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Apple Butter and Orchards

It seems that apple picking, apple butter, apple sauce, and canning are in the air.  In my blog reader alone I had sever people telling of their weekend orchard adventures.  But most eerie was Laura Nelkin talking about making apple butter just as I came back from stirring my own in the crockpot.

Our recipes are a little different, but the idea is the same – taking the fruits of the harvest and preserving them for the year to come.

My family lives in the Hudson Valley area of New York, and before that, we came from Massachusetts, where when I went to school, learning about Johnny Appleseed was part of the preschool, 1st and 2nd grade curriculum (it might have also had something to do with the fact that he was born in Leominster, MA, where I lived when I was young).  Apple picking is nearly a cultural thing in both those parts.  On apple picking days the four of us children would eat a light breakfast (As my mother knew we’d be eating apples in the orchard until we were practically sick) and then go picking.  In a good orchard picking wouldn’t take very long, so then we’d go run in the maize maze, eat cider doughnuts and become awful hellions.  The ride home would be sticky-faced children that had subsided into an exhausted post-applepicking haze.

Those types of memories stay with you, and when I found out Michael had never went apple picking it was clear that had to change.  He had to be educated – seeing as he thought apples were “okay” and he’d really only had red delicious and granny smith (both of which are really not representative of the best of apples).

We now go picking each year.

Last year we went picking and accidentally got just over 100 lbs of apples.  We were processing for DAYS.

This year we were much more reasonable – 50 lbs for canning, 10 lbs for eating.  It’s going to be a fun next few days.

Our Apple Butter Recipe:
To make 8 cups of apple butter:

Core and quarter 48 apples, skins on.
Boil until they can be poked with a fork.
Run through food mill, skins on (if using red apples, it gives the sauce a lovely pink color).  We normally run it through the coarse setting, and then again through the finest setting.
Add desired amount of sugar (approx 2 cps) and apple pie spice (well, actually, Michael has his own mix, but seeing as it’s won prizes at the Montgomery County Fair, he’s not sharing, even with me)
Put in crockpot and cook on high, stirring every 1/2 hour to full hour.  Cook all day, until it’s reduced by 1/2.
Can it in mason jars.

Enjoy all year.

Farmer’s Market Week 3 Sushi

As I mentioned in my first post about this challenge to Michael, there’s a fair amount of limitations on him to create delicious sushi. He’s limited by his ingredients – with the exception of the rice, seaweed paper and any sauces/garnishes, the bulk of the roll must be from our Farm Share.  Thus, if he doesn’t get something, or gets things that don’t work well together, he’s limited.  I’ll touch on that more at the end, when I talk about what I thought about this week’s roll.

The Sauce (same as last week’s)
1 tsp mayo
1 splash soy sauce
1 dash sugar
2 pinches ginger

The Filling:
1 carrot
1 radish
parsley
green onion

My thoughts: my largest criticism of this roll is that it is bland.  While the first two were on the sweet side because of the strawberries, this one’s filling was filled with vegetables that don’t all have very strong flavors. Combined with the sauce also not really matching these veggies (I almost want something with a bit of a bite to it, maybe add a bit of tobasco sauce to the sauce?), I felt that the rice and rice vinegar were the dominant flavors, which is not what I’m looking for.  The center either needs to be heftier, or the rice less.  Since Michael isn’t too keen on eating sushi, I think it also works against him that he hasn’t developed any taste for sushi, nor would he really enjoy eating his own creations.

He’s hoping we get more variety of veggies and other goodies soon.

Farm Share Sushi

The farm share started last week and Michael and I got our first delivery.  It was filled with delicious fruits and vegetables, which was lovely.  After we made a salad out of the greens for dinner, I was talking to Michael and I mentioned how cool it would be if he made me a sushi roll for each week of the farm share.  It would be a challenge: at least 100% of the core ingredients would have to be from things in the farm share.

This week was his first roll.
If you’ve never made sushi before, don’t be intimidated.  I’m not a fan of true sushi, with raw fish, and will just make rolls with cooked ingredients or with vegetables.  With a few supplies you can get rocking, and really, there’s no wrong way to do sushi.  It’s like sandwiches: you can put anything between the carbohydrates, and in some combination, it will probably taste good.
If you are looking for a good tutorial, go to this tutorial by Pioneer Woman.  She’s got it spot on (with the exception of not being able to make sushi on the stovetop.  I do it, and you just need to practice a little bit more than with a rice cooker.)
Disclaimer: These rolls are not like the normal recipes I sometimes talk about.  They aren’t heavily tested, which means the results can sometimes be interesting.  But it’s fun.
Week 1 Sushi Recipe

Sauce (mix them together)
1 tsp mayo
1 dash coriander
1 pinch sugar
1 splash soy sauce
Inside of Roll
2 strawberries
1 raddish, sliced into sticks
1 handful peas, fresh
1 green onion

Place items evenly along roll, in a pleasing manner.  Roll the sushi, and slice.  Serve and eat soon after.

What were my thoughts on this roll?  With the peas and the Strawberries, this could definitely be more of a desert roll instead of a dinner roll.  The sauce was good, but wasn’t quite the match I was thinking of.  I also think the sauce would have been better served over the roll, and that it would have looked better, presentation-wise, if it had been served inside-out, with the rice on the outside and the seaweed wrap on the inside.  Overall, pretty good.

Do you like sushi?  What non-standard rolls have you encountered that you’ve enjoyed?

Six Week Saga

It’s no secret that I’m not the best cook.  I’m not the worst, but if given my druthers, I’d let Michael do all the cooking, and I’d (mostly) happily do the dishes.  I’m prone to intuitive jumps in logic sometimes, which serves me well in knit or crochet… no so much in cooking.  That’s how you get meatballs that are no longer meatballs and turkeyloaf you can pour out of a pan.  (My philosophy for a long time with cooking was if I didn’t understand a step, I’d just skip it.  Hey, as long as it was cooked, it really didn’t matter how it got there, right?  Right?)

But the next six weeks Michael is going to be in in intense summer courses, which means Monday through Thursday I am responsible for the cooking, even on nights I get home late… because Michael will be getting home later.  *wince*  So before this week Michael and I sat down to brainstorm meals we could freeze, prepare before-time, and have ready to go.  That way I’m not tempted to take shortcuts that won’t work or make a mistake because I’m tired.

So… anyone have any good freezer-ready meals, or things that we can do and prep beforehand?  Anything would be good.

An Interview with Ellie

So Ellie, we’re both sitting here and I think you should let me interview you.

Ellie:  Okay.  You can write I’m fascinating if you like.  Let them know that I”m not a concieted ***hole…. don’t write ***hole.

Jen: Okay.  I can do that.  All right, most important question:  The first five cookies you think are the best.  The true cookies, if you may.

E: Let’s see… like, brand name cookies, or cookies I make?

J: Cookies, you make.

E: You really are transcribing everything?

J: Yes, I type fast enough.

E: Peanut butter cookies.  How vulgar can I be?  Do people with children read this?

J: Probably not now.

E: Okay.  *laughs*  I sorta think peanut butter cookies are right next to orgasm.  Umm… please don’t type  my umms.

J: Okay.  I can do that.

E: Lemon cookies.

J: What?

E: You don’t eat lemon cookies?  I made them for you once for your birthday.

J: Oh, those.  They were delicious.

E: Chocolate chip cookies.

J: Naturally

E: Grasshopper cookies.

J: Grasshopper?

E: They’re made with mint choclate.  Though I’d probably eat cookies with grasshoppers in them also.

J: I would too.

E: Oatmeal… not with raisins though.  Raisins are the boogers of the fruit world.

J: Really?

E: When I was a little kid, I’d used to call them weewees.  And one thime my mom got me a cinamon rasins buns with the frosting on top and I said to her, mommy there are weewees sleeping in my cake.  And refused to eat it.

J: I would too.  Though I like raisins, weewees would be just unnerving in cake.  I assume that means you don’t like rum cake with rasins in them, right?

E: By the time you put enough rum in it, you don’t notice the raisins.

J: I love you.

E: *Laughter.*  I love you too.

J: And that’s why I love Ellie.

Inspiration

 I’ve been thinking lately about inspiration, and color.  It’s sometimes hard as a designer because I’m already supposed to be thinking about winter designs.  Such is the turn around process for publishing that it takes that long from design to actualization.  This can be hard, as the weather is warming right now, the air spring-like.

For instance, I broke out my sandals this evening for a run to pick up what is god-help-me-please the second-to-last piece of furniture we’ll be taking up to our eighth-floor apartment.  There’s cherry buds on trees, not yet bloomed.  The daffodils are out full force, Bradford pears are on the cusp of blooming, and the tree I’ve always thought of as the tulip tree (I’ll post a picture in a couple of weeks) is also out.

It means I have to be creative when trying to get myself in the mood, and the mindset of winter.  I have to think warm things, cool or cold nights, and heavy knitting on my lap.  Practically the opposite of what I’m thinking of now.

One of the ways I try to get myself in the mindset is visual images, and color.

Michael was transferring and organizing all the spices this afternoon.  He’s taken the week off before his vacation days end, and is taking the opportunity to get most of the packing we haven’t done yet.

I glimpsed a look at the spices he had put out on our (brand-new-to-us!) dish-hutch, and snapped some pictures.  I liked them because most of the spices are ones I normally think of as warm – the browns, the reds of curries and nutmeg, turmeric and other things.

These are the perfect things for me to draw me into the thought of winter, combating my growing certainty that it’s spring.  Spring spring spring!

On a side note, to prove that i’m right, and it is spring, Michael’s celebration dinner for us moving and settling into this new place was all about light flavors that move us away from winter.  We did have beef… you can see it poking out of the soup, but it wasn’t in a beef stock, rather a thinner stock, full of the last of the root vegetables.  Our salad was full of spring-ish things too… the mushrooms we’re growing in our closet (courtesy of my future mother-in-law – white buttons and Portobello).  There were cranberries, invoking the color we’re seeing in the fours, and lots of other delicious things.


And still, I must try to think, Winter.

Apparently I don’t do lists right

When I went with my grandmother on a cruise about a month ago, I created a list of things to do for Michael (now my fiancee!).  It went a little like this (edited for brevity):

  • Use up the bananas in the fridge
  • Create delicious spice mixes for me to use
  • Miss Jen
  • Get together with Rob and Ellie (of Ellie Makes Cakes note: Ellie doesn’t update much, but her cakes are really pretty)
  • Miss Jen
  • Clean Room
  • Do Laundry
  • Finish all the things in your online course
  • Miss Jen. Take a picture of your sad face
  • Find the notes hidden around the house

Michael immidately looked at it and asked if it was an ordered list… ie, did you have to do one thing before you went on to the other.  He then made note that some of the things were contingent upon other, while others were not.  Could he race through the list and get everything done right away?  And on and on.  Clearly I needed to take a programing class so I knew how to make lists correctly. *rolls eyes*  Apparently an “amalgamation of thoughts” is not a list.

So, this is a non-ordered list, with things not contingent upon previous things getting done. Instead, it is a list of thoughts for today.

  • I really dislike weaving in ends.  Unlike most activities, some of which I dislike (like dish-washing), which I won’t mind as long as I’m entertained, weaving in ends is really tedious.
  • However, this design is going to rock when it is done, even if there are a boatload of ends to weave in.  Why? Because it has beads.  I think the beads are really great.
  • The apple tree is dying.
    • Now, I know, I’ve never claimed to have a really green thumb, but I thought the apple tree was going to pull through.  It survived the cat nibbling on it, only to not get watered after I came home from the cruise.  I noticed it was getting a little interesting today, and the leaves are getting rather crispy.  I’m hoping it’s just transitioning to fall and not just dried up dead.  We’ll see.
  • The avocado trees are doing well, and one more seed is getting ready to be planted.  Dunno where I’m going to put it.  Calabash trees are happy too, and the pineapple plant is doing all right also.
  • Pictures from Rob and Ellie’s Engagement photos came out really well.  I really want a new camera.
  • I should write up a christmas wishlist.
  • I really should be working on e-mails.  Ah well.

So what are ya’ll up to today?  Got any thoughts to put out there?

It’s My Birthday!

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I know, Weight Watchers and Pie? Read on.

Yarnies,

It’s my birthday, and right now I’m at the boyfriend’s family farm, and probably sleeping in.  (I scheduled this post before I left, because I’m just that considerate).

210So, as I might have mentioned before, I’m a member of Weight Watchers.  I’ve lost 50 lbs on the program in total, 17, since I’ve moved to Maryland.  I go through cycles where I’m really successful, and other times where I’m just going through the motions.  I try to be kind to myself when things don’t go right, and not excuse my successes.  (I have a habit of saying thinking, well it was just a pound.  I could have lost more if I tried.  Really, how silly is that?  A pound is a big deal).

A big part of my success is the Boyfriend, who stands in the background cooking me delicious dishes, cheering me on, and in general walking the fine line between helping me too much and not helping me at all.  (That’s hard.)
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One of the ways he does this is by setting up rewards.  I’m highly susceptible to positive reinforcement.  The rewards don’t have to be that big.  My latest reward was supposed to be a bikeride to Mt. Vernon, where we were going to have a southern-style picnic which would include lemonade, fried chicken, potato salad, and strawberry-rhubarb pie.  Lest you think that a food reward seems counter-intuitive for a weight-loss program, let me point out the ride to Mt. Vernon is 20 miles.  And I would have had to bike back after I’d eaten pie.

Unfortunately, on Saturday when we were supposed to go, it rained.

A lot.

So instead, we went and picnicked under one of the porticos to the EPA building (near Federal Triangle).  Then we went to the American History Museum and the Natural History Museum.

Not quite what we were planning, but we’re adaptable.

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Yes, Purple Potatoes.  How Cool is that?  It makes them look so much more nutritious.

The point to this story (other than bragging about Boyfriend’s pie making skills) is that I persuaded the boyfriend to use purple potatoes in the potato salad.

Let me just say, you haven’t had a southern style picnic until you’ve thrown it on it’s head by using purple potatoes.

It was the best.

Anybody interested in the purple potato recipe?