Ginger juice is hot!

Today's little conquest came on the heals of customizing my CSA box after a night of drinking at the rehearsal dinner. I wound up with three boxes of fresh fruits and veggies including a full pound of ginger. Say wha? Thanks to J and Ryan for lending me this darling book: Jam it, pickle it, cure it. Ummm, sounds like my summer. For this recipe, I didn't add the lime they call for because I may use the ginger for other things than Jamaican ginger beer. That juice is spicy like wasabi, though, and I am eager awaiting some soda water to mix up a refresco! I wonder what else I'll use it for-- in a marinade, a cake, any ideas?

I'm so over canning!

Today we're eating top ramen and I have stowed all my canning supplies until apple season. Then I'll be ready to do apple sauce and make cider mustard. After doing a full day of canning blackberries, of which it one batch set, I'm ready for a break and to have the kitchen a little less crowded. It's been a good run, though. And the blackberry sauce I accidentally made yesterday is delicious, I'm not crying in my pan or anything, just a little worn out.

And finally, peaches

When I was doing the peaches, I thought I had come upon something really amazing that I had not heard of: sweet lemons. The lemon slices I used in the peaches were so tasty after having been canned, I did a little batch if just lemons in peach juice and lemons in simple syrup. I just opened the other day and they were bitter, soggy and strange. The upside is that they were very beautiful, nut that recipe ain't goin anywhere 'cept the trash! Whoops!

Pickles

I drank a coffee at 2pm today which is why I am posting a zillion shots of all my canned goods. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I am also posting these because I am so excited and proud if my handi-work. If I am feeling down this winter, I'll just descend into my canning closet and look at all my beautiful jars of summer flavor made over the hot stove on warm days! Ahhh!

Plum Preserves a la Joy

Today my mom and I put up 8 lbs of plums in the form of spicy plum chutney and Italian plum preserves. The chutney is good stuff, a little kick. The plum preserves, however, take the cake. And come to think of it, they'd be great ON cake! I used my ancient Joy of Cooking for the recipe which was so simple, I remember still. Here goes:

Plum Preserves a la vintage Joy
-equal parts Italian plums (we used 4lbs) and white sugar (I used only 3/4 the sugar)
- simmer until fruit is soft.
- Remove fruit and simmer syrup until it thickens to your liking. Put fruit back in.
- add a whole orange or two, chopped up small with peel (no seeds)
- add chopped up walnuts (I put in 1.5 cups or so)
- bring back to simmer and then do water bath canning method

I don't know about the safety of canning nuts in jam like that. I need to read up, but it sure tastes good and would probably last a month in thd fridge.

Pizza serenade

Forgot to post this on pizza day. Pretty soon, Finns guitar skills will surpass mine!

Pizza day!

Finn was definitely more curious than helpful until he picked up his guitar to serenade while I hovered around a 500 degree oven! I learned a few things on this batch. I use trader joes pizza dough and they are just too big for my small cookie sheets so I tried the larger sheet and had better results. Too much sauce and cheese made pools on the pan and even a 550 broil doesn't seem to dry it out. Alternating between broil and bake works best. And always feed the musicians first--then they keep playing!

Today I made:
1. summer squash, shallots, chermoula, and walnut
2. Super herb timato sauce with salami (later to be adorned with augula)
3. Super herb tomato sauce with pepperoni and sweet 100 tomatoes

What's driving me? I just like this canning business.

Apricot pepper jam and rhubarb compote with Annie!

The canning continues!

Today: pickled red cabbage, dill pickles
Last week: raspberry jam, 3 kinds of pickled beets

Woohoo!

Happy Halloween!

I'll be staying home with Finn and a few friends on Halloween, but he'll be dressed in his glow in the dark ghost onesie. This shot, however, has something really halloweeny about it to me. Kind of zombie-Addams Family-esque.

Tyler has been cooking up an idea for an art piece on the bike path near our house. He went out on a really beautiful evening recently and took a bunch of photos of this spot, adjusting the shutter speed and aperture to let in as much detail as possible. The photos make the bike path look like a dreamy summer evening.



Jennifer turned 30 recently and I made party hats for her surprise party. Finn was a reluctant model and might have contributed to the design flaw all that hats had--the strings to hold them on were choking everyone!

Here's Finn in Command Centra--as Mat and Becca used to call this.

Tyler discovered a really good distractor and potential teething toy--an apple with a bite taken out.

Woah! The afterburners on roof outside our window caught on fire. It happens from time to time, but this one was big enough that the fire dept. was called. Of course, no one was hurt and no harm was done, but it sure was a good show. And, boy does our fire alert system work well!

Here's Finn in a jacket his grandma made him and a super cozy sweater onesie from Melanie. He's lookin' like a hipster in the making!



I used the very last of the beef I bought last year from Carman Ranch to make beef stock and then beef stew. It turned out great and I have a tub frozen that I will probably eat in a few weeks. That beef is awesome. I can't wait for this year's shipment. I am really gonna work on my pot roast technique this winter.

Post Roast Soup

Today I was really sick of eating leftovers from the pot roast I made this weekend (which was made from delicious beef, purchased in bulk from the Carman Family Ranch in Oregon) that I decided to throw the rest of what I had in the remaining beef broth to make a soup. In the container I had some hunks of beef, about a potato and a half, a few carrots, mushrooms and a bit of sauce from the bottom of the pan.

Then I added a few sprigs of fresh thyme (also left from the roast day), along with some balsamic vinegar, a few drops Frank's red-hot sauce, and some black pepper. I also took some old whole grain bread cubes, sauteed them in a little oil and garlic to make croutons.

Finally, I mixed a little plain yoghurt with some horseradish to dollop on top for a bit of creaminess.

It reminded me a little bit of French onion soup, a rich broth full onions and mushrooms but those potatoes and the horseradish cream added a special treat. I oversalted a touch, but no harm--we just drank big glasses of water afterwards.

Candy, PART 2

After that first round of candy, I felt much more confident, so I decided to do a second back of sweets. This time I was interested in reproducing the Walnut caramels from See's. They turned out pretty darn good.

Many tiny updates

This is a smattering of little updates. Sorry--no belly picture yet, but I promise I'll post one soon. But there's ultrasound shot of the little BOY. We're so excited. He's a real mover pedal-kickin and wiggling around.

In a way, we are totally taken over by our own stuff, but this photo is already a few weeks old and it has cleared out a lot. But, I wanted to show our darling Christmas tree that we chopped down ourselves with Aly and Reid.


This is the lovely countertop that Tyler and Aaron made. Khe kitchen is such a pleasure to work in now. You can see more about these counters at novustone's website.

This year for family, we made scotchmallows with salty tops from a Martha Stewart recipe. They tasted great, though we overdid the caramel a bit so it was very chewy.