Gifts

Roasted Red Pepper Spread | Gardener’s Delight Eggs

September 22, 2011 by Rebecca 10 Comments

And POOF! Just like that, summer was gone. I am fully aware that it is still technically summer but the tell tale signs are all around us: breath is foggy in the morning, cozy socks are back at the front of the sock drawer, scarves and jackets are shaken out of storage, and the produce at the farmers’ markets is taking a definite pumpkin-y turn. This, my friends, is fall.

That giant cosmic yawp you just heard came from my ever-optimistic beloved husband who views the turning of the leaves as a personal metaphor for mortality. This is the same man who spends the first official day of summer in mourning because it means that the days will grow shorter until the year ends. Poor guy. Don’t feel too badly for him, though. He lives with a compulsive baker and we all know that bread makes everything better.

Some of us, though, are not-so-secretly rejoicing. I’ve rustled up my fingerless gloves and my woolen caps for my morning strolls. I’m thrilled that I’m no longer sweating buckets near (not over, perish the uncouth thought) my canning pots. In fact, I’m upping the canning program in order to help keep warm until my husband finally acknowledges that summer has flown the coop and fires up the wood stove*.

*Firing up the wood stove is like my husband throwing the white flag of surrender and admitting that one more summer is behind him.

In the meantime, I will keep filling jars with little tastes of summer for my soon-to-be hibernating husband to put on his fresh bread. Jams and jellies are wonderful, but nothing beats cracking open a vibrant, ruby-hued jar of savoury garden goodness when the brisk wind is blowing and the sky is gun-metal grey.

Roasted Red Pepper Spread is just the thing to banish chills to the body or soul. You can’t help but smile when you see the bright red jars with flecks of basil peeking out at you. And when you open it? It’s everything wonderful about summer encapsulated in one little jar. The silky smooth, thick red pepper spread with the full taste -courtesy of tomatoes, garlic, onion, and red wine vinegar- is at home dolloped on fried eggs, spread on toast, as a pizza sauce, or as a dip (either alone or stirred into mayonnaise or softened cream cheese.)

While my poor husband may never recover from the suggestion that winter is soon to follow, I would be remiss if I didn’t offer the following tip; if you tie a simple gold, silver or raffia ribbon and gift tag around the top of the jar, it makes a beautiful and tasty (and perfectly colored) Christmas gift. Red and green and good taste. What could possibly be better?

The recipe yields around five eight-ounce jars, but can easily be doubled or tripled. I recommend an automatic doubling of this recipe if you intend to give it as gifts, because once you taste it you won’t want to part with it. That is as incontrovertible a fact as the passing of the seasons.

Roasted Red Pepper Spread

Rating: 51

Yield: About 5 eight-ounce jars

Roasted Red Pepper Spread is just the thing to banish chills to the body or soul. It’s everything wonderful about summer encapsulated in one little jar. The silky smooth, thick red pepper spread with the full taste -courtesy of tomatoes, garlic, onion, and red wine vinegar- is at home dolloped on fried eggs, spread on toast, as a pizza sauce, or as a dip (either alone or stirred into mayonnaise or softened cream cheese.)

Adapted from The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Ingredients

5 ¾ pounds sweet red bell peppers
¼ pound fresh cayenne peppers (or other red-hued hot peppers) (If you don’t like heat, use an additional ½ pound of sweet red bell peppers.)
1 pound plum tomatoes
1 small onion, unpeeled and uncut
3 large cloves garlic, unpeeled and uncut
½ cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons, packed, thinly sliced (chiffonade) of fresh basil
2 teaspoons sugar (I prefer raw)
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat the broiler in your oven. Spread the peppers, tomatoes, onion, and garlic cloves in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast under the broiler, turning frequently, until the peppers are softened and blackened all the way around, and the tomatoes, onion and garlic have some black spots on them. The more thoroughly blackened the peppers are, the easier they are to peel. Transfer the peppers and tomatoes to a paper bag, fold the top down three or four times to seal it, then let cool about 15 minutes, or until the produce is cool enough to handle. Set the onion and garlic on a cutting board to cool as well.

When the peppers and tomatoes have cooled, use your hands to rub the skins off as well as you can. Don’t panic if a bit of the skin remains. Cut the peppers open in order to remove their stems and seeds. Rip the peppers into strips and put into a blender or food processor (in batches if necessary) and process until smooth. Pour into a stainless steel stockpot and repeat the process with the tomatoes.

Peel the onions and garlic then finely chop both. Add this and the remaining ingredients to the purees in the stockpot and stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. Lower the heat to medium low and continue a gentle boil, stirring often, for about 20 minutes, or until the spread can be mounded on a spoon.

You may either refrigerate the red pepper spread at this point, or freeze it in single serving sizes, or can it to make it shelf stable.

To can the spread for long-term storage:

Ladle the hot spread into prepared 8-ounce jars leaving ½-inch of headspace. (For information on how to do this, click here ) Use a stainless steel chopstick or butterknife to remove any air bubbles. If the level of the spread lowers after air bubbles are removed, you can add more hot spread.

Wipe the rims of the jars with a damp cloth, put the lid in place, and screw on the rings until fingertip tight. Place on a rack in a canner, cover with hot water, and bring to a boil with the lid on the canner. Once the water reaches a full rolling boil, begin a 10-minute timer (15 minutes for pints). When the timer is done, remove the lid from the canner, turn off the heat and let it stand for 5 minutes before carefully transferring the jars to a towel or rack on the counter to cool, undisturbed.

When the jars are completely cool, remove the rings for storage, wipe the jars clean and label. Store in a cool, dry place for up to a year.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/09/22/roasted-red-pepper-spread-gardeners-delight-eggs/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Would you like another good reason to have this on your shelves? I gotcha covered! This is my current favourite breakfast.

Gardener's Delight Eggs

This almost instant breakfast delivers a hugely satisfying punch of flavour courtesy of big, bold, smooth, garden-fresh Roasted Red Pepper Spread dolloped on fried eggs with pan-fried tortilla rounds. This breakfast will keep you going for hours.

Ingredients

1 egg
1 tablespoon butter
1 flour tortilla, cut into quarters or rounds (with a biscuit or cookie cutter)
2 tablespoons Roasted Red Pepper Spread (see recipe above)
salt and pepper to taste
Optional: Fresh basil, thinly sliced (chiffonaded)

Instructions

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed skillet. Crack the egg and slide it onto the skillet near one edge. Place the tortilla rounds or wedges along the other side of the skillet. Flip the tortilla rounds when they begin to lightly brown. Toast the other side and transfer to a serving plate.

Cook the egg, flipping once if desired, to your preferred doneness. Use a spatula to place the fried egg on top of the toasted tortillas. Top the egg with the Roasted Red Pepper Spread. Sprinkle with fresh basil, if desired.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/09/22/roasted-red-pepper-spread-gardeners-delight-eggs/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Breakfast Foods, Canning, Condiments, Food Preservation, Gifts, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: budget friendly, Canning, food gift, Food gifts, Food Preservation, party food, Vegetarian

Smoky Roasted Tomatillo and Tomato Salsa

September 14, 2011 by Rebecca 22 Comments

Are you ready for some salsa? It’s a salsa time of year, after all. Now is the time for all good tomatoes to come to the aid of the salsa. Salsasalsasalsasalsasalsasalsasalsasalsa!

Clapclap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clapclap. Clap. Clap. Clap*

*Ahem. That’s a salsa beat. Trust me.

It’s not that I get carried away over salsa in general, but I do over this particular salsa. Aside from fresh salsa (pico de gallo, or whathaveyou) this is what every single little salsa wants to be when it grows up. It’s smoky, thick, brick-red, and vibrant with guajillo and chipotle chiles, roasted tomatoes and tomatillos, and garlic that you forget you’re eating a jarred salsa. This is the salsa that makes people stop and say, “WOW!” and “Where’d you get this?” That, my friends, is no time for humility. Show them the rows of this on your shelves and puff your chest out a bit and say, “I made it.” I’d advise you fix a dollar amount in your head before serving to company, though, because you will inevitably be asked by reasonable people how much you would charge for a jar*.

*Unreasonable people, or younger siblings, however, will ask, beg and plead for you to give them a jar for free and remind you of the fact that they never told mom that you made them wear your fluffy pink nightgown in exchange for playing Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars with them even though they still don’t know you would’ve played it anyway because you liked them better than Barbies anyway.

It is best to be prepared is my point.

Back to the salsa. There are a few key points that differentiate this salsa from your average chunky jarred stuff.

It uses dried, reconstituted chiles instead of fresh ones. For some reason this just feels so much easier. Am I crazy? Maybe. But this is what my brain says and I’m listening.
It is made from roasted tomatoes rather than blanched, peeled, seeded, chopped tomatoes. (Read: two-step tomatoes rather than four-step tomatoes.) This makes peeling easier because you roast the tomatoes, put them in a paper bag, crimp the top and wait a few minutes, then the skin just sloughs right off. I’m sorry about using slough while talking about food. I know it’s not appetizing, but I couldn’t think of another word that fit just right.
It is a “ground” salsa. Instead of uniformly (and angrily, depending on how much salsa you’re making and how many times you’re interrupted by the people who will eventually eat this salsa) hand chopping all the prepared ingredients, you toss them into the food processor and pulse until all the contents have been chopped to the point where they’re pretty derned little. Almost (but not quite) smooth. Why? Well, because I can. And because it tastes great. And because my kids like it better that way. And because it makes this end product more versatile. You can dump a jar on a pork or beef roast or a whole chicken, marinate it overnight, then drop it in the crockpot the next day on low. After several hours, shred everything together for the ultimate in simple main dishes. Eat the meat on sandwiches, on barbecue pizzas, in quesadillas, in this glorious dish, or on tacos. I guarantee you’ll come up with many more ways to use meat cooked in this salsa.
It just plain tastes better. I realize that’s not scientific or terribly persuasive, but there you have it. This is the best salsa in the world.

I have one final piece of advice about this salsa. Double the recipe. You really should just trust me on this or one of two things will happen to you. You will find yourself crying over your last jar of salsa between bites ~OR~ you will be reduced to guarding your stash jealously, suspiciously staring down anyone walking past your pantry or basement stairs and menacingly slapping a wooden spoon against your palm to show them you mean business. It will be easier on your mind in the long run if you just go ahead and double it. You’ve been warned.

Smoky Roasted Tomatillo and Tomato Salsa

It's smoky, thick, brick-red, and vibrant with guajillo and chipotle chiles, roasted tomatoes and tomatillos, and garlic that you forget you're eating a jarred salsa. This is the salsa that makes people stop and say, "WOW!" and "Where'd you get this?" Be sure to double the recipe because it will be one of the most popular things you ever can.

Recipe from the canning bible: The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

Ingredients

12 dried chipotle chile peppers, stemmed
12 dried guajillo (cascabel) chile peppers, stemmed
2 cups boiling water
2 pounds tomatillos, husks removed
2 pounds plum tomatoes, cored
1 large onion
1 head garlic, broken into cloves with excess paper brushed away
1 cup cider vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar (raw or granulated)
1 teaspoon salt (non-iodized)

Instructions

Place a large, dry, heavy skillet over medium heat.

Toast the chipotle and guajillo peppers on both sides (this may take more than one go-round as the size of the skillet determines how many peppers you can fit in at a time without overcrowding), about 30 seconds to a side, until they are pliable and fragrant. Transfer the toasted chiles to a stainless steel or glass bowl and pour the 2 cups of boiling water over the peppers. Weight the peppers down with a bowl or plate to keep them submerged and cover the whole bowl with plastic wrap or a tight cover for 15-30 minutes or until the peppers are softened.

Transfer the contents (water and peppers both) to a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade and process until smooth. Set aside.

Put cored plum tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and garlic in a single layer into a rimmed baking pan. Put them under a broiler set on high until tomatillos and tomatoes are blistered, blackened and softened and onions and garlic have black spots on them. Put tomatillos and tomatoes into a paper bag and cinch the top closed. Set aside until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes.

Pull the tomatoes out one at a time, rub them to remove the skins, depositing the peeled tomatoes directly into the food processor bowl that is fitted with a metal blade. When the processor is full, pulse until smooth. Pour the smooth processed tomatoes into a large, stainless steel stockpot. Repeat with the remaining tomatoes and tomatillos.

Peel the onions and garlic and pulse in the food processor until finely chopped. Add those to the tomatoes and tomatillos in the stockpot.

Add the reserved pureed chiles and remaining ingredients to the stockpot and stir until evenly distributed.

Prepare canner, jars and lids. (For more information on how to do this, see this link. )

Bring the tomato mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to a simmer, stirring frequently, and continue simmering until it thickens slightly. This should take about 15 minutes or so.

Ladle the hot salsa into the prepared jars, leaving 1/2-inch (1 cm) of headspace.

Use a stainless steel chopstick or butterknife to remove any air bubbles. If you need to add more salsa to maintain the headspace, do so.

Use a clean towel dampened with vinegar to wipe the rims of the jars.

Center the lid on the jar then screw on the band until fingertip-tight. Don't overtighten but don't leave loose!

Place jars into a canner, cover with water by an inch, and bring to a boil with the lid on the canner. Once the water reaches a rolling boil, begin a 15 minute timer. When the timer expires, turn off the heat, remove the lid to your canner and let the jars rest in the water for 5 minutes.

After five minutes, carefully transfer the jars to a towel or cooling rack on your counter and let stand, undisturbed, for 24 hours. Any jars that did not seal should be stored in the refrigerator.

After 24 hours, remove the rings for the sealed jars, wipe the jars clean and label them for storage. Store with the rings off (and in a single layer.) This is a little insurance policy. If there is bacterial growth in the jars, the bacteria will produce gas which will loosen and push up on the lid. This is an indicator that the jar has gone bad. If you have the rings in place, the lids cannot loosen and pop up to tell you something is wrong.

Store in a cool dry place for up to a year.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/09/14/smoky-roasted-tomatillo-and-tomato-salsa/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Canning, Component Foods, Gifts, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, kid food, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

January 6, 2011 by Rebecca 61 Comments

[First published in November 2009]

I’ve received lovely notes from many of you inquiring after my absence here. First, let me thank you all for caring enough to ask. Second, let me explain why I’m reposting this.

My husband and I have visited his Aunt Patti in the Houston Heights area the last couple years just before Christmas. Patti welcomed us lavishly and generously, putting us and other family members in a bed and breakfast near her home, treating us to delicious meals, making us feel at home and loved and special beyond words. Aunt Patti’s sweet tooth is legendary.

This year, my sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law and various uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews made homemade meals for her (due to her MS, she was no longer able to cook for herself), dozens and dozens of cookies, cakes, chocolate toffee, breads, and anything else that we thought would sound good to her.

We brought silly Christmas ornaments to play ‘White Elephant’ and to decorate a small tree for her bedroom so she would laugh when she looked at it. And believe me, those ornaments were laughable.

We talked, we laughed, we ate. And we ate and ate and ate. And when it was time to go, we hugged. We talked about how we were already looking forward to seeing each other next Christmas. Aunt Patti said how much she had loved the hot-chocolate-on-a-stick I had mailed to her the previous year. I promised I would send a batch sometime shortly after the New Year. I meant it.

On January 3rd, we received a phone call from my husband’s brother that Aunt Patti’s house had burned to the ground and that both she and her caregiver, Lisa, were missing and presumed dead. I was sure he was wrong. I hoped he was wrong. He had to be wrong.

He was not.

In the last three days, both Aunt Patti’s and Lisa Sanders’ remains have been found. I can’t send another batch of Hot Chocolate on a Stick to Aunt Patti. And while that’s the least of the concerns, when you miss someone, the little things seem bigger. I had failed to deliver on a promise. So do me a favor, would you? Please make a batch of these. Eat them or -better yet- share them with someone else. Patti would’ve loved it.

In Loving Memory of Evelyn “Patti” Worthington and with eternal thanks to her caregiver Mary Elizabeth “Lisa” Sanders.

Now that I have the attention of the entire state of Minnesota, please allow me to expound.

This is one of the most clever ideas I’ve seen out of the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Circle lately. (And they’re no creative slouches over at King Arthur.) In the most recent e-newsletter* from their test kitchen they included a recipe for Cocoa Blocks.

*If you’d like to receive their free e-newsletter, you can click this link and look for the sign-up box in the lower right hand corner of the page.

Oh sweet merciful heavens. Cocoa blocks. Very utilitarian name, no? Nothing against my King Arthur folks, because I really do love them, but I think the name doesn’t do justice to these little beauties. I’ve renamed them. Henceforth, they shall be called Hot Chocolate On A Stick.

Hot Chocolate on a Stick is a creamy chocolate confection that is much like an ultra-rich fudge. You can, as the new title indicates, put these blocks of chocolatey goodness on sticks for ease in swirling it in hot milk or nibbling.

Or, if you’re a rebel (or not from the Midwest), you can simply leave the squares alone and stir them into your hot drinks. Or you can go another step, as I am wont to do, and skewer a marshmallow on top of the block of chocolate.

And since we’re playing with marshmallows already, why not make them homemade*? That opens up the possibilities of all kinds of decadent flavor combinations; mocha chocolate with cocoa marshmallows, orange chocolate with vanilla marshmallows, plain chocolate with raspberry marshmallows, or pure chocolate and vanilla marshmallows.

~~~ ~~~

*Last year Val posted a homemade marshmallow recipe in our Homemade Christmas Gifts series. (See that post here!) Homemade marshmallows, if you’ve never had them, are a completely different animal than those little round foam-like jobbies you get in bags at the grocery store. They’re ethereally light, sweet and endlessly customizable. Have a hankering for an orange flavored marshmallow without the nasty food coloring? It can be done. Want a mocha marshmallow? (Just try finding THAT at your local mega-mart.) It’s only moments away. You get my drift, right?

So if you combine luscious, velvety, rich fudge with light-as-air homemade marshmallows it should follow that what you’ve created is heavenly. And it is. Oh, it is! Not to put too fine a point on it, but having these in my kitchen was the only thing standing between me and a potential sale of my children to the gypsies early career apprenticeship commitment for my children. I hid in the bathroom with a ‘Hot Chocolate on a Stick’ and nibbled my irritation away.

I could’ve taken a cup of hot milk to the bathroom with me, but I was in a hurry, people. I needed the chocolate and I needed it fast. The kids, on the other hand, found the stash while I was hiding (and small price to pay for the peace it brought me) and stirred theirs into hot cups of milk. I hear tell that they enjoyed it immensely. The chocolate rings around their mouths bore out their testimony.

Kid tested. Mother approved.

~~~ ~~~

May I recommend that you whip up a batch or two or three of these? Keep one batch for yourself. Wrap one batch in plastic and pretty ribbons for gift-giving. And that last batch? Well, give it away one at a time to your kids’ teachers, bus drivers, your preacher, the mail carrier, the elderly man or woman down the road who lost their spouse this year, the gal in the apartment two doors down who looks a little lonely, or anyone else who looks like they could use a good dose of seasonal cheer.

First, a marshmallow refresher!

Homemade Marshmallows

This is mainly Val’s recipe, but I’ve added a few of my own notes.

Follow this link for the original post and a printable version of this recipe.

Ingredients:

.75-oz unflavored gelatin (3 envelopes of Knox gelatin)
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or other flavor extract)
Confectioners’ sugar

Line 9 x 9-inch or 8 x 8-inch pan with plastic wrap and lightly oil it using your fingers or non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil. As soon as it is boiling, set the timer and allow to boil hard for 1 minute.

Carefully pour the boiling syrup into soaked gelatin and turn on the mixer, using the whisk attachment, starting on low and moving up to high speed. Add the salt and beat for between 10 and 12 minutes, or until fluffy and mostly cooled to almost room temperature. After it reaches that stage, add in the extract and beat to incorporate.

Grease your hands and a rubber or silicone scraper with neutral oil and transfer marshmallow into the prepared pan. Use your greased hands to press the marshmallow into the pan evenly. Take another piece of lightly oiled plastic wrap and press lightly on top of the marshmallow, creating a seal. Let mixture sit for a few hours, or overnight, until cooled and firmly set.

Sprinkle a cutting surface very generously with confectioner’s sugar.

Remove marshmallow from pan and lay on top of the sugar.

Dust the top generously with sugar as well.

Use a large, sharp knife to cut into squares.

Separate pieces and toss to coat all surfaces with the sugar.
Store in an airtight container.

Now for the Hot Chocolate on a Stick!

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

Ingredients:

½ cup heavy cream
14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
3 cups semisweet chocolate (3 cups chopped chocolate bars or chips)
3/4 cup unsweetened baking chocolate (4 ounces)
wooden sticks, lollipop sticks, candy canes or bamboo skewers
optional, crushed candy canes, marshmallows and/or cocoa powder

Line an 8 x 8-inch pan or a 9 x 9-inch pan with foil and set aside.

Combine the cream and sweetened condensed milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Heat until it is steaming, but not boiling, stirring occasionally to keep from scorching.

Add all of the chocolate and remove from the heat. Allow the chocolate to melt, undisturbed, for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, whisk firmly until it is thick and shiny. You can add a few drops of flavoring extract or oil at this point, or add some powdered espresso or vanilla. Whisk vigorously again to incorporate the flavoring (if used.)

Use a rubber or silicone spatula to spread the mixture out evenly in your prepared, foil-lined pan.

Allow to cool at room temperature 12 hours or overnight so that it firms slowly.

Take the fudge from the pan and remove the foil. Place on a cutting board.

Using a knife heated with hot water and wiped dry, cut the fudge into 36 equal-sized cubes. You can either stick a lollipop stick (or candy cane) into the center of each block or leave as is. Additionally, you can press the cut sides of the fudge into crushed candy canes, roll them in cocoa powder or top with marshmallows.

Eat immediately or wrap tightly and store at room temperature.

If you make more than one batch and use different flavorings for the marshmallows or chocolate, you can use different colored ribbons to indicate the flavors. Silver for mocha chocolate and vanilla marshmallows, gold for plain chocolate and raspberry marshmallows, for instance…

Hey… Someone’s snuck off with my raspberry marshmallow Hot Chocolate on a Stick…

Oh well, I’ll make more.

Remember, it’s Christmas time!

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

Author: Rebecca Lindamood Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Recipe type: dessert, candy

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 36

This creamy chocolate fudge confection can be nibbled in its pure form, skewered on a stick alone or with homemade marshmallows and simply eaten or swirled into hot milk for a hot chocolate that is second to none.

Ingredients

½ cup heavy cream
14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1¼ cups)
3 cups semisweet chocolate (3 cups chopped chocolate bars or chips)
¾ cup unsweetened baking chocolate (4 ounces)
wooden sticks, lollipop sticks, candy canes or bamboo skewers
optional, crushed candy canes, marshmallows and/or cocoa powder

Instructions

Line an 8 x 8-inch pan or a 9 x 9-inch pan with foil and set aside.
Combine the cream and sweetened condensed milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Heat until it is steaming, but not boiling, stirring occasionally to keep from scorching.
Add all of the chocolate and remove from the heat. Allow the chocolate to melt, undisturbed, for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, whisk firmly until it is thick and shiny. You can add a few drops of flavoring extract or oil at this point, or add some powdered espresso or vanilla. Whisk vigorously again to incorporate the flavoring (if used.)
Use a rubber or silicone spatula to spread the mixture out evenly in your prepared, foil-lined pan. Allow to cool at room temperature 12 hours or overnight so that it firms slowly.
Take the fudge from the pan and remove the foil. Place on a cutting board.
Using a knife heated with hot water and wiped dry, cut the fudge into 36 equal-sized cubes. You can either stick a lollipop stick (or candy cane) into the center of each block or leave as is. Additionally, you can press the cut sides of the fudge into crushed candy canes, roll them in cocoa powder or top with marshmallows.
Wrap tightly and store at room temperature.

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Filed Under: Beverages, Desserts, Gifts, Holiday Food, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: Food gifts, food on a stick, homemade gifts, hot cocoa

Spicy Cocktail Nuts and a Giveaway! (Updated)

November 3, 2010 by Rebecca 76 Comments

We have a winner! Connie… You were picked by the random number generator.

“Connie

November 5, 2010 at 11:38 am

I am surprised you are out of the competition. Your recipes are so delicious and extremely helpful. Hope you have a wonderful weekend.”

Contact me for instructions on how to redeem your prize! Congratulations!

Aw, nuts!

…Or so I said when I learned that my tenure in the Project Food Blog competition was done. After a brief spell of sitting on my bar stool at my counter indulging in self-pity, I came to three conclusions.

I was truly proud of each and every entry I submitted to the competition because each one represented my approach and attitude toward food.
I was kind of relieved. I had a pumpkin carving party to attend that night and that meant I could really have fun without worrying about a deadline.
I have the most loyal, kind, sweet, and hilarious readers ever created. The emails and messages of support left on the Foodie With Family fan page were and are much appreciated. And truth be told, you guys kind of choked me up a little bit. Thank you for all your support for me both during and after the competition. You are awesome.

Now, that being said, I thought the most appropriate way to say ‘thank you’ and express my opinion about being foisted from the competish was to make some nuts. As in aw, nuts. As in I’m nutty. As in I’m nuts for you guys. As in… let’s just make these nuts already, eh?

Spicy, sweet, salty, and totally addictive, these nuts will become an instant necessity in your holiday food arsenal. You will dream about these. Years ago (and we won’t say how many because I might be having an aging crisis), a friend brought these to an event that I organized at the office*. Let’s just say that these didn’t make it past my desk to the buffet table. They stayed with me. And my friend wasn’t allowed to pass the desk until he jotted down the recipe for me. Because I’m just that kind of person.

*The aforementioned event -my brainchild- was “PigFest” wherein we spent each Friday in November bringing in dishes to pass with the express aim of expanding our stomachs to better hold the bounty that would be lain before us at upcoming holiday events. Who ever said advertising people were impractical?

Let’s talk about these nuts for a moment. You can serve them warm (kept that way in a little slow-cooker) or room temperature; either way has its advantages. You can change out the seasonings used to spice them up. You can ratchet up or scale back on the heat. You can swap out walnuts, cashews, peanuts, Brazil nuts or whatever floats your boat for the almonds. You can pour a bunch of the cooled nuts into a clean canning jar, wrap some ribbon or rafia around it and give it as a fabulous hostess gift. But what you can’t do is skip making these.

Before we go any further, let me tell you about this giveaway. Aside from the nuts, it is another way of saying thank you for being here! The nice folks at CSN (and have you LOOKED at their sites? They have over 200 of them! It’s like my own personal candy store! That bar stool link above is to one of their sites.) have offered a $50 gift certificate just in time to stock up with the gear you need to turn out the best holiday meals you possibly can. Thank you, CSN! So the rules. First, I’m tired of contest rules so we’ll keep it simple.

Da Rules

Leave a comment.
That’s it. You’re entered.
If you really need more rules, perhaps you should make them up and leave them in the comment area.
I love you guys.
Really. Those are all the rules.
Oh geez, you slave drivers. Okay. One more thing. I’ll pick the winner at random on Saturday morning at an as-yet undetermined time. Because I told you, tired of the rules.

Now, we cook.

Aw, nuts.

Spicy Cocktail Nuts

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

Recipe by Emeril Lagasse

1 large egg white
1 teaspoon water
4 cups raw almonds (…or raw walnuts, pecans, or peanuts)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons Emeril’s Essence, recipe follows (or whichever spice blend you prefer…)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together egg white and water until frothy. Add the nuts and toss to coat. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, Essence, cayenne, and salt. Add to the nuts and stir to coat evenly. Spread the nuts on the prepared pan and bake until dry, about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir to separate. Let cool on the baking sheet. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Essence (Emeril’s Creole Seasoning)

Recipe by Emeril Lagasse

2- 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container. Yield: about 2/3 cup

Spicy Cocktail Nuts and a Giveaway! (Updated)

Author: Rebecca Lindamood

Recipe type: Snack, Appetizer, Hors d’oeuvres

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 15 mins

Serves: Lots

Addictive. That’s the only word to describe these spicy, sweet, crunchy, roasty-toasty cocktail nuts. Make with almonds, cashews, peanuts, walnuts… You choose!

Ingredients

1 large egg white
1 teaspoon water
4 cups raw almonds (…or raw walnuts, pecans, or peanuts)
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons Emeril’s Essence, recipe follows in notes (or whichever spice blend you prefer…)
½ teaspoon cayenne
¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together egg white and water until frothy. Add the nuts and toss to coat. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, Essence, cayenne, and salt. Add to the nuts and stir to coat evenly. Spread the nuts on the prepared pan and bake until dry, about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir to separate. Let cool on the baking sheet. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes

Essence (Emeril’s Creole Seasoning) Recipe by Emeril Lagasse * 2- ½ tablespoons paprika * 2 tablespoons salt * 2 tablespoons garlic powder * 1 tablespoon black pepper * 1 tablespoon onion powder * 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper * 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano * 1 tablespoon dried thyme Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container. Yield: about ⅔ cup

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Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Breakfast Foods, Gifts, Holiday Food, Instructional, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Non-food recipes, Party Food, Project Food Blog 2010, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: food gift, Food gifts, frugal gifts, giveaway, kid friendly, kids, nuts, party food, quick and easy, Vegetarian

Sweet and Spicy Chipotle Kettle Corn

August 22, 2010 by Rebecca 6 Comments

A.) It’s rainy.

B.) It’s chilly.

C.) My husband was on a business trip this week meaning that I parented our five boys solo.

D.) My husband got in from that business trip at 1:30 a.m. this morning.

E.) I’ve been canning like a maniac for weeks on end.

F.) I have a hole in my heart that was created by my utter lack of time to watch my favorite movies lately.

G.) I spent all of yesterday at the Angelica Farmer’s Market with the kids (who were selling their Mortar Men and Room & Linen Sprays) on what turned out to be, according to the market’s coordinator “…the slowest day we’ve ever actually had at the Farmer’s Market.”

H.) I wanted to prove that I am still capable of writing a post that doesn’t involve putting food in jars. Although, you really could actually put this into jars. Just a thought.

There. This is what I like to think of as front-loading with my excuses reasons behind this post. And now that I’ve been all efficient, I can go straight to the good stuff; Sweet and Spicy Chipotle Kettle Corn. I never really cared much for kettle corn because of an unfortunate incident as an exchange student in France*. I found it an affront to the great and noble salted and buttered popcorn of my youth. I viewed it as an anemic impersonation of caramel corn; food of the gods. And last, but certainly not least, I really, really REALLY didn’t like how very many times I had seen it written ‘kettle korn’.**

*I had been in France for about three months when struck with an incredible craving for crunchy popcorn. I stopped in the first Supermarché I could find and gasped audibly when I found a bag of fluffy white popcorn on the shelf. I grabbed. I paid. I tore it open. I stuffed a fistful in my mouth. I spit it out into a garbage can. I was not emotionally prepared for popcorn to be totally sweet. White Cheddar or Salted? Yes. Sickly sweet? Not so much. And so my prejudice against any sweet popcorn that wasn’t caramel corn was born.

**Korn with a ‘K’? No way. That rubs ever CDO** bone in my body the wrong way.

***CDO: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in alphabetical order. The way God intended.

But inspiration strikes at odd moments. As The Evil Genius and his progeny sat on the couch watching the Little League World Series (El Salvador vs. Saudi Arabia) our eldest pined -pointedly- in my direction, “I sure could go for something sweet to munch. Sigh.” The Evil Genius mouthed the words “kettle corn” in my direction and accompanied it with his most charming world-domination smile. Then they all started ululating.*

*Sorry for all the asides, but this one is one-hundred percent necessary. The guys saw a Saudi mother ululating when her son hit a home run. They’ve been ululating since. It’s been two hours. Send help. Now.

Since I was afraid they’d carry on ululating if I didn’t whip up a batch of kettle corn I hied me hence to the kitchen. I planned on doing one batch of the dreaded kettle corn for them and one batch of my favorite; salted with nutritional yeast (don’t you DARE gag. It’s delicious. Even if it DOES contain something called ‘nutritional yeast’ which admittedly sounds like it would be served by a very serious health food adherent with no sense of humour whatsoever.) I made the kettle corn, poured it into a bowl and -in an act that I really can’t remember consciously deciding to perform- sprinkled a generous quantity of ground chipotle powder over the top. Um. Whoops?

No. Not whoops. Divine. Sweet, smoky, spicy, salty and crisp; this stuff knocked off my socks. Color me converted. Well, to the Sweet and Spicy Chipotle Kettle Corn anyway. You can keep the other stuff. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

I ended up making several more batches because it was eaten almost as fast as I could make it. The kids loved it. The Evil Genius loved it. I loved it. Score.

Now if you’ll pardon me. I’m going to go grab my bowl and catch up on my movies. Middle Earth, here I come!

For a printable version of this recipe minus the photos and rambling, click here!

Sweet and Spicy Chipotle Kettle Corn

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup of your favorite unpopped popcorn kernels (I love ladyfinger popcorn. So small, so cute, so tasty!) + 3 extra kernels
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
salt to taste (start around 1/4 teaspoon and work up from there.)
ground chipotle pepper powder to taste (start around 1/4 teaspoon and work up from there.)

Regular Pot Instructions:

In a large heavy-bottomed pan with a tight-fitting lid, heat the oil and the 3 extra kernels over medium high heat with the lid in place. Shake the pan every 10 seconds. When you hear the three kernels pop, act quickly (while wearing oven mitts.) Dump in the 1/4 each of popcorn kernels and sugar. Put the lid back on very quickly and start shaking in a circular motion. Listen to the popping of the kernels. It should pick up in tempo until you can’t distinguish the popping of individual kernels. Keep shaking the pan. After that it will gradually decrease. This is where you need to pay the most attention. When the popping tapers off to the point where you hear a two to three second pause between pops, you need to pull the pan off the heat and empty it into a bowl very quickly.

Whirly Pop Instructions:

In a Whirly Pop pan, heat the oil and the 3 extra kernels over medium high heat with the lid in place. Keep turning the Whirly Pop handle. When you hear the three kernels pop, act quickly (while wearing oven mitts.) Quickly open one side of the Whirly Pop and dump in the 1/4 each of popcorn kernels and sugar. Knock the lid back into place very quickly and start turning the handle. Listen to the popping of the kernels. It should pick up in tempo until you can’t distinguish the popping of individual kernels. Keep turning the handle. After that it will gradually decrease. This is where you need to pay the most attention. When the popping tapers off to the point where you hear a two to three second pause between pops, you need to pull the pan off the heat and empty it into a bowl very quickly.

~~Now for the good stuff…

No matter which way you cook it, when you’ve emptied it into a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and chipotle powder to taste, toss and stir with a long wooden spoon. You don’t want to stir by hand because that melted sugar seriously burns! Let cool for a couple minutes and then dig in! Kettle corn keeps well in a paper bag with the top folded down and crimped for a day or two at room temperature.

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Camping Food, Desserts, Gifts, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, kid food, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: dessert, food gift, Food gifts, Frugal Food, frugal gifts, kid friendly, kids, party food, quick, quick and easy, Vegetarian

Rum Soaked Preserved Cherries and Boozy Cherry Molasses

June 28, 2010 by Rebecca 18 Comments

Cherry season usually gets away from me. It seems like I find out cherries are on about twelve hours before the end of the (what feels like a twenty four hour) season. I usually manage to get one or two glorious pounds. We dispatch of those quickly with a manic eating and pit spitting binge that ends not with the jars and jars of pie filling and preserved cherries that I wanted but with pink stained lips and teeth and hands. Then I sigh, promise myself I’ll get the jump on it next year and wait semi-patiently for blueberry season where I compensate by picking about a hundred pounds of blueberries.*

*Would that I were joking. I put up in the neighborhood of 100 hand-picked pounds of blueberries every year. We were talking cherries, though, weren’t we?

But not this year. Oh no. Not this year. This year, thanks to my good friend Lisa, I heard about an almost unbelievable deal from one of our local Amish bulk stores. They were putting together a group order of cherries; sweet dark cherries, freshly picked, for $0.95 per pound. And what’s more, they would be getting sour cherries, already pitted, in a couple weeks time for $1.26 per pound. I ordered thirty pounds of sweet darks and thirty pounds of sours. I didn’t just get a jump on it. I bungeed. Off a cliff.

The results of my cherry preserving bender are nothing short of lip-smacking and I’ll be sharing all of the recipes over the next couple weeks. Some of the recipes require fresh cherries, some require frozen and some can take advantage of fresh, frozen or canned cherries; I’ll start with the ones that use the fresh cherries first. Aren’t I logical?

First up is a two-fer; Rum Soaked Preserved Cherries and Boozy Cherry Molasses. Rum Soaked Preserved Cherries are exactly what they sound like. They are cherries soaked in a rum-heavy sweetened syrup. And they are heavenly. These tipsy little beauties can be eaten straight from the jar, added to baked goods, used to garnish drinks (think Maraschino cherries, but delicious and all natural), or perched on top of a scoop of ice cream that has been drizzled with the happy side-product of their creation; Boozy Cherry Molasses (a jewel-toned rum and Kirsch fortified, thick, sweet, intensely cherry syrup boiled down after making Rum Soaked Preserved Cherries.) What do you do with the Cherry Molasses? It’s a chameleon, I tell you. Pour it over ice cream, brush it on grilled pork or venison, eat it from a spoon.

You have some decisions to make when you start with these; stems or no stems and pits or no pits. I prefer to leave mine with stems and pits intact. I think it makes for a prettier finished product but I’m not all flash and no substance; leaving the pits intact imparts a gentle almond flavor and leaving the stems on gives each cherry a built-in handle for removal from the jar. If you want to remove the stems and pits, go for it! I’ve included the different quantities needed for both versions.

For a printer-friendly, photo free version of this recipe, click away!

Rum Soaked Preserved Cherries

Adapted from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving (See here to learn more about the book.)

Yield: about 4 (8 ounce) jars.

Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups water
6 1/2 cups cherries with pits and stems intact (5 cups of cherries if you remove stems but leave pits intact, 7 1/2 cups of unpitted cherries if you wish to pit and stem them before preserving)

Per Jar:

1 1/2 Tablespoons Golden Rum

Prepare your jars and lids. If you wish to make the cherries shelf-stable, please also prepare your canner.

Place a stainless steel or non-reactive stock pot over medium-high heat; add the sugar and water to the pot and stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring the syrup to a boil and add all of the cherries immediately. Return to a boil while stirring constantly. Reduce the heat and allow to remain at a gentle boil for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat.

Using a slotted spoon and a wide-mouthed funnel, transfer the hot cherries from the hot syrup into the jars, leaving 1/2 of an inch of head space (the space between the rim of the jar and the food). Add 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Golden Rum to each jar, then spoon or ladle the hot cherry syrup into the jar, maintaining the 1/2 of an inch of head space.

Insert a chopstick or skewer down the insides of the jar to remove air bubbles. If necessary, add more cherry syrup to keep that 1/2 of an inch of head space.* Wipe the rims of the jars, center the lids on the jars and screw down the rings until finger-tip tight.

*Hang on to that leftover hot syrup and leave it in the pan; that’s the most important part of the Boozy Cherry Molasses! You can either make the Boozy Cherry Molasses right away, or pop the pan into the refrigerator to complete later.

You can either refrigerate the cherries in the syrup for up to a month or you can process them in a boiling water canner to make them shelf stable for a year. I prefer to can them.

To process them, place the jars in a stockpot or canner, covering them by 1-2 inches of warm tap water. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. When the water is at a rolling boil (a boil that cannot be stirred down), begin timing and allow to process for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the lid to the pot, turn off the heat, wait 5 minutes and then lift the jars straight from the water and place them carefully on a cooling rack positioned over a towel. Do not tilt the jars (it interferes with the natural formation of a vacuum which is one of the things that keeps the food safe and shelf-stable!)

Cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours. As the jars cool, you will hear a popping sound. That is the sound of the lids sealing. That is what you want to hear. Check the jars after 24 hours. If any of them have not sealed, simply store in the refrigerator. Wipe the jars clean and label them before storing in a cool, dry place (like a cupboard.)

Boozy Cherry Molasses

Yield: Between 1 1/2 and 2 (8 ounce) jars

Ingredients:

Remaining hot cherry syrup from making Rum-Soaked Preserved Cherries

Per Jar:

1 1/2 Tablespoons Golden Rum
1 teaspoon Kirsh (or other cherry liqueur)

Place the remaining cherry syrup back over the burner over medium-high heat and return to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low and maintain a gentle boil until syrup is reduced by half (or more, depending on how thick and concentrated you want the syrup.) The syrup should fall slowly from the spoon when thickened and leave a clear trail when you draw your finger across a spoon that was dipped into it. But do be careful. Hot sugary syrups are, well, HOT! Be patient. Wait before testing! When the syrup is thickened to your liking remove from heat.

Prepare your jars and lids. If you wish to make the syrup shelf-stable, please also prepare your canner.

Add the Golden Rum and Kirsh to your jars and ladle the thickened syrup into the jars to within 1/2 an inch of the rims. Wipe the rims, center the lids on the jars and screw the rings on until fingertip tight. I usually process this in a boiling water bath along with the Rum Soaked Preserved Cherries, but if you opted to save the hot cherry syrup and complete the task later, boiling water processing is optional. As with the preserved cherries, you can store the Boozy Cherry Molasses in the refrigerator or process them for one year’s worth of shelf stability. If you opt to can them, the directions are as follows.

Just look at this elixir poured over chocolate ice cream.

And ooh boy, how about doing this?

Go on. You know you want some…

Oh. I’m sorry. You can’t taste it through the computer? I guess you’ll just have to make some. You’ll be happy you did. Now pardon me, please. I have to finish off this bowl of ice cream before it melts or I do.

Filed Under: Canning, Component Foods, Desserts, Food Preservation, Gifts, Instructional, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: Canning, dessert, Food gifts, Food Preservation, frugal gifts

Celery Soda

May 11, 2010 by Rebecca 20 Comments

I have to admit that Celery Soda is not exactly a normal sounding recipe. While watching Alton Brown whip together this recipe on Good Eats, my first thought was, “Celery WHAT?” My incredulity notwithstanding, the idea took hold.

And boy did it ever take hold. My brain kept trying to imagine how a syrup steeped with celery seeds would taste. It’s not that it was a huge investment in time, resources or money. It was just two measly tablespoons of celery seed, two cups of sugar and a cup of water. I enjoyed tossing around the idea of the soda almost more than I wanted to make it. But make it I did.

And I could kick myself for waiting so long.

It’s not good.

It’s great.

It’s more complex than I ever imagined it to be. Trying to nail down the flavors for description is like trying to get boys into the bath tub. In a word? Elusive. Two words? Elusive and slippery. Every time you think you have it it evades you. But I’ll try. For you all, I’ll try.

The first impression is not of the sweetness, although it’s right there; your first sense of the syrup is the light smell of celery. It’s not quite identifiable as celery; it’s a fresh, herbal scent. And it smells more of celery than it tastes of it. That light, fresh, herbal taste is present, but if you didn’t know it was made from celery seed you might not be able to call it. The biggest ‘A-ha!” moment from the whole experience is that the subtle tongue-tingling feeling that you get when you eat celery is there when you sip the syrup mixed with soda water. Even that is more of a lower case “Is this celery?” than it is a “Hey! Celery!”

What is not elusive and slippery about this is how refreshing it is. My word. A tall glass of this on a hot day and the world will melt away while you stay cool. Not as cool as a cucumber but as cool as celery. It cools you on a cellular level. This is going to be my secret weapon during the dog days this summer. That is, if we ever get dog days…

According to Alton Brown, the celery syrup in this recipe is invaluable in mixing cocktails. Feel free to wing it. Let me know if you come up with something wild and wacky and mixological. Maybe you’ll invent the newest cocktail craze. Could happen. All because of this syrup.

I probably don’t need to tell you this, but I will anyway; this is so much better for you than most off-the-shelf sodas you can buy. And it’s almost sinfully less expensive than the fancy-pants gourmet and all-natural sodas that are available. We’re talking about pennies per glass here. No funky additives, no High Fructose Corn Syrup, no wacky extracts or bizarro unpronounceable ingredients. Okay, some might argue that Celery Soda is -at the very least- unusual or exotic, but it’s refreshing and really dadburned good!

Psst. There’s one other thing. But it’s for adults-only. I’ve been told by a reliable source that celery (in all it’s forms) has some potent aphrodisiac effects; so use with caution. Or without. Wink wink.

Now you might print this one and put it in the pile of recipes to try or file it away or bookmark it. I’m all about that. But don’t let the hot months get away from you before you try this.

Celery Soda

Scroll to the bottom of this post for an easy print version of this recipe.

from Alton Brown

Ingredients:

2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup of water
2 Tablespoons of freshly crushed (lightly) celery seed
chilled unflavored seltzer or soda water

Stir the sugar and water together in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until sugar is fully dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the celery seeds. Cover the pan and steep, off of the hot burner, for one hour.

After an hour, it is time to strain. Line a fine-mesh sieve or colander with dampened fine cheesecloth or coffee filters. Pour the syrup into the strainer. If you need to do this in stages, do so, but try not to overflow your cheesecloth or coffee filters as this will allow celery seeds into the syrup.

That wouldn’t be a disaster, but it would at a possibly undesirable textural element to your syrup. Pour the syrup into a jar, fit on a tight lid and chill completely before use.

To mix a soda:

Pour 2 Tablespoons of chilled syrup into a tall glass with about 1/4 cup of chilled seltzer or soda water. Stir well to combine so that the syrup is fully integrated into the soda. Add ice to the glass and fill the rest of the glass with more chilled soda. Serve immediately. Ah!

Store unused syrup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to six months. That’s right! It lasts for six whole months!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Celery Soda

Author: Alton Brown

Recipe type: Homemade Soda, Flavoured Syrup

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 12

Refreshing, unique, and healthy, an icy glass of this unusual sounding homemade soda really hits the spot on steamy summer days. Serve this alongside grilled hot dogs or hamburgers and potato salad instead of a cola or sweet soda and you will never go back!

Ingredients

2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup of water
2 Tablespoons of freshly crushed (lightly) celery seed
chilled unflavored seltzer or soda water

Instructions

To Make the Syrup:

Stir the sugar and water together in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until sugar is fully dissolved.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the celery seeds.
Cover the pan and steep, off of the hot burner, for one hour.
After an hour, it is time to strain. Line a fine-mesh sieve or colander with dampened fine cheesecloth or coffee filters.
Pour the syrup into the strainer. If you need to do this in stages, do so, but try not to overflow your cheesecloth or coffee filters as this will allow celery seeds into the syrup.
Pour the syrup into a jar, fit on a tight lid and chill completely before use.

To Serve as Soda:

Pour 2 Tablespoons of chilled syrup into a tall glass with about ¼ cup of chilled seltzer or soda water.
Stir well to combine so that the syrup is fully integrated into the soda.
Add ice to the glass and fill the rest of the glass with more chilled soda.
Serve immediately. Ah!

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Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Beverages, Component Foods, Desserts, Gifts, Healthy Foods, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: homemade soda, unique soda, unusual soda

Homemade Essential Oil Air Fresheners

March 17, 2010 by Rebecca 66 Comments

Have you ever noticed that males of all species have a tendency to (How can I put this delicately?) be malodorous?

I’m talking from a position of knowledge and experience here; I have a husband, five sons, and two male dogs. We also have chickens and a cat. My boys tromp all over the yard without regard to the location of dog or chicken scat. I feed my family a great deal of beans. My dogs get gassy when they’re nervous.* There are ample opportunities for ‘the stink’ to arise.

*Boy, do I wish I was joking about that. Last summer we took the dogs to a family reunion in Southern Michigan. We got stuck on the Ohio Turnpike in 90°F temperatures. Our air conditioning broke and only one of the windows in the van worked. It was the window next to yours-truly’s head. So all the air exiting the van went right. past. my. face. Remember that. It will become very important to my story in mere moments. And the dogs? Well, let’s just say being stuck in traffic was as hard on their nerves as ours. Being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic in sweltering temperatures with a flatulent eighty-five pound hound dog and his equally foul-smelling and obese beagle buddy was -in a word- horrific. You could have calibrated a 30-second hourglass by timing the brief respite between ‘episodes’ from Hambone and Diggedy. I was traumatized. We all were.

I learned early on in my mother-of-many-boys career that eliminating the causes of ‘the stink’ was nearly impossible; I learned it was all about making a pleasant smelling oasis in each room. And I spent money on it. Oooh, baby, did I spend money; scented candles, gel air fresheners, room sprays, linen sprays, plug-in room deodorizers, misters, potpourri (sidebar: My mom fed boiled potpourri on a taco to my German exchange student friend in high school. But that’s a story for another time. Hi, Mom!)

When I learned that three of my babies had asthma, all that stuff went out the window. Actually, it went in the trash, but you savvy, right? All the pretty smelling stuff went buh-bye. Laundry detergent, fabric softener, cleaners? All unscented. Boo hoo. Poor me.

The allergist told me I could use essential oils in small amounts in little bowls or reed diffusers, but I found that the scent dissipated too quickly. I had to find something that smelled nice (or an inexpensive carbon filter face mask comfortable enough to wear 24/7) or risk losing what little sanity I had left. It took five years…

You’ve heard that necessity is the mother of invention? Well, I’m the mother of five little necessities and I had a perspiration. (My Dad defines ‘Perspiration’ as an inspiration that hurts.) Homemade all-natural, essential oil powered, gel based air fresheners. They met all the requirements to keep my poor asthmatic kids from doubling over and wheezing. They smelled great. They lasted a good long time. They were cheap to make. They had five ingredients you could find at any grocery or department store. And this mom was happy.

Now a word or two about essential oils: they’re pretty powerfully scented, so go easy on how much you add. You don’t want to add more than 30 drops per air freshener until you know just how strong your oil is. The basic air freshener base recipe is listed and my favorite scent combinations are given below it.

For a printer-friendly version of this recipe sans photos and yakety-yakety, click here!

Homemade Essential Oil Air Fresheners

Ingredients:

1 ounce granulated or powdered gelatin
2 cups cold water, divided
20-30 drops of your choice of essential oil
1 Tablespoon salt
optional, food coloring to tint the air freshener

Also needed:

heat-proof jars to hold the hot gelatin liquid
a disposable chopstick or skewer to use as a stir stick

Bring one cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin over the boiling water and whisk until smooth and all the gelatin is dissolved. Add the salt and the second cup of cold water and whisk. Set aside.

Add the desired amount of essential oil and food coloring, if using, to the jar(s). Quickly pour the hot liquid gelatin over the essential oil and food coloring. Stir until evenly colored.

Allow to cool, uncovered on a heat-proof surface. When it reaches room temperature, place wherever you want a lovely scent.

Sweet Basil and Lemon Air Freshener

20 drops Sweet Basil essential oil
8 drops Lemon essential oil

Rosemary Orange Air Freshener

25 drops Sweet Orange essential oil
5 drops Rosemary essential oil (The Rosemary essential oil is mighty strong stuff. Keep a light hand with this!)

Fresh Pine Scent Air Freshener

25 drops Fir Pine essential oil
3 drops Lemon essential oil
2 drops Sweet Orange essential oil
1 drop Bergamot essential oil

Pure Lavender Air Freshener

30 drops of Lavender essential oil

Essence of Provençe Air Freshener

20 drops Lavender essential oil
5 drops Thyme essential oil
2 drops Lemon essential oil

~~~

This year, if we have to take the dogs on another road trip, I’m prepared; I’ll just cram one of these up each nostril and pray.

Filed Under: Gifts, Household Hints, Instructional, Non-food recipes, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars