Holiday Jam

This is the first season that we made jam from our concord grapes. I have to say that it was exciting to think of eating jam from fruit that grew on our land. I am also quite a connoisseur of jam (meaning I eat an awful lot of it!). Oh, how I looked forward to opening the refrigerator and grabbing a jar of our homemade jam, grown right outside the kitchen door. 

Well, we'll just say that we'll have to work out a few kinks and consider this year's batch to be a test run. In the end we didn't end up with so many jars. So we've reserved them for a small handful of family members (people who will think it tastes good based on the pure effort alone). 

Here are a few of the jars (there were a total of eight in all). 

Here are the grapes ready for cooking.

Taking the grapes off the stems was by far the most arduous part of the process. And when I say 'arduous' I mean that it looked like Mike was doing it for quite some time... I'm admitting here nearly at the end of this post that I hardly helped make the jam. 

Mike was the master canner and he did a wonderful job. Making jam takes patience and the 

wisdom to stick to the recipe. He possesses these qualities in abundance! 

Well, our stockings are hung, the tree is trimmed and I've officially consumed at least an entire loaf of pumpkin bread over the last several weeks. 

'Tis the season...

Christmas Kitchen

I love bringing out my Grandmother's old red transfer ware this time of year. These were her 

everyday dishes so many family meals were shared using them. When I left Los Angeles and moved to Maine to go to college, I was able to enjoy those meals much less frequently.

But when my Grandmother was alive, I never once missed a Christmas Eve dinner at her house. My father was my Grandmother's only child, so my brother and I were her only grandchildren. 

We felt very, very loved. 

Her name was Margaret. xo

Yes, more pomegranates. 

Pomegranates never stay in the fruit bowl for very long. 

These evergreen cuttings look like holly but are actually a Northwest native plant called Oregon grape. Lili used a few clippings for the photo shoot (it's visible in the magazine), and I thought it was such a wonderful idea that I've been using it all over the house lately. 

Due to my complete and utter weakness for pomegranates, we have been consuming them 

non-stop. I love them on pancakes or french toast on the weekends, but 

also crave them on my weekday morning oatmeal as well. 

This sort of consumption, as you can imagine, is logistically challenging. I am rarely 

without a baby in my arms (they too are too delicious to not want to hold them all the time), so seeding 

messy pomegranates takes some orchestration. 

But wonderful news - I've found a miracle process by which to extricate the juicy seeds - saving 

a lot of time and mess! And just who on earth could know such a secret? 

Yes, that's right, it's Martha Stewart. 

Watch her tutorial here. 

It does work but I would recommend doing it in the sink as 

this process, although very time-saving, is not splatter proof. 

Here is one of my quarters after using a wooden spoon. 

Here is what the work area (inside my sink) looked like afterwards.  All of the 

splatters stayed in the sink basin due to hitting the pomegranate face down. 

For once, I had not one tiny splatter on my clothes! 

xo

Beautiful Pomegranate

'Tis the season for the beautiful pomegranate.

I remember eating pomegranates as a child. My mom would break one open, pull out the bread board under the counter (remember those) and my brother and I would stand there and gobble up all of the juicy seeds. 

Perhaps because they're a fruit from my childhood, they are a favorite fruit of the season. 

I like to seed the fruit all at once so that there's a lovely bowl from which to scoop up big bites. The seeds are a wonderful topping on just about everything from savory cheese and crackers to...

...delicious sweet pancakes. 

We eat a lot of pancakes in our household, but I have an extra spring in my step when we have pomegranates to enjoy with them. It's such a special treat.  

I've posted about Hubby's spelt pancakes before and just have to reiterate how delicious and fluffy they are (the trick is whipping the egg whites). 

Hubby's Spelt Pancakes

2/3 cup stone ground corn flour

1 cup spelt flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp raw sugar

1 tsp salt 

2 eggs - separated

1 1/2 cup milk 

2 TB melted butter

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Whisk wet ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk egg whites separately in another small bowl until frothy. Combine together with dry ingredients in large bowl.

Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

I hope that everyone had a beautiful Thanksgiving. Many of our holiday favorites were enjoyed over the course of the weekend. It was a bit of a drawn out affair around here, as we didn't get to roasting the turkey until Friday! Even though Graham and Margaret were still too young to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal, I loved filing the house with that wonderful smell of roasting, baking and simmering. The house always feels coziest when there's a wonderful meal being prepared. 

We picked the last few bunches of herbs from the garden before the snow blankets the ground for the winter. I couldn't resist adorning a few pieces of brown transfer ware with them before they went into our Thanksgiving feast.

Rosemary is one of my favorite herbs. We used it in everything from the turkey brine, to the stuffing. 

The sage accompanied the roasted brussel sprouts. 

October Pears

Last spring I decided to go all white with the items on our kitchen shelves. Over the years, I've seen many images of open shelves similarly adorned and have always thought it looked so crisp and clean. 

So we've enjoyed the all-white look through the summer and into autumn. As we are nearly into November, I just pulled out my brown transfer ware to freshen up the shelves for the Thanksgiving season. But before I do, I thought I'd do a quick post on the shelves as they've been for

 the last few months. 

The pear harvest is well underway in our valley, with thousands of trees heavy with sweet fruit dangling from their limbs. 

On the first day of Christmas,

 my true love sent to me

A partridge in a pear tree...

What? I guess a vision of sugarplums dancing snuck in there...

Sweet pears. 

Mike walked into the kitchen this afternoon and knew that a post was in development - our toaster, baby bottles, and other miscellaneous counter fixtures had found their way to the other 

side of the room. 

xo

Tomatoes and Pumpkins

We've been eating a lot of caprese salad lately. The tomatoes have been coming in strong for weeks now, after being delayed due to our cool June and July temperatures. 

Thankfully, the tomatoes are nice and sweet despite their slow start. 

It's funny because we dream about tomatoes from the beginning of summer until that first wonderful tomato you pull from the vine. But now that the days are shorter, the leaves are turning and the sunlight shines a little crisper, I can't help but eye the pumpkins out of the corner of my eye and dream everything pumpkin...pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread...

We've even begun thinking of the pumpkin birthday cake we plan to make for the babies' first birthday in December. In the image above, you can see me carve their names in our favorite pumpkin using a carving tool. This is something we look forward to doing with Graham and Margaret when they're older. 

 Their names are barely visible right after my not-so-artistic marking. 

But as the pumpkin grows (this picture was taken several weeks after), their names are becoming more visible. 

We thought this would be a fun way to watch their birthday cake grow through the summer. 

Recipe for caprese salad: 

fresh picked tomatoes (we use whatever is ripe - cherry or heirloom)

fresh picked basil

fresh mozzarella

 olive oil and balsamic vinegar 

salt and pepper to taste

As I write this post, Mike is walking back and forth on the porch with the babies in the stroller. It's a beautiful evening, the sky is clear and the sun is casting that special fall hue. Off I go to do a few house chores before they come inside. 

First Blackberry Harvest

We enjoyed our first blackberries from the berry garden this past weekend. 

To say that I was ecstatic would be an understatement.

My sweet Graham joined me for this festive occasion, although we only picked a few berries together before he started grabbing fistfuls of vines and leaves (with a readied open mouth).

His fingers touched their first blackberry and it was a marvelous wonder to watch. xo

There were enough ripe berries that morning to serve with our breakfast -

mmm mmm, so sweet.

I also picked the very last of our blueberries. 

A colander of sweet summer berries made my heart sing.

We enjoyed our fresh picked berries over whole wheat pancakes. It has become our weekend tradition for Mike to make us pancakes on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. 

He makes them mostly for me, I'll admit it. Although I do know that he enjoys them, it is mostly I who think it's perfectly acceptable to have them two mornings in a row... 

Although sometimes, I go out on a limb and request french toast...I know, I'm unpredictable. 

Pure organic maple syrup completes our weekend breakfast tradition.

xo 

More Summer Salads

Mike tried a new beet salad recipe. It's for pickled beets, although there is no canning involved. Mason jars were used for refrigerator storage only. 

There was one too many gold beets for the brine, but that evening's meal took care of that. 

We tossed the beets in a nice fresh green salad sprinkled with feta cheese.

Mike also made our favorite potato salad (yes, he is still doing the majority  all of our cooking). This is a recipe I found years ago from a farm fresh regional cookbook that his sister Mary sent us from Wisconsin. 

It's delicious. 

Madison Potato Salad

1/2 teaspoon salt

clove of garlic, minced

4 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup mayonnaise 

1 cup plain yogurt

6 green onions, finely diced

6 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped

3 pounds red potatoes

1/2 cup celery, chopped

pepper to taste

Quarter red potatoes and boil, set aside to cool.

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. 

Add to red potatoes.  

Refrigerate. 

Pickled Beets 

5 medium red beets 

5 medium yellow beets

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

1 1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

3/4 teaspoon dill weed

1 teaspoon whole allspice

1/4 teaspoon whole cloves

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

4 or 5 dried basil leaves

1 1/4 cups white wine vinegar

1 1/4 cups dry white wine

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar 

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon coarse salt 

Stem and boil beets in separate saucepans (to prevent color staining). Simmer for about 30 minutes or until tender. 

Drain and cool, keeping beets separate. 

Peel beets. 

Combine coriander seeds through bay leaves. Sprinkle over beets, dividing evenly. 

In a saucepan, combine vinegar through salt and bring to boil.  

Immediately pour over beets, dividing evenly. 

Let cool and refrigerate. 

Will last in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. 

Cherry Cannons

Due to our cool June and July weather, the cherry harvest has extended into August in our valley. As the last of the year's crop is harvested, our late summer days are filled with the distant muffled pop and poof of cherry cannons. They go off throughout the day to deter birds from swooping in to feast on the red fleshy fruit.

It's a soft subtle sound that you don't notice so much after a while. But every now and then, during a quiet pause, you hear them and think...cherries.

Red
Ripe
Sweet
Cherries

I'm sure the cherry cannons subliminally led me to stop in at the local organic farm down the road from us.

It's not your standard farm stand catering to drive up customers. There are no displays of fruit or a counter to walk up to. It's just a big, old packing house. My visit went something like this:

What do you have for fruit right now? Are peaches in?

No, we'll be picking peaches next week. We just have cherries right now.


Yes, of course, cherries. What's the smallest quantity of cherries I can buy?

20 pounds.

I thought, 'no, too much', but said, 'yes, I'll take twenty pounds of cherries.' 

They've just been picked, so they're still warm and may have some leaves mixed in...is that okay?

Just picked is good, sun warmed is perfect. 

cherries on pancakes
cherries for snack
cherries for lunch
cherries for dessert

We cleaned, pitted and froze about 15 pounds.

Perhaps we'll have cherries for Christmas like our Australian friends.

Summer Salads

Among my favorite things to eat during the hot summer months are yummy cold salads. Last Sunday, we spent the afternoon making several cold salads to eat during the week. 

Here is one of the salads we made, which is a favorite. Its ingredients are simple: whole wheat pasta, chopped spinach, feta and kalamata olives. 

So fresh, so tasty...we eat it as a side salad but it can also be served as a light main course. 

Recipe: 

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 

1 tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette

2 garlic cloves, pressed

7 cups whole wheat spiral pasta (cooled)

3 cups chopped spinach

1/2 cup pitted and chopped kalamata olives

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese 

 Combine cooked pasta (cooled), spinach, olives and feta. 

Toss with the dressing, which combines the olive oil, balsamic and garlic. 

Beautiful Artichokes

Boil until tender. Enjoy with warm melted butter and lemon!

The Grape Vines

When we bought our house, the old Concord grape vines were a bit overgrown like the rest of the property. 

It took a little of this (Hubby dusting off the weed whacker)... 

And a little of that (Hubby pushing the mower around). 

It took some good pruning... 

And finally, some summer sunshine. 

At the end of a hot summer day, it's a nice spot to sit back and watch the vines grow. 

Some of Hubby's pickings from last fall. 

Pancakes and Transfer Ware

One of my favorite things to look forward to over the weekend is pancakes! Or french toast - basically anything bread-like combined with real maple syrup! Hubby made these spelt walnut pancakes and I think they may be my favorite recipe. He added fresh pear on top. 

My mom flew up from California last week and while she was here, we took a drive into Portland. My shopping goals were some good nursing tops and some pants. She dropped me off at Marshalls while she drove laps around the parking lot to soothe the babies to sleep. It had been over six months since I'd been shopping. 

I came out half an hour later with these plates - eight dinner and eight salad. I didn't even try on clothes. 

They're the same pattern as my brown transfer ware (here). I thought the blue would be nice for spring and summer...and all the yummy culinary goodness that comes with these seasons - hello morel mushroom pizza, fruit salad, mescalin greens and oh, insalata caprese.

Spelt Walnut Pancake Recipe:

2/3 cup stone ground corn flour

1 cup spelt flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp raw sugar

1 tsp salt 

2 eggs - separated

1 1/2 cup milk 

2 TB melted butter

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Whisk wet ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk egg whites separately in another small bowl until frothy. Combine together with dry ingredients in large bowl - throw in handful of walnuts. 

I want to thank everyone for your comments and e-mails. It really means a lot to me to hear from you. Unfortunately, it's become quite challenging to keep up with correspondence as I'd like. I pretty much always have a baby in my arms (I'm holding sleeping Margaret as I type with one hand right now!).

I also wanted to say that I'm still reading blogs which I can do with one hand and a mouse! I'm just not able to leave comments so much (but I do write very long chatty comments in my head!). 

xo