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.
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.
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.
This is the third in a series of "catchup" posts. xo
Chestnuts! For me, like many Americans, they are woven into the fabric of fall and winter holidays. In a way, we all grew up with chestnuts, or at least the idea of them. Each year when the weather turns cold, we know we'll hear Nat King Cole famously crooning about chestnuts roasting on an open fire. We'll be singing the songs we love to sing, at the fireplace as we watch the chestnuts pop. Pop! Pop! Pop! If we find ourselves in one of New York's five boroughs (or any number of European cities) around the holidays, we might be lucky enough to snag a cone of freshly roasted chestnuts, hot from the corner vendor.
And if we're fans of those gorgeous holiday magazines - aren't we all? - we'll be reading about chestnuts and dreaming of ways to cook with them. I'd bet money that every single November issue of the now-defunct Gourmet magazine included at least one chestnut recipe. It's a tradition that I sorely miss.