something old, something new.

Apple season is nice in that it goes on a long while. Some things are in season for such an instant that it feels like I must run run run to save it all while I can. Having a few months for apples means we can not only preserve and save, but also enjoy now. So, for apple season, here is a new recipe, as well as several from the archives that I make every year. An apple a day?


::baked cinnamon apples::

This recipe is my tweaked version of the one found in Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros.

3 Tbsp butter
4 baking apples, cored & halved
1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
grated fresh nutmeg
pinch allspice
2 Tbsp ruby port
1/2 cup fresh apple cider

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Butter an oven proof dish, just large enough to fit 8 apple halves quite compactly (a pie dish worked perfectly). Place your apples in a baking dish cut side up.

Put a bit of butter on each apple center. Mix the sugar, cinnamon and allspice and sprinkle over the apples. Grate fresh nutmeg over the top, and drizzle with port. Pour the apple cider in the pan around/under the apples.


Bake for 30 minutes, then dribble the pan juices over the apples and add some more (hot) cider to the dish if needed. Bake for another 20-30 minutes until the apples are creamy on the inside and brown on the top. (time may vary a little based on the type of apple you are using)

Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a spoon full of freshly whipped cream. Or, if you like take the juices from the bottom of the baking dish after the apples come out of the oven. Pour the liquid into a saucepan and heat on high to boil. Reduce heat, simmer a bit, and reduce slightly. Drizzle this thickened essence of apple over the top. SO GOOD!

+ + + + +

Some of my favorite recipes that I go back to often. I may tweak and poke around with different spices or types of apples, but the basic recipes always stay the same.

::carmelized apple tart::


::baked apples::


::apple butter::


::applesauce::

What are your favorite apple recipes?

an apple a day:: "Apple polyphenols are standout nutrients in this widely loved fruit. These polyphenols include flavonols (especially quercetin, but also kaempferol and myricetin), catechins (especially epicatechin), anthocyanins (if the apples are red-skinned), chlorogenic acid, phloridizin, and several dozen more health-supportive polyphenol nutrients. Apple is a good source of fiber, including the soluble fiber pectin, and it's also a good source of vitamin C."

in the kitchen.

While I love trying new recipes and often do, for a lot of my canning and fermenting, I do still rely on my trusted/tested recipes. Here are a few things we are making this summer, which I have made many times before.


lacto-fermented pickles:

Not vinegar based, nice and crunchy, mildly salty, not twangy like vinegar pickles.

lacto-fermented garlic::

I basically use the recipe from Nourishing Traditions. Take up to about 12 heads of garlic, remove the outer skin and then bake the cloves in an oven until the rest of the skin can easily be removed. The garlic is not mushy soft, but slightly soft and aromatic and beginning to look less opaque. Put the cloves in a clean jar. Mix together a few teaspoons of dried herbs (I used dried oregano and rosemary from my garden), 2 teaspoons of sea salt, 2 tablespoons of whey, and about 1/2 cup of water (If you don't have whey, increase salt to 4 tsp). Pour the liquid over the garlic, and add more water if the garlic isn't covered. Screw lid on tightly, keep at room temp for about 2-3 days, then put in the fridge. I crunch on these like they are candy. More mild garlic flavor, and oh so good.

refrigerator pickles::

A vinegar based fridge pickle. Great for small batches.

purple kraut::

I like having more than one type of kraut, and this is a nice mild version which is great as a side dish.

I have a few recipes coming up that I have promised :: pickled beets, pickled daikon, and freezer pickles!

CSA Box August 6.

In our box this week: mixed peppers, cucumbers, mixed herbs, beets, swiss chard, summer squash, eggplant, 2 types of lettuce, and fresh garlic!


For extras this week I picked up our usual mushrooms, as well as a few more bags of basil for pesto making, and parsley for the dehydrator!

This time of year the garden is in full swing, we are preserving every single day - canning, drying, freezing - I am in awe of how much we have coming in from such a tiny yard. It is pretty constant work, but not hard work. And it is very satisfying. We of course know we want to preserve enough to last through the whole winter - our goal is no store bought produce through June 2010 (but for citrus:: oranges, lemons, etc. which we cannot find local) and we are doing great. As we have gone on, we realized that while we are preserving the harvest to last throughout the winter, we can also preserve so much in the way of herbs too. We have over 25 canning jars of dried vegetables, fruit and herbs so far - with many more to go! We plan to make soup and stew mixes, granola mixes, and mixed herbs for cheeses and breads. SO GOOD!

CSA Box - July 30.

This week in our box we have basil, broccoli, peppers, summer squash, green beans, fresh garlic, beets, onion, cucumber, and 2 types of lettuce.



This week I picked up some extras - more basil, cabbage and onions. I keep making batches of pesto. It is quick and easy to make in large batches, and I can keep some in the fridge fresh, and then freeze the rest. Yum. I like to add a tray in the dehydrator each time too, so that I can have dried basil for pasta and seasoning in the winter.


It is switching into fruit season here too. We have many spring fruit around here, but August is when it really kicks into high gear. Peaches, cherries, plums, blueberries...yum. We picked up a bunch of fruit this week. I am dehydrating some cherries & blueberries - which is YUMMY in fresh home made granola. We also love to make jams, syrups and pie filling for winter. So good!

CSA Box - July 23.

In our CSA box this week: purple beans, beets, pepper, swiss chard, onions, eggplant, 2 types of lettuce, parsley and basil!

The 'extras' I picked up this week included more beets - to pickle some - beans, and mushrooms.


Each Thursday when we return from our CSA pickup, we make a run through the garden to pick too, and then get to work in the kitchen. I rinse and bag foods for meals throughout the week and put those in the fridge. I then take the extras and that which we won't eat that week, and blanch, dry, or can. With beans I usually blanch for 3 minutes, plunge into ice water, drain, and then pack into freezer bags. They are great in January, I tell ya!

dehydrating time.

This time of year I'm already busy in the kitchen. I blanch, bag, freeze. I dehydrate and dry. I can. We love to eat fresh veggies all summer but our plan includes preserving food to last all winter too!

While I love putting away canned and frozen foods I also love my dehydrator. I can dry fresh herbs, vegetables, fruit...and use them in just about anything. We love eating dehydrated cherry tomatoes like chips. Or adding dried raspberries into home made granola. But in February with feet of snow on the ground, it is also extremely satisfying to make a vegetable soup with carrots, squash, beans, peppers, tomatoes and herbs grown right in our own yard.


This week I started hanging my shallots, dill and cilantro/coriander to dry outside. That works great for the big plants. I bring other herbs to dry inside - savory, oregano, parsley, basil, chives, lovage, shisho...all quick and easy to dry in the dehydrator. One of the best things about freezing and drying is that it can be done as we go - no big prep, sterilizing or huge batches. I can just keep doing a bit a day if needed, all summer! And it adds up!


I like taking the herbs when they are dry and putting them in canning jars. Keeping them as whole as possible keeps the flavor better and you can just crush into your recipe when you need them!


I also dry a LOT of vegetables - peppers, tomatoes, summer & winter squash, beets, carrots  - easily bagged or stored in canning jars to be used in the winter! Right now I have a few trays of peppers going and the house smells amazing. I do love the dehydrator. It doesn't take much space or energy, is easy to clean, and I can dry a lot of food. All good!

Transitions.

It finally happened. Snow! Not a lot, but snow flurries combined with temps in the 20s means we had to pick all of the last more tender bits in the garden.

Most of it went into the dehdrator for our winter herb and spice jars. We also collected some heads and veggies for seed saving, so that we can plant again next year.


This week marks a big date. Six months. We have gone six months without buying any produce from a grocery store...except for random lemons, limes, and the few times per summer guacamole from our local food coop. What does that mean? We have gotten all of our fruit and vegetables directly from a farm, farmstand, or our garden since May. We had our garden and our CSA, and visited farms as close to home as we could to visit on farm stands or u-picks. We have also had a good year for local meat, eggs, and dairy...more on that later!

So for the winter we transition to more root veggies and foods we preserved all summer. For fresh greens we love to sprout on our counter. And we return to more fresh breads and weekly baking. Last night we made a loaf of sunflower millet bread which made the house smell amazing. Very comforting on those cold days. I have some 'mad scientist' plans to experiment and try to grow several types of vegetables and herbs in our house this winter. I want more than a few window herbs, and we will see how it goes. I'll be seed-starting this week, so will share our plans as we go!

I love this season - from hot to cool, from light to dark, from rich garden and farms to a fully stocked freezer. We have relationships with many local farmers that will continue through the winter, but most of the action takes place INside, and all of this work we did all summer makes this time of rest seem even more satisfying!

in the kitchen...mid-october.

After a weekend trip in Minneapolis, we are back to preserving everything we can at the end of the year. I think our garden is in the final stretch - although we are still happily picking the last bits of things like beans and raspberries and swiss chard. We will still get radishes, turnips, chives and leeks a bit longer, but everything else is being cleared out.


We pulled all the tomatoes and brought in everything that was still green - it is all in tubs to ripen in the sun through the window. We are also continuing to make applesauce and dried apples. We have been baking pie pumpkins to make pumpkin bread and soup--and tomorrow we will can a big batch of apple pumpkin butter (recipe coming soon!). Yum.


Tomorrow on our way home from our CSA pickup we will be stopping at a few farm stands to load the car up with winter squash and root vegetables so we can store them. Can't wait!

What is happening in your kitchen this week?

pear raspberry freezer jam.

I love making small batch freezer jams. I never like too much of just one flavor - I'm weird that way. I also like to experiment with different recipes. So while I do try to get large quantities of fruit in season and preserve it, I try to diversify. That means that I often make freezer jams rather than canning since I just do a little at a time.

My husband brought home a big bag of raspberries from work this week - his co-worker had "too many" in her lawn and was kind enough to share. I had some first season pears too, and pulled out this recipe to make a few jars. Raspberries and pears are great together - the pears balance the tartness of the raspberries while keeping the intense berry taste. This recipe is quick and easy!

pear raspberry freezer jam::

ingredients::
3 lb ripe pears
3 c fresh red raspberries
1 pk (1.75 oz) fruit pectin (powdered)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp ginger liquid (optional, I use liquid from this)
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
5 cups turbinado sugar

directions::
Peel, core, and coarsely grind pears; then measure 2 cups fruit. Crush red raspberries; measure 2 cups of berries. In a large pot, combine ground pears, berries, pectin, ginger juice, lemon juice and nutmeg. Bring to a full rolling boil. Stir in the sugar. Boil hard, uncovered, for 1 minute; stir constantly with long-handled spoon. Remove from heat and skim off the foam with a metal spoon. Ladle jam at once into hot, clean half-pint jars, or freezer jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Let come to room temp before putting into fridge or freezer.

applesauce.

As the leaves start to turn, we start to move from raspberry picking to apples. Applesauce, apple butter, dried apple rings, apple pie filling...all good. Today the boys and I made a big batch of applesauce. Well, they did most of it - I just did the stove top work!

I like this recipe because it uses maple syrup rather than sugar for its sweetness. It gives the applesauce a nice rich flavor!

::applesauce::

ingredients::
10 pounds apples (we used Cortland)
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup maple syrup
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

directions::
Core & cut apples into quarters and add to pot. We peel 80-90% of ours, leaving only a few for color. Pour orange juice over the top, add about 1 1/2 cups of water to pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer, covered, for several hours until the apples are soft and mushy. During the simmering, push down the apples with a potato masher or stir well with spoon. Make sure nothing is burning on bottom...Allow to cool. Stir in syrup & spices. If you like chunky applesauce, leave as is. For smoother applesauce, pass in batches through food mill. Store in fridge or freeze!


ingredient tip::

Maple syrup is an excellent source of manganese and a good source of zinc, magnesium, and phosphorous. Zinc and manganese are important allies in the immune system. Many types of immune cells appear to depend upon zinc for optimal function. Maple products also contain trace amounts of malic and citric acids, and some amino acids!

preserving the harvest--the list.

I have been trying to keep a rough count of everything I am making and freezing to preserve the harvest as we go. I am trying to go slow so I don't get overwhelmed and do it all right, and each year I add more, learn more, and preserve more. Because I don't have time with two small boys, I tend to do everything in small batches rather than whole day extravaganzas. When I do get more quantity of something such as a fruit or tomatoes, I spread it out over a few days so I stay happy. For those of you who are canning warriors, this might not seem like much, but for us, this seems great considering how small our yard it, and we hope to expand a LOT each year as we gain experience!

Here is a rough estimate - I'm sure I am forgetting something, but in general, a good idea of what we have so far, and what is remaining!


*list updated 10/7

fridge/canning::
-3 quarts lacto fermented cucumbers
-9 quarts traditional dill pickles
-2 pints lacto fermented garlic (more to come)
-2 quarts strawberry dessert topping
-3 quarts + 5 pints cherry pie filling
-1 quart drunken cherry sauce
-6 pints sauerkraut ... lacto fermented
-3 pints pesto
-5 quarts tomato basil salsa
-1 quart cherry syrup
-3 quarts raspberry pear jam
-8 quarts applesauce (more coming)
-1 quart apple butter
-4 quarts chicken stock
-2 gallons roasted root veggies


freezer::
-10 bags frozen strawberries
-4 quarts + 10 pints freezer strawberry jam
-5 1-gallon bags frozen cherries
-6 1-gallon bags beans (mixed)
-2 1-gallon bags corn
-4 1-gallon bags asparagus
-29 1-gallon bags stewed tomatoes/sauces
-3 quarts caponata


basement/cold storage::
-potatoes (more to come)
-garlic
-early apples
-pumpkins

dried::

-parsley

-basil

-dill

-thyme

-peppers

-cherry tomatoes

-rosemary

-lemon verbena

-pinapple sage, regular sage
-apples

to come::
-apples (u-pick)
-fall raspberries (garden plus u-pick)
-squash/pumpkins in garden, u-pick
-brussel sprouts
-more cucumbers
-fall greens
-onions
-more beans


What are you preserving this summer?

Cider Pressing.

Today we visited the farm where we get our organic wheat. They also have 120 trees of organically grown apples. Some varieties are great for eating/baking. And there are some special antique apple varieties which are particularly good for cider. Hard cider. We have really enjoyed chatting with this couple, and were excited to go today. And cider apples was our mission.

We first dropped off my husband so that they could get all the equipment set up and rolling. No, we didn't just drive over and pick up the finished cider. We met the farmer and pressed it together!


I went and visited a park with the boys for awhile, and then went back to join them after the first hour. A was very excited. The pressing machine is very loud (yes, they have the hand crank variety, but we were pressing over 80 pounds of apples!), so the guys all had on ear protection -- there was even a kid sized set for A. I didn't have any ear protection, hence many of my dark from a distance photos.


At a certain point in the process A was able to hold containers under the nozzle and collect. He was given a special cup to taste test the freshly pressed apple cider as it flowed out--mmmmm.


After all 80 pounds were done, we finished up, chatted a bit, and loaded the car with our cider, plus some frozen cider for a neighbor. A got to sit in some special John Deere machinery, which made his day, before we left. We picked up another 5 pounds of wheat for bread making too.



It was such a beautiful day to be outside - cold and cloudy, dry leaves underfoot, wind blowing through the trees. Standing outside in the chill chatting about fresh wheat bread recipes and kids. Very fall, very fun.

Our neighbor plans to use his cider to make hard cider the modern way - using yeast and sugars. We plan to try our first batch of naturally fermented hard cider - which should be ready in about 6 months. We'll see how it goes!


Oh, and where was G? He fell asleep after playing in the park and slept through the entire event, in the car, 20 feet from the loud cider press. Amazing.

Applesauce revisited...

I have had a dozen or so requests for the applesauce recipe from our last batch (see here). Here it is!

Applesauce:

1/2 case apples
1/2 cup orange juice (you can use lemons too...I like flavor from oranges)
1 cup maple syrup
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Core & cut apples into quarters and fill pot. We peeled 80% of ours, leaving only some for color. Pour orange juice over the top, add about 1.5 cups of water to pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer, covered, for several hours until the apples are soft and mushy. During the simmering, push down the apples with a potato masher or stir well with spoon. Make sure nothing is burning on bottom...Allow to cool. Stir in syrup & spices. If you like chunky applesauce, leave as is. For smoother applesauce, pass in batches through food mill. Store in fridge or freeze.

Applesauce.

I have two amazing little helpers. We went to a park this morning to play with some friends (hi guys!), and then after lunch we got rolling.

They peeled & cored (crank crank crank), taking turns and cheering each other on.

They smushed (crank crank crank) with the food mill - it can't be too chunky, they said.


The house filled with an amazing aroma. They added cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple syrup.


Delicious!!

We didn't make too much today (5 qts) - just enough for them to do most of it and have a great time without it being *too much*. They had a blast.

I might make more. Definitely not as much as this marathon applesauce goddess, though!

CSA Box This Week

I have been trying out a few new things in the kitchen. For the past several months we have been making our own yogurt, ice cream, bbq sauces, jam, dry rub mixtures, and so on, and freezing or storing extra as we go. I have moved into new territory in trying out some fermentation and pickling. I don't have time for the whole big canning process at this point, but I have found several recipes for quick pickling, which requires clean jars but no canning.

From left to right is fridge pickles, pickled garlic, and dried tomatoes in olive oil with rosemary.

1. Dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil. The tomatoes from my garden have been dried in the dehydrator, and then put in a clean jar with olive oil to cover, and a few sprigs of dried rosemary. This is stored in the fridge and can be used for salads, stews, and pasta. They taste SO good coming from fresh ripe tomatoes it is amazing.

2. Pickled Garlic. The pickled garlic was easy too. I basically used the recipe from Nourishing Traditions. Take up to about 12 heads of garlic, remove the outer skin and then bake the cloves in an oven until the rest of the skin can easily be removed. The garlic is not mushy soft, but slightly soft and aromatic and beginning to look less opaque. Put the cloves in a clean jar. Mix together a few teaspoons of dried herbs (I used dried oregano and rosemary from my garden), 4 teaspoons of GOOD sea salt, and about 1/2 cup of water. Pour the liquid over the garlic, and add more water if the garlic isn't covered. Screw lid on tightly, keep at room temp for about 2-3 days, then put in the fridge.

3. Refrigerator Pickles. The fridge pickles I adapted from several books I have out from the library. Each one has a different recipe, but I used what I had at home. I took the 5 cucumbers I have from our CSA and cleaned and sliced them into 1/4" slices. Pack them in the canning jars (or clean glass container). On the stove combine 2 cups of water, 3/4 cup of high quality apple cider vinegar, and 1/3 cup of good quality sea salt.

To the cukes I added amongst the jars a total of 4 dill heads and a handful of dill sprigs from my garden, as well as the seeds from 2 large dried dill heads (I dried in the sun over this week). You could use a few store bought sprigs of dill or 2 or so tablespoons of dill seed. I added 1 clove of my pickled garlic per container. If you like stronger dill flavor, you can add more. If you like heat, add hot peppers or pepper flakes as well.

Bring the liquid on the stove to a boil, then add it to the cukes in the jar - make sure they are covered. Let it come to room temp and then refrigerate it and eat all within a few weeks! They taste SO great.

A key point with using the raw apple cider vinegar and good sea salt for the recipes is to increase the nutritional value of the foods...so it is an important part!