After my last post about the many reasons why home food preservation is a worthwhile undertaking, a reader -- who is not a canner but is a food swapper -- asked me where to find glass canning jars. This is by no means the first time I have heard that question. Often, before I teach a private canning lesson, the student and I discuss supplies over … [Read more...]
Spring is finally here and with the arrival of spring fruits and vegetables like strawberries, rhubarb, asparagus, ramps, and fava beans, I have a lot of cooking and preserving projects on the horizon. Strawberry rhubarb jam, pickled asparagus and a freezable fava bean sauce are some of my first preserving projects of the season. Spring is … [Read more...]
It's almost April, so according to the calendar, it must be spring, even if the weather tells us otherwise. We spent part of our spring break in upstate New York visiting family and going from Chicago to Ithaca, NY in late March is like The Journey in Search of Even Crappier Weather. And, believe me, we found what we were looking for: even crappier … [Read more...]
Are you starting to think about Thanksgiving? I am. I am spending the afternoon making cranberry sauce for our holiday table. Here are my thoughts on cranberries, reposted from last November. The Oak Park Farmers' Market ended recently. I'm always so sad to see the market end for the season. Not only does it mean the end of my Saturday mornings … [Read more...]
While I continue to spend all my waking moments on grading, here is a post from last October about what to do with green tomatoes. With the temperatures dropping, you will be seeing a lot of these babies at the farmers' markets this weekend and they sell for cheap. So pick some up to fry, pickle or turn into a spicy salsa. Fall in Chicago is … [Read more...]
I just got back from attending my second BlogHer conference. This time it was in New York City, which meant I got to see my brother and his family, and one of my dearest friends from high school. It also meant that I was hot, tense and felt inadequate for three days. I want to tell cheap cialis online you about the yummy things I ate in New York … [Read more...]
Ever since I have started making my own jams, chutneys and pickles, now some four years ago, people have been telling me that I should sell them. I very much enjoy giving away my home-preserved creations at holiday time or as hostess gifts, but I am not at all interested in becoming a professional jam-maker. I admire those who are very much. For … [Read more...]
I stood in front of the table of fruit deep in thought: three kinds of currants -- white, red and black -- plus gooseberries! Another vendor a few tables over had four or five small boxes of hard-to-find tayberries. What to get? It was an embarrassment of riches. So much fruit! So many unusual and old-fashioned crops that you never see at the … [Read more...]
This time last year, I wrote a post about how to use a flat of strawberries in five days or less. In that post, I explained that when you buy a flat of strawberries -- which is equal to eight quarts -- at the Oak Park Farmers' Market, there is typically a discount of 25% over buying individual quarts. I am not good at math, but years of shopping … [Read more...]
It's Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. My family is having a weekend filled with our favorite summer pastimes. I went to my beloved Oak Park Farmers' Market on Saturday morning. My husband took the kids to the pool on Sunday morning. We escaped the record heat by going to the movies on Sunday afternoon. (The Pirates: Band of … [Read more...]
In case you haven't noticed the 8 inches of snow outside, it's winter. Although I miss our beautiful summer fruits and vegetables, wintertime cooking can be very satisfying. Lots of soups and stew and hearty braises. And certainly wintertime is the perfect season for baking. Who can resist the allure of baking cookies on a snowy day? Not me! When … [Read more...]
I have mentioned before that one of my favorite things about shopping at farmers' markets is finding unusual, old-fashioned or heirloom crops that are not available anywhere else. At the Oak Park Farmers' market, I have found garlic scapes, wild ramps, tayberries, gooseberries, squash blossoms, ground cherries and many other new-to-me fruits and … [Read more...]
There are so many reasons to love the summer, but for me, one of my favorite things about this time of year is that it is canning season. My perfect summer weekend involves buying some Midwest-grown fruit and vegetables, from my local Whole Foods or the Oak Park Farmers' Market and then spending the afternoon turning the fruit into jam, fruit … [Read more...]
Zuzu accompanied me to the Oak Park Farmers' Market last Saturday morning in exchange for the promise of a powdered doughnut. (I wish I had taken a picture of her face covered in powdered sugar -- she looked like a half-made up Geisha girl) We were in the market for cherries, but we quickly learned that we were in a lull between the very early … [Read more...]
One of the best parts about canning, to my mind, is making things that you couldn't buy at the grocery store, not even for ready money. To that end, I love making jams with unusual and hard-to-find fruits, such as tayberries, which are a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry, or combining two or more different fruits in a jam, like the … [Read more...]
I pride myself on being an adventurous eater. I love to try different ethnic cuisines, from Ethiopian -- which is really outstanding in my hometown of DC -- to Filipino to Lithuanian. (The Lithuanians put sour cream on everything, which makes me wonder: am I part Lithuanian?) I love organ meats, from liver and kidneys to rich, unctuous … [Read more...]
First of all, the randomly selected winner of the Stonyfield Farm giveaway is . . . Larissa! Larissa has two gorgeous kids who, I hope, like yogurt. Enjoy. Also, there is a nice piece about West of the Loop Canning on examiner.com today. Do swing by and check it out. Lastly, I am happy to report two things. One, Zuzu passed her wheat … [Read more...]
Lest you think otherwise, things do not always go well in my kitchen. Today was a day of minor and major kitchen disasters. I am hosting a party tomorrow evening for a local early childhood non-profit on whose board I serve. It"s a small informal gathering and I am serving coffee and desserts. The menu I had planned was: a southern-style jam cake … [Read more...]
I have a guest post today on the Chicago Now blog, Wee Windy City, which is a terrific resource for families in the Chicago area. I discuss picking your own fruits and vegetables with young kids and, naturally, about canning what you've picked once you get home! Please pop over and take a look. As you may have figured out, I am now offering … [Read more...]
I went back to the Oak Park Farmers’ Market last Saturday morning, after a two-week absence, and I was pleased to see that there was a lot more on offer than there had been the first week -- when the selection had been limited to lettuce, green onions and rhubarb. Not that I didn’t make good use of the rhubarb! It’s June and in this part … [Read more...]
Saturday May 22 was the day I had waited for since last October: the re-opening of the Oak Park Farmers’ Market! I leapt out of bed at the crack of dawn – okay, I eased out of bed at 8 am, but still, I was excited. As I walked into the church parking lot that houses our market, and smelled the doughnuts frying and heard the bluegrass music … [Read more...]
As an influential mommy blogger (ha!), I was invited to tour the Lake Zurich, IL warehouse of the online grocery delivery service Peapod. (The tour takes place next week; I will report back.) The invitation stated that, among other things, I would learn how Peapod can help save my family money by eliminating impulse buying. That line hit … [Read more...]
Spring has finally arrived in suburban Cook County and it is making us all giddy. As soon as the temps hit the upper 60's, Zuzu starts angling to wear her new sundresses. J.R., proud of his new trike-pedaling prowess, wants to play outside every single minute of the day. And we all start thinking ahead to the summer. We sign the kids up for camp; … [Read more...]
