Twenty pounds (of tomatoes) lighter

I ordered twenty pounds of tomatoes from our co-op, and what came were some of the most perfectly round, perfectly ripened tomatoes I've ever seen.


A third of them I cut into fourths, drizzled with olive oil and minced garlic, and slow-roasted in the oven for three hours. Those'll be used for pasta salads and rich soups. The rest I canned to use for tomato sauces during the winter, when there are only those good-looking-but-totally-flavorless tomatoes at the grocery store.

Elderflower syrup

My mom took my sisters and Luke and I up the canyon in search of elderflower. We should've gone a week or two earlier, but we were able to find enough. I've been googoo gaga about elderflower since I first tasted a fizzy elderflower drink from the British store, and wished that it wasn't seven dollars for a liter. So I decided to make my own elderflower syrup, which I'll mix with soda water for practically the same drink for pennies, rather than dollars. (I hear that IKEA makes an elderflower syrup like this, which I will see if I can find next time I'm there, since I don't think I'll have enough to last me until next elderflower season).

I think this an awesome picture of Luke. I like how he wouldn't miss out on the flower-picking action just because he was smoking.

My sisters

The process is a bit time consuming, because you have to get all those tiny little flowers off the stems and into a bowl (the bark and leaves of elderflower plants are mildly poisonous), but it was a good thing to do while watching a movie.

I used about twenty heads of flowers. I put the flowers in a bowl with the juice and zest of two lemons. Then I dissolved four cups sugar in four cups water over medium heat, and poured the simple syrup over the flowers.

The mixture sat steeping on top of the fridge for five days with a towel over it, and then I strained and put it in the fridge.So that's it! Mix two ounces of syrup with two cups of sparkling water, and you have a refreshing, flowery, sweet-but-not-too-sweet elderflower soda!

Wild Plums

My BFF Whitney picked me a big bag of wild plums from one of the houses where she dogsits. Last night I made jam. Deciding I wanted this jam to be thicker than usual, I boiled it a long time, forgetting how much pectin plums have-- turns out, I have a plum jelly with clumps of fruit. Still, a good flavor.


I had Lukey watercolor little plums for labels, because as easy at it seems, I couldn't draw plums that looked like plums (if we every make an apple jelly, though, I'm ready! I could also probably handle a banana, too. Too bad those aren't good for preserving). I liked the tags so much I made him do one for the plum chutney we're giving to my grandparents when we see them next week. Isn't it the cutest?

Jammin'

It's canning season! We got twenty-four pounds of peaches from our food co-op, and last week we made some jam, since we only have a couple pints left over from last year's peach batch. Again, we made plain peach (which we mostly use as a syrup for pancakes) and peach ginger (which has been a big hit with everyone who's tried it- good on toast, good as a chicken glaze, good on ice cream, etc).

Then this year we added to our jam repertoire a peach lavender jam that I think will be lovely (haven't tasted it since it gelled, only while it was cooking). We made the peach like normal, and then added the lavender water that resulted from dried lavender flowers steeping in boiling water for twenty minutes. I'm imagining crackers with cream cheese and peach lavender. Or warm bread with a unhealthy amounts of butter and cold peach lavender jam. If it's half as good as I imagine it to be, it'll be delicious.

pantry shelf

Spent all of my Labor Day yesterday canning fruit and jam with Luke and my sister Mari. Twenty-seven quarts of peaches, four pints of peach jam, and seven pints of peach-ginger jam. I found out that everyone likes lining up the canned food in their pantry as much as I do, loving the contrasting colors and bottle sizes.

Sans rolling pin

Last week I made my first quiche. It was a filled with spinach, mushrooms, and swiss, and tasted very good. It was my first time making a pie crust from scratch, though, which didn't work out exactly well because it was too thick. I guess I should invest in a rolling pin, because the beer can doesn't seem to be cutting it. Drew suggested that in the future all crusts be made of cookie dough.

I also made another batch of marmalade. Three pints lime, two ginger lime, and four blackberry lime (which I'm most excited about). The blackberry lime has a lovely flavor and an even more lovely color. One thing that's disappointing me, though, is that all of the lime rinds didn't get that chewy/gummy texture that they usually do. Gotta find out how to fix that for future batches (though it should be a while, since Luke and I already have more jam than two people could eat in a couple years).

Getting 'lade

This week I made marmalade! The first batches- one of lovely orange ginger and another of lime ginger- didn't work out (didn't gel) so I had to try a second time. After the first failure (and ten pints of sweet syrupy goo) I looked online for tips, and I think what made the difference the second time around is that I made sure to only have two inches of the fruit mixture boiling in the pan. That's the only thing I can guess, anyway. I made five pints of marmalade (a small batch in case it didn't work out). Two are plain lime, and three are lime ginger.


I also made two pints of candied ginger limes (the first two jars in the picture), which can be used in tea. I'm going to try again with the orange ginger, because I think that sounds so pleasant.

Last night Luke and I made a delicious dinner of shish kabobs. I think it was the first time I've ever cut up steak in my life. It grossed me out, but was worth it. We also had a bleu cheese, walnut, mushroom, and craisin salad. I spent forty minutes perusing the isles of the wine store, looking for a wine I'd never tried before to go with dinner. I went with this Syrah, which turned out to be so gross that I couldn't even finish the glass. Next time I'll stick with my old reliable Australian Pinot Grigio.