Small-batch strawberry jam

May 7, 2015 Leave a Comment

Lately, the little one and I have been going through strawberries at a rate of about one pound per day.

This takes place mostly at breakfast when we eat them over yogurt (me) or speared on the end of a tiny fork and paired with a chaser of milk (him). And, in case you are wondering, at 22 months his appetite matches mine berry for berry.

A week ago we bought a big flat of strawberries at the farmers market and then, last weekend, we went to the fields and picked some ourselves.

Picking strawberries has always been a favorite springtime ritual and I was excited to share it with E., who wasted no time filling his bucket with ripe, red specimens.

I expected his haul to be full of either under or overripe fruit, but he took his job very seriously, carefully pushing aside leaves to seek out the best berries then calling out “nice one!” before freeing each new find from its stem.

In the end, we picked nearly 10 pounds of berries. Even our berry-laden breakfasts aren’t enough to make it through that much fruit before spoilage sets in, so I pulled out the jam pot and got to work….

Practically Instantaneous, No-Cook Pizza Sauce

April 27, 2015 Leave a Comment

When I was a teenager, I spent a summer working as a prep cook at a pizza restaurant. I showed up at 7 a.m. and spent hours portioning pizza dough, then got off in time to make it to one of my other two jobs (nanny, ice cream server) in the afternoon.

You would think that after months in the kitchen of a place that turned out pizza after pizza, and little else, I would have picked up a few tips of the trade. But if that summer taught me anything at all about pizza, I’ve long since forgotten it….

Braised Collards with Tomatoes

January 24, 2015 Leave a Comment

Sorry for all the radio silence around these parts lately.

The truth is, we hunkered down for a cold, wet January with very little fanfare and not a lot of excitement coming out of the kitchen. I’ve tried out a few new recipes that turned out to be keepers — including a caramel layer cake and some homemade yogurt — but for the most part we’ve been eating a lot of familiar, simple basics.

These braised collards are the sort of thing I tend to make a lot of this time of year. They’re comfort food, Southern style, only minus all the fatback. I don’t think you’ll miss it. Red pepper flakes, garlic and cider vinegar provide plenty of punch instead….

Preserved Lemons

December 4, 2014 2 Comments

I was all set to write up a post for a salad dressing using preserved lemons, when I realized that I never got around to posting about the preserved lemons themselves.

I actually made (and photographed) these preserved lemons almost a year ago, using some of the last of that season’s Meyer lemons from my little potted tree. I had to leave the tree behind when we moved from Texas to North Carolina. The movers wouldn’t take it and, even if they had, I’m not sure the tree would have survived a week with no water on a hot, dark, moving truck.

I did, however, manage to bring some of the lemons with me, in the form of marmalade, lemon curd and preserved lemons. The jars of marmalade were simply slipped into boxes with the rest of our pantry items, but the lemon curd and preserved lemons got the VIP treatment. I packed them into little soft-sided coolers along with a few ice packs and crammed them into my checked baggage….