Category Archives: Eat

Lemon Lavender Rose Jelly

Lemon Lavender Rose Jelly

It feels like forever since I’ve done any canning (although in reality, I canned some garlic dipping sauce yesterday – which reminds me that I need to blog that recipe), and honestly, it kind of has been. I’ve been caught up in working outside of the home, an hour away, which doesn’t really lend itself to a lot of time spent in the kitchen. Our quarterly food swap is coming up, and I wanted something new to bring to the table, so of course I pulled out all of my canning cookbooks and started perusing the amazing sounding recipes. In Better Homes and Gardens 2014 Canning (Special Interest), I came across a Lemon Lavender Jelly which sounded just amazing. And, being me, I had to switch it up a bit because 1) I don’t like liquid pectin (it never sets correctly for me) and 2) my lavender has rose petals mixed into it (food grade leftovers from my daughter’s wedding). Also, I doubled it (because seriously, who uses half of a package of pectin?)

It’s quite pretty. And it tastes absolutely amazing.

Lemon Lavender Rose Jelly
Author: 
Recipe type: Water Bath Canning
 

Adapted from a recipe by Better Homes and Gardens. Makes ten 8-ounce jars
Ingredients
  • 2¾ cups boiling water
  • 1½ cups lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp dried lavender and rose petals, lightly crushed
  • 8½ cups sugar
  • 1 pkg powdered pectin

Instructions
  1. Combine boiling water, lemon juice, lavender flowers, and rose petals. Let stand for 20 minutes. Strain the solids through a fine mesh sieve, discarding solids.
  2. In a heavy pot, combine juice and powdered pectin, stirring well. Bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. Add in sugar, stirring well, and bring back to a rolling boil. Boil hard for two minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
  3. Skim foam with a metal spoon.
  4. Ladle hot jelly into hot, sterilized 8-ounce jars, leaving ¼” headspace. Wipe jar rims. Adjust lids and bands.
  5. Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes (start timing when water returns to a boil). Remove from heat and let cool in water for 10 minutes.
  6. Remove jars and let cool.

 

 

Crème fraîche and Pork Al Latte Review

YouTube – I could get lost for hours in the food videos there. And, actually, I have. It started innocently enough – a video for homemade crème fraîche. Which, by the way, is super easy and tastes way better than sour cream. And by super easy, I mean this:

Crème Fraîche
 

Ingredients
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 3 tablespoons cultured buttermilk

Instructions
  1. Pour heavy cream into a large jar (1½ pint or 1 quart jar) that has been sterilized. Add buttermilk and stir well. Cover with a coffee filter, sealing with a rubber band. Leave on the counter for 24 hours. After 24 hours, it should have thickened up, but will still be quite loose – almost like a runny yogurt. Place a lid on the crème fraîche and place in the fridge. In another 24 hours, it will be thick and amazingly yummy – like the best sour cream you’ve ever tasted.

 

I didn’t stop at the crème fraîche, though. I kept watching videos. Eventually I came across this one:

Chef John is amazingly funny. I know because I’ve watched about a zillion of his videos. This one uses crème fraîche – which is amazing since I have a jar in my fridge. I made this for dinner last night and it is AMAZING. Seriously, you should try it. You can find all the instructions here.

Even if you don’t make the Pork Al Latte – you *should* make the crème fraîche, because that is real food in action, and that, my friends, is some amazing stuff.

Food is so cool.

Cake in a Mug

Pinspiration Thursday

Mug Cake Mix I generally don’t keep ready-made sweets in the house because when I do, they just get eaten and I no longer have ready-made sweets in the house.

It’s a vicious cycle.

However, I do get cravings, as does the man-child, and I need a quick fix for that. We’ve played around off and on with the brownie in a mug cakes. I recently purchased a product called “Mugging” at the grocery store – which works, but is a bit high for my budget.

Duncan Hines to the rescue!

This is super, super easy, people. Just mix together a box of cake mix of your choice (I currently have yellow and chocolate – pictured, and plans for spice and lemon) and a box of angel food cake mix. The mug cake is 3 tablespoons of mix, 2 tablespoons of water, and 1 minute in the microwave. Feel free to add fruit or baking chips or extract flavoring of your choice (no more than a teaspoon). There are tons of ways to dress this up.

The jars are half-gallon Ball jars – which I use for soooo many things! In fact, I just emptied one of these jars of limoncello that I started last year. So yummy. I can see that I may have to go purchase more jars, though…

Cake in a Mug Mix
Author: 
Recipe type: Cake Mix
 

Ingredients
  • 1 box of regular cake mix (your choice of flavor)
  • 1 box of angel food cake mix

Instructions
  1. Mix together and store in an air-tight jar.

Notes
To serve: Mix together 3 tbsp mix, 2 tbsp water, and microwave for 1 minute.

 

 

 

 

6 Months…

Really, it’s been seven. What’s up with that? Oh, yeah… life. 😉

Ah, no rest for the weary. Anyway. Today I made scampi. It’s one of those fallback recipes for when life is super busy, school has taken up the majority of the day, and I haven’t been able to go to the store. Plus, scampi is full of flavor, and only has five ingredients. How can you go wrong with that?

IMG_20140131_065251

 

Easy Shrimp Scampi
Author: 
Recipe type: Pasta
 

A quick and easy five ingredient dinner.
Ingredients
  • 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • ½ cup butter
  • 8 cloves garlic, crushed
  • ¼ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
  • 1 lb pasta of your choice (I alternate between spaghetti and penne)

Instructions
  1. Prepare pasta according to package directions.
  2. In a separate pan, melt butter over medium heat.
  3. Once butter is melted and starting to foam, add garlic and cook until fragrant (about 2 minutes).
  4. Add shrimp. Cook until the shrimp turns pink (should take less than 5 minutes).
  5. Add parsley and pasta. Stir to coat pasta with sauce. Enjoy!