(Strawberry) Jam Session

I can't even begin to explain how excited I am every year for strawberries. We have a small patch planted in the garden which is good for nibbling whilst in the garden (none ever make it up to the house). In the future I plan to dramatically expand the fruit we grow but this year was not the year to do so. Therefore, I have been looking for a local source or organic strawberries and hit the jackpot with The Berry Patch. The Berry Patch is a no-spray/low-spray patch. This year the berry plants were only sprayed once, before they flowered. At $3/lb for pick your own (PYO in foodie lingo) these are a great deal. And, bonus, it is only about a 20 minute drive from my house! My daughter and I have picked 18lbs so far this summer. Well, I have picked 18lbs and she has eaten several more pounds while picking. Picking at the Berry Patch is really easy because they employ a flag system and ask that you thoroughly pick your flagged area before moving on. This means that you can pick a large quantity in a small amount of time as opposed to roaming around a large field full of strawberry plants and searching for good berries. Awesomeness.

Having access to amazing-tasting-inexpensive-practically-not-sprayed strawberries this year inspired me to make some jam. I have not done a lot of canning in the past and it is something I keep wanting to do more of. Having a 2yo means making a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and our jam consumption this year is at an all time high. I have some issues with store bought jam and buying locally made jam at the Farmers Market will run you $6 for 8oz. Not exactly budget friendly. So I started to research making strawberry jam.

The first few recipes I looked at had me a bit concerned. Most called for 5 cups of strawberry mush and 8 cups of sugar. 8 cups of sugar??? Just thinking about how sweet that must be made me feel a little queasy. Luckily as I researched I learned that you can use no-sugar pectin and still add a small amount of sugar. Making jam, as it turns out, is as much an art as a science. You can sweeten it with sugar, fruit juice, honey, etc. And you can vary the proportions of each. Below you will find the measurements I used. I think the jams taste awesome. I made 4 jars of strawberry and 4 jars of strawberry-rhubarb. I especially love the strawberry rhubarb jam. In the future I will experiment with different sweeteners, etc but for my first jam session this was a great start.

Methods and Measurements:

To start I washed and hulled about 8 cups of strawberries. Then I mashed them to yield 4 cups of mashed strawberries. I mixed 4 cups mashed strawberries, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water and 1 package no-sugar pectin in a pot on the stove and brought to a rapid boil, stirring frequently. Once it was boiling rapidly (i.e. the boil could not be knocked down) I let it cook for 1 minute. I removed from the heat and filled my mason jars. I used 12 oz jars and this mixture filled exactly 4 jars, leaving 1/4" head space. The jars were then placed in a hot water bath and boiled for 10 minutes (I had to adjust for altitude). Remove from water and let sit for 24 hours to cool and seal.

The strawberry-rhubarb was similar, just add one cup of chopped rhubarb.

Some notes: Next time I will reduce the sugar by 1/2 cup. The strawberry jam was still on the sweet side even when reducing the sugar called for in conventional recipes by 75%. Another thing I noticed was that my fruit rose to the top of the jars. To prevent this you can let the mixture sit in the pot after it is boiled for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. This will distribute the fruit better and start it setting. When you transfer it into the jar it should remain evenly distributed.

I think canning can be intimidating - all that sterilizing that needs to be done, the equipment you are encouraged to buy (not totally necessary by the way), the time involved. The truth is once you are all set up and do it once it becomes so much easier and if you have a lot to can it is easy to bang it out in an afternoon. Although, canning is not a toddler friendly activity so try and do it without a little one hanging on your legs.

So what are you waiting for? Plan your own jam session today!

Recipe Books and Binders

A friend recently told me that in an organizing book she read it recommended photocoping all of the recipes you like from your cookbooks and keeping them organized in a binder. Then donate or sell your cookbook collection to free up more space in your kitchen. Whhat? Get rid of my cookbooks? Seriously, what would I read before falling asleep at night?

However, this did get me thinking. I have a handful of cookbooks that I *love* and reference frequently. I have another (large) handful that I reference occasionally. And I have a few that I am not sure I've even opened. On top of that I have recipes printed and handwritten all over the place. They are in folders in my office, stuffed into cookbooks, used as scrap paper for my daughters artistic creations...in every room of my house one can find recipes floating around. It probably was high time I organized everything.

Side note: I love organizing.

Step 1: Create recipe binders. This was easy. I got one binder for tried and loved recipes and one for recipes to try. Then I got those write on tabs to separate everything into categories. 2 2" binders later all of my free floating recipes are organized.
Step 2: What about those cookbooks in the "never been opened" category? Yeah, time to open them. I should not have been surprised that there weren't too many recipes in them that I wanted to try so they are all being rehomed with friends or local libraries.
Step 3: Cooking Magazines. This is a whole other category of stuff in my house. I decided to only keep my all time favorite magazines, Eating Well, (which seriously, if you are not a subscriber, why not? I have never in my life been disappointed with a recipe from here, there are really few ads and the pictures are gorgeous. I'm just saying.) There are now in a nice magazine holder organized by season because that is how I reference them. From the rest I ripped out the recipes I wanted to keep, added them to the binder and recycled the magazines.

I must say I am LOVING my new recipe binders. They make life so easy and I also inserted a few lists in the front: "meals my husband likes" "quick and easy", etc.

An unexpected part of organizing my recipes was that it was a walk down my personal culinary history. I started gardening and becoming interested in cooking in college, so about 9-10 years ago. I remember the summer my roommate planted a tomato plant in our backyard and I was simply amazed that it actually produced tomatoes. The next summer I had turned the entire backyard into a garden (I tend to be over enthusiastic and unrealistic when it comes to gardening; it's only gotten worse with time). My gardening books are another collection of items I might consider evaluating sometime soon. But, I digress. Over the last decade my cooking, my thoughts on food, and my taste buds have seriously evolved and my cookbooks and recipes clearly reflect this evolution. There was that period of time that I did Weight Watchers and every recipe had "low-fat" ingredients in it. And those 5 Weight Watcher cookbooks. Then there was the evolution to eating the vegetables in my garden and the recipes that went with that... and then eating the vegetables grown locally, and then eating meat grown locally, and then eating only grassfed meat grown locally, and now eliminating as much processed food from my diet. There have also been phases. Exotic ingredients. Heirloom varieties of vegetables. Cooking authentic (fill in the location) food. Mastering the basics (this is an ongoing phase). Traditional French techniques (still working on those). And finally my culinary history includes Learning to cook with others in mind. In college I cooked for my tastes. When I met my husband I started to cook for his taste as well. When I had a baby I made baby food and researched childhood nutrition. And so on.

I have only been in the kitchen and garden for a decade. That's not very long. I can only imagine what will enhance my culinary experiences in the future.

Greens!

My first three CSA pick-ups have been overflowing with fresh greens. I like greens but my family has needed some convincing. My husband doesn't like the overwhelming flavor of some greens and my daughter is turned off by their texture (I think anyway. She basically told me that in 2yo language). So I have been searching high and low for some recipes to remedy these complaints.



I have found that, in general, cooking greens with a fat helps a lot for the taste problem. Bacon grease or butter sauteed with greens, garlic and onions seems to be a standby of a lot of recipes. We've done that. It is tasty enough for the husband. Of course I am not a *huge* fan of covering up all those flavors with lards. Another preparation that I prefer is a stir fry with the greens. To get the stir fry just right you need to add some crunch. This has been accomplished with the addition of sugar snap peas (in season now - and they crisp up so nicely when lightly stir fried), carrots (not in season but still reasonably priced for an organic produce at the supermarket) or almonds. Greens in a stir fry preparation have been my go-to the night before CSA pick-up the last few weeks. It is a great way to use up the last of those greens and it seems to satisfy most palates around here.

Rhubarb Muffins, Veggie Burgers & Asparagus Three Ways

I go through cooking phases. Sometimes, I love cooking and I can't get enough of it. Other times I am irritated that I am the only one in the house who seems to know where the kitchen is and I stop cooking for a little while.

Spring is a great time to be in a cooking mood. All the fresh vegetables inspire looking for new recipes and trying out new things. I also generally buy fresh locally grown produce in excess and have no choice but to cook it. (4 lbs of rhubarb? Why not, we haven't had rhubarb in a year.)

Springtime cooking this year has coincided with a bit of a health kick, as these recipes will reflect. Here are some recent winners that I have tried.

*A note about my lack of pictures: sorry, I suck. I am going to try much harder to start including lots more photos with my posts.*

Rhubarb Oatmeal Muffins
One problem that I always have with rhubarb is that it is frequently paired with cups upon cups of sugar. I searched high and low this year to find a rhubarb recipe that wasn't insane in the sugar department. Plus, I love rhubarb for its tartness - why hide that? This recipe is AWESOME. I have made it four times (this has something to do with the quantity of rhubarb I purchased at the Farmers Market last week) and each time the muffins have been seriously worth it.

The original recipe is here. Of course I have tweaked it and my version is below.

1 cup flour
3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 egg
1/3 cup safflower oil OR 1/3 cup applesauce (applesauce makes for a more binded, less crumby muffin)
1/3 or any citrus juice - I have used orange juice, juice from canned Mandarin oranges and apple juice with success
1 tsp grated orange peel
1 cup diced fresh or frozen rhubarb, thawed and drained

Topping
1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsps chopped pecans or walnuts or you can leave the nuts out if you desire
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

In a mixing bowl, combine the first seven ingredients; set aside.
In another bowl, combine egg, oil or applesauce, citrus juice and peel.
Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
Fold in rhubarb.
Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full.
Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle over tops.
Bake at 350*F for 18-20 minutes or until muffins test done

This recipe yields about 9 muffins. I find doubling it and filling the muffin cups more yields nice sized muffins, about a dozen.

Veggie Burgers
I have been craving homemade veggie burgers lately (and brussel sprouts, must be pregnancy cravings). My little brother and his gf came over for dinner one night and we made these veggie burgers. They were fantastic. I would recommend doubling the recipe and freezing some for later use. They are a bit time consuming to prepare so why not make extra and freeze some?

Asparagus, Asparagus, Asparagus
My excitement about rhubarb was shadowed only by my extreme enthusiasm for asparagus. It was asparagus with or for every meal for about a week. My favorite three ways to have asparagus:
#1) Roasted Asparagus. Just toss with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. Roast for a few minutes at 425. Note: I think kosher salt is essential when roasting vegetables. You just don't get the same results with table salt.
#2) Asparagus Salad. This recipe is a favorite for its simplicity. The flavors blend together so nicely you will have a hard time not finishing the entire salad. My only regret here is that tomatoes and asparagus are not in season at the same time. But since my 2yo eats tomatoes (even the nasty ones from the store) like there is no tomorrow we always have tomatoes on hand.
#3) Cream of Asparagus Soup. And speaking of simplicity... when you have fresh vegetables it is so wonderful to prepare them simply and really let the flavor shine though. Here is a very simple cream of asparagus soup that comes together in about 20 minutes and it fabulous only with fresh delicious asparagus.

Happy Spring Cooking!

Banana Honey Ice Cream

I know, three posts in one day. Insanity.

Tonight I concocted a new ice cream primarily to give to my daughter as a less sugary dessert. I had a bunch of bananas that were getting pretty spotty so I decided to try and make banana ice cream with them. None of the recipes I found on the internet were what I was looking for so I just made up my own. I really didn't want to use any sweeteners but in the end added some honey because the banana and milk mixture just didn't seem sweet enough. Next time I will actually reduce the honey from 1/2 cup to 1/3 of a cup and see how that works. I froze the bananas before using them to release some more of the banana flavor. Make sure to peel them before freezing and then let them thaw a bit before processing.

6 small previously frozen bananas
2 cups milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 tb vanilla extract
1 tb lemon juice
1/2 cup honey (I used raw local honey)

Allow the bananas a few minutes to thaw and then process them in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add remaining ingredients. Mix well and then place in ice cream maker. Makes about 8 cups.

I give my daughter about 1/8 of a cup of ice cream for dessert on nights that we eat dessert (maybe a couple of times a week). With this recipe there is 1 tablespoon of honey in every 1/2 cup. So in an 1/8 cup of ice cream there is... a little less than 1 teaspoon of honey. I am pretty happy with this in our attempt to reduce sugar intake.

WSJ Article: "What's really in a lot of 'heathy' food"

My father-in-law forwarded me this interesting article from the Wall Street Journal. The article is not very detailed but does cover make some good points about our perception of the food we are eating and what we are actually eating. It talks a bit about how many times the marketing comes before the science.

The part of the article that really caught my eye was about chicken. I know, more bad news about commerically raised and processed chicken. Since the article might not be available for more than seven days I am going to copy a portion of it:

"...roughly one-third of the fresh chicken sold in the U.S. is "plumped" with water, salt and sometimes a seaweed extract called carrageenan that helps it retain the added water. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says chicken processed this way can still be labeled "all natural" or "100% natural" because those are all natural ingredients, even though they aren't naturally found in chicken.

Producers must mention the added ingredients on the package -- but the lettering can be small: just one-third the size of the largest letter in the product's name. If you're trying to watch your sodium to cut your risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke, it pays to check the Nutrition Facts label. Untreated chicken has about 45 to 60 mgs of sodium per four-ounce serving. So-called enhanced or "plumped" chicken has between 200 and 400 mgs of sodium per serving, almost as much as a serving of fast-food french fries.

Adding salt water became widespread when big discount stores began selling groceries and wanted to sell chicken at uniform weights and prices. Plumping packaged chicken helps even out the weight. But that means consumers are paying for added salt water at chicken prices -- an estimated $2 billion worth every year, according to the Truthful Labeling Coalition, a group of chicken producers that don't enhance their products."

I have already been having a hard time eating chicken from the grocery store after the last article I read about arsenic in chicken and this additional information about the salt content is not making the matter better. No wonder Americans are suffering from weight problems - everything we eat is loaded with salt and/or growth hormones. Personally I prefer the taste of pastured chicken myself, and it looks like that is what we will be sticking with in this hosue.

Spring is Here! (Finally)

I know it has been a while since I posted. Besides the whole pregnancy excuse, we have just come through the most uninspired culinary time in Upstate New York: late winter/early spring. It is that time when you go to the market and there is nothing besides fresh lettuce (which is great to have in the winter but you know what I mean). Today was the turning point. At the market this morning I picked up asparagus and rhubarb, two signs that it is now officially spring and I am now officially inspired to cook again.

Most of the asparagus will be used as a dinner side for the week. Roasted asparagus. Need I say more? In the meantime I am looking for a good rhubarb-without-strawberries-and-loads-of-sugar recipe. Rhubarb is really tart so I understand why it is mostly paired with sugar and other sweet food but another spring inspiration is to start eliminating sugar from our diets, whenever possible.

So, sorry for the lapse in posting. But now that spring is here prepare to be overwhelmed!