kitchen adventures
I make applesauce every year; it’s easy and tastes wonderful. It serves as the basis for apple butter, which I make in a slow cooker, which make it easy, and scorch-proof. This year I tried the same trick with pears. Wow, pear butter is great! I made a version that
2013 has not been a good year for tomatoes in Michigan. First it was wet and cold, and then way too hot, and now, in September, we seem headed for an early frost. Our tomato season has been the shortest one I can recall. Even in a scant year, I
When you don’t have much fruit – or don’t have much time – try a small batch. Don’t double this one, it’s perfect just as it is. Goes together easily. The peaches stand with the sugar while you get the jars ready, and then the jam is finished, and canned,
Strawberry Apricot Jam makes about 8 8-oz jars 2 lb strawberries, hulled and quartered 2 lb apricots, pitted and cut in chunks 3 Tbsp lemon juice 4 c sugar 1/4 c apricot brandy (optional) 1/2 tsp unsalted butter Sterilize canning jars and get your canning set-up ready — you’ll need to
All winter I look forward to the month when there are more fresh tomatoes than I can possibly eat. Full-flavored, succulent, wonderful tomatoes. It’s also the month when my preserving kicks into high gear, and I’m overwhelmed with tomatoes to can, freeze, or dry. Oven-dried tomatoes are the very easiest
I knew that when I read this in Marisa McClellan’s new book, Food in Jars, that I just had to try it. The only bad part is that I have to leave the jars alone for at least a week so the flavors blend. It’s hard to wait! I doubled
I was lucky enough to find about 5 pints of freshly picked black raspberries at a local farm market. Naturally I scooped them right up, and brought them home to make one of the best jams I tried last summer. This is inspired by Marisa at Food in Jars, whose
I was never much of a ‘pickled beets’ fan. What was the point? Dill cucumbers were way, way better. And then we had a sudden surplus of fresh beets. I had to do something with them, and it was too hot for borchst. Turning to my library of cookbooks (why
Every summer I preserve the season’s bounty. I’ve just finished a huge weekend of canning, following last weekend’s canning session, and my cupboards are full. The last weekend of August found us with cucumbers and beets in abundance, and the peaches at the farmers market were just too good to pass up. So
More inspiration from Marisa at Food in Jars is this black raspberry jam. As she suggests, this jam uses a bit of commercial pectin, because black-raspberries would otherwise give a very loose set. Makes about 6 half-pints. 8 c black raspberries, about 2 quarts of berries 3 c sugar (much less than
This is the test I most often use to determine if my jam is ready. When you start to cook the jam, put a saucer or small plate in the freezer to chill. When you think the jam may be ready, put a little dab of the hot stuff on the
Inspired by Marisa at Food in Jars I took the last little pint of black raspberries and made a syrup. Color me happy with a homemade spritzer: a big spoonful of the syrup in a glass, topped off with cold sparkling water. recipe adapted from Food in Jars inspiration 1 pint
I’m Maurita Plouff, and I write about cooking and preserving the local harvest in Southeast Michigan. Any recipe you find here is something I have cooked myself, and enjoyed, and think you might like too. I invite you to try the recipes, and leave comments.