Food Waste Friday: just one miss

30 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by Jane's Adventures in Dinner in grape jelly

After my “Amityville Horror” edition last week with it’s freezer mishap I really wanted to make sure that I did better so I’ve gotten my waste down to one lonely head of lettuce that got put to the side and not tended to before it went gushy and black.

I also was able to save all of my pretty grapes that have been dutifully growing and ripening under the arbour all summer. I love my grape vines. They give me shade and all this gorgeous fruit. Believe it or not they are only four years old but have managed to cover a nine foot pergola even with judicious pruning.

Two big buckets (5 l. each) were produced! I gave one away, we gorged ourselves on as many as we could stand for a couple of days and…

made juice out of the rest. I actually had three big pots of juice. Simply take your grapes add enough water to cover and boil the heck out of them for 20 minutes.

Strain off the juice when everything is nice and cool. You can do this for apple, crab apples, currants…

I’ve kept half the juice just for drinking and the other half I made into jelly. I’m not going to go into the recipe as I just followed the recipe on the good old Certo (pectin) box. Instead, if you haven’t made jelly (or jam) I’ll just mention a few things to keep you safe and to make your canning successful.

This is one of my few regrets this summer. I have canned almost nothing-usually my cupboard in the basement is brimming this time of year with pickles, chutneys, jams and jellies but the reno took precidence this year.

When you are told to skim off the foam this is the stage you are looking for. The light, foamy stuff will prevent your jelly from setting and could possibly lead to extra air (breeding bacteria) being trapped in your jelly.

Start your sterilizing. I like to use copious amount of boiling water. Here are my jar tops having been sterilized (moved using sterilized tongs) and soaking in more boiling water so that the rubber will be ready to seal.

MORE boiling water will take care of your jars. Remember that the rims need a good dosing of water too.

Fill your hot jars with hot liquid. Ensure you have no drips along the top as this will prevent sealing.

Fill a deep stockpt with yet more boiling water. I like to add a round rack to the bottom to prevent my jars from jiggling and potentially cracking. If you don’t have one you can always ball up a layer of tin foil to cushion. Add jars (the water should just to the top) and boil for 11 minutes (my mom always did 11 so I do). Remove jars from water-do yourself a favour and look for a special set of tongs that is meant for this job. You will only use them a couple of times a year but avoiding nasty burns is so worth it. You’ll start to hear the pop of the jars sealing almost right away. If they don’t seal within an hour then reboil OR use this jelly first (put it in the fridge).

Awww….50 jars of jelly ready for my cupboard.

Mama Kat’s: 10 things you would do if you didn’t have to work

29 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by Jane's Adventures in Dinner in Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

10 things you would do if you didn’t have to work.

I’m loving this week’s writing assignment as it lets me indulge in a bit of harmless ‘what if’ time.

It is sort of like a mini-holiday and to be honest this is as close to to a holiday as I’m going to get for a bit.

Let me start off by saying that I really do love my job. I love being an English teacher.

I love the energy of the school. I’m very blessed in so many ways. Having said that…

I would not work if I won the lottery and I run the lottery pool at schoo in an effort to see that myself and a number of colleagues will have a chance to tender our notices.

If I didn’t have to work it would mean that I was independantly wealthy and petty things like laundry, groceries, paying bills…would be done for me.

Since I’m indulging anyway,

I’m going to expand this prompt into a total fantasy that includes; unlimited time and funds.

1) I would never rush.
Let me start off with the little love of my life:

the big love of my life is about as fond of getting his photo taken as I am and pretty much all of my dreams start off with them.

(Well, possibly George Clooney gets a spot in there too. Everyone has their ‘one’.)

I’m very aware that even with all that love-I rush. I don’t ~~mean~~ want to but I rush.

2) I would paint each day. Once upon a time I was learning to be a painter and then life got in the way. I would paint in full light. I would paint just for sheer love. I would paint because I wanted to and I wouldn’t judge my paintings.

3) I would see every inch of this huge world of ours (you know, all the spots on your bucket list) and try to leave each corner a bit better than I found it.

4) I would read, even more than I already do. I would read for the sheer love of it for hours a day.

5) I would take courses ‘just because’. I would be a regular at the University taking whatever interested me at the time. I would have no goal other than my love of learning.

6) I would see dear friends often and spontaneously.

7) I would listen longer and more patiently to my mom when she asks the same question over and over again as Alzheimer’s steals her away from us.

8) I would run. I would run long distances like I did in my 20’s. My stride would lengthen. I would get my runner’s ‘high’ back. I would test my endurance.

9) I would take longer than 30 seconds to shovel a meal into myself before “the next thing”.

10) I would put away all the laundry when it is dry and not two weeks later.

But since this is just a bit of day dreaming I’m going to make a better choice and blow bubbles on the back deck with my best girl.

Perhaps some kissies will also be involved.

Ummm…yeah. Those of you with eagles eyes will notice that no-the siding is still not on the house. Soon…very soon.

Blast from the past: Crepes Suzette

28 Wednesday Sep 2011

Posted by Jane's Adventures in Dinner in crepes suzette

≈ 7 Comments

I remember my mom serving this great dessert at one of her “candlelight suppers” (anyone else a Hyacinth fan?) in the ’70’s.

I made it a few times for people being nostalgic when I was catering but haven’t made it since-until “Food and Wine” and their French issue.

How can you go wrong with crepes, sugar and BOOZE, with the addition of a possible fire?

Make your regular crepe batter; 2 eggs, 1 1/4 cup milk, 1 cup flour and 2 T. oil. Let rest for a bit at room temperature.

Meanwhile, get your sauce mix ready. Whip; 6 T. butter, 1/4 cup grand marnier, 1/4 cup sugar and the juice and zest of one orange.

Don’t worry; it’ll look weird.

Make your lovely crepes using a scant 1/4 cup of batter for each.

Fold into quarters and set aside until you are ready for your dessert.

Oh! And share some of them (before the sauce) with a little girl who is avoiding a nap.

Heat your sauce mixture in a large fry pan. Get it bubbling but don’t let it get any colour in it.

Add in your crepes (you could even make a HUGE batch of crepes and freeze them). Little the sauce coat.

Plate and let your sauce reduce by half. If you have a gas stove then this might be where the fire portion of the evening comes in. If you like to live dangerously then purposely blaze the sauce at this point.

Sauce, the crepes not you, and sprinkle with a bit more sugar for service.

The big wow with little effort

27 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by Jane's Adventures in Dinner in Rolled porkloin

≈ 3 Comments

We had a crowd over Saturday night (12 of us in all) and I wanted something that was gorgeous but also didn’t need to be babysat. Wandering around the grocery store on Friday night I had a few ideas; a big pot of spaghetti, chicken pot pie, roast…and then I came upon the current issue of BonAppetit.

Essentially, bacon wrapped porkloin stuffed with pork.

How could I go wrong?

Reading the recipe though I knew that I wanted to simplify thing even more so off we went Saturday morning to the Farmer’s market-after a crossiant and a bracing latte.

We stopped and had a dance to some great music.

Got

and

Got hungry again and needed pizza from the wood burning oven.

And after another dance went home to cook.

In my pretty bowl I’ve chopped; an apple (I like honey crisp since they are tart-granny smith would also be nice-leave the skins on), an onion, 2 garlic cloves and 7 sages leaves from the garden. Mix with 1 lb. ground pork and 3 T. apple cider with pepper to taste (about 1 tsp.). This will make one of the nicest stuffings going. I would also think you could just stop at this point and cook the whole thing as a meatloaf.

My big roaster is ready with 6 small apples quartered and two, 6 inch rosemary stalks.

I’ve got two porkloins for my large group. Half the recipe for the stuffing if you have less people to feed.

Now, the idea is to cut your porkloin halfway down.

Then keep turning and cutting so that you end-up with a nice flat piece of meat.

Top with your totally delicious stuffing.

Roll.

Ok, other than the eating, this is the really great part.

Make a ‘bed’ of prosciutto slices.

Cover your loin with prosciutto.

Put in your roaster. I had a few hours at this point before I needed to cook my meat so I threw the whole thing in the fridge and set the table (there were actually two tables).