And now.... for something different!

In January, I made a savory birthday cake for my party.  Several brave souls were willing to try it, and I like to think that they even ENJOYED it!  I certainly did.  It was a nice break from the usual sweet things found at a birthday party.

My kitchen was busy last weekend...

This is what just over 4 hours of canning will yield in my house:



(14 pints of canned peaches plus a medium batch of peach jam [8 jars], a medium batch of cherry-rhubarb [8 jars], and a small batch of peach-cherry [5 jars].)

And then you get even better/faster at it :) I've since also canned 5 pints of elderflower cordial (yay urban foraging!), but that stuff isn't very photogenic.

Rhubarb mimosas

Pretty drinks this morning at brunch (before the sparkling part was added):



I made rhubarb syrup earlier this month and this was its first public debut. It turns out I like it better with a lemon-lime soda than with champagne, but there is still much room for more experimentation!

Strawberry Lemon Cake

Last weekend it was a dear friend's brithday. We planned a semi-surprise party and I was in charge of CAKE! Here's what I made. A lemony strawberry cake. This involved making cake, lemon curd and lemon mousse. YUM!

Asparagus hunting!

I've gone asparagus hunting a couple times now this year. I've only found a few stalks, but it's really nice to spend time walking with a purpose outside. Here's the most interesting asparagus that I've come across. I wonder what made it grow this way?

Rolled banana cake

I recently discovered that making rolled cakes is not nearly as difficult as it looks:

Dinner Rolls

I finally succeeded in making moist & fluffy dinner rolls!

playing with food....

Here's a nifty boiled egg from one of the last times I boiled eggs:

First ever loaf of no-knead bread

Baking is art, too, right?

Dinner table in January

Here's what my table can look like when I put my mind to it :)

Skull pancake!!

First interesting pancake of 2010! oh wait. this is not a pancake. this is injera made wisconsin style (with miller light BEER instead of club soda!)

Latvian Easter Eggs

Here's the only picture I have to prove that I colored some easter eggs this year. This was done entirely naturally using onion skins, rice, barley, pasta, and plant material (like grass and bush clippings).

Happy Birthday MARK!

After a fight with an uncooperative oven (who thought that the setting for 425 actually equaled 550. Grrrrr.), I made the cream puffs:

November art - 1 of 4

In November, my furnace decided to stop working.... so I baked 5 pies and assorted other baked goods to heat my house a couple of degrees....



sadly, I did not have enough muscle coordination left in my (then frozen hands/brain) to take a better picture of said pies ;) and I have no pictures of the other baked goods either.

Catching up with October - 4 of 8

I made flan a couple of times in October. Crystalized sugar makes nifty designs when you pour cold water on it. Can you see the very tired, nearly dead (and very droopy looking) horse in here?

Apples & flat lap grinders.... all else is temporarily on hold.

I bought a flat lap grinder last week and only just today got around to assembling it. It took a while (there are screws that are threaded so that they loosen to the right.... doh!) and I'm going to be honest with you ---- after turning it on and off a couple of times and watching the motor spin so fast that the whole machine kind of sidled & practically jumped sideways on my countertop, I'm a little scared of using the thing. But I will. I just need to step out and pick up some distilled water for it before trying anything.

In other news, I don't think I should be allowed to go to any produce farms with 11 frogs. I thought I learned my lesson with the tomato insanity business earlier this summer, but no.

You see, I now have 49 pounds of apples to process...
:o

I <3 fall

Beets as art?

CSA brought some nifty stuff last week.....



This is a beet that doesn't stain your hands (or your insides) bright red. And it's super cool & swirly on the inside, too!!!

Tomato insanity!

Last year it was strawberries that my roommate and I got carried away with... this year it was tree farm produce....

What you see here is 32 lbs of tomatoes, 15 lbs of tomatillos, and almost 5 lbs of hot peppers.


After much work (and notice it's not even done!!! there are ever more tomatoes & tomatillos to deal with), it's turned in to 4 quarts, 11 pints, and 16 half-pints of canned stuff. It also became some fresh salsa and some tomato soup. Click on this picture if you want to see what's what.


AND this year was the first year ever where I exploded a few jars. Sadly, these all would have been pickled peppers if only they had survived (I tasted a few explodees and they were quite tasty) and so there are only 3 jars left of that particular experiment... at least they made a pretty cool "BOOM!" sound when they blew... (^_^)



Earlier this year I canned three different kinds of jam, too:
- blueberry, low-sugar
- blueberry-cherry-rhubarb
- blueberry-blackberry-gooseberry
The blueberries I picked in Michigan, the blackberries in Chuck's backyard, and the gooseberries in my yard (they're one of the new bushes in the highly contested borderline). But I don't have any pictures of *that* process.

An onion as art?

Entertainment while cooking this weekend - I thought this was pretty cool looking: