Strawberry Season Is Back!

Hopefully, this year strawberry season won't last three days, but I wasn't taking any chances. The fields opened two days ago and this is my first day not working since then. There was a thunderstorm coming the afternoon so I made a plan to go early this morning and get enough strawberries for all my needs - we've been out of strawberry jam for a while. 

First batch was strawberries, sugar, and a little vanilla paste. This made eight cups. I've stopped adding pectin to my jams whenever possible so it means a slightly lower yield per batch. 

Second batch was strawberry rhubarb. I had two cups of rhubarb in the freezer, which I let sit with four cups of sugar for an hour to macerate, and then added seven cups of halved strawberries and 1/4 cup lemon juice. This made six cups. 

I have set aside strawberries sliced and mixed with sugar to make strawberry shortcake tonight, and another quart of berries for strawberry soup for dinner. That still leaves about three quarts of berries left for... another project, maybe?

So Much Has Happened

New oven!

Yeah, sorry about that. It's been quite the month and a half. It started with a trip to Malaysia for our friends' wedding in the latter half of January. And then we got back, work picked up, family members were sick, there were trips out to see colleges and said family and then the flu hit, I fell off a horse, and now we're all stuck at home waiting to see what will happen with the state of the world. I am the only one who doesn't get to work/study from home so this is going to be interesting.

Both children will now be doing some sort of remote classes after their respective spring breaks end. We were supposed to be going to Scotland today to visit more colleges, obviously that isn't happening. All the concerts and lectures we had tickets for are postponed indefinitely or canceled. It makes sense but it's frustrating all the same.

You know what I can do? Bake! Especially now, that I have a NEW OVEN. Right before we went to Malaysia the oven died its final death. Which meant my sister was staying with the youngerchild without an oven, but they managed. I got a new oven delivered the day after we got back and haven't even really had much time to play with it except for making bread. That will change this week, as I had already taken the week off (for the aforementioned nonexistent trip to Scotland) so plan to start trying to bake some things. Starting with today - Pi Day!

Using the filling from eat the love's Strawberry Rhubarb Galette, I made a Pi, with the help of the elderchild. The oven worked swimmingly. We can't wait for dessert!

A Little Too Much

Of what? Of ghost pepper powder. But it's too late now, I guess...

I wanted to make more things for the fair, so I pulled out some of my cranberries and rhubarb and made a double batch of the Cranberry-Rhubarb Compote I like so much. I added a very heaping 1/4 teaspoon, closer to a 1/2 of a teaspoon, of ghost pepper powder. Yikes! I hope the flavor mellows before the judges taste it. Then again, maybe they like spicy?

Strawberry Overload

We started this day bright and early by going strawberry picking. Halfway to the farm (a good 30 miles away) I realized I was supposed to ping a friend to see if she wanted to go with us. Sorry, Sue, if you're reading this! I totally spaced!

Anyway, we were brought via hayride to a field that had not yet been picked this year. How awesome. We hardly moved, and yet we picked 17 pounds of strawberries. They were beautiful and large and tasty! After returning from the fields, we had strawberry doughnuts and headed home. I had to stop at the store to get sugar, and a few other essentials, and when we got home I got to work.

Strawberries to eat - the ones on the top of the heap, the least crushed.
Strawberries mixed with sugar for the shortcake. (The shortcake itself is currently in the oven.)
Strawberry jam - 9 cups.
Strawberry rhubarb jam - 1 pound of rhubarb and 2.5 cups of strawberry purée - 8.5 cups.

Swans on the pond

Strawberry soup - 1 quart of berries, 8 ounces of cream cheese, some mango juice drink and some honey. That was lunch.

At this point, we went out for an hour long canoe trip in the local pond. They only started renting canoes and kayaks on the weekends last week, and since we have an ambitious canoe trip ahead of us, I wanted everyone to get some practice.

Another stop at the store, to get a few more things, so I could make:

Strawberry Maple Smooch - kind of a strawberry maple syrup thing for cakes or ice cream or pancakes.
Strawberry Jalapeño jam - 4 cups strawberry purée and 1 cup diced jalapeño peppers - 7.5 cups.
Strawberry Lemon Marmalade - 7 cups.

I still have about 1.5 quarts of berries left for something. I plan to make strawberry pancakes for breakfast. I am setting aside 2 jars each of the plain strawberry, the strawberry rhubarb and the strawberry jalapeño jams for the fair. I may change my mind, but at least I've got some things to enter.

And, I have to make burgers for dinner. But I'm taking a break. It's only 5:30 pm.

Rainy Slushy Day

An overcast, cold, slushy day is the perfect day to work on some canning projects!

I pulled out 4 ziploc bags of chicken bones from the freezer and made stock this morning. Four quarts are set aside for canning later and I might set aside more. It depends, as I'm also making chicken soup and we'll see how much I need. So the rest of the morning was spent cleaning out the freezer a bit, reorganizing, and pulling chicken meat off bones.

Also this morning, I made a 2.5x batch of Cranberry Rhubarb Compote, which made 13 cups of compote. Of those, 12 got canned and are just coming out of the canner now. My gift stash is quite complete, I think, but I always add more and more people to my list so I have to double check!

Another thing that I've been working on is baking. I've baked about 12 dozen cookies so far in the last week: Oatmeal Scotchies, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Orange-Hazelnut sandwiches. I have a plan to give some to the staff at work, and I want to make more cookies for home as well. I might have to make some gingerbread cookies soon!

Again With the Cranberries

Today's batch of Cranberry-Rhubarb Compote does not contain ghost peppers. I now have another 9 jars for my gift stash. Hopefully I can make some cookies tomorrow; I am hoping to send both jams and cookies this year. More later!

Cranberry Problem

If you looked into my spare freezer you would think I have a serious condition with regard to cranberries. I keep buying them when they are on sale and tossing them in the freezer, figuring I'd use them eventually. Well, I think I have 8 bags in the freezer as of today. Fortunately, it's the time of the year for making Cranberry-Rhubarb Compote and filling out the gift stash. My list is maybe a little smaller this year but I'm sure I'll keep coming up with names so I'll likely be back up to the 60+ jars needed in no time.

Today's double batch of compote is spiced up with 1/2 teaspoon ghost pepper powder (thanks to Roxanne) and came to a total of 9 half-pint jars. They are processed for 15 minutes in the boiling water bath and then rest for 5 before cooling. This brings the gift stash up to 38 jars. I have enough ingredients for another double batch of this compote which I'll make another day, without the spice.

It's a Party!

Yesterday I had my family over for a BBQ. Well, since it was raining the whole time, it was more of a sit down meal that involved the grill. Regardless, in the spirit of BBQs we had hot dogs and sausages (mostly German, and all from Karl's Sausage Kitchen, truly a hidden gem in our area), pickles, sauerkraut, various salads, fruit and a pie. Of all that, these were the home canned items: pickled carrots, dilly beans, dill pickle spears, sauerkraut, and green tomato ketchup.

I made another batch of that strangolopreti dumpling, with kale and arugula this time. They came out different and I'm not sure why - maybe the bread wasn't soft enough, not sure. Maybe the kale wasn't chopped finely enough. Still, they were popular, and went quickly.

Also, I made the pie. (Of course!) In the morning I got it baked and made a bonus strawberry tart as well, which was breakfast. Despite the cornstarch the pie was very runny - I might have to use tapioca next time - and I think maybe I didn't bake it long enough because some of the rhubarb was a little tough. Still tasted pretty awesome, even if we had to eat it in bowls.

Crazy Amount of Strawberries

Bright and early this morning my family went strawberry picking. Some of us were more chipper about it than others. It was a gorgeous morning and in a very short amount of time we picked 17 pounds of strawberries.

Yes, 17. I've done this before. But because of the weather these berries were not going to last even 24 hours. I had to get them "processed." Today.

In 8 hours I made: 1 batch strawberry jam (which is better than the previous batch so I think I'll enter this one in the fair, not the other), 1 batch strawberry margarita jam, 1 batch strawberry rhubarb jam, 1 batch strawberry jalapeno jam*, 1 batch strawberry lemon marmalade, 1 batch strawberries with sugar for another shortcake, a chocolate shortcake for said strawberry shortcake, a pie crust, set aside the strawberries and rhubarb for the filling (I'll roll out the crust and bake the pie tomorrow), washed some for eating now and refrigerated the rest (about a quart) for smoothies tomorrow.

Also, I picked whatever mulberries I could off our tree, as there is a storm coming through and they're all going to get knocked off anyway. And my husband and I assembled new patio furniture.

I am officially exhausted!

*There are a couple of people in my life who love the strawberry jalapeno jam so much that whenever I make a batch I set aside a jar for each of them. Not that it lasts long. One of these friends can eat the entire 8 ounce jar of this jam in 5 minutes. Straight. Just with a spoon. I've seen her do it.

Tidying Up

Today, after work, I had a little time to get some yardwork done and then I went out to check on the bees. I'd been able to leave them to their own devices these past few days because the weather has been good, and I wanted to take out the feeding bowl and the empty queen cage. While I was there, I stuck the camera into the hive and took a few pictures. Clearly, they are making progress. I wasn't about to pull out a comb and start examining it so I don't know whether or not there are the beginnings of a brood in there somewhere. I certainly hope so!

The front of the hive is to the left in the photo.

Anyway, I removed the bowl of honey water that had a few bees on it, but I hadn't refilled it since Tuesday and there was still some there, so it seemed like they didn't really need it anymore. There were a lot of dead bees in the bowl, I guess they drowned in honey. I suppose there are worse ways to go.

In other news, I brought a jar of strawberry rhubarb jam to the nurse who brings me eggs, and brought home a dozen local fresh eggs to enjoy.  Always a good deal!

Now We're Getting Fancy

As I said yesterday, I've been playing around with spruce tips because of this blog: Forager|Chef.  You should really check it out!  Anyhow, today I was able to make the spruce tip ice cream I'd hoped to make.  The instructions are on his blog but, essentially, you make an ice cream base, cool it to room temperature (which took half the morning), blend in the spruce tips and then filter the whole thing to get the little pieces of spruce needle out.  This mixture then goes into the ice cream maker.  I set my ice cream maker to soft-serve and it ran for about 25 minutes.  At that point it was the correct texture and I put it into the freezer to set up some more.

The next thing I did was make a rhubarb crisp, as that is the recommended pairing with the spruce ice cream.  I baked it this afternoon and, after we made dinner, I put it into the warm oven to reheat.  When dessert came around, I scooped the spruce ice cream on top.

It's a complex collection of flavors:  the tart rhubarb, the sweet crisp topping, and the floral-earthy ice cream.  The ice cream is more "spruce-y" than the sauce I made yesterday, but that was OK because the rhubarb crisp was a stronger flavor as well.  The 10 year old was not a fan - although I think more turned off by the rhubarb than anything else.

Now I have a tub of spruce ice cream in the freezer, just waiting to garnish some other tart thing.  Looks like there will be more experimentation in the future!

NOW it's Ready

That gift list grows and grows as I remember more people I wanted to send treats to!

This morning I made another batch of cranberry-rhubarb compote, but on Roxanne's advice I added 3/8 tsp. of the crushed ghost peppers which gave it an excellent kick.  This yielded 9 cups and a single 4-oz. jar.  Now I can start making up some care packages to pop in the mail, and get the rest of the stash delivered.  Once I get some bows or ribbon or something!

Maybe the Gift Stash is Ready?

Today, after the kids left for school, I pulled another pound of rhubarb and 2 bags of cranberries out of the freezer and made another double batch of Cranberry-Rhubarb Compote.  I did wish I had some habanero peppers to add to this batch so I could have some spicy compote, but I wasn't ready to go to the store.  Oh, well!  It's still pretty great without the habaneros.

I now have 65 jars in my gift stash, which I hope will be enough...although, I might need to make some more...wouldn't want to run out or anything....

A Day At Home

There is a lot going on today, for a day which had nothing scheduled.  We have our carpenter here doing some work.  The house next door is being torn down.  And I'm working on a bunch of projects of my own.

First, I popped the two sugar pumpkins in the oven, whole.  I pricked them with a fork a few times each and baked them at 350 for about 90 minutes.  Then I took the flesh and ran it through the food mill, finally using the pumpkin screen for the first time, and now have 3 bags of 2 cups of puree each in the freezer for pies.

Next, I made a batch of yogurt, which is down in the basement on the heating pad doing its thing.

Then I made a double batch of Cranberry-Rhubarb Compote to add to my gift stash.  I'll likely make another batch in a few days, but this made 9 jars to add to the stash.

I also ground up stale bread and made bread crumbs.  These come in handy when I want to make meatballs for dinner.  And it finally got the stale bread off my counter.

Tonight I'll roast a chicken for dinner and then, tomorrow, will make more chicken stock and maybe some soup.

Limited Time

It's not as if I don't have a lot to do, or that I have to leave for work at 3 pm, or that my fridge isn't already overflowing with food.  Nope.  I needed strawberries.

To be fair, it's only strawberry season for a little while and locally grown strawberries are a real treat.  So I dragged the kids out of bed at 6:30 so we could be among the first people there.  We were third in line to get into the parking lot and we were able to get onto the fields and pick 9 pounds of strawberries in half an hour.  Just long enough for the temperature to go up about 10 degrees and the crowds to start to get in the way.  We did time it just right as it rained yesterday which meant fewer berries picked and more for us!

After the berries were stowed in the car, we ate a breakfast of strawberry donuts, visited the rabbits and goats (we, of course, were more interested in the rabbits) and headed home.  I dove right into making jam and have made a batch of strawberry jam (including 2 jars for the fair) and a batch of strawberry rhubarb jam:  1 pound rhubarb, 3 pints strawberries, 7 cups sugar, and 1 package of powdered pectin.  That batch made 10 cups of jam which I put into pint jars.  I am now out of frozen rhubarb so hopefully I'll find some in the store that's less than $4 a pound.  Then I made strawberry-banana smoothies for lunch: 3/4 c. homemade yogurt, 1/3 of a quart of strawberries, 1/3 of a banana, 1/4 c. orange juice and some honey in each.

There are 2 heaping quarts left - one for eating plain, and one for strawberry shortcake.  Which I will make tomorrow.

Cherry Rhubarb Jam

As I've said in previous posts, cooking is a stress reliever for me.  But, what happens if you are so busy you don't even have time to cook?  Nothing good, that's for sure.  I can tell you that I need to apologize to the car repair people for being a little...high strung...and that I finally crashed and fell asleep at 6:50 pm last night.  I should probably drink less coffee.

So since I'm not taking my car in today to be fixed since the above-mentioned car repair folks didn't have the part on time, I found myself with a few hours and some fruit.  Cherries have been appearing in the store, but on the order of $8/pound.  I finally found some on sale and bought some yesterday in anticipation of making cherry jam.  Luckily for me, I had time this morning.

Using the cherry jam recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, I swapped out 1 cup of cherries with a cup of frozen rhubarb.  Otherwise, I left everything the same:  4 cups of fruit, 4 T. lemon juice, 1 package of powdered pectin, 5 cups of sugar.  Most of this jam is in 3 10+oz jars, those ones from Quattro Stagioni that have 1 part lids.  I received some as a gift and, since this jam is rather pretty, thought they were a good combination.  The final tally is 3 of those jars and one 8-oz Ball jar.

This afternoon I'll pick up the farm share and then will have a lot of greens and spring veggies to eat.  I decided I wouldn't plant a lot of vegetables on my roof this year because I have the full share to myself, which means, thankfully, one less thing on my to do list.

Out of Strawberries Already

That didn't take long!

Friday night I made strawberry shortcake for a little dinner party.  Again, I forgot to take pictures!  Later we finished up the shortcakes and whipped cream with canned peaches and I can tell you that it just isn't the same.

Yesterday morning I made a strawberry rhubarb pie.  I finally had an opportunity to use the leaf lard I'd been given for Christmas.  I had remembered to thaw the lard for a few days in the fridge so it was easy to work with.  I used the same proportions as I would have with shortening: 3 cups flour, 1 tsp. salt, 1 cup plus 2 tbsp. of lard, and 6 tsp. water.  The filling was 1 quart strawberries and 12 oz. frozen rhubarb (the latter squeezed to remove the extra liquid), 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup cornstarch. Super simple!

I brought the pie to my parents' house where everyone raved about that crust.  It was pretty amazing. So so so worth it!

Spicy Holiday Giving

Habaneros!  Today I made another double batch of the Cranberry-Rhubarb compote but I added 4 chopped habanero peppers (minus the seeds).  And is it ever spicy!

This made 14 4-ounce jars and 3 8-ounce jars and, I'll have to look, but I think this makes my gift stash almost complete.  For now....

Finally I Have Some Time

I've been planning on working on my gift stash for a while but something always seems to get in the way.  So I set aside several hours this morning to try to make a dent in it.  I made two batches today - Maple Pear Ginger Jam and Cranberry Rhubarb Compote (same as last year).

For the Maple Pear Ginger jam I made a few changes from the first recipe attempt.  One change was that I added ginger (obviously).  I cut the pears larger and simmered them with some pear juice and 4 big chunks of fresh ginger.  When they were soft I removed the ginger, mashed the pears, and returned the ginger to the pot.  Then I added the lemon juice and the pectin and then, once it was boiling, the syrup and the sugar.  When it was time to can it I removed the ginger.  This made 5 cups and a little bit.

The Cranberry-Rhubarb Compote was easier since I had 1 pound of rhubarb already measured out in the freezer.  (There's that thinking ahead thing - isn't it great when it works?)  That plus 1 and a half bags of cranberries and 2 golden delicious apples made 9 cups of compote.  I now have 21 8-ounce jars and 31 4-ounce jars in the stash.  I might need more, but this is a significant improvement!

There's a Strawberry Festival at My House!

Looking ahead at my schedule for the next few weeks, it actually made sense to drag everyone out of bed at 6:30 this morning to go strawberry picking.  The farm I usually frequent had a notice on their website that because it was so crowded yesterday, they expected to be picked out by mid-morning.  I insisted we leave earlier than originally planned.

And, then, we waited in a line of cars (we were third, but only because the people in front of us lost their place when they decided they could maybe go when the two cars in front of them were waiting.  Hah.) and hurried to the fields, where the picking was...glorious!  We netted 13+ pounds of berries, which is about 9 quarts, in about 25 minutes.  We visited the goats, chickens and rabbits, ate strawberry donuts (which were still warm, mmmm) and drove home.  All before 9 am, and in lovely 70-ish degree weather.

Since then, I have made a batch of strawberry jam (8 half-pints), strawberry margarita jam (8 half-pints), a double batch of strawberry lemonade concentrate (5 quarts), a strawberry rhubarb pie, 2 blueberry tarts with the leftover pie crust, mac and cheese for lunch, and I am soaking rice and marinating meat for dinner. Plus a quart and a bit of berries for eating and another quart washed, sliced, and mixed with sugar for tomorrow, when I make shortcake.  All that, and I had to wait for my husband to get back from the grocery store with more sugar, lemon juice, limes, and other key ingredients.  (He went by bike, and even after putting all the groceries in his panniers, the bread was unscathed.  Maybe I will try to bike in the future.)

In the past, I'd had trouble with the strawberry jam setting up.  I think some of it had to do with jar size and maybe also the type of pectin I use.  Today I tried the powdered pectin rather than the liquid, just for this batch.  It did set up, so that is reassuring.  The strawberry margarita jam isn't setting as quickly, but I think the alcohol in it slows things down.  It did work last year....

Huh.  For a day that was supposed to be the day we did nothing, we sure are doing a lot!