Kitchen Jam

Syracuse NY skyline - Photo by Gizzak

Over the winter, while the jammin’ season has been a little slow, I began writing a dog training column for the Syracuse edition of Examiner.com. That column’s readership has been growing, and I did a few restaurant articles to share some of my favorite affordable restaurants with out-of-town show and trial exhibitors. Those articles were so much fun that I decided to apply for the Syracuse Food Examiner column, which launched on May 15.

So (shameless plug alert) c’mon over and visit me at Syracuse Food, where I share local food news and the special food finds I discover (or re-discover) in central New York. I get paid for traffic – so click early and click often.

In mid-February, Wendy over at The Local Cook gifted me with “The Beautiful Blog” Award. I have to admit – I’m still new enough at writing online that stuff like this makes me feel pretty amazing. Yeah, I get a little Sally Field – I’m still hearing echoes of ‘you like me, you really like me’ in my head and it’s been almost two weeks. So, thank you, Wendy; I really do appreciate it!

When you’re named a Beautiful Blogger, you need to tell your readers seven interesting things they may not know about you. Then, to share the good feelings, recipients point their readers to seven other bloggers whose work they appreciate. Read the rest of this entry »

I got my first seed catalog in the mail this week – and two days later, my first Food Preservation Workshop notice of the season from Kathleen Quinn-Jacobs at IthaCan.

IthaCan is a is a web-based social network through which home food preservers in Tompkins County organize food preserving events and share information. I’m in Syracuse, NY – not Ithaca – but the group is only about an hour down Rt. 81 from me…45 minutes if I can go the back way and the weather doesn’t take a nasty February turn. Read the rest of this entry »

Image by SeattleRay via Flickr

I didn’t find out about Under the High Chair’s Virtual Jam Swap in a straight-line kinda way. I was reading my latest Foodbuzz headlines, and saw a new post called Jam Swap from Coco Bean, a blog from the Montreal food improv team of Ian and Christie. Seems they’d discovered that canning – at first intimidating – could pay off just like a cookie exchange at their friend Aimee’s real-life Jam Swap. I followed their link to Aimee’s Under the High Chair blog (don’t you love the way links are the internet’s version of a bread crumb trail?) At UtHC, I discovered that in addition to her live jam swap, about which Ian had written, Aimee had just posted a round-up of her virtual (blogging) jam swap. Her post includes the links to the adventures (and misadventures) and 25 recipes from jammers who personify the improvisational approach to preserving flavor.

Julie Powell cooked her way through Julia Child‘s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I want to cook my way through all 25 recipes in Aimee’s Virtual Jam Swap. Always on the lookout for unique and new jam recipes, several of the VJS entries caught my eye, and fit right in to the kinds of fruit available at this time of year in central New York:

Apple Pie Jam from Kim at Flavorista (lower sugar, with pectin)
Grapefruit Cranberry Marmalade from Cheri at Kitchen Simplicity (no added pectin)
Coconut Jam (Kaya) from Cheryl at Backseat Gourmet (no added pectin)

UtHC’s jam swap also collected recipes for jams, butters, marmalades and spreads made with plums, rhubarb, apricots, peaches, blueberries, cherries, mint, peppers, berries and apples.

I’ve got a lot of reading and recipe-sorting to do; I definitely need to put some of these recipes into my jam repertoire. Thanks, Aimee, for sending out the call for your Virtual Jam Swap, and then sharing all of the bounty with the world.

What jams will you be making next – for holiday gifts, or when the fresh fruits in your area come back into season? Will you share your jam plans?

‘Net searches turn up the most amazing things.

Yesterday, searching for a more refined method for drying my overabundant herb harvest, I wandered into CanningUSA — a site which offers recipes, how-to videos and podcasts, and lots of very specific canning information. No longer do novice canners need to plow through tables of canning instructions; if you learn better by watching, then the videos of various canning and preserving processes are made just for you!

Need some visuals that explain how to make and can Jam and Infused Fruit?

Need an explanation of the differences between raw, hot and cold pack canning methods?

Hoping to put up some of the apples or pears filling your local farmer’s market?

If you’re looking for a visual guide to canning and preserving, as well as some interesting new improvisations on familiar preserving recipes, you might want to drop into the CanningUSA site, and investigate their online help section.