Yes I Can!

Reading the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving is rather intimidating. They (rightly so) hammer home the importance of sterility and proper techniques, so you know, you avoid botulism and other nasty contaminations. But I'll be honest, the book frankly scared me out of canning for more than a year. It just made it seem like canning was something I just wasn't cut out to do.

But two weekends a go, I went to a canning demonstration at Surfas, put on by the people behind the Saving the Season blog. And despite almost going postal on a woman who got on my case because Vivian was crying, it was very helpful, if only because it showed me that canning is not, in fact, rocket science.

Fast forward to this last weekend. We went up to Kingsburg to visit the family, and while there, we took a side trip to the Fresno State Farmers Market. While there, I picked up 8 lbs of fresh peaches to can. Monday night, I finally decided it was time. I followed the rustic peach jam recipe on StS, and added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of ginger. And after much tribulation and swearing (the darn skins would not slip off the peaches!), here is what I ended up with:

No, not the cans of PBR. Six pints of jam! I didn't add pectin, and frankly some websites scared me about cooking the jam past the jell point, so it's rather loose. More like chunks of peaches in a thick syrup. But I think it tastes divine!

Hearing the jar lids pop to signal that they are properly sealed was like music to my ears!

Now I just have to think about what I want to put up next. Hmm, plums are in season...

Yum. That's it. Yum.

On Saturday, Viv & I went to lunch at Spring Street Smokehouse. OMG, I don't have words. My mouth is watering as I write this. I had the pulled pork and Viv really enjoyed the red beans & rice (and my french fries).

If you are in the L.A. area, go.

Go now.

I'll wait.

Spring Awakening

To me, nothing says spring food like asparagus (well, and Cadbury Mini Eggs, but that's for another post). When I saw asparagus at the Larchmont Farmer's Market on Sunday, I had to buy a couple of bunches. I didn't know what I was going to do with them until I saw this post over at The Kitchn about asparagus tarts.

Tonight, I decided to attempt the Bon Appetit recipe for Asparagus-Ricotta Tart with Comte Cheese. And oh. my. god. This was amazing.

I subbed in 8 oz. of Neiman Ranch ham steak for the salami, to make the tart more substantial. The tart has asparagus in every bite because you puree the bottom half of the stalks with the cheese and egg. Trader Joe's carries both frozen puff pastry and comte cheese. So yummy!

What says springtime food to you?

Now we're cooking

On Saturday, Rich & I did something we haven't done since Vivian was born (and get your minds out of the gutter). We had people over for dinner. I cooked. And set the table, complete with a table cloth, cloth napkins, water AND wine glasses.

It's important for us to have people over regularly, because I've found that the threat of company is the only incentive we have to really clean. We keep things neat enough regularly, but I have to admit that unless people are coming to eat, I sometimes forget to clean the dust bunnies off of the ceiling fans.

So on Saturday, Michael and Kelly came over for a fabulous (if I do say so myself) dinner of chicken chasseur (chicken, tomatoes, onions and lots of mushrooms) served over egg noodles. I used my slow cooker to make the recipe from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, and I will make the resolution that I will always use my slow cooker for dinner parties (unless it's a backyard BBQ - but then, those will have to wait until we have a backyard). I started the prep at about 2:30 p.m., put everything in the slow cooker at about 3:30, and then had 3 1/2 hours to clean, hang out with Vivian, and make the dessert (triple-chocolate pudding cake from the Pillsbury Best of the BakeOff Desserts book -- so incredibly rich and gooey!).

Now, the only thing bad about having people over for dinner is that we have no dishwasher, other than Richard. So poor Rich spent a couple of hours after Michael & Kelly left washing out pots and pans, plates and bowls. But it was an awesome evening, complete with food, friends and fun.

And this weekend, we had another new development:

I wonder why this baby is chewing everything in sight?


Because she has TWO new teeth! Two bottom teeth are coming in together -- my little baby is growing up so fast!

notes from my dirty kitchen

When your kitchen smells like petroleum jelly just after you take a batch of cookies out of the oven, something is desperately wrong.

Tonight is the West Hollywood Stitch n Bitch Yarn & Cookie Swap. I remembered this fact at about 10 p.m. last night. Rather than running to the store at that late hour for cookie making supplies, I decided to flip through my cook books to find a recipe I could make with items from the pantry. And I found what looked like a great recipe: Soft Molasses Cookies. I thought they would be a nice antidote to an overdose of sugar and chocolate. I'm sure they would have been, but alas, that petroleum jelly smell...

I shouldn't have used the questionable shortening. In my defense, I had no idea that shortening could go bad. But I knew that the texture looked more like hair pomade than shortening. And it definitely smelled... off. I should have trusted my instincts and used butter instead, or god forbid, run to the store. But I didn't. And I ruined what otherwise would have been 2 dozen very yummy cookies.

Before tossing the cookies in the garbage, I actually asked Richard to taste one of them, in the desperate hopes that maybe my taste buds were just too sensitive. He took one bite, then slowly spit it out into his hand. "This is terrible."

I may try this recipe again tonight before I head to SnB. But this time, I'll buy fresh shortening.

No fatties

If Mississippi legislators had their way, it could soon be illegal to serve obese people in restaurants (courtesy of Junk Food Science). Because what this country needs is more public shaming of fat people.

I'm all for better nutritional education and options. I'm going to go on record that smaller restaurant portions and less trans-fats are good. But if I, as an obese person, want to treat myself to a night out at Roscoe's Chicken n' Waffles, then damn it, the government has no right to step in and tell me that I don't deserve it. That is my decision. It is my responsibility to make smart decisions about my diet -- I certainly don't need the little man at the Hollywood Zankou Chicken telling me that I'm too fat to eat there. Will I be reduced to standing forlornly beside the line at Pink's, asking skinny people to please order a Huell Howser dog for me?

There is obviously a government interest in the public health -- healthy people are less of a financial burden on the country's health care system. But this effort is flat out wrong. The fact that some politician thinks this is a good use of his time and public resources is maddening.

reconstruction

I love making clothes for Vivian, but it can be hard to have enough time and energy to sew something complex in the time from when she goes to sleep and I fall into bed.

I was going through my fabric stash when I found an old pair of Richard's jeans. I noticed that the width of the leg was the same as the width of Viv's jacket. So with a few cuts, and a couple of seams, I turned one leg of his jeans into a vest! After I sewed it together, I broke out the embroidery floss and stitched her first and middle initials on the front, and her name on the back.

Front:

Back:

I loved how this project turned out, especially given that it took all of about 2 1/2 hours to complete.

And to finish on a completely different topic, I leave you with a photo that depicts how things are going at home, now that we've introduced Vivian to solid foods.

This is what Vivian thinks of carrots!

In my life

Guess where I was Wednesday night?

Richard, Vivian and I skipped Pizza Club this week to make a trek out to the LA County Fair and the Professional Bull Rider's Los Angeles circuit event. And it was actually my idea. Never in my life would I have thought I would be whooping and hollering at grown men trying to stay on the back of a very large bull. But it was actually a lot of fun, watching the riders hang on for dear life. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I'm not ashamed, even if this does make my neck a wee bit red...

Being at the Fair, we also enjoyed some deep-fried goodness: deep fried hostess cupcake and a deep fried Snickers. The cupcake was warm, chocolatey, molten heaven: everything that I could hope for and more. The Snickers was a bit disappointing. Too much batter, and just too heavy.

If that snickers was my last deep-fried awesomeness of the year, I'd be even more disappointed, but fear not! More deep-fried happiness is coming on Sunday, when we head back for the last night of the fair. I need to score some deep-fried avocado and some deep-fried oreos. Deep-fried oreos -- I feel a Homer-worthy drool coming on as I type. Pictures to come...