Hey, Cop Car! I think I may have found the perfect blog for you!
I was surfing this morning and found “Cooking for Engineers“!
Monthly Archives: August 2005
Follow Up
We’ve finished canning the plum jam. It’s amazing how you can take a dark blue fruit with green pulp and end up with a beautiful plum colored jam!
The chopped plums, sugar and lemon juice sat for two hours while the juice flowed from the pulp. We put it on the stove top and brought it to a rolling boil. Elegante Mother skimmed the foam from the top, and I worked on getting the jars ready for the canning.
I’ve Learned a New Definition
I spent the morning cutting up 2.2 pounds of tiny Italian plums. We’re making jam today. The fruit is so tiny that it took me easily two hours to complete the job. Part of that time was devoted to occasional diversions to give my hands a chance to relax.
I happened to find Orangette’s blog entry on preserving, and decided to follow her instructions for making jam. To the chopped up plums, I’ve added a pound of sugar and the juice from half a lemon. The mixture is to sit for two hours at room temperature to “macerate.”
Hey, Foodies….
I stumbled across the most wonderful blog yesterday! It’s called “Orangette.”
The author, Molly, has created a wonderful pastiche of recipes and life that is absolute eye candy. Even if you are not into cooking you’ll enjoy this blog.
I was searching for a recipe for Italian Plum Jam. Her August entry on making blackberry jam gives me not only the recipe, but all the side notes that should make it a successful experience. She started with the picking of the blackberries and carried the story all the way through to the canning of the jam. I wished I had been there. It sounded like a glorious day.
Pride & Prejudice
I have FINALLY finished “Pride and Prejudice!” The group of readers from my exercise group decided that we needed to read one of the classics, and this is the one we settled on.
I really enjoyed “Emma,” the production with Gwyneth Paltrow, and “Sense and Sensibility,” with Emma Thompson. Both of those productions helped me to set a sense of cadence in the language, and the form of interaction that was acceptable early in the 1800s. I thought I’d be able to breeze through “Pride and Prejudice,” but it was slow going.
Sunday, August 28
I SO wished I had a camera today! I need to get going on shopping for a digital camera.
I’ve been talking off and on about a recipe called “Farmers Tomato Pie.” My youngest sister shared the recipe with me several years ago, and I love it. I make it once or twice a year, but only when tomatoes are at their very ripest.
The recipe has a mixture of Italian cheeses, garlic and tomatoes, baked into a pie crust. Just after you pull it from the oven you sprinkle fresh basil leaves over the top. The house smells heavenly as you bake it.
Seedy Business
This morning on the radio (WGN720 in Chicago) I heard that bird feeding in the United States is a TWO BILLION DOLLAR industry! That’s a LOT of seed!
We most likely feed the birds to a greater degree than most of our neighbors. Elegante Mother considers it to be her entertainment. We put out feed all year round, and I add a feeder during difficult winters. Usually we fill one almost raccoon-proof feeder with about a 12-cup capacity, and a silo feeder that holds medium chipped sunflower hearts, every one to two days. All the birds like the silo feeder, but it’s meant to feed the smaller birds. That doesn’t stop the bigger birds from trying to muscle the little ones out.
It’s been a delight to see the goldfinches and other small birds use my herb garden for dinner. The purple coneflower is very well received but none of the birds will bother with the seeds from the garlic chives. I can’t say that I blame them. Bees were visiting the garlic chive flowers and I thought that would make interesting honey!
Welcome In
This is a picture of a custom made raccoon door. It’s also a picture of our roof.
NO Mercy!
Please meet JB….my physical therapist…..the man who lives for NO MERCY FRIDAYS!
‘Maters
I have to do some work on my raised veggie beds, so I’m not growing full sized tomatoes this year, but I have a cherrry tomato plant, and two miniature pear tomato plants growing in the herb beds. They’ve been producing regularly, and this is one day’s harvest.
In the middle of winter, I long for the scent of summer tomatoes. I love the warm, ripe texture of a summer tomato. There is no taste quite like it. The next best thing is the taste of a cherry tomato….that burst of flavor that pops in your mouth as you bite into them.
These cherry tomatoes are Sweet 100, but next year I’m going to look for a variety that has more acid, and is marginally larger. Yum! I can hardly wait!