Living waaaay out in the country, I’ve had to adjust the way I do things and learn to improvise. My favourite recent discovery? You can make your own brown sugar-and it tastes better.
Here’s what you do:
Place granulated sugar in a large bowl. Stir in either mild or full flavour molasses (I wouldn’t use blackstrap) and start stirring. Taste once in a while until you get the strength you like. Mush it up really well with your hands to break up any blobs of molasses. Place in a tightly sealed plastic bag. Store in fridge. There, you just saved a couple bucks.
Speaking of sugar:
Buy the 10 lb bags which are cheaper and then using a funnel, pour into washed and dried plastic juice bottles or 2 litre soda bottles. This is also an excellent way to store large bags of rice. I find it easier to pour sugar or rice into a measuring cup when baking than to scoop it out with the cup. You can keep one bottle on the counter and store the others in the pantry until needed.
Still speaking of sugar:
Giving granulated sugar a quick whirr in the blender will make caster/superfine sugar. Don’t go too long or you will have confectioner’s sugar (unless you intended to make
Canning and home preserving are becoming popular again. That’s kind of neat-I won’t be the only weirdo shoving food into jars all summer. A quick look at my plum tomatoes taking over the garden has me thinking I ought to pickle some green ones. No, I don’t like pickled green tomatoes (or anything pickled for that matter) but everyone else I know does. Canning and preserving makes you a popular person around the holidays.
It is a bit surprising that people are taking up canning as a way of economising. I can see it if you already have the equipment, jars and understand the techniques, but there’s a pretty substantial up-front investment. You wouldn’t be saving much the first year out-unless you have fruit trees, which is like growing gold. We planted Concord grapes this year, but I wouldn’t expect the vines to take off and bear fruit for some time-and hell, by then I hope the economy is in better shape. No, I can’t see preserving as a money-saving effort, but I can see it being a way to enjoy superior quality to what is in the stores.
Where you can save some real money is baking bread. Even a crappy loaf costs a couple bucks, and a poorly baked homemade bread is going to be better. You can prolong the shelf-life of most bread by adding vital wheat gluten to the dough, or ascorbic acid. That’s still much less preservative than store-bought bread.
Anyway, here are some basics for getting started with canning that I’ll pass along in the event anyone wants to try their hand at it. I do recommend getting a copy of the Blue Book, or So Easy to Preserve, and reading first. Get familiar with how the equipment works, and then decide if you really want to make the investment. Then, think about what sort of food you will be preserving. If you think there is the slightest chance you’ll want to can low-acid foods, just buy a pressure canner. You’ll save the expense of having two canners (you can use a pressure canner as a water-bath canner) save space, and they are generally better made. Then, decide what size jars you’ll be using. Also, consider your stove-you cannot use a canner with a ridged bottom on an electric stove. Glass-topped stoves really aren’t good for canning either from what I hear.
I knew I wouldn’t be canning half gallons of food, so I bought a smaller pressure canner. When canning, there needs to be at least a few inches of water covering the tops of submerged jars-a small canner is only suitable for pints and half pints. For my family, that’s a good size for most foods, but if you have a large family that can plow through a quart of chutney at Sunday dinner, you might want the larger canner. Many of the pressure canners double as pressure cookers which is helpful if you ever find yourself taken with the idea that you’re going to cook a massive quantity of beans. If you do cook a massive quantity of beans in the pressure cooker, be sure the valves are clear when you go to use it for canning-beans can be pesky.
These are the sorts of things I wish someone had shared when I was first starting to can, and I’m sure there are a million other things worth noting. Food safety is important, but if you follow the directions, keep things clean and store the food carefully, you shouldn’t have any problems. Given that there is a massive recall at the moment of powdered milk-an item I use and have always considered "safe", the chances of getting ill from food prepared according to safety standards at home look slim compared to the corporate food culture. Remember when they recalled puffed rice? Puffed rice and powdered milk-and you’re worried about home canning?
You can certainly feel free to pick my brain for canning advice, and if I can’t answer your questions, there are home economists at most Extention offices that can answer just about anything (ours is fantastic, though she only works three days a week now). I know my way around bread as well, so please feel free to ask. I’m not being paid to say this, but I prefer Ball jars for canning. I know there are some very attractive European jars out there, but for reliability, and just fitting well into the limited pantry space, I like jars with rubber-rimmed lids and rings. You can buy used jars and rings, but lids cannot be re-used. When buying jars at yard sales, run a finger along the edge and make sure there aren’t any chips or nicks, and look closely for any cracks. Rings should be free of dents as they might cause the seal to fail. I put everything, including high-acid fruit jams through a water bath canner. I know some people do not, but they are idiots. Sorry to be so frank, but it is true. You need to put everything you can through either a water bath (high acid foods) or a pressure canner ( low acid foods). If you can’t handle this, make use of your freezer. There are very good freezer jams, lemon curds and the like that can be made and frozen right in the canning jars.
Finally, don’t use paraffin to seal jars. I don’t know why they even sell it in the canning aisle anymore-it seems like inviting food borne illness.
Happy canning!
As a baker, I have to say I’m completely awed by THIS.
So, I finally did it, and it worked! I skipped the nitrate curing salt (which gives it the pink colour) so I can even argue it is healthy…OK maybe not, but it sure is fun to do this stuff yourself.
I am fully aware how funny it sounds to have a vegetarian bragging about her home-cured corned beef.
Ever wanted to make your own marshmallow peeps? Here’s a recipe that sounds interesting (I haven’t tried it).
I can’t post anything about Peeps without linking to THIS classic page.
THIS is brilliant. It looks simple to do as well. I have the ugliest blue mini blinds in my bedroom that are about to get…uh…repourposed.
I can’t wait to try this.
Go look at THIS wonderful idea for dressing up those awful metal clips. Better yet, can probably be done in under five minutes and only costs you for the glue. I can see making these as gifts, say a package of five Marxist philosophers, or various members of The Fall (you’ll need a lot more than five) or your favourite Canadian Prime Ministers. Oh, the possibilities.
Turmeric is supposed to have numerous health benefits and here’s another way to work it into your diet if you can’t stomach drinking it as tea. I like this recipe because it is fast and makes a quantity for the next day’s meal. Cooking once and eating twice is always a bonus around here. It is also economical, provided you buy the lentils at an ethnic grocery, not Whole Foods. I get a reasonably good price on coconut milk, but in a pinch you can take a cup of dried coconut and rehydrate it with a cup of water and then whirr it in the blender. Strain it and you have coconut milk-sort of. It will work OK.
A word about ghee: it is only clarified butter, and is incredibly easy to make. I will provide the details for that as well, but my advice is to wait until butter goes on sale (unless you make your own butter) and make a large batch of it at once. It keeps practically forever in a jar in the fridge and is really handy for everything from pastry to croutons that don’t taste greasy.
I served it over Matar Pullao which is a spiced rice dish with peas and raisins. The recipe will follow the curry.
You Will Need:
1 cup red lentils, rinsed very well
2 cups vegetable stock (I used cubes)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 2/3 ounces melted ghee
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 large green chili, seeded and minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped (I used tinned)
1/2 cup coconut milk
Place lentils, stock and turmeric in a large stock pot and bring to the boil. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook ten minutes.
While the lentils cook, fry the onion over medium heat in the ghee. Cook until onions are brown and soft. Add garlic, cumin, and coriander. Cook a few more minutes until mixed. Stir the onions and spices into the lentils and add the tomato. Simmer over very low heat for five minutes. Adjust salt and pepper to taste and stir in coconut milk. Stir to re-warm and serve hot over rice or with flatbreads.
To Make Ghee (clarified butter):
(Use unsalted butter)
In a saucepan over very low heat, let butter melt without stirring. The foam it throws off is what you do not want. Set a fine sieve over a measuring cup. Line the sieve with a few layers of cheesecloth or coffee filters. When the butter is melted, remove from heat and carefully skim off as much of the foam as you can. Be careful not to disturb the solids that have sunk to the bottom. Carefully pour the melted butter through the lined sieve trying to leave the solids behind. It isn’t a big deal if you don’t-the cheesecloth should catch it and you can always filter it again. Pour into a clean jar. Cool, then seal and store in the fridge. That’s it.
For The Matar Pullao:
(this can be made ahead and kept warm in a covered casserole dish in the oven. About 200 degrees ought to do it).
4 tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 stick cinnamon
2 tablespoons raisins (you can double that if you like-I always do)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup green peas (I cook frozen peas just until they come to a boil, refresh them under cold water and drain)
2 cups long grain rice (I used Basmatti tonight because I had it, but any rice will do)
4 1/2 cups water
In a large bowl, soak the rice in enough water to cover for twenty minutes. Rinse well and drain.
In a large heavy pot, heat the oil over medium heat and add cumin seeds, cloves, cinnamon and raisins. Fry for a couple minutes until the raisins begin to plump. Add sliced onion and cook a couple minutes more.
Add the peas, drained rice, and salt to taste. Cook until the onions are soft. Then, add the water and bring it all to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook until liquid is absorbed-about twenty minutes. Keep hot until ready to serve.
I’ve always made my own, and really other than time it isn’t much effort. My only regret is that I am unable to drink as much of it as I would like.
THIS blog is for people who really love their Limoncello-but makes interesting reading even if you don’t.
I love this idea. A sewing group that uses vintage patterns and/or fabrics to create new clothing. As people who know me will attest, I *kind of* like vintage rayon from the 30’s and 40’s. Kind of. Kind of in the hundreds. I used to be an antique dealer and would end up with these things from yard sales and auctions as part of larger lots of fabric, etc.. At the time, no one wanted vintage clothing, so I brought them home. Then, I just got carried away. Kind of.
I never thought about re-styling the fabrics. I have some pieces that are no longer wearable as-is that I haven’t been able to bear with tossing. It might be time to re-think some of the frocks at the back of the cupboard.
