Blooms in the Garden - late March

Sparaxis (orange and white) - I planted these about 4 years ago and they still come back, though perhaps a bit less, year after year.

Lady Banks Rose Cluster - They don't smell like anything, and they have no thorns, but just once a year they look glorious. 

Lady Banks Rose from inside the bay window in the kitchen.

 

White Irises of unknown origin - beautiful every year - and almost always a surprise - they just appear one day and hang on for a couple of weeks - a nice addition to the rose bed. 

More photos to come as April is here. 

Can Jam April - Herbs - more deliberation

herb |(h)ərb|noun1 any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume


So does that eliminate some of the things I've been thinking about. I'm thinking fennel is a vegetable, but perhaps it's both depending on what you use it for. Lemon grass - that would qualify. 
In my research, rosemary and quince (does it sound like a posh law firm?) showing up quite often together, but we don't get many (any?) quinces around here. 
I did not realize I had so many British canning/preserving books -- they don't seem to often bother with a water bath and have this odd (IMO) notion of turning the jars upside down after sealing them - to what purpose, I do not know, but ...
Pickled asparagus could be right - esp right now, but would need to introduce and herb and frankly, beyond tarragon, which I could take or leave, I'm not sure what to add that wouldn't over power the asparagus. Blue Book / Preserving - blanks - as was, The Glass Pantry (see Library Thing site for details), so ... more research, but first - time away. nice. 

Persuasion (2007)

I haven't written anything about this because I was so disappointed the first time I saw it and wanted to watch again to see if I was right on first appearances. Yep. I was right, sadly so. Rupert Penny-Jones makes a fine Captain Wentworth and isn't bad eye candy, but there are several problem not the least of which is the hour and a half run time - come the frig on - tell a story w/ any real feeling or sense in an hour and a half?? Not likely. That said, my biggest problem is the letter. It's the frigging letter from the book - how can you do this and screw up the one thing, that matters in the story? Unbelievable. Still can't get over the astonishment of that. Read the entire letter!!! (How do you know when you've put TOO many exclamation points behind something?) 

And then there is the running - there is no running in the book for Anne to find Wentworth, because he's just outside waiting to see if she comes to him - which of course she does, because, um who wouldn't? I do have to admit that the wedding present is a nice touch - but that's about it. It's a disappointment. Give me Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds any day of the week. They can't be topped - not until Persuasion is given the 4 hour treatment - any perhaps not even then.

Can Jam April - Herbs

So the challenge for this month, well, April anyway, is herbs - well, hell - that's wide open. What is currently growing in the garden for me - rosemary, oregano, and parsley. I had no idea parsley would survive the winter (the coldest for the longest that I remember), but it came through with flying colors and looks great right now but may be about to bolt. I've not grown it before - so I'm not quite sure how it works. Oh, and fennel  - forgot that. And the cilantro will probably return as it usually does. I'm betting The Glass Pantry has a few ideas.
Need to check the farmer's markets to see what else is out there right now - hopefully not necessitating anything flown in from across the planet.

Glazed Lemon Cookies

Lemons - is there anything (no really anything) better than lemons - so versatile, so tart, so... yellow. Come on - lemons are wonderful. I'm not a fan of chocolate (gasp!) so desserts can be a little limiting, but I'll try almost anything lemon. Lately, Martha Stewart had a whole list of lemon desserts of which I printed about half a dozen really interesting ones. The first one I decided to make was the glazed lemon cookies. Let's just say they were a hit at the office (if not at home).

Desserts are difficult at home. I like to have things available for Emerson and Steve, but I'm thinking they don't care so much. And here's the deal - I don't want tons of sweets either, but I do like to try things - perhaps the homeless shelters would like experimental cookies... who knows.


That said, here's where you can find the recipe to some great! Glazed Lemon Cookies.


Comments from the Counter:
I used one regular lemon and one Meyer lemon - yum.

Zest from both lemons as well.

Balance in the Kitchen

And I'm not talking about flavor balance...
How does one balance their interest in cooking, and experimenting in particular, in the kitchen with the job, duty, whatever of serving dinner every night? Being right now in the middle of the can jam - which is great fun - and trying to put dinner on the table for MotH and the Boy. And there is never enough weekend in the weekend ...besides there is still the garden to attend to (ie. plant)...
My counter has cookbooks open and magazine folder to particular pages, but I can't get to them all... at least not now damn it.
Am I setting myself up for failure or just setting my expectations too high?*


* Sounds like something from Sex and the City.

White Soda Bread

I've been a bread chicken - too afraid to try especially if it involves yeast, so I finally decided to try thanks to St. Patrick's day. Recipes abounded for soda bread, but many involved currents or raisins or caraway seeds - blech. I finally found a recipe where the odd stuff was optional and had the bonus of including all things that I already had at home. cool.
Last year I bought a copy of Bread Baker's Apprentice, but I've yet to crack the book It just seems daunting. But I'm strongly encouraged by my experience this week. Let's just put it this way... I started Shallot Confiture - the beginning of a four day process, made dinner, and made fresh bread all in the same night - damn skippy - that's impressive. At least to me.

Recipe is here - since I can't post it w/out breaking the law... 


Comments from the Counter:
I used a little more than 1.5 cups of buttermilk, but it worked out okay.
My first bread. Cool.

.

Blogging about recipes

I read an interesting piece on blogging about recipes that made me a little sad. I'd always figured that if you gave credit like I do then you had done the right thing regarding where the recipes you try came from - hell, I even link to Amazon or elsewhere  so it's easy to buy the book if someone (anyone? ... oh yeah no one) is interested. But it seems that this is not the case. I need to ask permission to reprint a recipe - even though I would think one recipe out of a book full of recipes would be fair use. Especially since I transcribe the recipe as is, out of respect to the original, and list my changes in both ingredients and how I do things in my Comments from the Counter. Apparently, that's not legal.
So where is the rule book, or hell, even the guidelines for bloggers? I take care to give credit - hell, that's just the right thing to do. I mean you do that on papers in college, on your thesis - you don't steal anyone's ideas and always give credit - it's, again, the right thing to do. But now what? Almost all my photos are mine. I rather enjoy taking pics, but even then, if I use something, I credit and link to the original. Finding this out is, I don't know, kind of disappointing, but I guess that's what happens when lawyers are involved - aren't they always in this country??


After all this is my online recipe journal - disappointing. You make me sad (oops, do I have to give credit to MP&THG now too - bugger).


Downer.

Can Jam - March - It's a Two-fer (Pickled Onions / Shallot Confiture)

Pickled Whole Onions (sigh)

I fell in love with pickled onions when I lived in England. A Ploughman's lunch to me is ideal food, but I'm the type that prefers bread and cheese over almost anything and the cheese is England - well, I'm spoiled - thank goodness for Sweet Home Farm nearby or I would despair that I would ever have truly artistic cheese again.  Anyway, so Ploughman's being ideal food and goes well with real beer - what more can a girl want? Come on. 

Pickled Whole Onions

1 pound boiling onions

3 cups H2O

1T salt

1 t mace berries

1 t allspice berries

1 t cloves, whole

2 cinnamon stick, about 4" long

6 black peppercorns

3 cups cider vinegar

Remove skins from each onion, trimming off the root cluster at the bottom; the root helps keep the onion intact. In a glass bowl, mix together 2 cups of H2O and salt to make a brine. Add the peeled onions and let stand 24 hours at room temperature.

The next day, cut out an 8" square of cheesecloth and place spices in the center and close and tie off the spice bag. In a non-reactive saucepan bring vinegar and cup of water to a boil over high heat. Add spice bag, reduce heat to medium low and simmer 20 minutes. Discard spice bag and add onions. Raise heat, and bring to boil, the remove from heat.

Pack the onions into hot, sterilized jars and ladle in hot vinegar mixture, filling with a half inch of the rims. Using a damp cloth, wipe the rims clean. Attach lides and process 40 minutes [40 frigging minutes??? WTH?) Cool jars, check for seal, will keep for up to one year. The Glass Pantry

Georgeanne Breman p. 126

Beauty of the Book: Categorized by season, this is probably one of themost beautiful preserving books I've seen. Lots of white space, which to my geeky self is important. Very diverse group of preserved items: green almond conserve, vin de cerise, candied rose petals, pickled baby corn, pears pickled in merlot, anch chili sauce. I could go on and on.

 Comments from the Counter: Onions were 2 pounds 4 oz until peeled and trimmed to a more reasonable 1 pound and 12 oz. Type of salt not specified so I used table salt. Used boiling water to help peel onions - much easier! Wasn't sure if I should trim the top of the onions, but looked at photo in book and decided to go ahead and do so.  No mace berries, what is that anyway?  Will find out.  

Since I had almost 2 pounds of onions, so I added 1 cup of cider vinegar and 1/2 cup of water to the pickling liquid. Created these in the step method and it worked well. 

Yield: 3 pints. Added about a T of cider vinegar to top off each can.

Can't wait to try these!

Shallot Confiture

2.5 lbs shallots
1/4 c salt
6 c white vinegar or white wine vinegar
4 c granulated sugar

For Spices:
4 cardamom pods
2 cinnamon sticks
3 strips of lemon rind
1 T caraway seeds
1 T cloves
1/2 tsp bird's eye chilies

Peel the shallots by blanching in boiling water for a few minutes.  Make sure that the root end remains intact; otherwise the shallots will disintegrate during cooking.

Place the peeled shallots in a large glass bowl. Cover with cold water and add the salt. Mix well until the salt is dissolved then weight down and leave for 24 hours.

Put the vinegar, sugar, and spice bag in noncorrosive saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil steadily for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Skim well.

Drain the shallots, rinse well, then drain again. Carefully add them to the boiling syrup. Return to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer very gently for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the
heat and let cool, then cover and let stand overnight.

The next day, bring the mixture slowly to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer very gently for 15 minutes. Cool and let stand overnight as before.

The next day, bring the mixture slowly to a boil, then simmer very gently for 2-2 1/2 hours, or until the shallots are translucent and golden brown.

Carefully lift the shallots out of the syrup with a slotted spoon and pack them loosely into the hot, sterilized jars. Return the syrup to a boil and boil rapidly for about 5 minutes. Pour into the jars, then seal. The shallots are ready to eat immediately, but improve with age. Process in water bath for 20 minutes. 2 year Shelf Life

Preserving Oded Schwartz page 161

Comments from the Counter:
Takes 4 days - yikes. But pretty minimal work involved.
These won't last long because I snuck it one and it's so good - totally worth doing. If they get better over time, it just might be too much.

Used the step method described here.
Recipe changes: Made a half recipe and now see that was a huge mistake
Used white vinegar - didn't have enough white wine vinegar at the time.
Used three Minneloa orange strips instead of lemon rind and serrated peeler makes this super easy.
No cloves, used 10 Allspice berries
Used about a tsp of freshly sliced finger hot pepper.
Yield: One pint - so should have doubled this ... but will make again. 

Book Notes:
Extremely interesting and unique. Lovely photos (no, really beautiful
to look at which is, in and of itself, an inspiration) and lots on
techniques. Some things I know I will never do (Smoking Fish), but
are still interesting to read about. I have made several recipes from
this book over the years and really enjoy it.

The Meadow Sel Gris

So I bought a little sirloin filet for dinner. It's finally spring and almost light late enough for some after work grilling and it was a Friday after all. So MotH has hot Italian sausages on the grill along with burgers for the boy and a little steak pour moi. I reviewed the neat finishing salt brochure and there it was "... try this on a juicy steak..." Okay you're on The Meadow Sel Gris.


Results: Nice... love the crunch and the brinyness. Super - I might want to grind it down a bit next time, but still nifty. Imagine having hand-harvested salt from South China - pretty damn cool.


And the brochure gave me a giggle...
"When life hands you lemons, break out the tequila and salt." Unknown - Sounds like a plan to me.