The near blizzard of 2015 was just a mild snowstorm as it turned out. It snowed all day, though we ended up with only about 8″ I’d say. Hard to tell with all the drifting. Very very cold and windy.
Over the weekend I found 10 pounds of California quince at a very good price and needed to process it. So as the storm wound up yesterday afternoon, ahead of possible power outages I scrubbed, quartered, seeded and dropped it in a stockpot with water. The fragrance as it cooked was like a little vacation to fragrant warm climes. I cooled it and friged it, and this morning began the milling. I really need to begin investing in more serious tools if I continue at this, but for the time being am using a hand-crank mill, and I stand on a small step stool to get enough above it for good leverage. Easy, nyet.
Don’t these look like delicious peach quarters? 
But they are decidedly un-sweet cooked quince. My Spinoni, especially Nocci, love them. I knew they loved the preserve; then discovered they liked the milled fruit; today with my quince bonanza I thought I should share a few quarters (less milling!!!) and they were a big hit.
You turn and you turn the mill and it seems nothing is happening; you lift it up and scrape the milled fruit hanging there and crank again; finally you see you are making progress. You mill down to the last bits of skin, then you clear it out and begin again. Once the fruit is milled, you mix it back with the cooking water– which by now looks like the syrup fruit like peaches are packed in. You stir it up and this is what is cooked again with sugar for preserve or membrillo. In this case I packed it into containers to freeze, nearly two gallons. Nice work on a snow day.
Maybe next time I will take a few shots of the mill process. But the whole food photo thing is getting overdone on blogs, no? Searching for a recipe last week I came across a good one on a blog I didn’t know. Scrolling through all the text to get to the recipe, I found I think eight photos of the ingredients and finished dish, all basically the same shot from variated angles. Huh? These were nice shots but one would have sufficed. Anyways, brevity the better part of valor, or something like that.
Keepin’ it short and sweet (except for the just cooked un-sweet quince) xo