Blackberry and Red Wine Jam - its canning season!

I did not grow up in a family where canning was a part of our summer. We didn’t live near a farm, and we didn’t have much in the way of a garden. We were city folk.

Well, now I’ve married into the country lifestyle, and I adore the idea of canning. But it scares me.

I’ve canned a few things and then I rarely end up using it because I’m always nervous about random bacteria. That, and I live on a well and the water leaves this nasty white residue on the outside of the jars. I know, I know, its just minerals and it wipes right off, but still. It freaks me out.

But I WANT to be a canner. I really do.

So when I was out browsing for a jam recipe, I ran across Steph Chows blog and learned that there is such a thing as a “Jam Exchange”. That’s right, a bunch of people all over the country make jam and then send it to each other. I am sooooo signing up for THAT!

As you may have heard if you follow me on Twitter, I’ve recently been endowed with large quantities of fresh blackberries, courtesy of the hubs’ buddy, MG. More than twenty quarts. So, I did a lot of freezing, but I still had several quarts in the fridge I needed to do something with, and that means jam.

I had seen recipes for blackberry with port, or strawberries with port, but since port never last long at my house, I didn’t have any on hand and I didn’t want to wait until I could get to a decent liquor store to pick up a bottle.

But you know what else goes really well with berries? Red wine. So, in place of the port, I poured some red wine into a saucepan and reduced it down to the ¼ cup the original recipe called for. I worried about the amount of sugar it called for, but I didn’t want to chance changing the recipe too much so I left it. The jam did end up awfully sweet, but still quite tasty.

Well, I signed up for the jam exchange this morning, and this will be one of the jars I send out! Unless, of course, one of the dozen or so other jam recipes I have filed away turns out better....

Coming up next – Blueberry and Lavender Jam! Stay tuned!

Blackberry and Red Wine Jam

4 cups fresh blackberries (crushed)

1lb sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 red wine reduction

Simmer about ¾ cup of red wine in a small saucepan until reduced to about ¼ cup.

Add the crushed berries and the sugar to a large, deep pot. Heat on low, stirring often, until the sugar is dissolved.Add the lemon juice and bring the heat up to Med/High, stirring to blend.

Cook until the berry mixture reaches 220F. Carefully add the wine reduction, stir and reheat to 222F. (Note: I could not get my jam to break 220 degrees, so I quit mine a bit early, but it turned out fine. Remove from the heat and let rest for 3-5 minutes so the berries can mix with the syrup. If any obvious hard blackberry cores rise to the top, remove them for a smoother jam.

Note: at this point, I actually put my jam through a food mill to remove all the seeds and hulls. My jam also did not seem to be gelling very well, so after straining off the seeds, I put the mixture back in the pan, brought it up to a boil and added some liquid pectin.Pour hot jam into sterilized jars, seal properly and finish with a hot water bath for 10 minutes. OR, just pour into freezer containers and freeze.

A Night at the Fair

Just a quick post because I totally forgot to put up any pictures of my boys at the fair! Here are my men (big and little) at the truck and tractor pulls:

And me (rockin' my new FREE Mad Housewife t-shirt - thanks Keenan and Damian!) with the boy, sweating our butts off in the near 100 degree heat.

(yeah, I know, the hubs isn't so good with a camera...blurry, much?)

And one more...Daddy taking Ty for his first ever bumper car ride (and nope, he did NOT enjoy it!).

More to come, we're going to be incomunicado for a few days. I hope to have lots of cool stuff to post when we get back! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Cook The Books - The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

I must say, I do a lot of reading. And it has been a very long time since a book has grabbed ahold of me and held me captive under its spell the way this book did. From the moment I picked it up, I was captivated. Yes, the book revolves around food, so it almost goes without saying that I would relate to it on some level, but it is more than just a story. This book is the blending of nine individual lives and their own personal stories into one. In this book, there are no secondary characters. No supporting roles. Each person occupies an integral piece of the pie, so to speak.

Our newest selection for Cook the Books is The School of Essential Ingredients, by Erica Bauermeister, a novel about Lillian, a woman who runs her own restaurant and has lived most of her life through her cooking, discovering herself in the struggle to communicate with her mother through food. Lillian holds cooking classes at her restaurant and the book unfolds a story of the lives of her eight students. Each chapter focuses on one of the students, recounting the tale of how they came to be the people they are, what brought them to the restaurant, and how they become intimately involved in each other’s lives.

There were so many parts of the book that spoke to me, I eventually lost track and found myself becoming connected to the characters as well. I found myself laughing with them, cheering at their victories and grieving for them in times of loss. When trying to decide what to cook for this book, I thought I would find the answer by choosing my favorite character, but I couldn’t make myself choose one over another. So instead, I focused on my favorite scene in the book, which wasn’t easy either, and coincidentally, it also had one of my favorite meals as its central theme. Thanksgiving. I absolutely loved Lillian’s take on the traditional Thanksgiving meal, as I find myself every year trying to update the dishes we put on our table. What touched me most about this chapter, however, wasn’t as much the food, as the interaction between Isabelle and Antonia. Antonia is a fantastic Italian woman, striving to find her own place in our world, and Isabelle is a lost soul, desperately trying to cling to the well-worn life she seems to be losing her grip on. In this scene, Isabelle warns Antonia that she “seems to be losing herself lately” and that Antonia is taking her chances cooking with her. In a seamless role reversal, Antonia naturally assumes the role of Isabelle’s caretaker, and gives Isabelle the precious gift of little bits of memories returned to her. Pleasant memories or not, each glimpse is a treasure to Isabelle and we were lucky enough to relive them with her. A sprig of rosemary held under her nose reminds her of her honeymoon, a dish of cranberries soaking in sherry queue the memory of dinner parties past, and a bit of pasta dough brings to life the touch of a long lost lover. Antonia knows innately how to stimulate Isabelle’s mind with her sense of smell and of touch.

Smells and fragrances have always been the glue that holds my past to my present in the form of my memories and this chapter was a special treat for me. Bauermeister’s way of drawing out an image with such sensual descriptions of smell, touch, and taste reeled me in and touched my soul in a way very few books can.
And so, for my post, I chose Isabelle and Antonia’s turkey breast, stuffed with cranberries, garlic and rosemary. And as you know, you can’t have Thanksgiving without side dishes, so I also prepared Lillian’s green beans with lemon and pine nuts (since green bean season is in full swing right now) and polenta with gorgonzola (because, after all, I am a fantastic Italian woman, myself!). And I have to say, while I was bringing the meal together, I made a point to stop and smell each and every ingredient. Instead of Isabelle’s sherry for the cranberries, I opened a bottle of port to soak them in, and was transported back to Brown County, Indiana a few years ago, where I stood tasting wines at a local shoppe with my mom and my sister, and had my first taste of a beautiful local port during a day of mother-daughter quality time.

At the end of the book, I found myself sad that there was no more to read, wanting to know more about what happens with the students and their teacher. Whether the author intended it this way, I will never know, but upon finishing the book, I turned back to the front cover and read the title again. The School of Essential Ingredients. Suddenly I found that the “essential ingredients”, at least for me, did not come from the kitchen pantry, but were the characters themselves. In the end, each student was an essential ingredient in Lillian’s life, making her the person she is.

I hope you enjoy my translation of Lillian’s Thanksgiving. I think the meal was appropriate for the celebration of life, past and present, that Isabelle and Antonia shared in the kitchen that day.The turkey was so flavorful with the herbs and the touch of port infused in the cranberries, and the fresh farmers market green beans were wonderful with the lemon to really make the flavor pop. But the polenta was by far my favorite. Rich and creamy, the gorgonzola was a standout ingredient in this lovely dish. That is one I'll make again and again. I also especially love that the cooking class always had wine with their meals, and so I enjoyed a nice glass of Merlot with mine as well.

This is my submission for Cook the Books. Please check out all the other wonderful creations made this round as well!

Trisha Yearwood's Apple Dumplings

Did you know that Trisha Yearwood has a cookbook out? I did. And I know this because I’ve been seeing a lot of bloggers talking about it. But you know what? I really wasn’t excited about it. As a matter of fact, I don’t even know if I can honestly say I read a single post all the way through.

Why? I don’t know. Its not that I don’t like Trisha Yearwood. I do. She has a wonderful voice and she is a great musical talent. I just never thought of her as a cook, apparently, because I have been dismissing her new book without cause. And you know what? That’s not like me. I am a very open minded person, and I am always trying new things, so I don’t know what my problem was.

That is, until my friend Kim posted Trisha’s apple dumplings. Oh MAN, did they look good. I admit, I skulked around the internet until I found the recipe. (Hey, don’t look at me in that tone of face, when you buy a car, you give it a test drive first, right?)

It really doesn’t get much easier than this. And inexpensive, too. I mean, a can of biscuits, two apples and some staples like butter and cinnamon. I whipped these bad boys up Sunday morning and took them with me to the weekly family breakfast at the motherinlaw’s house. You could say they went over well. You know, considering that the average person at the table had 2-3 dumplings and I swear someone almost licked the pan clean. These were TASTY. Health food, this is not, but really, if you think about it, there are a lot of breakfast foods that are worse for you.

Trisha has achieved a new level of respect in my book, and I just might have to put her book on my list. I’ll definitely be making these again.

Apple Dumplings

2 Granny Smith apples

1 cup water

1 cup sugar *divided

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

8 canned biscuits (buttermilk)

4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Peel, core and slice apples vertically into 8 slices each. Cover with water to keep them from getting brown.

In a medium saucepan, mix the water, 3/4 cup sugar, butter and vanilla over heat and bring mixture to a boil.

Separate each biscuit into 2 layers. Wrap a biscuit layer around a slice of apple, stretching it to slightly overlap and seal the bottom. (I used my mini Silpin to roll them out since stretching them wasn't working too well for me.)

Place the wrapped slices sealed side down in a 9 X 13 baking pan. Pour the hot sugar mixture over the apple slices.

Mix the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle over the tops of the wrapped apples.

Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Serves 8

Gad-Zukes!

Zucchinis are a prolific little plant. Or, at least, so I’ve heard.

Every year I plant zucchini plants, hoping for the vast harvests I hear about.

And yet, every year, my plants bloom like crazy and then....do nothing.

Yep, I got nothing.

Fortunately for me, there is never a lack of zucchini overload to be had from friends and family who can’t get rid of their motherlodes fast enough.

Such was the case this week when a friend of ours practically begged me to take his extra zucchini and yellow squash to work and give it away for him.

And, as with every other year, the very first thing I want to do with zucchini is make a zucchini cake. Don’t get me wrong, I love to grill it, too, but for that I love the really cute little zucchinis that I can just slice in half and throw on the grill. When it comes to the garden monsters I frequently grab from our lunchroom free-for-all table, its gotta be zucchini cake.

And when it comes to zucchini cake, there is only ONE recipe that will do. My mom’s.
I know, everyone thinks that their mom’s recipe is the best, but mine really is. Everyone loves it, and constantly begs for the recipe. And, until now, I’ve never....EVER....given it up.
But, Mom gave me the go-ahead to post it, so if you are a zucchini lover, this is your lucky day!

Ty's Grandma's Zucchini Cake
4 cups grated zucchini – set aside
1 ½ cups oil
3 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Peel, then grate the zucchini, discarding any large, seedy sections. Press grated zucchini between paper towels to eliminate some of the liquid.

Beat together the oil and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add in the beaten eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingreditents and add the mixture into the wet ingredients.

Mix in the zucchini and nuts (if using),

Grease and flour a 9x13 pan (I spray with Baker’s Joy). Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake at 300 degrees for 1 ½ to 2 hours or until toothpick comes out clean.And, although my mom says the cake is plenty sweet and moist for her without it, I've never been able to resist topping this cake with cream cheese frosting.I know, this isn't the greatest picture in the world, but just LOOK at how moist that cake is.
WARNING!! WARNING, Will Rogers!!! This is NOT good for you!! But, I firmly believe its worth the risk.

Thanks, Mom!!!

Easy "Breezy"

It was a long weekend. Short, but yet, looooong....

As in, I didn’t get nearly enough accomplished, but we had our fair share of stress and frustration. My son is tentative by nature and its hard to get him to try new things. So, whenever something comes up that is on his list of “things Ty likes to do” we try and make sure we do them.

For example, we heard that at the county fair last week, there was going to be a fireworks display after the country concert Friday night. Well, Ty loves fireworks, so we left the house late and got there in time to walk around a bit and have a little fun before the fireworks started.

We took him to the creepy guy making balloon animals (badly, I might add), we let him take a couple of runs at the RC race track game on the midway, and then we spotted the pony rides. Ty does enjoy a pony ride, so I considered it well worth the $5 to watch him clinging to the saddle horn on that itty bitty pony for dear life. (Seriously, those were some of the tiniest ponies I have ever seen. The one Ty was on looked like he was WEARING him. But, I digress....)

The little equestrians were about a minute or so into their ride, when suddenly, and completely without warning, the fireworks started.

At which point, the ponies positively WIGGED OUT.

Which proceeded to make the kids FREAK OUT.

And we very nearly had a bad accident. I’m amazed none of the kids got thrown. The guy running the ride did his best to calm the ponies down, I’m assuming his theory was “keep them walking and they’ll be fine”, but he was wrong.

The parents were out there in a heartbeat, walking next to their kiddos, but when Ty started trying to climb me like a baby ‘coon, I told the guy, “Hey, I’ve got to get him off this NOW” he yanked the ponies to a stop and looked visibly relieved when the rest of the parents followed suit and removed their panicked children as well. He said to me, “Wow, they really didn’t give us much warning, did they?” He was clearly less than thrilled with the situation, himself, and considering that we were practically beneath the fireworks, I don’t blame him. There could have been a very serious accident.

So, skittish little boy clinging to his momma, we walked over and tried to turn the fireworks into the fun display they were meant to be.

Instead, we now have two LESS activities that we can do with Ty, since he has now decided he no longer likes ponies OR fireworks. *sigh* I need a drink.

I remembered seeing this in Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything when I was reading his Tequila Sunrise recipe a few weeks ago. I’ve never tried a Seabreeze, but have wanted to since the first time (of many, many times) that I watched the movie French Kiss. "Seabreeze? Does that translate?"

This seemed like a pretty good time to give it a shot. The recipe makes enough for several drinks, but I cut it back to one. Okay, so I did it twice, so, technically, two. But hey, I deserved it. Switch the “cup” measurements to ounces instead and you should be a-okay.Seabreeze (a la Mark Bittman)
¾ cup vodka
1 ½ cups grapefruit juice
1 ½ cups cranberry juice
Lime wedges for garnish

I poured mine over ice and then squeezed the garnish into my drink for some extra punch. Two of these and I was feeling MUCH better about the ponies. And the fireworks. Now I just have to deal with my boy going off to Kindergarten in a few weeks. *sigh* Its always something. Good thing I still have some vodka....

Wonder Pets, Wonder Pets, We’re on Our Way....

A few months ago, I discovered that there was going to be a production of Story Time Live appearing in my area. I promptly got in touch with Brayden’s mom (Ty’s best friend) and we ordered tickets. At which point. I realized. My mistake.

Are you KIDDING??? What parent in her right mind would willingly, eagerly even, subject herself to the Wonder Pets on stage.

Well, frankly, any mom who wants to see the look of sheer joy on her child’s face. Oh, yeah, and who feels like dropping a couple hundred bucks to do it.

Yes, I am insane.

For those of you who haven’t recently been acquainted with a preschool aged child, Story Time Live is rather like Disney on Ice. Except instead of Disney its Nick, Jr. And its not on ice.

Instead, it is the characters from four of my son’s favorite TV shows, performing special stories on stage. I fully expected this to be a parental nightmare, with a theatre full of preschoolers and their stressed out parents, laced with sugary treats and overpriced specialty merchandise.

Well, I was partially right. The show merchandise was, indeed, seriously overpriced. The show, however, was surprisingly pleasant, since Brayden’s mom and I spent the vast majority of it watching our sons become magnetized to the stage, in drooling awe of their little fuzzy heroes. The frenzied sea of children was actually a very well behaved group with only a few stray criers, and I suspect that the other parents were also so relieved at the unexpected pleasantness of the afternoon that I didn’t encounter a single grouchy remark or misplaced elbow in the line to exit the theatre.

My one comment to Nickelodeon (other than the horrifying merch prices) would be that the costumes were crap. I’m sure they were well made, high quality garments, please don’t get me wrong. However, the kids were confused.... I mean, I understand that Ming Ming was actually a person wearing a Ming Ming suit, but at this age, these kids don’t really get that, and really didn’t understand why the Backyardigans had human faces and voices. And really, why IS Boots the Monkey bigger than Dora?

And, hello, I’m not even going to TALK about Tuck the Turtle being anchored to his human counterpart’s pelvic region....

I think the show would have been a MUCH bigger success for the kids if they had just made full costumes that actually LOOKED like the characters. After all, this IS for the kids. The parent’s aren’t under any illusions and have no real need to be entertained. But now, I’m afraid, my boy is going to have questions about whether or not Swiper is really a fox. Hmmm.

All in all though, it was a very nice event, the kids had an absolute blast, and now we’ve opened the door (potentially) for more live events. As a bonus, the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St Louis is a true gem of historical buildings (my girl, NV will love that reference!) and a real treat to have such a pleasant staff on hand to get us through it.

Here are a few shots of the festivities for you!

First up was Ni Hao Kai Lan, but we were so engrossed in our boys that neither of us even got a picture. This is what we saw through the entire first half of the show.What you can't see is that they were both perched on the very edges of their seats.Next up were the Backyardigans.I mean, LOOK at the expression on Ty's face!The Wonder Pets were up next....And then there was Dora. None of my pictures of Dora turned out well except for this finale group shot where you also get Moose A. Moose and his friend Zee D. Bird.

Really, I mean, looking at that face, it was worth every penny.Is there really anything else to say?