A weekend of discovery, sunshine and productivity.

Girl time with some beautiful friends

A lucrative market visit

Some back to (home)school shopping

A dozen canning jars for a steal

Goodies from our very own garden

A new recipe tried, tasted and preserved

That same recipe repeated the next day following rave reviews (more on that later)

A lovely friend sharing the exciting and exhausting task of turning 31lbs of tomatoes into another delicious salsa

Enjoying that salsa still warm over tacos

A gift of crab apples

Sunny days to prolong the feel of summer

Playground laughter, arguments and tears

A most appreciated supporting role while Dan tackled the long process of making and canning 20 L of tomato sauce

Another weekend of muddy toes and dirty fingernails

:::

A most wonderful long weekend

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joining with the most wonderful Amanda

First of all I must thank you all so much for the love and well wishes. I’ve been overwhelmed with all of your kind words and encouragement during these waiting days. Each and every one has meant so much to me. I am humbled by the incredible community I’ve been blessed with here. Thanks, friends.

It’s been life (almost) as usual while we await our new arrival. I’ve been a little crankier, quite a bit slower and am finding the stairs a little more tiring but mostly I’m trying to keep some semblance of patience and normality.

Dan may argue that “semblance” would be a stretch as I’ve been finding more time for napping, knitting and perhaps moaning but my family is taking good care of me, including my mom who has flown in from the East Coast.

Amidst that semblance of normality we’ve been happily keeping up with our canning plans (the plans loosely being to put away as much as possible).

So this week we did more of the same, drunken cherries and cherry jam, along with a very exciting first – raspberry jam.

The raspberries were a special treat because we don’t grow our own and have never bought more than a pint or two at the farmer’s market due to their price. But at closing time last week Dan passed the right booth at the right time and got 10 lbs for a mere $5. They definitely needed some sorting through but in the end we only lost a small amount to the compost bin. The kids were even excited about the score – alerting random strangers to the great deal we got on raspberries. I love those kids.

The first batch of cherry jam (which I mentioned here) was quickly disappearing but we bolstered our reserves this week and now we have a whopping 24 jars – not including the 3 or 4 jars that have already been enjoyed. Unfortunately I didn’t cook the second batch quite long enough so it’s a runnier jam but it was still delicious drizzled over this morning’s fresh biscuits.

So here’s my tally:

purchased: 10 lbs of raspberries, $5

yield: 16.5 cups of jam using a simple recipe of a 3:2 ratio of raspberries to sugar along with the zest and juice of one lemon

purchased: 32.5 lbs of cherries, $60 ($1.85/lb)

yield: 11 – 500ml jars of drunken cherries prepared in a simple syrup with a splash of kirsch

10 jars of cherry jam once again using this recipe

While we’ve been stocking up for winter (and for plenty of Christmas giving) we’ve been enjoying the great bounty of summer. Our fingers are sticky with apricots, our teeth stained with blueberries, our chins dripping with cherry juice…Come to think of it a lot of things are stained with cherry juice these days and we’re loving it.

How are you loving these summer days?

A couple summers ago I discovered the joys of canning. Admittedly the joys were harder to find when I started but the pay off of canned peaches during the long, cold winter made it worth while. Last year I attacked the job of canning with fervour, albeit fervour mingled with some extreme dislike. I chanted my mantra of “Cherries in January, cherries in January” at the beginning until something changed. Somewhere over that steam blinding, wrist burning, adrenaline pumping canning pot I found love – or at least an obsession.

Every Sunday afternoon we would head to our favourite farmer’s market and return home with many pounds of produce – I think our week’s high was 120 lbs. We enjoyed our fare share of juicy peaches and cherries, crisp apples, smooth and delicate apricots and even a closely guarded flat of blackberries but much of it was destined for the canning pot. I was like a woman gone mad, canning like crazy every week, bringing more and more home from the market as I feared each week would be the last for the precious peach, cherry or plum.

By the end of the summer Dan had caught my fever. He helped me can dozens of jars of pasta sauce and salsa. He started eating jam. The kids started enjoying salsa. I enjoyed the goods but was a little miserly just in case those cherries didn’t last until January. Turns out those cherries lasted until July…along with more than a few jars of peaches, jam and pasta sauce.

And now we have come full circle. Cherry season has returned much to my joy and excitement. Jam is being made, plans are being laid for this year’s attempts remembering last year’s successes and less-than-successes. We had our first summer visit to the market this past weekend and returned with 20 lbs of cherries – added to the 15 lbs we ate and processed over the weekend we are already 35 lbs in. I kept terrible track last year as I was blinded with passion but this year I resolve to keep better notes and hopefully better control of my obsession. I need to make more salsa, I didn’t use the right tomatoes for sauce and maybe I could hold back on the jam a little (although it did make up MANY Christmas gifts for friends and family).

We’ll see how it goes but I think I may make a weekly habit of reporting here what we’ve been up to since finding a notebook seems beyond my abilities while I’m sweating over a canning bath.

I’m not sure how expecting a baby in the few weeks is going to affect our plans but as Dan is more than eager (isn’t he lovely?!) I’m hoping we can get lots put down – perhaps with a baby in the sling (which of course will necessitate Dan dealing with all the hot jobs while I handle the prep).

So for my first report:

purchased: 35 lbs of cherries from a highway-side market and farmer’s market for $90, ≈ $2.50/lb, the price will go down as the season progresses but we needed to get head start

yield: 17 – 250ml jars of jam, 1 – 500ml jar of jam, plenty of snacks, cherry stained fingers and mouths and 12 pounds left for drunken cherries or more snacking

Our first batch of cherry jam turned out just the way we like it – so well that we’ve already polished off the 500ml jar. This week I managed another (larger) batch of jam. The remaining will be made into drunken cherries – if any of them escape the seven cherry lovers in this house. Simon has probably put away a pound or two on his own. As he watched me pit and chop them the other day his hand found its way to the bowl many times.

For the jam I used David Lebovitz’s recipe for No-Recipe Cherry Jam. As with many jams it is loaded with sugar but made without added pectin which I like. For some reason those packages of pectin give me a bad feeling but I don’t really know if I’m justified in that or not. Last year I made most of our jams without pectin but the few recipes I used it for turned out less to my liking – they seemed too sugary tasting and some of them even got all gross and crystallized. (I only realized the crystallization recently when I opened a jar of peach marmalade so I apologize to anyone who got one of those for Christmas.) That was more than likely my fault but it’s soured me even more against the pectin although I’d love the ability to use less sugar or try other sweeteners with the assurance of the pectin to thicken them up.

Now I’m off to attend to those remaining cherries and stain my fingers once again with their red juices.

Have you tried canning? Do you have fond memories of a favourite preserved from a mother or grandmother’s kitchen? Do you have a favourite recipe you make every year?

We buy peanut butter in bulk. From *gasp* Costco. It’s big, organic, affordable and delicious but it is one heck of a thing to mix up owing to its natural status.

One of our sweet friends who works in a wood shop had taken a jar in to work to shake on the paint mixer for us. That worked beautifully but unfortunately sometimes there is a toddler who just must have peanut butter this moment, the new jar must be opened and therefore must be painfully and messily stirred by a helpful parent.

We try our best to mix well but every time we get to the bottom of one of these jars there is hard dry peanut butter which doesn’t make the most appetizing (or willing) spread for our fresh (ie. soft) bread. This is when I remember to make a batch of peanut butter cookies – although after baking them this time I’m going to remind myself that these are just about my favourite cookie ever and deserve baking more often.

They are soft, chewy, not too sweet and reminiscent of a favourite cookie from my childhood…

…I just talked myself into nabbing one from the kitchen.

Gather this line up.

Hello, friend.

I give it a whip round in my mixer with the paddle attachment but a wooden spoon would work fine.

Add in the sugars and cream until fluffy and smooth – I had many willing helpers.

Add the peanut butter.

You may feel it couldn’t get any better than this…but keep going, it gets better.

Add in the eggs and vanilla – mix until combined.

Add in the salt and baking soda…

…the whole wheat flour…

…and quite possibly my favourite ingredient in these cookies – the oats.

Once you’ve mixed them together you are ready for this. I pull out my handy ice cream scoop but a spoon would work as well – and, of course, that little crumb was sampled.

I use the scoop to measure them more evenly but they do need to be balled and flattened before baking.

Bake until they are just beginning to brown and still soft.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

I make mine on the small size – better for little snackers – and get nearly three dozen out of a batch.

1/2 butter

2/3 cup white sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/4 cups natural peanut butter

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup oats

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Stir in peanut butter until mixture is uniform. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add salt, soda, flour and oats to the mixture and mix until combined. Scoop out desired size, roll into balls and flatten onto baking sheets with a fork or the palm of your hand. Bake until cookies are just beginning to brown, are no longer glossy but are still soft – 12 to 13 minutes. Allow to cool and enjoy!

Cookies: 1 / Willpower: 0

That three dozen seems to disappear pretty quickly around here – ahem, I knew Dan didn’t mind the oats.

I love tradition. Especially family traditions – from the mundane to the symbolic. We’ve had fun developing traditions that are all our own, silly though they may seem to others. Like eating banana bread for breakfast in the van when we are off on a road trip. Or birthday breakfasts eaten in a balloon chair. Or Christmas morning scones with fruit salad. Granted, many of our traditions revolve around food. I like that.

Apparently I’ve been baking somewhat of a family tradition, albeit with my own variations, for a number of years now. I’ve savoured many a warm flaky biscuit baked by my mother from my paternal grandmother’s recipe. Biscuits that have been fruit-peel scones for childhood Christmas mornings, strawberry shortcakes for summer celebrations and dumplings for seafood chowder.

As I was seeking out any family stories surrounding this tried-and-true recipe, I learned that just as my mother received this recipe from her mother-in-law, my grandmother had received it from her mother-in-law. I don’t know the history beyond my Great Grandma Kitty (who I know only from a stern picture which confuses the rather light-hearted nickname of “Kitty”) but I’m going to believe that she received the recipe from her mother-in-law in turn – a Stewart woman rather further up my family tree.

That long-winded explanation all to introduce this most-beloved family recipe that comes with numerous traditions. The recipe came to me without orange zest, yogurt or buttermilk but it remains my grandma’s recipe despite the adaptations my mom and I have added over the years. And it always brings me great joy to pull out the recipe card with “Grandma’s Biscuits” written at the top along with, perhaps, the occasional tear.

And now that I’m blubbering (which you could call pregnancy hormones although my hubby, and likely my father, knows better)…here’s how I make my version.

Gather your ingredients.

Add whole wheat flour to white flour.

Mix in sugar.

Mix in soda, powder, salt and cream or tartar, if using.

Using a pastry blender (or two knives) blend the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is loose and crumbly.

Grate in the orange peel – I prefer to use organic fruits especially for zesting. If you are not using an organic orange be sure to wash the fruit well with warm soapy water or a fruit and veggie wash.

Add egg to a liquid measuring cup and whisk with a fork.

Add buttermilk (or milk) to measure one cup of liquid.

Add in the yogurt…

…along with the egg and milk mixture.

Gently mix with a wooden spoon and then knead lightly with your hands. I knead it in the bowl until it is holding together then I dump it out onto a floured counter.

Knead until the dough is uniform.

Roll out to a 12 – 14 inch circle. Using a bench scraper or knife cuts into wedges. Alternatively, roll the dough out to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut into circles with a floured biscuit cutter or the top of a glass.

Lay the wedges or rounds onto a cookie sheet and slide into a preheated 325°F oven.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until lightly browned.

Grandma’s Biscuits

There are so many ways to enjoy these biscuits – hot out of the oven, spread with butter or drizzled in apricot jam with a slice of cheddar cheese. And of course any leftovers make wonderful strawberry shortcake…

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cup unbleached flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional)

1/2 cup butter

zest of one orange (also optional)

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1 egg

< 1 cup buttermilk (added to egg to equal one cup)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Mix together dry ingredients. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives. Using a rasp, grate in zest of one orange. Whisk egg in liquid measuring cup with a fork, add milk to equal one cup of liquid. Add yogurt and egg mixture to dry ingredients. Stir lightly with a spoon then gently knead in bowl until the mixture holds together. Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead a few times until the dough is uniform – do not over knead the dough. Roll the dough out into a 12 – 14 inch round and cut into wedges. Alternatively, roll out to a 1/4 inch width and cut into rounds with a biscuit cutter or the top of a glass. *Note: these are flakier if you create laminated dough by rolling out into a large rectangle, folding the bottom third up and the top third down over it building layers before rolling the dough out for cutting.

Spread on a baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the biscuits are lightly browned. Serve warm with butter or preserves.

Cory’s inspiring post here has me regretting I don’t have more family recipes in my repertoire – I may have to dig for a few more. What food traditions do you keep alive? Any family recipes that have been passed through generations?