will be crashing at rellies (grandmother) for a day or two until
he finds some shared accommodation, but starts work 8am Wednesday!
The nest is now empty save DH & yours truly... and it feels weird and
SO wrong.