For me, 2015 was a big year of canning. I made countless batches of jams and jellies, fermented pickles, fresh-pack tomatoes in their own juices, a few batches of applesauce, and other things that are happily at-home in my basement pantry.
So, what I guess I just revealed to you is this: If the zombie apocalypse comes and in the event that anything happens to me (i.e., let's hope Darryl rescues me from a zombie hoard and we ride off into the sunset together on his motorcycle), my house is a good location to raid for food.
Anyway...
I give away a lot of my canned goods as gifts to friends and family. One of my favorites that I selfishly held on to was a batch of bourbon and black pepper orange marmalade. I had a craving to do something that involved more than just spreading the marmalade on toasted English muffins with butter—which is amazing, by the way. Chinese food came to mind, so I thought a savory application, orange chicken with some steamed vegetables, would be good to try.
Posts published in “Recipes”
A few weeks ago, Steve and I went on an impromptu strawberry-picking adventure to Grim's Orchard and Family Farms in Breinigsville, PA. We visited the farm last year for pick-your-own apples and pumpkins, which was a lot of fun, and decided that we would go back for strawberry-picking as soon as the season came around.
Steve picked strawberries when he was younger, so he was an ol' pro at it. We ended up hauling home a whopping 10 lbs of strawberries for about $25 -- not bad at all for some of the sweetest, ripest strawberries I think I've ever put in my mouth.
Of course, Steve was tasked with the all-important job of carrying our harvest, too. ;)
I had a total of 10 quarts of berries on-hand after I included the ones that I picked up from the farmer's market earlier in the week before this adventure. Those berries were leftover from the strawberry-rhubarb preserves that I made and have been eating with my morning breakfast ever since because it's that damn delicious.
It may sound like a lot, but I assure you: Not a single strawberry went to waste. A small batch of strawberry-balsamic jam was up first followed by strawberries packed in syrup, using up every single berry that didn't otherwise end up in my mouth during the washing and chopping process.
I had a total of 10 quarts of berries on-hand after I included the ones that I picked up from the farmer's market earlier in the week before this adventure. Those berries were leftover from the strawberry-rhubarb preserves that I made and have been eating with my morning breakfast ever since because it's that damn delicious.
It may sound like a lot, but I assure you: Not a single strawberry went to waste. A small batch of strawberry-balsamic jam was up first followed by strawberries packed in syrup, using up every single berry that didn't otherwise end up in my mouth during the washing and chopping process.
A recent trip to the market yielded me tons of gorgeous strawberries and rhubarb that I knew were destined to be a jam. I wanted something different, though, than a standard strawberry-rhubarb preserves. I ended up choosing a recipe from one of my go-to resources for canning, Food In Jars, that sounded incredibly unique -- a rosewater-scented strawberry-rhubarb jam.
I was craving something sweet one afternoon when I thought back to an episode of Barefoot Contessa that I watched a couple of weeks ago. Ina Garten made homemade granola bars for an episode about breakfast. Her bars featured apricots, cranberries, coconut, and slivered almonds along with oats and a base made out of sugar and honey.
I was inspired to take a look at what I had on-hand in my own kitchen to make a batch of my own. I always have pantry basics, like oats and dried fruit, on-hand for baking. What I ended up making was something that, for granola standards, was really, really tasty. [wprm-recipe-jump text="Get the recipe below."]
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Logo from World Gin Day (worldginday.com)[/caption]
Not to turn my back on bourbon, which many know is a favorite spirit of mine, but the Gin and Tonic is one of my absolute favorite drinks. For World Gin Day, I'm excited to share recipes for two gin infusions that are perfect choices to use in my favorite cocktail.
I tend to stick with other herbs and spices or citrus when I infuse gin because it's already herbal to begin with; it's not neutral and open to most ingredients, like its cousin vodka. In this case, cucumber-lime and lemongrass-ginger are two flavor pairings that really work well and I enjoy drinking in a Gin and Tonic.
Logo from World Gin Day (worldginday.com)[/caption]
Not to turn my back on bourbon, which many know is a favorite spirit of mine, but the Gin and Tonic is one of my absolute favorite drinks. For World Gin Day, I'm excited to share recipes for two gin infusions that are perfect choices to use in my favorite cocktail.
I tend to stick with other herbs and spices or citrus when I infuse gin because it's already herbal to begin with; it's not neutral and open to most ingredients, like its cousin vodka. In this case, cucumber-lime and lemongrass-ginger are two flavor pairings that really work well and I enjoy drinking in a Gin and Tonic.
Today is National Iced Tea day! Some of my favorite summer memories from when I was a kid included spending time over my grandparent's house, swimming in the pool, and BBQ's and drinking my aunt's homemade sun tea.
Cool down with these iced tea recipes curated from Pinterest and check out these links to find places offering free iced tea today.
Originally posted on Fuchsia-Revolver.org.
The passing of the Memorial Day weekend means that some of my favorite times of the year are approaching. It’s not so much the summer weather, which tends to get too hot for my comfort, but the other things that come along with it that I enjoy.
I’m talking, of course, of grilling outdoors, going to farmers markets and food festivals, taking trips to the beach to eat lobster rolls... the things that, for shameless food-obsessed people like me, make dealing with the hot weather a little more tolerable.
