Blackberry Jam

4 lbs blackberries

2 1/2 cups sugar

3 Tablespoons lemon juice, from one lemon

Add all ingredients to large saucepan/dutch oven. Mash blackberries with potato masher while heating over medium heat until broken down to desired size. Add half of the juiced lemon skin, for extra natural pectin.

Continue to cook until juice dabbed on chilled plate begins to gel.

Transfer to 3 pint jars. Process in boiling water bath 10 minutes.

Raspberry/Blackberry Syrup

3 lbs berries

1 cup sugar

3 Tbsp lemon juice

Cook berries in large pot for 5 minutes, mashing with potato masher, to release juices. Stain in fine mesh strainer for at least 10 minutes.

Pour juice, sugar, and lemon juice in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Adjust heat to maintain a steady simmer. Cook until heated to 220-225°F. This takes about an hour.

Pour hot syrup into 2 half pint jars. Process for 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

Food from Father's Day Weekend

Resurrecting this blog in order to keep notes to myself and recipe links. Name of food has link to recipe online. Name of cookbook has link to Amazon listing for that cookbook. 

This is not all the food we ate. This is just the food I made (my husband does most of the dinner cooking).

Saturday: 

• Pancakes from The Food Lab cookbook
• Dried oregano. Because it needed trimming
  
  
  

Sunday:

• Rugelach from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, 
• Made double-sized and served as a breakfast pastry instead of a cookie
• 
  
  
• Apricot Pistachio Squares from the other Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
• Took less apricots than recipe called for. And cooked half again as long (an hour and a half total!) before the filling mostly set up
• 
  
  

July Food

7/4/19
Blueberry boy bait (with blackberries)
-10 oz flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 16 Tbsp butter
- 5 1/4 oz Brown sugar
- 3 1/2 oz sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup blackberries, cut in half
- 1 tsp flour
Topping
- 1/2 cup blackberries, cut in half
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs one at a time. Add flour and milk, alternating. Toss blackberries in 1 tsp flour. Gently fold into batter. Pour into greased 13x9 inch pan. Scatter rest of blackberries on top. Mix cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle evenly over top. Cook at 350 for 45 minutes.

June 2016 Food

6/1/19 - French Breakfast Puffs: https://smittenkitchen.com/2011/12/cinnamon-brown-butter-breakfast-puffs/

6/2/19 - Pickled sweet peas

6/2/19 - Rhubarb syrup

• 3 cups rhubarb
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

Bring rhubarb and water to boil. Cook on medium for 10 minutes. Drain. Add sugar to rhubarb juice. Cook until sugar dissolves then add lemon juice

Result: Way too thin. Should have cooked down to a syrup instead of just dissolving sugar.

6/5/19 - Dried pineapple

6/5/19 - Pineapple leather

6/29/19 - Southern tea cakes

6/29/19 - Blackberry syrup

• 4 lbs blackberries
• 2 cups sugar
• Juice from 1 lemon

Cook blackberries and sugar over medium heat to release juice, 5-10 minutes. Drain. Put juice back in pot and reserve pulp for other use. Add lemon juice and cook until syrupy.

Result: Overcooked. Now have blackberry jelly instead of blackberry syrup.

6/29/19 - Blackberry Lavender Cream Paletas

• Leftover pulp from blackberry syrup
• Lavender cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 sprig worth of lavender

Process blackberry pulp in food processor. Combine milk, cream, sugar, and lavender in a small saucepan. Cook for 5 minutes to infuse cream with lavender flavor. Do not boil. Strain and chill cream. Drop chilled cream and blackberry pulp alternately into the popsicle mold.

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder with Peach Sauce

A Cook's Illustrated Recipe. The best of many delicious dishes we served to family that visited for the holidays. Ryan made it using residual heat in his wood-fired oven, but I'm sure it would be equally delicious out of a conventional oven.

INGREDIENTS

• Pork Roast

• 1bone-in pork butt, 6 to 8 pounds (see note)
• 1/3cup kosher salt
• 1/3cup packed light brown sugar
• Ground black pepper

• Peach Sauce

• 10ounces frozen peaches, cut into 1-inch chunks (about 2 cups) or 2 fresh peaches, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
• 2cups dry white wine
• 1/2cup granulated sugar
• 1/4cup plus 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
• 2sprigs fresh thyme
• 1tablespoon whole-grain mustard

INSTRUCTIONS

1. 1. FOR THE ROAST: Using sharp knife, cut slits 1 inch apart in crosshatch pattern in fat cap of roast, being careful not to cut into meat. Combine salt and brown sugar in medium bowl. Rub salt mixture over entire pork shoulder and into slits. Wrap roast tightly in double layer of plastic wrap, place on rimmed baking sheet, and refrigerate at least 12 and up to 24 hours.
   2. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Unwrap roast and brush off any excess salt mixture from surface. Season roast with pepper. Transfer roast to V-rack coated with nonstick cooking spray set in large roasting pan and add 1 quart water to roasting pan.
   3. Cook roast, basting twice during cooking, until meat is extremely tender and instant-read thermometer inserted into roast near but not touching bone registers 190 degrees, 5 to 6 hours. Transfer roast to carving board and let rest, loosely tented with foil, 1 hour. Transfer liquid in roasting pan to fat separator and let stand 5 minutes. Pour off ¼ cup jus; discard fat and reserve remaining jus for another use.
   4. FOR THE SAUCE: Bring peaches, wine, granulated sugar, ¼ cup vinegar, ¼ cup defatted jus, and thyme to simmer in small saucepan; cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 2 cups, about 30 minutes. Stir in remaining tablespoon vinegar and mustard. Remove thyme, cover, and keep warm.
   5. Using sharp paring knife, cut around inverted T-shaped bone until it can be pulled free from roast (use clean kitchen towel to grasp bone). Using serrated knife, slice roast. Serve, passing sauce separately.
2. 
   

Happy New Year

It looks like I haven't posted in this blog for 3 years. In 2015, I may start blogging again, here and elsewhere. Probably not, since I'll still be busy with a job and two little girls and a big house and a needy garden. But I hope to occasionally post to my old blogs. Stay tuned....