An Untitled Update

It's been a while since I posted last. I would call myself a slacker, but I've been out of town and then had family come into town.

Good news though- I got a new digital camera. So yay, more and better pictures.  I have successfully made cream cheese from scratch. To be more precise, cream cheese and whey. Whey is the by-product when you make cream cheese the real way. It is used in cooking, fermenting drinks, and can be a standalone beverage. I'm pretty excited.

I'm now making a real batch of komboucha. It should be ready tomorrow. Details and pictures will follow!

Tootles!

Half & Half

I used to drink the little half & half servings at the diner growing up. I recently had one when I was in Florida, and I can honestly say that it has re-ignited my love for half & half. So, I am currently sipping some delicious organic half & half.

If I had to pick a perfect pectin

It would be one in which I didn't have to use tons of sugar and that consistently produced jammy jams and jellies that jelled.

I thought that this didn't exist. My mom and I always used Certo Liquid Pectin with excellent results. We tried some of the Ball brand pectins, but found that Certo was almost guaranteed to work. The one downside to Certo- the exorbitant amount of sugar required to activate the pectin. How exorbitant you must be wondering? How about 4 cups of mashed fruit to 7 cups of sugar? It's kind of a lot don't you think?

Always on the quest to find the perfect product, I purchased some pectin at Whole Foods called "Pomona's Universal Pectin" which advertised as a low sugar or sugar alternative pectin. The pectin worked off of a calcium activation instead of a sugar activation like most other pectins, and you could use sugar or honey as a sweetener. This intrigued me.

I tried it yesterday, with fabulous results. The strawberry jam is very cohesive. I can tell just by turning the jars around. The flavor when it was warm reminded me of strawberry fruit roll-ups except that there is nothing artificial in them. The best part? I only needed to use 3/4 cup of sugar for the same 4 cups of mashed fruit!

The one downside? Since I'm not dumping 3 lbs. of sugar in with the fruit, my yield is about half what it usually is. With Certo's recipe for strawberry jam I would have yielded about 8 8 oz. jars, but with Pomona's I only yielded 4 8 oz. jars. Depressing.

The flavor after it has cooled and sealed? Indescribable.

So here's my conundrum: I am a purist. Jam by definition must have equal parts (based on weight) mashed fruit and sugar, while a fruit spread has almost no sugar in it. So in that sense, I want to make jam when I set out to make jam. Plus, to be a realist, it would be awfully expensive to make large batches of fruit spread. I'll find the middle road, and when I do I'll let you know.

Someone had a little lamb

And now I'm going to eat it!

This is my first time cooking a leg of lamb. I've only had lamb a few times, and I'm not sure if I liked it or not. I'm now trying it as an adult. We'll see how it goes.

I found this great recipe from Cooks Illustrated (as you can tell I'm a fan) with lemon and mint. The recipe is for lamb shanks, but I think a boneless leg of lamb should be okay. It's a braise, which I love. Braising is such a great way get a lot of flavor without too much work.  You can also braise with cheap cuts of meat. Another plus.

I'm going to be making peas as well with dinner. I haven't decided if I'm going to try a mint and shallot variation. Since I have shallots and extra mint, I think I may as well go for it.  The lamb will also be accompanied with mashed potatoes.  In my household I need to make sure that I at least have one item on the plate that my husband is guaranteed to like.

Dessert will be ice cream, cookies, or leftover cake.

P.S. I WOULD post pictures if I had a working camera...

I'm Back

I just got back today from being in Florida with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephews. It feels great to be home, and I don't think that I'll be spending 9 days away from my husband again.

I am so very tired.

In other news, I think my digital camera is kaput. It's old, but clearly I won't be able to add any pictures up for a while unless I use my webcam...

My most recent acquisition was a serger (a gift from my mother-in-law). It is amazing. I don't know why I was sewing for so many years without one. It's the Brother 1034D with the optional clip cup and feet. I'm super excited and really just want to go serge something.

My next project is to brew some komboucha from scratch. Stay tuned- I'll take pictures, maybe a video, and will definitely address the health benefits of the this traditional beverage.