Um... blue WHAT?

Rhubarb. I just don't quite understand it. I know we had it in the garden when I was little, but I don't remember eating it. Alton Brown tells me the leaves are poisonous and my parents tell me that if the stalk is bigger than a stalk of celery it is too woody to be good. But how the heck to you prepare it? Other than pies and jams, I have no clue.  I barely remember it at home, but at grandma's house there is still occasionally a jar of bluebarb jam on the table. I always knew rhubarb was in it (duh, the name), but I never really thought about it.

So, with the thought of learning how to cook rhubarb, and to add to my canning repertoire, I set out to make a batch of rhubarb.  There is a big patch in my neighbor's back yard, and, nice fellow that he is, he told me to harvest whatever I needed as it was late in the season and they were probably done for the year. I hit the yard with my knife and picked the three smallest stalks, which were about the size of celery. I was worried I might be too late in the season for them to be good, but Google helped me out again. After reading numerous random pages on rhubarb, I found that if you have larger stalks you can strip off the "ribs" on the outside with a knife and they will taste less woody. Success! Now for the blueberries.

Before we went camping last weekend (but that's another post), I did some research on seasons and had big plans to pick huckleberries for the jam. I had been on a hike last year that had a giant huckleberry field at about 2/3-3/4 of the way through the loop. We made plans to do the 3 mile loop and filled our backpacks with ziplock containers to carry our bounty. We set out, for the second time (apparently you can't take dogs... boo), with high hopes. But wouldn't you know it, the silly Pacific Northwest weather this year strikes again. Right when you have plans for berries, you hit them too early in the season. So we hauled our plastic containers back to the car full of air. Bummer. Guess the store will be getting my business to buy some blueberries.

While the Peach Butter was in the oven, BLee and I started making bluebarb. We stripped the stalks of the ribs and chopped the rhubarb, only to find I had slightly less than called for. After some discussion, we decided we had more blueberries than we needed, so we would just compensate with them to get the right amount of fruit.

BLee was astonished at the amount of sugar, so we split it up to 5 cups sugar and 2 cups Splenda. After we had added all the ingredients, I started looking at the box of Certo.  It contained two 3 oz foil bags of liquid pectin. Upon close examination, I found that the box I had purchased a week ago at QFC had an expiration date of October 2009. Why the heck was that still on the shelf?!?! I have half a mind to take my box in there and talk to a manager. It's cheap, so I don't necessarily want a refund, I just want them to check their products closer so they aren't stocking bad stuff because sheesh, that's ridiculous!

Right before canning, we thought that it didn't seem to be firming very well, but processed the jars anyway. Later that night they still hadn't set up very well. A week later, they're still a syrup. A tasty syrup, but still syrup instead of jam.  I'm not sure if this is due to the Splenda/sugar change out, the expired Certo, or not enough time on the stovetop. Some jams take up to two weeks to set up, but I don't think this stuff is hardening. My plan: pop the jars, throw it into a pot with half a packet of powdered SureJell (because I have it on hand), heat to boiling, and re-can it. If that doesn't work I don't think anything will.

Yes, I'm wearing a half apron as a bib. I was worried about splatter.

But I may keep one small jar of syrup around for pancakes this weekend...

Bluebarb jam
Arliss Redekopp/ the Oelkers Family Cookbook

1/4 cup water
3 cups finley cut rhubarb
3 cups crushed blueberries (fresh or frozen)
7 cups sugar
1 (6 oz) bottle Certo

Simmer rhubarb and water gently until tender.  Combine with blueberries in large saucepan.  Add sugar, mix.  Place over high heat; bring to a full rolling boil and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat, add pectin (Certo).  Stir and skim for 5 minutes.  Ladle into hot sterilized glasses.  Cover at once with thin layer or paraffin, or hot water bath can.  Makes about 9 half pints.

Peachy Keen

I got a bee in my bonnet about doing some home canning. I had, of course, already successfully made orange marmalade and kind of failed at lemon curd, but I wanted to try to make REAL jam the REAL way. You know, like my mom used to. And my grandma. And people everywhere during the depression era.

Some would say that I was trying to save money. Others, that know me better, would say that I was just bored and looking for new recipes. Me, I just think I was trying to learn a new skill that I will (hopefully) use the rest of my life. So there.

I talked my mom in to giving me some of her old canning jars that have been in the garage for years. Some of them were usable, some were not (didn't have lids or were not "canning" jars). But I had big plans for canning, so I purchased some more. Luckily, everything related to canning is on sale right now at grocery stores, so I made a big purchase -- a 21 quart canning pot! It was on sale for $17 and I think a very worth while purchase.

Come October, apples will be cheap as dirt - or cheaper because Mom and Dad will be trying to pawn off their excess on me (and I will like it). So, first off, I decided on apple butter. An old roommate of mine had a quart of the stuff when we moved in and we devoured it. Hopefully I'll be able to get her mom's recipe (hey, J, can you hook me up?). But for now, I decided peaches were in season and would be just as delicious.

Last weekend when I was camping (but that's another post) we drove in to Naches to visit the farm stands. I ended up with 10lbs of peaches in the car for a measly $7! Not sure if it was because it was closing time on a Sunday afternoon and they were trying to get rid of their produce or if that's really just how cheap peaches are at fruit stands in E.Wa. I had a day and a half left of camping, so the sat in my car making it smell divine until I got home. Then they perfumed my "Costco closet" until I wrangled up a friend (BLee) to help with the process.

The recipe calls for peeled peaches, so we did what Alton Brown told me to do when peeling a lot of peaches (you know I always listen to Alton, he's so.... scientifically proven), put them in a hot water bath for a minute and then an ice bath. The skins just slid right off!

After peeling,you place the peaches in a bowl of water and lemon juice to prevent browning. We did this, but in the next step it doesn't say whether they should be drained before boiling or not, so we went with no in an effort to decrease the moisture that would later be cooked away in the oven.

Our peaches took about 2 hours in the oven to reach the correct "mounding" state, then we hot water-bath canned them so we didn't have to store them in the fridge. We multitasked by making bluebarb jam while it was in the oven, but that's another post...

Simple Peach Butter
Tasty Kitchen

10 lbs peaches, approximately 25 medium peaches
5 cups sugar
1 whole lemon, juiced

Skim peaches by immersing them whole into boiling water for 1 minute.  Remove them into a bowl of cool water.  While peaches are cooling, place 2 cups of water and juice of 1 lemon in a large bowl.  This will prevent the peaches from browning.  Peel and pit the peaches, placing them in the lemon water.

In large pot, crush the pitted peaches 1 cup at a time using a potato masher.  Keep track of the number of cups of peaches you crush in the event you need to adjust the proportions of sugar to fruit.  Many recipes call for a ratio of 1/2 cup sugar to 1 cup crushed fruit.  The sugar here is reduced for a fruitier tasting butter.

On medium heat, bring the crushed peaches to a boil, being careful not to scorch them.  Add the sugar and bring back to a boil.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  When the peach mixture comes to a boil, remove from heat and transfer 3/4 of the mixture to shallow baking dishes (13 x 9 works fine) and place in the preheated oven. Stir the butter every 15 minutes.  As it cooks down, add the reserved peach/sugar mixture.  When the butter mounds nicely in a spoon, it is ready.  This will take 1-1 1/2 hours depending on the moisture content of your peaches.

When the butter is at the correct consistency, hot-pack or bottle in sterilized glass containers.  Once cooled, store in the refrigerator.  Makes 12 half-pint jars. 


To Can: Sterilize clean jars in hot water for at least 10 minutes. Place lids in hot water bath for 5 minutes to activate sticky stuff.  Just prior to filling, remove jars from water.  Fill with a sterilized ladle and funnel. Clean the rim of jar with wet paper towel to remove drips.  Dirty lids won't allow a proper seal in the hot water bath. Remove lid from water bath with lid lifter and place on cleaned jar.  Screw on lid band to finger tight. Place filled, closed jar in hot water bath. Bring bath to a boil and boil for ten minutes.  Remove from heat and let sit for five minutes.  Remove jars from bath and let sit for 12-24 hours in cool, draft-free location.  Check seals and reprocess if lids pop back up when pressed with finger. 

Proud Grandma

My little Spider Plant babies are all grown up and having babies of their own.

They start sending out stalks with little nodules on the end and little leaves sticking out along the length.

Soon the nodules become little flowers, and eventually wee itty bitty spider plant babies on the ends of the stalks. If you snip them off, the leaves further up on the stalk become babies themselves.  I find it quite fascinating.  Right now I have four spider plants in the office that are in various stages of this process.  None of them have full fledged babies yet, but I'm waiting anxiously.

In other news, I received the bag of vanilla beans I ordered today.

I opened up the bag to check them out (and, honestly, to take a big whiff), and they just kind of had a musty scent.  I was a bit disappointed.  I poked around, trying to figure out how many beans were in a 1/2 pound bag (I'm guessing around 100) and ended up with tiny little vanilla seeds all over my fingers.

Twenty minutes later and I'm having to stop myself from sucking on the tips of my fingers. Oh man they smell so good. I'm so excited to use these!!

Red White and Velvet All Over

I was recently asked to provide trivia assistance via text message. The question was if there was cream cheese in red velvet cake. There isn't, of course, unless it's in the frosting (not mine).

This got me thinking. I hadn't realized it before, but I've made red velvet cake for the 4th of July every year I've been in Seattle for fireworks. I've made it all red with blue and white frosting and I've made red and blue cake with white frosting. Last year I even made red cake with cool whip frosting and blueberry pie filling (potentially the prettiest of them all because there weren't red crumbs all over in the frosting).

This year I branched out and tried something new -- Stars! I usually go with the traditional 9" rounds, but this year I received a star baking mold for my birthday.  This brought a whole new twist to frosting the dang things.


I decided to stack them into sandwiches and frost them like they were minirounds. I used my plain old white "Red Velvet Cake Frosting" that is my default frosting for pretty much anything, and died a bit blue to use as a filling and for accenting the tops. Unfortunately, they were eaten before I could take pictures of the final product. I guess that means they were good. I certainly liked them. I may have eaten more than my fair share....

Red Velvet Cake
From my mom's recipe box

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp cocoa
2 oz red food coloring (one 1oz container, emptied and refilled with water or vodka works just as well for a red color, just less dark and chocolately)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk*
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp soda
1 1/2 tsp vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two 9" layer pans.  Cream shortening, sugar and eggs.  In separate bowl, make a paste with cocoa and food coloring.  Add to cream mixture. Add salt and vanilla to buttermilk and add alternately with the flour to the cream mixture.  In separate bowl, mix soda and vinegar.  Fold into cake mixture.  Do not beat! Bake in layer pans for 30 minutes.


*If you don't want to go buy a carton of buttermilk, you can add 1tsp lemon or vinegar to 1 cup of milk.  Let it sit for a few minutes before using.  Or, as I have done recently, you can use powdered buttermilk. Just make sure you don't mix it first. Always put the powder with the flour mixture and use the water in the place of the buttermilk with the salt and vanilla.

Negligent.

Wow, I've been really bad lately about posting. But hey, I've been ridiculously busy. Give me a break. This weekend will be the fifth weekend in a row I haven't slept in my own bed. So instead of writing seven blog posts, I'll give you a photo summary.

SB Bachelorette Party

SB got married.

I went for a hike.

Went crabbing at Camano Island. Don't be fooled, this dude was huge.

I finished a birthday project!

Man, it's been fun, by holy criminy, I'm exhausted! But I'm glad I managed to fit in some knitting time to finish that hat. It was a birthday present that was given a bit late due to all the activities. I normally like knitting hats, but this one was pretty much just obnoxious. It's the same one I made for my brother for his birthday, but with different yarn. I hated knitting it then, but I really liked the finished product, so I caved and made it again.

Pattern: Wilson Hat by Norah Gaughan, modified to knit in round
Yarn: Something foreign from Bad Woman I bought because it was soft
Needles: Size 6 Circulars, Size 8 Circulars

I told myself my next project was for me, so I've gone back to working on a bag that I started in early spring. It's an easy pattern, so hopefully I can get in some good knitting time in the car this weekend on my next adventure to E.Wa.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone has a chocolate chip cookie recipe and thinks it's the best. I roll with the classic recipe on the back of the Toll House semi-sweet chocolate chip bag. I'm not saying it's better than yours, but it's my favorite to bake. It's what my mom used, and I've made them so many times I have it memorized.

Toll House Cookies

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
16 oz (2 cups/1 regular bag) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 375F (I've found I like them better at 350F). Mix sugars in medium bowl. Cream in butter. Beat eggs into mixture until even consistency. Add vanilla.

In separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. (I generally skip this step if I'm using my KitchenAid, but I've found that if hand mixing with a wooden spoon it's totally worth it.)  Add chocolate chips.

Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (just started doing this and it's awesome. You can pull the cookies off with your fingers -- no spatula required!). Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 2 minutes on pan; remove to wire rack to cool completely.

My friend is getting married this week and requested a batch of these cookies to have around the lodge for munching on in the morning while we're getting dressed. I decided to make a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies as well because there will be a ton of people about that morning.

I modified this recipe after eating a giant cookie that an old co-worker of mine made. It was so delicious and chock full of oatmeal that it was almost more granola bar than cookie. She said that she loved her chocolate chip cookie recipe, but just didn't think it was healthy enough for her kids, so she started adding oatmeal to it... then added more oatmeal the next time she made them... then added more the next time.  Now she adds as much oatmeal as she can and still have a dough-like consistency. If she added any more oats it would fall apart when baked. I've started making these, but with all the tricks I've learned to cut out fat and sugars (read calories) in baked goods.

"Healthy" Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
From me!

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup Splenda
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
1/3 cup egg substitute (such as Egg Beaters)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 2/3 cup flour
~6 cups Quaker Quick-cooking oats (I've tried store brand and much prefer Quaker)
16 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream together brown sugar, granulated sugar, and butter. Add applesauce. Don't worry if it looks kind of water and not how creamed butter and sugar usually look.  Beat in egg and egg substitute. Add vanilla

In separate bowl, combine salt, baking soda, and flour. Add to wet mixture and stir until combined. Add oatmeal, 1 cup at a time, until dough is saturated with oatmeal. Add chocolate chips (sometimes I'll add more than 16 ox if I add more than 6 cups oatmeal).

Drop balls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes or until tops of cookies just begin to brown. Note: cookies will not flatten or expand if saturated with oats.  Cool 2 minutes on pan; remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Georgian Cheesy Bread

Last summer we had a friend visiting for a long weekend. She had just returned from a trip to Georgia and wanted to thank us for the hospitality by cooking us a Georgian dinner. The whole visit she kept talking about rugs and I was very confused. What, do they make a lot of rugs with peaches on them or something? Later, I found out that she wasn't visiting the state of Georgia, but the country. This small fact made all of the little details suddenly make sense. Like why she was trying to find sour plums, not watermelon and fried chicken.

The meal was delicious. It consisted of a carrot/dill mixture, a green bean and walnut mixture (lobio), some sort of chicken dish, a tart plum sauce (tkemali) to be poured over the entire meal, and a fried bread filled with cheese (khachapuri). All of it was delicious, but sometimes I still dream of of that bread, nicely browned with cheese oozing out of the middle.

So a while back I asked for the recipe and bought the ingredients. I finally got around to making it last week and the results were just as delicious as I remembered.

Khachapuri: Georgian Cheese Bread
From Poppy

2 cups flour
3 Tbsp oil
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp bakign soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup feta OR 1/4 cup Roquefort cheese
1 cup grated mozzarella (or Georgian suluguni cheese)
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp butter

In medium bowl, beat in 1/3 cup flour with oil.  Add yogurt and mix well. Stir in 1/3 cup more flour. Sift in cornstarch, baking soda and salt into flour mixture.  Gradually stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft but not sticky dough.  Lightly dust with flour and cover with a kitchen towel and let rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

If using feta, soak in water 10 minutes and drain and crumble.  In medium bowl, mix feta or Roquefort  and mozzarella and egg.  Shape cheeses into 2 medium balls and set aside.

Divide dough into 2 portions and roal each into balls.  On floured surface, flatten each ball into a 7-inch round.  With floured hands, gently rotate dough and pull into a 10 inch circle, 1/4 inch thick.  Be careful not to tear dough.  Pat each cheese ball into a 5-inch circle on center of dough.  Gently pull up edge of dough, pleating and pinching to enclose cheese.  Pat into a 7-inch round.

Heat a large cast iron or non-stick skillet over low heat for 3 minutes.  Lightly film skillet with melted butter.  Place bread seam side up into skillet.  Cover and cook for 12 minutes over very low heat, shaking pan occasionally.  Uncover and flip bread over, covering and cooking over low heat until deep golden brown, about 12 minutes.  Lightly brush top of bread with butter and let bread stand for 5 minutes.  Use serrated knife to cut bread and serve warm. 

If you don't have a large enough skillet, bread can be baked in the oven at 375 until golden brown.