When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
When a customer shows his appreciation for a job well done, with a gallon sized bucket full of fresh picked, very local peaches (That’s right - a gallon. 5 pounds!) you break out the canning equipment (it was a cool day afterall) because there’s no way one could, would or will* eat all that fresh ripe, wonderful smelling summer bounty before it spoils, and you make a pint and a half of jam… (or perhaps technically preserves)
A pint and a half?
Did I do something wrong? Nope, just overestimated what I had. but WOW does it smell and taste great. *This is coming from someone who ate very little fruit, save apples and bananas growing up.
One recipe I found called for a little more than 1 pound of sugar per pound of peaches.
Skinned, pitted and a few spoiled ones tossed I ended up with a little more than 2 pounds. I guestimated about 1 pound of sugar (out of the 2 pound bag of organic evaporated cane juice) and a splash of apple juice in lieu of pectin. The box of Certo demands we keep a proper sugar to fruit to pectin ratio. The myriad of recipes online don’t much seem to care. I’m sure our grandmothers just used what they had, and so did I.
If I were to try this again, I’d cut back on the sugar even more, as this came out fairly sweet. I’ve made some great banana jam without added sugar, so I think it’ll work. Maybe I’m finally ready to eat the no sugar added applesauce, etc… I buy for my little one…. Nevertheless, this’ll go great mixed into a breakfast quick bread, or poured over chicken and baked or grilled.
I understand the temperatures are going to be in the 70’s for most of the week. The canning equip shall stay out, and I’ll be hitting the farmers market with a much LARGER bag in the coming days.
Was thinking (as I often do) that keeping up multiple blogs is really cutting in on life, and the bits of it I’m chronicling. What to do, give it up? No, that would be too easy. Better I take this blog a step further and add an cookbook style, links page. More work, that’s always good for clearing the plate!
Well, adding the to-do list page turned out to be a good idea over on my woodworking site.
So, a bit more work perhaps, but It’ll keep down on the clutter, and hopefully keep me aware of the links I want to try, as well as a convenient place for all those recipes I want to revisit. (And finding, let alone remembering these, is a huge time waster)
So, I’ve posted, by no means an exhaustive list… more to come in time… gradually, as time allows (Good intentions. Which will most likely mean, frantic spurts stretched out over indeterminate time, or whenever the computers free.) You know what thy say about the road to Hell…
See something you like, give it a go. Have a suggestion for a rework, or something I just have to try (based on the tastes you see me gravitate towards) please comment away, and keep the good food and drink flowing!
Seek not, and ye shall find, An (local) end to my quest?!
A fifth of Black Seal and two cans of Barritt’s! A Dark N Stormy Kit!
The proportions are rather odd - enough rum to make twenty-five drinks, but alas, ginger beer for four…
(maybe I’ll have to try the cran/orange/rum drink also on the package - 2 oz of each juice, 1.5 of rum)
though, after months of searching and waiting, I’ll take it! (and found about a half-hour from home) I don’t think I need to “save it.” But Oh, I’ll savor it!
now, I’m off to find a lime!
in case you don’t want to scroll back (or google) the recipe:
1. take a tall beer glass, fill 2/3 with ice.
2. Squeeze lime juice (1/2 lime) over the ice
3. add 2 oz. Dark rum (Black Seal, Baby!)
4. add 6 oz. Ginger Beer (Barritt’s if you’ve got it, won’t vouch for any others i’ve tried to date, still looking…)
5. add a slice of lime
6. try to drink just one!
I’m looking to see what to start brewing for the fall (since I’ve missed my window for some light ones for the (scorching) dog days….
I guess my recipe book has become quite passe - or some people out there have become WAY out there…
Pizza and beer… (pizza, not with beer, but in the beer.) I think it would take A LOT of (normal) beer to get someone to try a bacon brew… but then again, I should know not to be surprised by such things…
I like breakfast. Especially for Dinner. The other night pancakes were requested and I was all too happy to oblige.
Thinking we were out of mix on our recent (and way to infrequent) trip to Whole Foods, I picked up a package of their brand of Pancake/Waffle Mix. Unbeknownst to me this was somehow quite different from the Trader Joe’s mix I’ve been using lately, and worlds apart from my Dads (from scratch) which are my all-time favorite.
Over the past several years I started experimenting with whole grain flours and such – looking to health up an otherwise nutrionally devoid stack of sugars and overprocessed flour. Most incarnations were edible – but never well received by my wife or daughter, that is until we found TJ’s whole grain mix. (to which I’ve taken to add soymilk, and a splash of OJ.)
From the start I knew the Whole Foods mix was different. First off it was so thick, that It wouldn’t even totally mix in the blender (in my 2000 Horsepower Vita-Mixer) so I added more liquid than the 2 cups called for (with 2 cups mix) and fortunatlely mixing with a wisk worked. Yet what would normally yield a few cups of batter – puffed up to 10. You’d swear I was raising a turbocharged loaf of bread!
The first few hit the griddle – the batter something between merangue and angel food cake. These cooked up lighter and fluffier than anything I’ve ever seen before, and they were fantastic! While the first ones cooked, the remaining batter magically refilled itself - never ending pancake bowl!
It was a chore, but in between eating 6-8 decent sized, but very light pancakes myself, (my little one even had seconds), I was also able to cook up the remaining batter – plenty for later.
What happened, I still have no idea. But it was delicious! I’m going to have to make another batch the old fashined way, just to see if something got whipped up nice and fluffy via the mixer – unlike the million other times I’ve done this. (Perhaps there is a secret ingredient – some new breed of yeast the military is developing to incubate life on other planets or something.)
