Kitchen Travels

Kitchen :: Pink Plum Jam + Homemade Jam Jar Labels

It's probably no secret that I really enjoy home canning, especially jams and curds.

I find the entire endeavor very fulfilling, in a terre à table kind of way. The bulk of my ingredients come from the local farmer's market, my yard, or as a result of my urban foraging efforts. Canning gets me outside and enables me to connect with the earth and the people who farm it. I like that.

Kitchen :: Cherry Plum Jam

Turns out, it really is a small world, after all. About three years ago (wow, has it really been that long?), I was thinking of starting a food blog. Knowing nothing about blogging, I was intrigued when I read on line that BlogHer would be hosting a food blog event in San Francisco. Maybe I could learn a few things to get me started on the right track.

Breakfast in Italy: Gluten-Free Artisan Bread

I know you're supposed to wait until it cools to slice it. I have no willpower when it comes to freshly-baked bread.

Before you get all jealous about my breakfast in Italy, let's be clear: I am most definitely not in Italy at the moment. Nor do I plan to be in Italy, sadly, any time soon.

That is, unless Nike rings me up and asks me to make a movie about what it means to #makeitcount, in which case... I'm there. Hear that, Nike? I'm available. Any time. Just say the word. Nike? Hello?

Buckwheat Pancakes with Caramelized Apples and Orange Syrup {Gluten-Free}

Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong century. Does anyone else remember PBS's Frontier House? The series documented the experiences of three (modern) families who agreed to move to the Montana Territory for six months, and to live as the 1880s frontier settlers did. I was completely hooked after just one episode. Despite all the hardships, that kind of life holds a strangely powerful appeal to me.

Lately, especially, I've been pining for a simpler life. Not necessarily an easier life (pretty sure I would miss electricity and indoor plumbing), but a simpler one. 

Chewy Granola Bars

If you've been following along for a while, you may have noticed a slight shift in my recipes over the last year. For example, I strive to use organic ingredients as much as possible. I have also made the switch to natural, plant-based food coloring, choosing to avoid artificial food coloring ever since an unsettling blue frosting incident (you don't want to know). Because one of my kids seems to have a strong sensitivity to granulated sugar, I've been experimenting with alternative sweeteners such as honey, brown rice syrup, and maple sugar. 

There are many upsides to adopting a more natural diet. But, as you can imagine, organic foods can sometimes be more expensive than their non-organic counterparts. In my experience, this is especially true when it comes to kid-friendly items like crackers and snacks.

Raspberry and Fig Jam

Making homemade jam is a little bit like finding true love.

Some people think it's not worth the trouble. That it's too much work, too difficult, too time-consuming. And with all those hot juices bubbling away, there's a good chance you might get burned.

Mango Gelee and Honey Vanilla Yogurt Verrines

"Life is short."

It's a cliche, I know. A phrase we've all heard, and probably uttered ourselves, countless times. We know that life is finite, and that in the grand scheme of things, our time on this earth is fleeting. But I imagine most of us don't really think about it much. Until a few months ago, that was true for me. I had built a life - a pretty good one, by all accounts - and every day, I was busy living it. Wake up, shower, get the kids ready, get myself ready. Go to school, go to work, go to little league, go to the park, go swimming, go camping, go to dinner, go to bed...

Go.     Go.     Go.

I didn't really give much thought to the fact that this life of mine was barrelling through time at a rather alarming rate. I mean, I noticed it. But I didn't really pay attention. Then something happened. Life smacked me across the face and for a while, I was left reeling. Oh man, then I started to pay attention. It's amazing - and frankly, a bit unnerving - what you can see when you start to pay attention.

Drunken Fig Jam

The first food blog I ever read was Chocolate & Zucchini. I was searching for a recipe that would produce a chocolate and pistachio pound cake similar to my then-favorite afternoon treat from the cafe on the first floor of my office building. Although Google didn't turn up any recipes similar to the cake I craved, it did lead me to Clotilde's Pistachio Pound Cake post. Until that moment, I didn't know there was such a thing as a food blog. To be honest, I didn't know there was such a thing as a blog. I started clicking around the site. There were dozens, nay, hundreds of recipes. But what really drew me in was the writing - the recipes were preceded by wonderful vignettes about the author's family, friends, travels, life. Then I noticed the comments from other readers, and the links to some of their blogs. Before I knew it, an hour had passed while I clicked from site to site to site, exploring this new world. It was like flipping through a really great magazine, only better, because most of the bloggers weren't professional writers, chefs or restaurant critics... they were just ordinary people who loved food.

Potato Bacon Quiche Tart

A couple months ago, I wrote a post about Berry Cobbler. We were on the cusp of summer, school was out, and our garden was just beginning to blossom. Then I turned around and the next thing I knew, it was September. September? It's practically fall, the kids are back in school, and our garden is putting out the last of its late-season tomatoes. And - as those of you following along may have noticed - I have posted not a single recipe. Not. Even. One. How did this happen?

I'm still cooking and baking. Still taking (a few) pictures. As the summer slipped away, I mentally composed dozens of posts, even started and stopped a handful, but I just could not seem to follow through. It's a long story, one that involves jobs lost and found, kids troubled and recovered, relationships torn and... well, if not yet made whole, let's say on the mend. Those last two have been the toughest. On an intellectual plane, I rationalized that things weren't that bad. I mean, comparatively, things could have been a lot worse. We were surviving. But all that rationalizing wasn't making me feel any better. Because I didn't want to just survive. I wanted to thrive.

Sounds pretty easy, right? Maybe it should be. But lately, I've been so busy surviving all the little and big challenges of life, I've sort of lost sight of the simple joys of life. Most people probably haven't noticed a difference in me, but I've noticed. When the hell did I become so serious? Honestly, I just don't know.

Berry Cobbler

This post is dedicated to my mom, and to the memory of my maternal grandmother, "Mama" Prella.

My mom has been out visiting us for the last two weeks. The bad news is that - bless her heart - my mom's visit could not have come at a more stressful time in our lives. We could not have know when we planned her trip a month or so ago that both my husband and I would be going through a time of professional turmoil at our respective jobs, just as my mom was to arrive. To add to the stress, our twins just started the summer program at the school where they will attend kindergarten in the fall, and the transition from preschool has been more difficult for them than we anticipated. My poor little girls have been experiencing almost daily meltdowns, not sleeping through the night, crying at the drop of a hat... It's been a tough couple weeks for all of us.

The good news is that this is the longest visit my mom has been able to have with us in quite some time. And my kids have been loving it.