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Since my husband is training for a marathon, I figure now is the time to work on some bread recipes.  I usually try to make bread instead of buying it for all of our carbohydrate needs.  Benefits? It makes the house smell fantastic and well, you have fresh bread.  However, when I am… experimenting with recipes I need a hungry subject to eat the not so fantastic outcomes.  This is perfect timing.  When someone comes back who ran miles in the double digits and they see bread they will eat it.

So, my mother was recently visiting and I figured it would be a nice bonding moment if I told her what to do so I can take pictures.  It worked out okay and she was compensated in bread.  I usually make bread that some would call ‘rustic’ with a hard crust and a hearty interior.  Great for morning toast with jam and good for sandwiches but sometimes you want the soft bread of yesteryear.  So, I was requested by my husband to make some sandwich bread.  I decided to try to make those multi-grain nut breads you see in the stores but minus the preservatives.  This is loosely adapted from Cooks Illustrated.  A solid source of recipes since they are all tested quite rigorously.  Personally I like the lengthy explanations of what worked and didn’t.

It was pretty easy and They called for a multigrain breakfast cereal to start with.  I used Bob’s Mill 10 grain. Pour the cereal in the mixing bowl and pour hot water over it and let it sit for an hour.

Once the cereal has softened, add all the other ingredients (minus the nuts and seeds, those go in at the end) and place in mixer with dough hook attached.  It should clear the sides.  If sticky, add more flour one tablespoon at a time.

Add seeds to dough last

Cover and let it rise until doubled.

Start of First Rise

End of First Rise

Separate in half so you will have two loaves. Knead each and then roll into a log.  Roll said log into some oats.

Rolled in oats

Place in a oiled loaf pan.  Here is where I made my mistake.  I had 1.5 lb loaf pans so the bread looks stunted but still tasty.  I would would recommend using just 1lb loaf pans unless you like your bread stumpy. Let rise for 45 minutes before baking.

Ready for Second Rise

It tasted great but looked dwarfed.

Multigrain Bread

The reason I like this recipe is that due to the warm breakfast cereal, the first rise is quick.  For the second rise, place in your oven if your kitchen is drafty.  It is fairly easy recipe.  I ended up with two loaves.  One was devoured within the week.  The other was double wrapped in plastic, frozen and sent home with my mother in her carry on.

Mulitgrain Bread with Sunflower and Pumpkin Seeds

1 1/4  c. hot multigrain cereal

2  1/2 c. boiling water

4 1/3 c. total flour.  I used half whole wheat and half all purpose

1/3 c. honey

4 tbsp melted butter

1 packet rapid rise yeast

1 tbsp salt

1 c. pumpkin and/or sunflower seed

1/2 c. oats

Mix cereal, hot water, butter and honey in the bowl of a standing mixer, cover and let sit for 40 min to 1 hour.  Add yeast, stir to combine.  Using dough hook, add flour mixture about a 1/2 cup at a time.  Do this on low speed unless you want flour all over you.  Add salt last and knead on low speed for 15 minutes.  Add seeds and knead for 15 seconds or when they look incorporated.  Take dough out and knead on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes.  But your back into it.  Knead until you have  taught, smooth dough.  Placed in a greased bowl and cover to let rest until doubled. Cut the dough in half and shape into a log and roll into the oats on one side.  You might want to wet your hand and pat the dough so the oats stick. Place in pans, (oat side up) cover and let double. Start to preheat oven at 375.  To test the dough push it in with your finger lightly it should not spring back.  Don’t rush it and if you have a colder kitchen, place in the oven with the light on (not the preheated one mind you) if you do not have two ovens which I inadvertently told you I do have, then place in a non drafty place or figure something out.  Don’t rush this step.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.  Let rest until cool before slicing or not but by all means enjoy.

Strawberry

There is nothing I like more than a vulnerable, bare plant.

It is January and that means bare root season is upon us. What are bare roots you ask? Well, they are dormant plants or trees. It is not much more than a stick with roots packed in saw dust when you get it home or shipped to you from a nursery. They look kind of pathetic really. However, they adapt better to the permanent home when they are planted at this stage.  We are proud owners of a new dwarf almond tree.  My husband said three trees ago that we have no more room.  I am persistent like that.

There are other advantages to purchasing bare root plants.

• As mentioned before they adapt easily to their new home.  It is like stealing someone who is sleeping rather than someone fully awake.
• Nurseries have an easier and less expensive time shipping and handling them since they are basically a stick with a root ball in a sawdust bag. This means more money for you to buy more plants later. My husband will disagree with this reasoning.
• Also in California it is better so as not to transport insects and other unwanted specimen.  You laugh but when I drove out here cross country they stopped me at the border of Nevada to ask if I had any plants.  Then some lady came to the house to inspect the house plant we brought over that was listed on our moving list in the containers we sent over with the bulk of our things.  I of course pretended not to speak English and she went away.

So, basically it is a win-win.  However, if you are one of those people who need visual inspiration of how the plant will actually look you are out of luck. Just look at the picture. That is all the pretty you are going to get.

Almond Tree

It is super easy to plant these guys too.  Traditionally the plants you buy during spring and summer are in full bloom, doing their thing.  To transplant them into your garden, the hole must be very large to place the whole root ball in soil without disrupting it.  With bare roots you don’t have to worry about it.  Instead do this:

• Dig hole.  To be more specific, the hole should be no deeper than the root system, but at least twice as wide.
• Plant quickly after getting it back.  I personally have left trees for a few weeks and they have done fine.
• They say to soak the roots overnight or even in water with rooting hormone.  If you want to do it perfectly you can do this but I have just planted them without this step.
• Use the regular gardening soil mixed in with the stuff you dug out but don’t put anything else (compost or other amendments) in it.  You don’t want the roots to sit in a wet hole filled with loose dirt and die.  Plus you want the tree to get used to the soil in your yard. It would be rather mean to say, “Live in this awesome soil for a few months.” Then when it needs to grow it will face what is really there since all the nutrients will have dissipated into the surrounding soil. Tough love from the start is what I say.
• So once you have a hole put some dirt in it to make an upside down cone with the tip pointed up.
• Then place the tree so the… crotch (sorry) of the roots is resting on the pile of dirt while the other roots are resting on the slope of the cone.  This will help the roots rest easily and not put pressure causing them to break when you cover them up.
• Fill the hole back in and tap on the filled part with the shovel.  Don’t use your feet to push in all the soil. You want the soil not too lose but you don’t want to suffocate the poor thing either.
• Now water it.  You want the water to sink in slowly not too fast or not at all.  If that is an issue, you either have over or under compacted around the tree and have failed.
• Soak it once a week and figure in the rain you get too so as not to over water.
• Hopefully by spring you will get some leaves.

Sad to say this blog entry will not win readers over with its looks since there is a glorified twig as the main picture but I hope my fellow gardeners will find this helpful.

Trio of English Marmalades

This is the last one I promise. I know you all didn’t sign up for a marmalade dissertation series but bear with me because these deserve a post.

This marmalade will grow hair on your chest. This theory has not been tested but it can be assumed due to the euphoria inducing bitterness of English Marmalade. Not sure if it is healthy to connect euphoria with hair growth but it doesn’t matter, all you need to know is this marmalade is bitter and it is good.

Once again, I took the basic recipes from The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook, which has lovely photos and really unique combinations and recipes for Jam. I highly recommend it. I did make some minor adjustments to account for what I had on hand.  I was not about to buy more citrus when I had, well you saw what I had. The recipe called for Seville oranges due to their mischievously bitter rind and being well endowed with pectin is also prized. Sevilles are originally from Spain but the English steal everything, ask their colonies. Jewels, people, oranges, it makes no matter. Their period of infamy has fizzled so will my grudge.

So, there were a set of recipes that I fished out for English Marmalade. They all contained additions of flavors that complimented and enhanced the bitterness. The oranges I had were slightly on the under side of ripe so it made the jam quite tart. Also, I don’t mind this mind altering bitterness, others might and I can’t eat all my jam. I am dancing a fine line with my husband’s sanity. I am sure he won’t mind my antics if I am giving the jam away but I will have less and few takers if I make it as bitter as I like. I just have this vision of him opening the pantry and an avalanche of jars enveloping him. I saw the browser history and there are many searches for canning rehabilitation centers so I have to be careful.

Final Cooking Phase

Back to the marmalade. This is not for the faint of heart as I mentioned and the reason for that is the following:  The bitterness will blow your mind.  Instead of using white sugar or brown sugars as suggested in the Blue Chair (I can see the author squirming in her blue chair as we type) recipes I used molasses for that scary dark color.  Most people experiment only after they try the recipe in its correct entirety. Not me. I think I got a bit cocky with the mountain of citrus at my back. It worked out though.

I wanted variety so I used the amount of oranges and other ingredients for one batch (which makes 10-12 small jars) but separated it into three pots and made different kinds. I just steeped the respective pièces de résistance during the final cooking process (please see my initial blog on the actual process of how to make it) and let the magic happen.

Star Anise

The first one was the star anise and bourbon. These two flavors worked so well together. Do not worry the alcohol was just a splash and it cooked off.  The caramel flavor of the bourbon remained.

Cinnamon

The second was cinnamon.  The warmth of the cinnamon worked nicely with the orange.  The infusion was perfect for warming you on winter mornings.  I might have added a splash of bourbon to this as well.

Coffee and Cardamom

The last, and my favorite was the coffee and cardamom. I am not sure why but this combination was intoxicating. I think even a cardamom flavored coffee would be sublime as well.
You can call these limited addition since only about 4 or so were made of each flavor. Not to say that I could not mass produce them if they were mass eaten. So This concludes my marmalade madness… for now at least.

I think I have a problem. I am not sure from where it stems but I believe I am a food hoarder. Well, I have become to start believing this since my husbands been shaking his head in disapproval and telling me so for years. It is citrus season here and so it is the current object of my hoarding. My trees did not do so well but that did not stop me. I acquired the bounty you see atop this page and for, wait for it… zero dollars. I would tell you my secret but then I would have to kill you… I jest.

I didn’t sell my soul for a table full of citrus. Some was donated by friends with trees laden with fruit that would have gone bad otherwise. Some was donated in hopes of getting some marmalade in return. I made a plea to my pals on facebook to give me some. The rest? I freecycle. This is not a free bicycle taxi although that wouldn’t be a bad way for some company while I bike. It is a group that allows members of a community to post things they either need or need to get rid of in hopes of avoiding lots of useful things ending up in land fills in cash strapped states. It is sad to waste things.  I drive around this area and see many trees heavy with fruit that I am pretty sure will just sit and rot. I wish more people would do this (hint hint) because one persons refuse is another’s treasure/marmalade.

So, I posted that I needed citrus and mentioned that I might just leave a jar of marmalade made from said citrus.  About five people answered my plea and I didn’t reject any of them.  I drove around the area with my visiting mother in tow while I laughed manically. GPS was set and I was given instructions to just pick up the fruit these kind folks left on their porch. Some of the neighborhoods were not as savory as I would have liked so I asked my mother to keep the car locked and have 911 dialed on her phone in case I do not return which she did obligingly. By the way, this is not unusual behavior. It is considered normal. Along with not talking to strangers and looking both ways before crossing my father taught me (when I was a young lass of about eight years) that I should be aware of my surroundings. We made it a family activity to check under the car for people waiting to slash your ankles. It has made me cautious yet crazy but I still have pristine ankles.

I digress.  The bounty I collected and cleaned. It took a long time, two sinks and a vegetable brush.  In the end I arranged them all and tried to take a pretty picture for you all.  As I placed the camera down, I realized that I did not need all this citrus (this is where the hoarding comes into play) and actually didn’t know what I could do with it.  Of course I had to come up with a plan:

The over ripe citrus we zested and juiced (by we, I mean my poor mother.)  The zest was frozen.  The lemon juice we froze in ice cube trays and then placed in a baggie in our crowded freezer to be used at a later date.  The orange juice (almost 3/4 of a gallon) we drank over time.

The blood oranges (easy) turned into marmalade

The pomelos we ate fresh and I attempted to marmalade (v.).

The firm oranges also went towards many different types of marmalade.

The meyer lemons.. well they await their fate (meaning I have no idea and I am tired of citrus.)

There were also some orange lemons.  That is what you get when you plant a lemon tree too close to an orange tree.  They taste and have the shape of lemons but look orange on the outside.  But I do not cast aspersions so they were used in the aforementioned zesting and juicing.

Alas to follow will be some posts about the adventures that followed in making all these things.  Please to enjoy.

Peels in the alcohol. Day 1.

I was nostalgic for my hometown of Philadelphia. Specifically, a drink at a restaurant, in my hometown of Philadelphia. I drink I was drinking with my good friend during when I had both a good experience and bad. Bad: I lost my awesome scarf probably because I had too much of the following good experience. Good: home made limoncello from this restaurant.

The first time I saw the large vats of the pale yellow liquid I was not ready to try it, (I will tell you why, wait for it) but I did and subsequently fell in love (well it was lust at first but evolved).  It was silky, lemony and sweet, a dessert in a glass that can make you totally forget about your awesome scarf.  However, (waiting over) the fact that it got rid of my aversion to milky alcoholic drinks was huge.  I first obtained this aversion during an experiment in bartending with pink ladies at the age of 17, 21. I couldn’t be like any teenager and drink beer or cheap vodka.  This beverage had to be good for me to start drinking milky drinks again. But remembering my times with a good friend and this exlir of the gods made me a little sad since I have to fly 6 hours to see her to have that experience again. My sadness was then lifted when I saw an article on NPR.  I came to the conclusion that if they can make it so can I.  I tucked that away for a rainy day. Then that rainy day came.  I found myself with a few days off and a box of meyer lemons given to me by a friend. Tradtionally, Sorrento lemons are used but I was taught not to look a gift box of lemons in the mouth. This is slightly adapted from the NPR story on limoncello. Some tips first and foremost: Do not drink the alcohol while trying to make this.  There are some knife skills involved that would be best done sober.

Armamentarium

The first part is to take the lemons and a couple of oranges (for good measure) and separate them from their skin but only the colored part, not the pith underneath.  I recommend a boning knife (a flexible, skinny one) to do that part. You can peel most of it with a sharp peeler but take removed the pith, place the pith part up and then take the whole flat of the knife and glide it…. and this is the important part… away from you so as not to stab yourself in your stomach.  My 7th grade arts teacher Mrs. Neufeld told me this when doing a linoleum carving.  Life lesson that is applicable to many an activity.  Thank you Mrs. Neufeld. You will need grain alcohol or a high proof vodka since some dilution will be involved after the steeping phase.  Everclear…  overalls and moonshine come to mind but if you are not into overalls, then you can use a high proof vodka.  In my experiments I found vanilla flavored vodka works quite well just omit the tablespoon of vanilla in the recipe from NPR.

Peelings

Basically add peels to alcohol and look at this pretty concoction for a week.  Yes, you will need to plan in advance.  If you have no patience, they say you only need to wait a few days.  I waited the full week for the batch I made.  Not because of my zen like patience but rather my snuggie loving laziness that took me longer to get myself out of the house to get the rest of the ingredients. I strained the lemon/alcohol mixture into my large expensive french made cauldron along with 8 cups of whole milk, 10 cups of sugar, a shot of whisky and a tablespoon of vanilla extract.  I let it cook to a boil.

Beautiful Clean Bottles

If you have ever boiled milk you know the nature of our finicky task.  Listen and watch you must for if you let it boil a second longer then it will take you for a ride.  A horribly messy ride.  Watch it carefully and the minute the concoction starts making that muffled sizzling noise and start rising.  Turn the burner off.  If it continues to rise, take it off the heat. If it continues to rise, you have lost. Cook it at a very low bubble for 5 minutes then let it cool completely.  You can take this time to clear our some room in your freezer for this is where the creamy limoncello must live.  Have maybe about 4 one liter glass bottles ready.  Plastic is just fine and recommened for those clumsy sobers.  I would recommend you clean them with hot soapy water but don’t worry about cleaning them too much.  Not much can grow in that high a concentration of alcohol and sitting in freezing temps.  Not that this will last a long time anyway.  Then strain again into clean bottles and stick in freezer.  There will be a film on top of the cooled limoncello.  I would discard that first.

Bottled

The modifications I would recommend for the recipe are:

• Use meyer lemons.  They make a really nice floral note to this drink.
• I would go easier on the sugar.  They say 5 lbs.  I put in 4 lbs (10 very stingy cup)  I would even suggest fewer.  Start with 5 cups and see how you like it.  The sugar also makes the final product more syrupy which is good in culinary use.
• Go ahead and use vanilla flavored vodka save yourself a step and the vanilla is more pronounced if you like that sort of thing.
• Use glass bottles, they are much prettier.
• Share this.  You will be happy you did.

Chilled and Ready

Fair warning: Pace yourselves since it does pack a punch and is so yummy that is goes down way easier then is should as I have experienced to the detriment of my scarf. Special Thanks to:  Lori for introducing me to this fine beverage.  Marjorie for giving me all those beautiful lemons.  My liver for being strong enough for it. In Memory of:  My scarf.

FYI, in case of nuclear holocaust, you will know where to get some tomato sauce.

So, in my recent interest in canning et al, I wanted to have my own canned tomatoes… jarred tomatoes would be a more appropriate term.  We haven’t bought a jar of sauce in quite some time and instead of getting those huge cans every few weeks, I decided to harness the awesomeness that is a uber fresh tomato grown in your garden.  However, mother nature put a wrench in my plans.  My tomatoes didn’t get going until late August. However, my impatience won and I did the next best thing.  I hit the farmers stands that are a few miles down the road.

Here are some tips.  Before you grab the first tomatoes  you see do this.

1 Calm down.  The first time I went I bought tomatoes and on the way back to my car I saw another type of tomato that I would have preferred.  Don’t worry, I bought those too.

2. Taste them.  If the person gives you a hard time, tell them that you will be buying a lot and just wanted to make sure that they are sweet.  They will respect you for giving them a hard time.  That makes a great segway to

3. Don’t get screwed.  If you buy more than 20 lbs of tomatoes it seems that the price tag is just for the suckers.  I found this out when I came back every week for a few weeks.  I hate to haggle but I think this guy saw an opportunity in the loyalty I seemed to be exuding.

The third time I went back, figuring I was an expert, I lifted a huge box and my mental scale told me it was about 20 lbs.  I said as much.  He gave a look it to me for 3 dollars less than the price marked.  I drove home with a puffed chest.  At a light I has a sinking feeling that I might have actually gotten ripped off.  Curious, I weighed the tomatoes found out it was close to 25 lbs.  My chest repuffed until I set the tomatoes back down.  I thought that I probably could have talked him down a bit more since I am pretty sure he is better than eyeballing weight than I am.

But this isn’t a blog on how to screw your local farmer.  This is about canning tomatoes so lets get back on track and tell you the things I learned.

Be ready to invest a good amount of time and pretty quickly after getting a large amount of tomatoes.  I guess you will need about 5 lbs of tomatoes per quart jar.

1 You will need to blanch them for a minute in order to peel off the skin.  Instead of dunking them in cold water after blanching I bypass that step by letting them sit until they are cool enough to work with.

2 They are going to need to be in the canner for 45 minutes.  That is a long time to have a cauldron boiling away on a hot summer day in your kitchen.  I would recommend doing it outdoors on a propane burner if you can’t stand the heat.

3 From trial and error I found out that if you squish them down and let the tomato juice run out, add more and repeat until you have a dense pack, you will have less water and it will make the jars look better since there will be a minimum murky water layer visible (the ones I made came out quite nicely)

I think it is hard to mess up a soup when you have really fresh ingredients. These were as fresh as you can get. I just picked them a few minutes before I prepared these soups.

Chapter 1: Corn

I grew corn last year and got a pretty good amount. They were short and stout but sweet. I don’t really think it is worth growing corn because the area in which we live is known for it. There is an actual corn festival which I have not attended but also restaurants in San Francisco mention that the corn in a specific dish is from this town. So, I guess what is good for the goose is good for me. I think this is the last year we will be growing corn. Other than looking pretty impressive it takes up too much room and nutrients and it might not be worth it for me especially since I can get it pretty fresh and very local. However, if you can’t I would recommend to plant it because there is nothing like fresh picked corn.

Chapter 2: Carrots

This is what happens when you get lazy/forgetful and do not take the time/forget to make successive plantings every two weeks. You get a ton of carrots at the same time and then have to make something that takes the whole harvest otherwise you risk, either losing it by letting it sit in the fridge (negating the whole reason you have a garden) or not harvesting it and it dying from old age (heading straight for the compost). I was eating them fresh but decided that I should stop since I was getting an orange glow from my skin. Once again, soup came to mind because the other option, cake was probably a bad idea.

Chapter 3: Zucchini

You always think it is a good idea to plant zucchini. I am not sure why I keep on forgetting the feeling of racking my brain to come up with things to make with it or forcing it upon friends and family but I do. Each year it takes up half of a raised bed (conservatively speaking) and each year I want to go out there with a machete on a rampage and make my life easier. I think it is because it is pretty fool proof to grow it and it kind of boosts the ego of the gardener in me. I see a barrel full of zucchini and it makes my chest puff up. Yes, I think, I have created all this bounty. Right after I think that, panic sets in about what the hell I am going to do with it. So, I think soup… again.

I made each soup the same way and it was pretty simple. I also have to mention I was pretty inspired by Alice Waters. I was reading about the way she makes soups and I was happy to say after many experiments with butternut squash soup (that is coming later in the fall, just got those into the ground) I came to the same conclusion (not comparing myself to Alice Waters by any means… well maybe this specific mean) but you really have to build the flavors and that takes time and patience, which is always in short supply with me. Well, maybe I have the former but not so much of the latter. It is easy to put things in a pot turn up the heat and cook the hell out of it but that is not what we are going to do.

The ingredients are simple: onions, butter and or olive oil, salt, water and the vegetable du jour. First you have to saute the onions and I use the word saute loosely. You really want to have them in a sauna, a low slow cook. Melt the butter, I throw in some oil too so the butter wont burn if I have the heat up a little too much. Then the onions with some salt. Then wait a long time until the onions are translucent. I also add a sprig or two of thyme while the onions are cooking because I like it, no other reason. While that is happening you are cutting the vegetable of choice up in to small uniform pieces. Put them in and cook them with some more salt in the same fat and wait until they become part of the soup. I don’t know how to explain it but you will know it is no longer onions and carrots it will be a new entity. Then and then only add water (preferably already hot) enough to cover the vegetables and cook for just enough time that the vegetables are soft but not falling apart. You might have to keep on testing it until you feel it is ready. Removed the sprigs of thyme and then zap it with a hand blender or regular blender in small batches. Add salt if needed. You will have a soup with all the flavors married to each other and it will be one entity.

I have made soup and tasted soup before that hasn’t done this. You know, it tastes forced and it doesn’t work. If you take the time, even with the barest of ingredients, you can make a really good soup.

Before you comment: Yes, I still stand by the title of this blog courgette is another word for zucchini. I know I am stretching but I really wanted to use that title.

So it turns out I didn’t kill anyone yet. You laugh but botulism isn’t funny when it happens to you. I decided to try my hand at making jam. The first foray was a success in the sense that it wasn’t a biologic weapon used to poison anyone. It was pretty easy except I looked like I was conducting an experiment in an aseptic environment, complete with a ventilation system. It reminded me of my lab days when I was a scientist for about a year. That ended pretty quickly when I realized I would go slowly insane if I had to work by myself in an enclosed room with only some bacteria to keep me company.

I was being laughed at by my husband as I picked everything up with sterile forcepts and yelling at him not to breath on my jars. I think this was especially difficult for me since I am pretty sure I had a case of OCD before and with some self help books have overcome most of the bad parts of it. However, when there is something like this in which OCD is not only necessary but welcomed, something stirs deep inside and clicks together like all thing in the universe are spiritually connected.  However, a nasty side effect of this is I become really agitated when things aren’t exactly as I want them to be and then become a raving lunatic yelling at everyone. So, because of this and the effect is has on my social life, I have decided to go the total opposite and become a semi-slob most of the time sprinkled with short periods of super cleanliness.

That is the end of the life lesson. Back to making jam. The first batch I made was a mixed cherry. It came out too stiff. The second attempt was peach-strawberry (peaches from the backyard, strawberries from the farmers market) and too runny. The third batch was fig jam that came out just right. The figs which were from our local farmers market were really good mission figs. So good that it made me go out an adopt a new tree to bring into our lives much to the dislike of my husband who will be digging the hole for it and complaining that the backyard is turning into an orchard.

Things I learned in case you were interested in making jam that might help the first time jammer:

1. Chill out. You most probably won’t kill anyone.
2. Helps to have some friends with strong immune systems and appetites.
3. Invest in some gloves that allow for some dexterity and cover your forearms from splashing boiling water.
4. Sugar rush: Some recipes call for an insane amount of sugar. Play around with that, you can use fruit juice and a pectin that doesn’t require sugar to set.

More on the sugar rush. I usually like to make my own food so I can control what goes into it. I remember a story that one of my favorite professors told me in a commercial microbiology class I took. I can’t remember the details but it involved machinery picking the fruit that is used in making commercial jams. He told us the machinery can’t tell the difference from a ripe strawberry and a swishy dead mouse. I stopped eating jam for a while.

If you are going to try it. Go pick your fruit yourself or get some local fruit from a farmers market. If you don’t live near orchards or in a place that have farmers markets I feel sorry for you. Get some fruit you like and make some jam. There are some fancy pants canning classes you can take here in the West Side but instead of shelling out couple of hundreds of dollars, just go online and find some videos and sites. I like this site it was very helpful and comprehensive and a good all around site for everything canning. It even will tell you about local farms in your area where you can go pick your own.

Next up, canning tomatoes. I haven’t bought spaghetti sauce in a few years using only store bought canned tomatoes for my own creations (pretentious alert) so now I am cutting out the middle man and going to start canning tomatoes as soon as I have some. I have started a small army of tomato plants from seed and are finally flowering in the garden now.  There is a really awesome seed company that I recommend.  I am sure I mentioned this in a previous post so you will have to do some digging on this site to find it.

I am pretty sure the FBI will flag my blog now since I have used the following words: kill, biologic weapon, botulism, ventilation, lab, small army, digging and now FBI….twice. Oops.

Over and out.