Gettin' Plum Jammy!

This is rapidly turning into a food blog . . I need to travel more.  But even then, I'm rating eateries LOL


My friend, Sherry Elias posted on FaceBook that she had a tree full of plums . . . come get some!  So, I loaded up a box and the dog and headed out for a plum picking adventure.

It doesn't take long to pick a box of plums (this is a paper ream box . . so it was a pretty good haul).  We did not even make a DENT in the amount of plums on her tree.

I drove home with visions of plum jam in my future all winter long.  I dumped them in the sink and started sorting.  Throwing away anything that was green and hard and anything that was mushy which was surprisingly few. Of course, my lips were purple from taste testing!

Now, I'm a lazy jam maker.  I could have spent the time cutting these little babies in half and removing the stones . . . but I was blessed with a mom who canned EVERYTHING and believed in not working any harder than you have to.  So, as I've seen my mother do . . . I just tossed them in a pot, with a handful of sugar to get the action started, mashing them with a potato masher until they were cooked down.  I had to cook several batches to get them all.  (smelled soooo good)

After cooling, I strained the mix through a wire strainer . . squeezing all the pulp off the stones.  This left me with a thick slurry of juice and plum pulp.  Since I brilliantly pick so many . . I had no one pot to cook them down in.  Necessity being the mother of invention . . . I hauled out the roaster pot!  What a perfect solution!   At the ratio of 1 cup of slurry to about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar, I let it bubble slowly over the course of the day until thickened.  Because I did not use proper jam/jelly ratios of fruit to sugar (usually 1 to 1 . . I didn't want as much sugar in mine) . . it will not "set" or "jell" properly.  This can be fixed by dissolving approximately 1 Tablespoon of unflavored Gelatin per pint of fruit.  It will NOT set when room temp . . but when each jar is refrigerated, the texture is PERFECT for spreading . . mmmmm MMMMMM

All that was left now was to ladle into warm jars and water bath can at 7 minutes per batch.  Oh how I love the sound of "plinking" jar tops as they seal.  It is a sound reminiscent of my childhood.  The satisfying sound of all those cans sealing one by one.

As a kid, I HATED having to can produce.  My parents were organic and self sufficient before it was a fad to do so.  As and adult . . . I am very thankful that I learned how to cook and can and grow a garden.  Thank you Mom & Dad! 

One box of plums made 19 pints of jam!  Jim is busy calculating just how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that will make over the winter LOL.   We are already down TWO jars (oink) and I've already made arrangements for trading one on one for jars of peach jelly.

Never worry about canning too much of one item . . . the horse trading value is PRICELESS. 

Happy Jamming!

When life gives you lemons . . .

So . . . you have a pile of lemons, some great fresh organic eggs, butter . . . what do you do?

I know!  Fresh Lemon Curd!

Silky, creamy, sweet but tart.  Perfect on bread, scones, English muffins, shortbread  . . . spoons LOL

Easier to make than it sounds . . you don't need the double boiler method or need to use just the yolks. I use entire eggs and make it my Welsh granny's way . . . mmmmmm GOOD.


Fresh Lemon Curd

1 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 5 large Meyer lemons)
1 cup of sugar
6 eggs
12 T of Butter (I used salted)
Zest of the the lemons you squeezed.


Curd is normally made over a double boiler using only the yolks, this is because the whites cook a different temp often leaving white lumps . . doesn't affect the taste but certainly doesn't look pretty.

My grandmother had another trick!  She was always the practical one, wasting nothing by using whole eggs.  The trick is in the prep.

Start by creaming the butter and sugar much like you would for a cake.  When it's light and fluffy, add the eggs one by one . . then the zest.  Continue beating and slowly add the lemon juice.  This mixture will appear curdled . . NO WORRIES. This is fix itself when you cook it.

Place mixture in a heavy bottomed saucepan on med to med/low heat.  Stir continuously until thick like a pudding.  Remove from heat and cool in the pan . . stirring every few minutes until completely cool.  Pour into jars when it's cool (if it makes it that far), refrigerate and enjoy.


My only problem today?  I have no bread, muffins, scones . . . BUT, I do have a spoon!  YUMMMMY!

The fruits of labor!

Wow!  It's bad almost a year since I posted on my blog . . . bad Grace :-(   
it's that damn FaceBook, it's so easy to upload photos to and a blog is harder work.

Soooo . . . my New's Year's resolution is to pay MORE and BETTER attention to my blog.  I may skip back in time with adventures I haven't posted here . . I have  LOT of fun stuff to put on here.



TODAY

I was craving soup!  Not just any soup . . . but creamy tomato.  Then I remembered that earlier this summer, a great group of ladies gathered at my house for team tomato canning lessons.  We all chipped in on the cost of the tomatos (organically local grown!! BONUS).  Everyone brought quart jars and we split the wares when we were done.

Creamy tomato soup is probably the easiest soup out there  I started with a quart jar of stewed tomatoes, Used my immersion blender to reduce them to the creaminess I desired (I like mine just a TINY bit chunky).  I added a chunk of frozen pesto (made it myself . . see this post here for instructions on making your own pesto

Click here for homemade Pesto instructions!

I put half back in the jar for later . . . to the remainder in the pan, added a bit of Lawry's garlic salt and some garlic powder (love me some garlic!) . . . about 2-3 tablespoons of heavy cream and VIOLA!    A pinch of fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggano cheese (mmmmm) and some cracked black pepper.

HEAVENLY!!

Pair it with some toasted French bread . . a glass of red wine.  

What else could you wish for on a winter day?