English toffee. It’s the reason for the season. Or is it the traditional Christmas morning coffee cake ring? Family gatherings, carols, large meals and gift exchanges are all very nice, and I’d miss them if they weren’t part of our rituals, but take out the candy or the coffee cake and I think my world might stop spinning. Even if it didn’t, it would definitely develop a bad wobble. I’m thinking of you, Grandpa! Save Save
I’ve brought in the fifth or sixth basket of grapes last week, wrapping up this year’s grape harvest. For something I planted for summer shade and fall color, all these actual grapes are an unlooked for bonus. Funny how blue they look when outside on the vine, like I was growing some weird grape leaf/blueberry fruit hybrid. We still have grape jelly from last year’s harvest in the pantry, so this year whatever we couldn’t just eat fresh either went into the dehydrator to be converted to raisins or cooked down enough to be juiced. I have a bit of …
It was supposed to be quick and fun. Instead, it took more than an hour and inspired some… er… colorful language. So, should anyone else want to attempt making candy corn from the how-to provided by The Harvard Crimson Flyby, here’s what I learned: If you are using ingredients from the natural foods aisle (eg, not C&H powdered sugar), sift everything really well. I used powdered sugar from Wholesome Sweeteners and powdered milk from Organic Valley. Both of these clump up as a general rule but it’s never been a problem with other uses, although those usually involved a mixer. …
If you can get your hands on 4 lbs of fresh peaches (a bit unlikely now that it’s October, but there’s always next year!), you want to make peach butter. I found the recipe over at Smitten Kitchen and was instantly obsessed. Like, I thought about it all the time and I hadn’t even tasted it yet. I got too excited and bought too many peaches, then had to borrow a scale from a neighbor to avoid mucking up everything. I even planned out when I was going to make the peach butter, at a reasonable time on a Saturday, …
The apple tree in the backyard gave us enough apples for an apple crisp! And even better, lots of the apples, although spotted a bit on the skin, were completely bug-free inside. I wonder if that means that I could have left them on the tree a little longer? Would they have gotten bigger? Or buggier? Save Save
The garden suffered this summer from the weather and neglect. I didn’t make it out as often as I might have to really maximize production. I should be grateful we didn’t have a scorcher of a summer; I barely watered and things still limped along, more or less. On the other hand, I did assemble a checklist early in the year to guide me through the various harvests so I would know how much of what I was planning on putting by for winter. I may have only coaxed three whole carrots out of the garden this year, but I’ve …
