DAIRY FREE COLESLAW

There are a zillion coleslaw recipes on-line; there are creamy ones; there are spicy ones; there are slaws made with broccoli; I even saw one with Gorgonzola cheese the other day!! Personally, I have been looking for a basic, no frills, "please everyone" coleslaw recipe to make for large family gatherings.

In my search, I found this quick and easy "recipe gem" over at MGCC, and truly IS a keeper. Not only is it delicious, but there is no dairy in it and it lasts in the fridge for up to a week; as a matter of fact, it just keeps getting tastier and it goes well with everything!!

Thank you for sharing the recipe, Charlotte!!!

3 cups shredded cabbage
1/4 cup diced onion
1/4 cup diced green pepper
1 carrot shredded
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons vinegar
3 tablespoons oil
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (my variation)
1/2 teaspoon celery seed (my variation)

How small you chop the veggies is a matter of personal preference. We prefer pieces about twice the size of a grain of rice and my food processor (using the steel blade) makes short work of this step.

In a small saucepan, mix the sugar, vinegar, oil, salt, pepper and celery seed and bring to a boil, stirring just until sugar has dissolved then remove from the heat.

Pour the hot dressing over the vegetables and mix well.  Let this cool a little before covering it and putting it in the fridge to chill until ready to serve. 
NOTE: Toss salad again, just before serving to distribute the dressing.

NOTE: This recipe make four generous side servings (adult size).  When I make it for a crowd, I quadruple the recipe.

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BLUEBERRY-EST MUFFINS EVER !!

Blueberry-est...is that a word? Why yes, I think it is!! These muffins are super easy to make with just a bowl and spoon. They are ready for the oven before it even gets up to the right temperature and they are made with frozen blueberries (no need to thaw)...it doesn't get any easier than that AND... they are VERY moist and delicious.

 

1½ cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
2 cups frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 375 and line a cupcake pan with paper liners.

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking powder in a large bowl.  Place 1/3 cup of vegetable oil in a 1 cup measuring cup; add one egg to the same measuring cup; add enough milk to fill the same measuring cup (recipe says 1/3 cup...but it make take an extra tablespoon if you have a smaller egg... just make sure the egg, oil and milk equal 1 cup total). Mix with fork to break the egg.

Mix the egg,oil, milk mixture into the dry flour mixture, just until its all wet, don't over-mix, batter will be pretty thick, but don't add any more liquid. Stir in 2 cups frozen blueberries.

Fill paper liners 2/3 full (I used an ice cream scoop) and bake for 30-35 minutes or until done. Right after they come out of the oven, sprinkle each muffin with a pinch of sugar.

This recipe makes a dozen

blueberry muffins

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PEANUT BUTTER BROWNIES with CHOCOLATE-PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING

We are huge fans of peanut butter and chocolate together, are you? This peanut butter brownie has peanut butter and miniature chocolate chips in the batter and a peanut butter - chocolate frosting on top...oh my, it was good!!!

1½ cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter, room temperature

½ cup smooth peanut butter

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 8" x 11" baking dish with vegetable spray.

After you measure the flour, remove a tablespoon of it and toss it with the miniature chocolate chips...set aside (this will keep the chocolate chips from sinking in the batter as they bake).

Cream the peanut butter and room temperature butter until smooth.  Add the sugars, vanilla and eggs and beat until smooth with electric mixer.

Add the flour, baking powder and salt and beat on low until combined (don't over-beat). Stir in the flour coated miniature chocolate chips.

Spread in the prepared baking dish and bake 35-40 minutes. NOTE: At 35 minutes, my brownies looked a little dark, so I just shut the oven off and let them sit in there for another few minutes. Use toothpick to test for done-ness.

Remove from oven and place pan on a cooling rack for 20 minutes or so before frosting. 

If you let these frosted brownies cool completely, they will cut cleanly like this.  

I frosted these with my chocolate - peanut butter frosting...posted HERE

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The Sporting Wife

In our ongoing love of game cookbooks, we recently snagged a lovely copy of The Sporting Wife: Game and Fish Cooking.  Barbara Hargreaves set out to make game cooking a bit more diversified.  She published The Sporting Wife and The Complete Angler's Wife, both to favorable reviews.  After receiving recipes and suggestions, she combined the two in a large revised edition of The Sporting Wife.

Hargreaves was striving for something a bit more than the usual roasted joint.  The book is filled with vintage engravings, mostly by Thomas Bewick whose 1790 work A General History of Quadrupeds brought the engraver much fame.   She included a special section on sauces and a bit of advanced bird anatomy to determine the age and viability of of the hubby's catch.

The book is a very good take on cooking whatever might get dragged in through the mud room.  It has the solid feel of a pair of Wellies.  One might imagine Queen Elizabeth or even maybe Queen Victoria pointing out a recipe to be served at Balmoral.

As you know, we have a profound love of giblets, and while the rabbit is lacking our favorite gizzard, we were taken by this recipe.


Savory Rabbit Giblets

Head, split in half lenghtwise
Neck
Rids
Heart
liver
lungs
kidneys
12 oz. fat bacon
2 oz. plain flour
1 onion
1 pint water
lemon juice of red wine
Salt and pepper
Sugar

For those who like to finish up all the odds and ends, this is a good way to make a savoury supper dish.  Sweet and sour.

Wash the giblets and cut into small pieces, fry with the diced onion and the chopped bacon, dredge in the flour, stirring all the while and fry until brown. Then add the water and season well.  Simmer gently until the meat is tender.  Just before serving, season the gravy to taste with lemon juice or red wine and sugar, remove bones and serve with lots of mashed potato.


I admit to being a little confused by the frying  THEN dredging instruction.  I think she means to fr y the meats and onion together and as it is getting done, add the flour.  This is a hard recipe to replicate unless the hubby is bringing home the rabbit, as most domestic rabbit in America is lacking in that nice bag of giblets stuffed inside.

for the hunter in the house or that little lady that cooks for him, this is a great book for a hostess gift or and other holiday for that matter.

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The Jill St. John Cookbook

We have been in full television mode at Cookbook Of The Day, so we felt a television themed Famous Food Friday was in order.  One just never knows who is out there getting a cookbook published but it seems if you are a bona fide television personality it is easier.

In the dark ages of the late 1980’s, before you were all born, the “Celebrity” chef was a rare thing.  Food Network was not being streamed into every family room/kitchen (Because there was just the kitchen and the dining room!), so cooking fell to actual clelebities.  Case in point, Jill St. John.

During the 1970’s and 80’s Jill got around.  The former Bond Girl dated Frank Sinatra, Henry Kissinger, Sean Connery, Peter Lawford, and Robert Wagner who became her fourth husband.  She parlayed her cooking enthusiasm into a monthly cooking spots on Good Morning America and became a food editor for USA Weekend Sunday magazine.  Who knew?

Many of these famous food cookbooks are simply afterthoughts from publicists, The Jill St. John Cookbook is quite polished.  I must say I was quite surprised by Miss St. John’s culinary skills.  We have laughed before about the decidedly twee farm-to-table cookbooks, so it was interesting to find that Jill St. John was a big advocate of growing your own herbs and eating locally.  Seriously, every recipe out there belonged to some before you!  Don’t kid yourself.

Here is Jill’s recipe for shrimp with a kick.   Notice she was “Cajun” before Cajun was cool!  She suggests putting out finger bowls if you serve these – how very 80’s.

Fiery Cajun Shrimp

5-6  large raw shrimp in their shells
1/2pound unsalted butter, melted
1/2pound margarine, melted
3-4 ounces Worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground rosemary
juice of 2 lemons
2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce
2 teaspoons salt
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 lemons, sliced

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

With a small, sharp pair of scissors, cut through the shells of the shrimp from top to tail.  Do not cut the tail.  Devein the shrimp but leave them in their shells.

In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients except the lemon slices.  Cover the bottom of a 13 X 9-inch glass baking dish with a little of this mixture.  Arrange the shrimp and the lemon slices in layers in the dish, stopping about 1 inch from the top. Pour the remainder of the butter sauce over.  Bake turning the shrimp once or twice, until they are cooked through, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Evidently, Jill is still cooking up a storm or to be more precise, Rigatoni with Vodka Sauce for Valentine’s Day, 2010.

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The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook

In keeping with our television theme, this month saw the publication of The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook.   (This book is unofficial and unauthorized.  It is not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by Carnival Film and Television Ltd., its writers or producers, of any of its licensees.)   Here is my question – with all the “Downton Abbey” books coming out by Jessica Fellows and with all the research they did for the show, why is there no “official” cookbook? 

Emily Ansara Baines has provided the unofficial version.  Baines is a bit of an “unofficial” cookbook writer having penned The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook.

The first thing one notices about this cookbook versus the “official” True Blood Cookbook is the lack of glossy photos of the cast and set.   Frankly, those pictures would have sold me more on the cookbook and make a great case for “official” cookbooks based on television shows.  It is unusual in this day and age to find a cookbook that is merely text.  Not one recipe has a finished picture.  A small signature of photographs would have greatly enhanced the book.  My other criticism would be that many of the recipes seem similar to the old Upstairs/Downstairs cookbook, though both cookbooks deal with a period when cooking was basically the same.

I do love that each recipe in The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook has a small historical blurb about the dish or related issues of etiquette or language of the period.  While some of the recipes seem a bit too modern, the vintage throwback style abounds.  From tea sandwiches to digestive biscuits, from quail to Shepard’s pie this cookbook will give the reader a sense of what the meals might have been like during the Edwardian era.

Part One of the book features recipes set up to follow the courses of the popular service à la Russe.  It is said that Alexander Kurakin introduced the Russian style of serving a table to Pairs while he served as the Russian Ambassador.  From there it became popular throughout Europe.  A service à la Russe sets each place with a cover.  Each course is brought to the table by servers.  Each course is finished before the next course is served.  There were often as many as fourteen courses at a dinner.    

Tea holds a special place in the hearts of the English and there is a special chapter for tea at Downton Abbey.  Part Two of the cookbook deals with meals for the staff. 

Here is a favorite old-timey, definitely “downstairs” recipe.  It is a quite proper recipe for mushy peas.  Baines reminds us that the would have been a popular accompaniment to fish and chips and one that, “Mrs. Patmore might whip this up on nights when the staff is too tired to properly eat after a full day of tending to Downton's regulars and their guests.”

Mushy Peas

1 ½ cups (12 ounces) dried marrowfat peas
4 cups water
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Soak dried peas overnight in a large bowl full of water and baking soda. The baking soda is important because it helps break down the peas. The next day, drain the peas, then place them in a medium-sized saucepan and just cover with water. Simmer for 25 minutes; the peas should break up without mashing.

2. Remove peas from the heat. Stir in the butter until it melts, followed by cream, sugar, salt and black pepper. If desiring a thinner consistency, add more cream.

Mushy peas are making a big comeback in posh London circles.  Today shoppers have the luxury of fine, frozen peas and an electric blender!   So all one needs to do is give those peas a quick boil, add a touch of milk and mash.  How easy and practical can nostalgia be?

Grab a copy of The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook and start planning your dinner party for the January return of Crawley girls.

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True Blood

Back with some television tie-ins!  After the finally of this season’s True Blood, with Bill all bad and evil and no resolution till next season…

We have been given a True Blood booster with the True Bloodcookbook.   True Blood: Eats, Drinks, and Bites from Bon Temps features a menu from Merlotte’s filled with so much more than an a glass of Tru Blood. (As you know, vampires don’t eat.  I would be seriously bummed if I were a vampire!) 

Yes, Virginia, this is a kitschy and blatant attempt at wooing the True Blood fan, but as far as these things go, it is a pretty good cookbook.  Alan Ball and a couple of co-producers get the bulk of the credit for “writing” the cookbook, but you have to hand it to them, where the actual recipes are concerned, they called upon Marcelle Bienvenu.  Bienvenu is a famed expert on Cajun and Creole cooking.   After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, one of the first things that residents tried to rebuild was their recipe box.  Family recipes were lost and there was an outpouring of requests at The Times-Picayune of New Orleans for reprints of classic New Orleans recipes.  Marcelle Bienvenu wrote Cooking Up a Storm, filled requested recipes and stories behind them.

So don’t be terribly dissuaded by the cheesy essays by “Sookie Stackhouse” about Gran’s kitchen.  Of course the recipes are purported to be from the culinary collections of various characters, and they have appropriately wacky names like Confederate Ambrosia, Burning Love BLT and Candied Sweet Jesus Potatoes.  If you are a True Blood fan AND you cook, who could want more?

Here is a recipe from Sookie.  She says:

“I drive all the way to Shreveport to see Alcide, and there’s Debbie, with a tray full of hostess snacks?  As if crawfish dip is gonna make up for trying to kill me – twice!”

It might just make up for trying to kill someone – once!

Crawfish Dip

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup chopped yellow onion

½ cup chopped green pepper

1 teaspoon minced garlic

3 tablespoons mince fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 pound peeled crawfish tales

One 8-ounce package cream cheese at room temperature

Salt

Cayenne Pepper

Tabasco sauce

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are soft and golden, 6 to8 minutes.  Add the garlic, parsley, and crawfish tails.  Cook, stirring, until the crawfish throw off some of their moisture, 3 to4 minutes.

Add the cream cheese and reduce the heat to medium-low.  Cook, stirring, until the mixture is smooth and heated through.  Season with salt, cayenne and Tabasco.

As a true, True Blood fan, I can tell you this is not only a fun and fan-filled little book, but the recipes are well worth the effort.  If you are a vampire, you are sadly missing out.  Seriously, what is the point of living forever if you can’t eat!

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PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Picky picky husband loves anything peanut butter and I love anything chocolate; so I combined two of our favorite recipes and this cookie "was born".  It is a GREAT lunch box or picnic cookie, as they travel well and stay soft if you keep them in a lidded cookie jar.

1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco  (see note below)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I use Jiff)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Cream the butter flavored Crisco, peanut butter, eggs and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Add the sugars and mix well.

Add the flour, salt and baking soda and mix well. Stir in the miniature chocolate chips and pecans.

Roll into balls about the size of a walnut and bake on parchment paper lined baking sheet for 10-12 minutes (at 375 degrees) until they are very light golden around the edges.

They won't look quite "done" in the center, but trust me...they are.

NOTE: Some people freak out about using Crisco in cookies, however, 99.9% of the reports show that there is virtually zero difference between Crisco and butter when it comes to saturated fat, not to mention there is zero cholesterol in Crisco (something you can not say about butter).  Just make sure (for flavor sake) you use butter flavored Crisco.

I have no idea how these cookies turn out if you use all butter... I just know that in classic chocolate chip cookies, you get a super thin misshapen cookie if you use butter... but if you use butter flavored Crisco in that same recipe, you get a nice thick, perfectly round cookie.

NOTE: I like to use miniature chocolate chips in my cookies because they distribute in the batter well, however, regular size chocolate chips would work too.

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CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING

This is a POSITIVELY DELICIOUS frosting recipe. What a nice variation from classic chocolate frosting!! It has a smooth, thick texture and tastes great by the spoonful!!

 

This is my new "go to" recipe for frosting snack cakes, brownies and cupcakes, it is quick, easy to make and tastes great!!

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (I used Jiff)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 - 3/4  cup half and half (see note)
2  2/3 cup confectioners sugar

Mix the peanut butter, cocoa powder, vanilla and a few tablespoons of the half and half until it is smooth and creamy.  Add the sugar, salt and the rest of the half and half (*see note below).   Beat with electric mixer until smooth and shiny.

That's it... what could be easier?!?  We LOVED this frosting!!

NOTE: The recipe said to start with half cup of the half and half and if you want it thinner, add the remaining 1/4 cup of half and half (one tablespoon at time)...beating until smooth.

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Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 Redux

In honor of Julia Child's 100th birthday, we are revisiting Mastering The Art of French Cooking. 

I got to spend Julia Child's 90th birthday with her and a few thousands of her closest friends.



In 2009, my friend Ann, signed me up to cook a recipe from Mastering The Art of French Cooking.   Of course, I couldn't cook just one.

Recipe of the Week: Julia Child’s stuffed duck, baked cucumbers, and blackberry flan

Today’s post is the ninth in a series of weekly Julia Child recipes. Kudos to this week’s contributors, project manager Ann Burrola and her friend Lucinda, who not only prepared Pâté de Canard en Croûte (Boned Stuffed Duck Baked in a Pastry Crust), but also made baked cucumbers AND blackberry flan.
 “ the procedure may take 45 minutes the first time because of fright”—Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume I, p.570 
This week’s recipe for the Pâté de Canard en Croûte covers 7 pages in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1. This is certainly not a record for a Julia Child recipe (French bread covers 22 pages) but, based on this alone, the recipe could be considered daunting to any cook. What are we saying? A recipe that requires deboning a duck, preparing stuffing, sewing the stuffing into the duck, making a pastry crust, wrapping the duck in the pastry, and then decorating it with pastry cut-outs, is daunting! However, Julia provides detailed written instructions and clear illustrations so that anyone will know exactly how to accomplish the simplest and most complicated dishes in her cookbooks. “You’ve got all the directions and if you can read, you can cook,” she wrote.

When the call went out to write about cooking from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I signed right up. Then I e-mailed my friend Lucinda and told her “WE” had signed up to cook out of Julia’s book. She wanted to make the most complicated recipe in the book and I wanted to make the easiest one. We made them both and threw in dessert. Since Lucinda blogs, I told her to write the post and I would do the pictures. So here goes…
Lucinda’s Story
When I saw Julie & Julia, someone asked me if I had ever made the stuffed duck. I hadn’t, but thought I might give it a try. “Great,” Ann said, “you make the duck.” Ann didn’t know the recipe is seven pages long, with an eighth page for the farce or forcemeat stuffing.
The recipe has three main components. The farce, which is stuffed into a de-boned duck, which is then wrapped in a crust. I made the forcemeat and the crust and set about to de-bone the duck.


De-boning a duck takes about 45 minutes.


Julia says if you de-bone a lot of them you can cut your time by 25 minutes.


One was enough. Ann timed it. It took 45 minutes.


Once I had the duck de-boned, I stuffed it with the farce.


Then it needed to be sewn up.


At this point, I was really glad that I never went to medical school.


Once the duck is stuffed you brown it.


Then wrap it in a pastry crust.


Of course, Julia wants the crust decorated.
Now the duck goes into an oven for 2 hours and time marches on….
Let’s recap:

• 15 minutes making farce
• 15 minutes for pastry 
• 45 minutes for duck de-boning
• 15 minutes for trussing
• 15 minutes for browning
• 25 minutes for cooling
• 2 hours for baking
• 2 1/2 hours for resting 

About 5 1/2 hours into Pâté de Canard en Crouté, it was time to start the vegetable. Ann peeled, seeded, and cut her cucumbers for her Concombres au Beurre—basically, cukes baked in tons of butter!


In keeping with the “Julia aesthetic“, Ann ventured to Washington's Eastern Market in search of a fromagerie to acquire the proper butter. Sticks of American butter from the Safeway, with their skimpy 80% fat content, would not do. For Julia, we needed a block of European-style butter with its slightly higher fat content.
During all the baking and resting, there was dishwashing, table setting, and gardening. In the garden, I picked some blackberries. Ann said she saw a blackberries recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. “Let’s make dessert!”
We found the recipe for Clafouti aux Mûres and gathered the ingredients. While the cucumbers baked, we made the batter for the clafouti and got it ready for the oven.
In the movie Julie & Julia, Julie talks about de-boning her duck but she never mentions the presentation. After you bake and cool the duck, you have to carefully cut it out of the crust while leaving the crust in tact. You take the now cooked duck and remove all the trussing string. Then, you re-stuff the duck into the crust for a lovely presentation.


Voilà …


Dinner is served. After dinner is served and the dishes are washed and the trussing needle is stored away and Julie & Julia is gone from the theaters and the DVD grows dusty on a shelf one might ask, “Why take on such an exercise?”
The key to the long-lived appeal of Julia Child was her ability to get us into the kitchen without fear, to move us out of our comfort zone and try something new, and most importantly to have fun. I love a challenge and nothing says “challenge” like ten pages of recipe! Ann wanted to take part in the blog and have fun in the kitchen. What could be more fun than taking plain old salad cucumbers and transforming them into Concombres au Beurre? 
Now when people ask me, “Have you ever made Julia’s stuffed duck?” my reply will be, “But of course.“ When they ask Ann if she actually ever used Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she’ll say, “Sure!”
I may never make Pâté de Canard en Crouté again, but when I see a non-descript salad with slices of cucumber tossed on top I will think of how much better they would be had they been cored and sliced and baked in rich butter the way Julia taught Ann to do it. I will remember the unctuous duck, the succulent cucumbers, the clafouti with blackberries from my garden and the sound the wine glasses made as we toasted Julia.
Do try this at home! 

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ZUCCHINI PICKLE RELISH

This time of year, there is an overabundance of zucchini, so I've been making relish out of it. A friend kindly gave me a wonderful recipe last year and I was thrilled with the outcome of my first pickling adventure. Unfortunately, I only made half of the recipe and we ran out quickly because we used it in EVERYTHING from tuna fish, to potato salad, to hot dogs, to you name it... you would NEVER guess it was made out of zucchini.

This season, I'm making TWO batches. I also (nervously) tweaked last years recipe a little with amazing results; we love this recipe, it has a perfect bread and butter pickle flavor.

12 cups unpeeled zucchini (chopped small)
3 cups sweet onion (chopped small)
1 cup celery (chopped small)
2 large red bell peppers (chopped small)
2 cups peeled carrots (chopped small)
1 cup pickling salt (see important note)
3 cups white vinegar
3 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons turmeric
2 teaspoons DRY mustard powder
1 tablespoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon corn starch

Wash and dry the vegetables before cutting them (the only one you should peel is the carrot).  Coarsely chop the vegetables, then put them in the food processor (2 or 3 cups at a time) and pulse them a few times to get them small enough for a good relish (but not too small). The chop size should look like the next photo.

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

Measure the vegetables AFTER you chop them in the food processor.

Mix the small chopped vegetables and 1 cup of pickling salt. Place this mixture (covered) in fridge overnight (The salt will draw excess moisture out of the veggies).

IMPORTANT NOTE: After the vegetables have chilled overnight, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you rinse the salt off of them.  I used a colander and rinsed the veggies three times (in small batches). Whatever method you choose to rinse the salt off, just make sure you rinse, rinse, rinse then squeeze as much water out of the chopped veggies (with your hands) as you can. Set aside.

In a large, non-aluminum, pot, mix the vinegar, sugar, celery seed, spices and corn starch. Bring to a boil (to dissolve the sugar). Add all of the rinsed vegetables to the pot and bring BACK to a boil. Once it is boiling well, turn heat to medium low and gently boil everything for 20 minutes, stirring every five minutes or so.

While the relish is simmering, sterilize 7 pint jars and 7 (two piece) screw on lids. I do this by putting the jars through a hot cycle in my dishwasher (but I don't put the lids in there). Keep the jars in the (unopened) hot dishwasher after the last cycle.

For the lids, I just wash them with hot soapy water, rinse them well and then pour boiling water over them in a large saucepan which I keep warm on a burner.

Also, while the relish is simmering, bring your  hot water bath to a boil, here's how: Place a rack on the bottom of a large stock pot (or something to keep the jars up off of the bottom of the pan) and fill the pot with water (water should be deep enough to cover the jars by 2". Bring to full boil.

Now that your relish has boiled for 20 minutes, remove it from the heat and place it in the hot jars, leaving 1/4" space at the top of the jars (make sure there are no air pockets in the relish). Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, hot, wet kitchen towel and screw on the two-piece lids fairly tight. Lower the jars into the already boiling water and keep them in there  10 minutes for half pint jars and 15 minutes for pint jars.

Remove from boiling water and let cool to room temperature on your kitchen counter. As they cool on your counter, you will hear the lids "pop" when they make the correct seal.  If they don't "pop", just keep them in the fridge.

NOTE: Do not use regular table salt for this recipe because the anti-caking agents in table salt cause the relish to discolor.  If you don't have pickling salt, the next best thing to use is kosher salt (but I highly recommend pickling salt).

NOTE: This recipe makes 7 pints of relish.

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QUICK and EASY STICKY CHICKEN WINGS

This is one of picky-picky hubbies all time favorite things to eat (hands down!!). Wing sections baked in a soy sauce, brown sugar and pineapple mixture, this recipe is  super simple and always a hit at parties. I've been asked for this recipe countless times and people are always surprised how few ingredients (simple) the recipe is.

CLICK ON THIS PICTURE

2 pounds of chicken wing sections
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon black pepper
pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
20 ounce can of pineapple chunks (drained well)

Cut the wings into sections, discarding the wing tip (or buy already cut up party wings) and place in a 9" x 13" (greased) baking dish.  Mix everything else together and spoon over the wings.

Bake in a 350 oven (uncovered) for 1½ hours, turning everything over every 30 minutes or so. Now I know that seems like a LONG time for chicken wings, but trust me, it does takes that long for the wings to "break down" and be super tender, sweet and juicy and sticky!!

Remove the wings and pineapple from the sauce and serve  (discard the sauce). Hubby likes the pineapple chunks, but I don't care for them...your choice.

NOTE: Do not omit the pineapple, the flavor and moisture content of the fruit is important to the cooking process.

NOTE:  The last 30 minutes of bake time, the chicken wings will get shiney and sticky!!

NOTE: If you are still in doubt about the 1½ hour cooking time, click on the above photo and you will get a better look at the wings themselves and you will see they are juicy and not overcooked.

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RED CURRANT and RASPBERRY JAM

It's been gloomy, rainy and chilly all week; fall is right around the corner here in Alaska; that also means it is berry picking time!!

Today I whipped up a batch of red currant - raspberry jam which is picky-picky husbands all time favorite. Lucky for us, these berries grow in the woods around our house and I've been using them to make this jam for over 35 years now.  Hubby likes this recipe so much that HE picks the berries without me asking him to!!

The red currants really brighten up the raspberries and the combination is simply delicious (and gorgeous)!!

3 cups of crushed red currants (measure after crushing)
3/4 cup water
4 cups raspberries (frozen berries are OK)
7 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup liquid pectin (I use Certo)

Crush the red currants (I use a potato masher) and measure three cups into a heavy pan. Add 3/4 cup of water and boil for 10 minutes.  Strain the mixture with a sieve and return the juice to the pan (throw away the solids)

Add the raspberries and sugar to the currant juice and bring to a hard rolling boil (one that can not be stirred down); boil for one full minute minute exactly (stirring constantly).

Remove from heat and stir in liquid pectin until well mixed; skim off any pinkish foam (throw the foam away). 

Pour the hot jam into clean and sterilized jam jars, wipe the rims clean with a clean wet
towel and put on the lids. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes 8 cups of jam

A NOTE  ABOUT  RED  CURRANTS

In the woods around our house, we have raspberries, red currants and high bush cranberries. My first jelly making "adventure" (a million years ago) involved high bush cranberries (they grow in profusion around here and they are a lot of fun to pick).

Thinking that I had hit the "berry mother lode", I was so proud of my huge harvest. It wasn't until I started cooking them that I realized they weren't red currants (high bush cranberries smell like dirty gym socks when you cook them). 

 A lot of people DO eat high bush cranberries, but they usually mix them with other fruit to help mask the strong "sock taste".  Let's just say I didn't make that mistake again, lol !!

So..... for my young Alaskan friends who are beginning to make jam, don't make that same mistake. This is what a high bush cranberry looks like:

A red currant is very different... they look like this:

NOTE: It is always a race between us and the birds for these red gems. If I wait until they are ALL ripe, the birds usually win, so I pick and freeze....pick and freeze, until I have enough for a batch of jam (these berries freeze VERY well).

NOTE: This recipe uses a liquid pectin called CERTO. I'm guessing that a powdered pectin would work well, but I've never tried it with this recipe. It takes 1½ pouches of liquid pectin (1½ pouches = 1/2 cup). If you use the powdered pectin, make sure you follow the cooking instructions on the box.

NOTE: If you've never processed jam in a hot water bath (it is super simple), go to this web site for some specific instructions:   http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/waterbath-canning-highacid-foods.html

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