This is what happens to the zucchini when you go on vacation. It gets super sized.
Pennsylvania peaches
We just returned from out annual summer trek to PA and brought back about a 1/2 bushel of peaches. So I quickly turned them into jam and slices packed in syrup. I was a bit hesitant to make jam again. Peach jam tends to be the last one picked by all of us and we usually have WAY to much of it left over each spring. So I tried a new recipe and it came out absolutely wonderful. And I’m pretty sure the 5-year-old will love it. It tastes a lot like Cider Jelly which is his favorite.
Spiced Peach Jam
For this recipe I followed the recipe that came in the box of Sure-Jell low sugar pectin and added a tablespoon of pumpkin spice.
Sliced peaches
After last year’s peach floating fiasco I decided to hot pack the peaches. I followed the directions in Putting Food By.
Wash, blanch, peel, cut peaches
Make a light syrup of 4 cups water & 2 cups sugar. Boil
Add peaches to syrup and boil 2 minutes. Drain peaches and keep syrup.
Pack jars with slices and fill with syrup to 1/2 inch headroom
process in a water-bath for 25 minutes
I reserved the rest of the simple syrup that the peaches cooked in. This is going to make one hell of a Fuzzy Navel-ish drink tonight. I also froze a couple more jars of this syrup to bust out mid-winter.
My favorite shade of green
Seedling green. Look at those lovely little things. Hard to believe it now, but those will become the pumpkin pie on our Thanksgiving table. Absoluely lovely.
Signs of spring
So wonderful to see signs of life in the garden. It didn’t photograph well, but the garlic is all starting to pop through. It’s glorious to see, but I can’t help but worrying if it’s up too soon. It’s only March 19th – and the possibility of more cold, snow and frost in Vermont is very real….. But for now, the signs of life bring me great joy.
Peach buds.
This is why I can.
Spring has been teasing me all week, and I’m feeling like it’s just okay for tonight to be a four jar kind of night. The beets came from the farmers market, and everything else came from our garden. It’s a wonderful reminder of what spring and summer have in store.
This is why I can.
Left to right:
pickled beets; dilly beans; pickled carrots; dill spears
Hamentashen two ways
Hamentashen: the most labor intensive food I make all year long. The journey begins in the fall with all the jams I save especially for these cookies. It’s perfect – Purim always seems to arrive with just a hint of spring. I don’t feel guilty about using up so much of the wonderful jams from the basement pantry because I know I’ll have enough to get me through until the garden start producing strawberries and blueberries once again.
The first dough is perfect. A light buttery little cookie that is just perfect for any kind of jam. It’s vaguely reminicent of a shortbread.
And the chocolate ones are just pure decadance. This year I used a mini peanut butter cup with a milk dud on top. It all melted into peanut buttery, caramelly goodness.
Note: The directions for both doughs are pretty much the same – so follow the same for both.
Buttery crisp Hamentashen dough
- 2 cups butter
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp fresh orange or lemon zest
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 4 cups flour (or more)
Chocolate Hamentashen dough
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 3 cups flour (or more)
- 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 350 and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper (important!)
Cream butter and sugar in a mixer for 2 minutes.
Add both eggs + vanilla, mix again for two minutes.
In a separate bowl add all dry ingredients – mix slowly into a dough.
Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes (can be frozen).
Use a pint glass to cut out the circles for the chocolate ones, a juice glass for the fruit ones.
Add filing and fold in to triangles.
Bake for 14-16 minutes.
Cool on a rack.
Marshmallows!!
We lit a fire tonight and my oldest son asked for s’mores. It’s really hard to say NO to a request like that on the hardest day of the year to be a Jewish kid. I went through the contents of the pantry in my mind and realized we didn’t have marshmallows, but we did have all the other necessary ingredients.
A quick Google search proved we not only had all the stuff in house but it only takes 30 minutes. yea!
I followed Alton Browns recipe from food network.
Next time I’m going to try to substitute Brown Rice Syrup for Corn Syrup to try to make them a bit healthier. These were SO easy. I can tell this is going to be a new family favorite treat 
Sunday night, pizza night
Sunday night at our house is pizza night. We get our while wheat organic dough at the local pizzaria and make it at home. Usually I make sauce from scratch from our canned tomato sauce.
Lots of Sundays we have friends join us and we make as many as 5 or six different pizzas. they can get really creative and are always super yummy.
But some Sundays it is just us. and those nights it’s easy. One broccoli and cheese; and a pesto, goat cheese and sundried tomato.
Harvesting and Roasting Sunflower Seeds
Ah-Ha! Sunflower seeds. From our garden. Who knew? Seriously though, who knew? Every summer we have an Ah-Ha moment. The moment we realize “well, THAT was unbelievably easy!!” and “why the hell haven’t we done this before?!”
This year we grew Mammouth Sunflowers. Really we picked out the variety because we thought it would be fun for the kids. And it was – they were HUGE! as in almost 11 feet tall HUGE!
Easy harvesting of sunflowers seeds:
Keep an eye on the sunflowers – you want to bring them in as they are starting to get brown – and well before the birds and squirrels eat all the lovely seeds. After they are in the house let the flowers sit for 3-4 days and dry out a little bit. You’ll know they are ready when the seeds easily come off the flower head when rubbed.
If you want salted seeds (and you know you do) put all the seeds in a pot, and add 2 quarts of water and 1/4-1/2 cup of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for two hours stirring occasionally.
Drain the seeds and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 200 for 2 hours or until dry and slightly browned.
voila! salted sunflower seeds!
