Marisa McClellan's Blog, page 109

Upcoming Events: Plymouth Meeting! Chestnut Hill! Devon! And More!

I have another busy couple of weeks of classes, demos, and signings! Here’s where you’ll find me!

July 14

I’ll be at the Plymouth Meeting Whole Foods Market at 6 pm, demonstrating a batch of honey sweetened apricot butter with lavender. It’s one of my favorite recipes from Preserving by the Pint and I think you’ll like it too! Sign up by emailing Genevieve.Greco@wholefoods.com or calling 610-832-0010.

July 15

I’m teaming up with Weaver’s Way Co-op for another preserving class at the Chestnut Hill Friends Meetinghouse. The class is from 7-9 pm. Click here to sign up.

July 16

I’ll be at the Devon Whole Foods Market from 2-4 pm, making a batch of stone fruit jam from Preserving by the Pint and signing books.

July 21

I’ll be making a small batch of jam at the Media-Upper Providence Free Library at 7 pm and will have some books with me to sign and sell!

July 22

A preserves-focused dinner at High Street at 9 pm. Call (215) 625-0988 to reserve your seat.

July 23

I’ll be at the Collingswood Library at 6:30 pm, making a small batch of plum jam and answering canning questions. Book signing to follow!

July 24

Small batch canning demo and book signing at the Clark Park Farmers Market in West Philadelphia from 3-5 pm.

July 24

Canning class in the new, gorgeous teaching kitchen at the central branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia at 6 pm. Click here for more details and to register.

July 31

Preserving stonefruit at The Brooklyn Kitchen’s Manhattan location. Click here to register.

Related Posts:

Thursday Night at the Free Library of Philadelphia
Upcoming Events: Philly! Ambler! Bryn Mawr! Chestnut Hill!
Book Tour: Eugene, Seattle, San Francisco, and LA

Upcoming Events:

I have another busy couple of weeks of classes, demos, and signings! Here’s where you’ll find me!

July 14

I’ll be at the Plymouth Meeting Whole Foods Market at 6 pm, demonstrating a batch of honey sweetened apricot butter with lavender. It’s one of my favorite recipes from Preserving by the Pint and I think you’ll like it too! Sign up by emailing Genevieve.Greco@wholefoods.com or calling 610-832-0010.

July 15

I’m teaming up with Weaver’s Way Co-op for another preserving class at the Chestnut Hill Friends Meetinghouse. The class is from 7-9 pm. Click here to sign up.

July 16

I’ll be at the Devon Whole Foods Market from 2-4 pm, making a batch of stone fruit jam from Preserving by the Pint and signing books.

July 21

I’ll be making a small batch of jam at the Media-Upper Providence Free Library at 7 pm and will have some books with me to sign and sell!

July 22

A preserves-focused dinner at High Street at 9 pm. Call (215) 625-0988 to reserve your seat.

July 23

I’ll be at the Collingswood Library at 6:30 pm, making a small batch of plum jam and answering canning questions. Book signing to follow!

July 24

Small batch canning demo and book signing at the Clark Park Farmers Market in West Philadelphia from 3-5 pm.

July 24

Canning class in the new, gorgeous teaching kitchen at the central branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia at 6 pm. Click here for more details and to register.

July 31

Preserving stonefruit at The Brooklyn Kitchen’s Manhattan location. Click here to register.

Related Posts:

Thursday Night at the Free Library of Philadelphia
Upcoming Events: Philly! Ambler! Bryn Mawr! Chestnut Hill!
Book Tour: Eugene, Seattle, San Francisco, and LA

Links: Pink Pickles, Cherry Rhubarb Jam, and a Winner

I hit the wall this weekend. In a single 48 hour period, I taught one class, did three farmers market demos, and had a book store signing. By the time I left my last event today, I was entirely spent. So much so that I accidentally left my soaking jam pan in the grass when I drove away. Thankfully, one of the nice market organizers noticed my error and they’re holding my equipment until I can get back out there and claim it. Such is life!

Now, links!

A gorgeous, massive batch of strawberry jam! Or, for the fancier folks, .
Pretty pink cauliflower pickles from the high priestess of preserving, Linda Ziedrich.
A nice article about the folks from the Pittsburgh Canning Exchange.
Fifteen ways to use up jam. Helpful!
Rose petal and jasmine flower jam. So gorgeous!
Enchanting pictures of gooseberries and currants and a recipe for gooseberry jam.
Maple pickled beets!
Tips for making pie with juicy berries.
Sweet cherry and roasted rhubarb jam or mint cherry rhubarb jam.
Pickled green walnuts!
Madame Fromage and Johanna Kindvall team up to create a pretty plan for a late summer cheese picnic.

A few nice mentions of Preserving by the Pint!

Jen from Use Real Butter made my Mint Lime Syrup. It’s such a good refresher for this time of year.
Meryl from My Bit of Earth made my Sour Cherries with Bourbon. They are my favorite and I made 11 half pints this week.
Canada.com gave the book some love and shared three of my favorite recipes from the book!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to share their stories of beloved parties and potlucks. The winner of the copy of Ashley English’s new book Homemade Gatherings is #151/Robin. She said, “I love potlucks – otherwise I worry about stuff during the whole event instead of just making sure there are enough plates and utensils and then enjoying my guests.” 

Robin, here’s hoping that this book helps you enjoy your guests even more!

Related Posts:

Links: Strawberries, Pickled Cherries, and Links
Links: Strawberries, Dill Pesto, and a Winner
Links: Pickled Fruit, Book Reviews, and a Winner

Sponsored Post: Homemade Lemon Curd from Craftsy

Every winter, I order up a ten-pound box of Meyer lemons. I spent a week or two turning all that fragrant fruit into marmalade, syrup, preserved lemons, and creamy lemon curd.

I pack the curd into 4 ounce jars and stash most of them in the freezer* to keep it fresh. Then, throughout the winter and spring, I defrost one tiny jar at a time and stir a spoonful of curd into little dishes of yogurt as a sweet, tangy treat.

Recently, the folks at Craftsy asked I wanted to take their lemon curd recipe for a spin. I nearly said no, because to my mind summer just isn’t curd season. But then I looked at the recipe and realized that their version used more lemon and less sugar, butter, and egg yolks. A lighter, more summer friendly curd, perhaps?

The recipe works much like those I’ve used before. You combine the egg yolks, lemon juice, and sugar in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. This particular version does take a little more time to set up than the batches I’ve made in the past (mostly because the concentration of thickening egg yolk is less), but if you use a larger bowl and pan than I did, you should have perfectly good luck.

Click here for Craftsy’s Lemon Curd Recipe!

I actually ended up giving up on the double boiler approach and turned my nascent curd out into a small skillet to speed the cooking. It eventually did firm, and once I added the butter, vanilla extract, and pinch of salt, I was entirely sold on this delicate version.

This curd is light and bright with unadulterated lemon flavor. Since I made it, I’ve been dreaming of dolloping a bit on a slice of angel food cake and topping that with a few fresh blueberries.

If you do make this curd, know one thing. It is inevitable that you will end up with small bits of cooked egg in your finished curd. For a perfectly smooth texture, make sure to run the hot curd through a fine mesh sieve to filter out any lumps or bumps. The recipe doesn’t tell you that, but truly, it should be done.

Click here for Craftsy’s Lemon Curd Recipe!

*I used to can my curd, but I’ve found that I prefer the texture when I skip the canning pot and preserve by freezing instead. Live and learn!

For more about this series of sponsored posts and my year-long partnership with Craftsy, please visit this post.

Official disclosure statement: This is sponsored post from Craftsy. I was compensated for this post. However, all opinions remain my own.

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Sponsored Post – Jam & Marmalade: The Blue Chair Way
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Deal Alert: Sweet Cherries on Sale Tomorrow at Whole Foods Market

I start paying more attention to the Whole Foods Markets Friday sales starting in mid-June. That’s because every July for the last few years, they have one day when they put all the sweet cherries on sale. They go from being upwards of $4 or $5 a pound to a crazy low $1.99 a pound. As a cherry obsessive and dedicated preserver, you better believe that this is one sale that I do not miss.

Because I’ve been on the road so much this summer, I haven’t been paying as much attention to the sales at my local Whole Foods as I normally do. However, I stopped by earlier today and spotted this sign (and was so excited, I felt moved to take a picture and post it to Instagram). The cherry sale is tomorrow!

After getting a couple of questions about availability on my Instagram post, I did a little digging and found out that the sale price will be in effect at all WFM stores in the US (including Hawaii). There is a chance that they will run out of cherries before the end of the day, so if you want in on the action, make sure to get to your local store on the earlier side of the day.

If you’re intrigued by the idea of discount cherries, but aren’t sure how you’d use up a mess of them, here are some of my favorite cherry recipes from the archives.

Sweet pickled cherries. Eat them with roasted meat or with some cheese like a deconstructed chutney. Or, if you want something appropriate for a burger, make yourself some cherry ketchup.

Cherry bounce. It’s just cherries, sugar, and bourbon. What could be bad about that? Or, if bourbon isn’t your thing, what about cherry rum?

Sweet and sour cherry jam. If you can’t find sour cherries, try using apricots or raspberries in their place. It’s lovely, low sugar preserve that is one of my pantry staples these days.

If you don’t feel like hauling out your canning pot, there’s also the cherry clafoutis, which is always nice. You bake cherries into a slightly sweet custard. Pitting is optional.

There are even more cherry recipes in my cookbooks. Sweet cherry butter! Bing cherries in red wine syrup! Sweet cherry compote!

However you do it, make sure you enjoy some some cherries this summer!

Related Posts:

Sweet and Sour Cherry Jam
Upcoming Classes and Events: Glen Mills! Syracuse! Perkasie! Troy, NY! Chicago!
Book Events: Philly! New Jersey! Bucks County!

Honey Sweetened Raspberry Preserves

When I was in Portland a few weeks back, I spent a morning at the Beaverton Farmers Market with Kate Payne. We did side-by-side demos, signed books, and greeted all the nice folks who stopped by to see what we were doing with carrots (her) and strawberries (me).

By the time we finished, the market was starting to close down for the day. Kate dashed off to buy some Hood strawberries for her next demo, while I went off in search of one of the half flats of raspberries I’d seen walking by our table.

After just a little bit of wandering, I found the raspberries I was looking for. They’d been out in the heat for hours so were starting to look a tiny bit soft. The woman working the stand, pulled six of the best looking pints that she could find for me and fitted them snugly into the cardboard half flat. Then, she took two more pints and scattered them over top. She gave me a wink and said, “End of the day special.”

I ate at least a pint on the drive home (all of 25 minutes) and my parents helped polish off a second pint within the afternoon. The rest were destined for preserving. My mom and I gently tumbled each pint out onto a dinner plate and sorted through, separating out any berries that seemed to have started to go truly bad from the ones that could go into the cooking pot (we also pulled a few of the fresher looking ones to save for breakfast the next day).

We collected the berries in a roomy 4-cup measuring cup, occasionally mashing the fruit down with a fork in order to make room for more. When we were finished, we’d filled the measuring cup to the brim and still had a scant pint that were sturdy enough to last the night in the fridge.

I combined the berries with two cups of local honey and a goodly amount of lemon zest and juice in my mom’s widest pan and brought it all to an active boil. Stirring regularly, it took about half an hour to cook down and thicken (had I had some Pomona’s Pectin on hand, I may have spiked it with a bit to encourage a thicker set in less time).

When it was done, I had three half pints and one full pint of lovely, bright, honey sweetened raspberry preserves (I’m not calling it jam, because it ended up with a fairly soft set and I want to establish the correct expectations). Hooray for Oregon berries!

Print
Honey Sweetened Raspberry Preserves

Yield: makes 5 half pints

Ingredients

5 cups smashed raspberries
2 cups honey (choose something with a light flavor so that it doesn't compete with the berries)
2 lemons, zested and juiced

Instructions

Prepare a boiling water bath canner and five half pint jars.
In a low, wide pan, combine the raspberries, honey, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Place over hight heat and bring to a boil.
Cook at an active boil for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring regularly, until the fruit thickens. This preserve is never going to be as thick as jam made with pectin, but it should develop a soft set.
When the fruit has thickened to your liking, remove the pan from the heat.
Funnel preserves into prepared jars. Wipe rims, apply lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
When time is up, remove jars from canner and set them on a wooden cutting board or folded kitchen towel to cool.
Once they are cool enough to handle, test lids to ensure that jars have sealed. The lids will be concave and will be firm when pressed if seals are good.
Sealed jars are shelf stable up to one year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly. Schema/Recipe SEO Data Markup by ZipList Recipe Plugin2.5http://foodinjars.com/2014/07/honey-sweetened-raspberry-preserves/




Related Posts:

Honey Sweetened Meyer Lemon Curd
Honey Sweetened Meyer Lemon Jam
Classic Tomato Jam Sweetened With Honey

Thursday Night at the Free Library of Philadelphia

Dear Philly-based readers! I am going to be doing a presentation (in conversation with my wonderful editor Kristen Green Wiewora) at the Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia on Thursday night (that may well be tonight when you read this post). The talk starts at 7:30 pm and should be quite fun.

I’m really excited about this particular event, as all the truly wonderful authors who come through Philadelphia gives talks and readings from the exact same stage. I am delighted and humbled that the library event planners have seen fit to invite me to be part of their author series and I do hope some of you will come!

Related Posts:

Upcoming Events: Philly! Ambler! Bryn Mawr! Chestnut Hill!
Book Tour: Eugene, Seattle, San Francisco, and LA
Preserving by the Pint Typos

Giveaway: Handmade Gatherings by Ashley English

I have long been of the believe that when it comes to entertaining, people break down into just two groups. There are the dinner party people and potluck people. The dinner party folk like to have a certain amount of control over the menu and flow of the evening, whereas potluck people are fully content to put out a stack of plates and just see what happens.

However, with her new book, Handmade Gatherings, Ashley English offers up a middle way. With 16 seasonal gatherings, including recipes and crafts, these festive events give the dinner party people some structure while encouraging them to involve their guests in the process. For the potluck people among us, the book serves as encouragement to up the game ever so slightly.

Ashley opens the book with a little peek into her own entertaining history and then offers some insight about how to communicate with your guests, how to pick a location, and how to plan so that no one goes hungry (always have a back-up plan!). She also offers useful instruction on how to be a good guest, including a most helpful reminder to bring a serving utensil with your dish.

Because the parties are seasonally grounded, you’ll find things like egg-centric events, canning afternoons, ice cream socials, and even cookie swaps. The recipes, activities, and crafts are delicious, engaging, and fun (and manage never to cross the line into overly cutesy territory).

What I find so nice about this book is that it is written so that every reader can take what they need from it. Some folks will recreate Ashley’s parties down to the very last dish, while others will use it for the inspiration it has to offer. I do like an entertaining book that adapts to the reader.

Thanks to Ashley and the team at Roost Books, I have one copy of Handmade Gatherings to give away. Here’s how to enter!

Leave a comment on this post and share a tale of a favorite party or potluck
Comments will close at 11:59 pm eastern time on Saturday, July 12, 2014. Winners will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday, June 22, 2014
Giveaway open to United States residents only.
One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review and photography purposes. All opinions remain entirely my own. 

Related Posts:

Cookbooks: A Year of Pies
Homemade Living with Ashley English Winner
A Good Book For the Can Jam (or anytime!)

Upcoming Events: Philly! Ambler! Bryn Mawr! Chestnut Hill!

I got back to Philadelphia last Thursday and have since been trying to catch up with life. There has been a goodly amount of unpacking, doing laundry, grocery shopping, and catching up with friends, family, and my endlessly patient husband. I get to stick around Philadelphia for the next ten days or so and will be offering classes, demos, and book signings at a variety of spots around the region. Come out and tell your friends!

July 10

My editor Kristen Wiewora and I will be having a conversation about Preserving by the Pint at the Central branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia at 7:30 pm. The event is free and will be followed by a book signing. More details here.

July 12

In the morning, I’ll be at the Ambler Farmers Market from 9 am to 1 pm with books for sale and signature. I’ll also be demoing batches of honey sweetened stone fruit jam at 9:30 and 11:30 am.

From 2-4 pm, I’ll be at Main Point Books in Bryn Mawr with samples of jam and a pen, ready to sign copies of Preserving by the Pint.

July 13

You’ll find me at the Saucon Valley Farmers Market in Hellertown, PA from 10 am to 12 noon, doing a jam demo and selling/signing books.

July 14

I’ll teaching a demonstration class at the Plymouth Meeting Whole Foods Market from 6-8 pm. Come check out all my small batch tricks and have a taste of jam. Sign up by emailing Genevieve.Greco@wholefoods.com or calling 610-832-0010.

July 15

I’m teaming up with Weaver’s Way Co-op for another preserving class at the Chestnut Hill Friends Meetinghouse. The class is from 7-9 pm. Click here to sign up.

 July 16

I’ll be at the Devon Whole Foods Market from 2-5 pm, making a pair of recipes from Preserving by the Pint and signing books.

For the rest of my summer signings, classes, and demos, make sure to check out my events page.

Related Posts:

Upcoming Events: Philly! Brooklyn! Manhattan!
Upcoming Classes and Events: Brooklyn! Marple Township! Perkasie!
Book Tour: Eugene, Seattle, San Francisco, and LA

July Sponsors: Cuppow, Fillmore Container, MightyNest, Mrs. Wages, & Preserving Now

It’s the beginning of a new month and so it’s time to shine the spotlight on the companies and organizations that help make it possible for me to do what I do here on this site.

First up is jar accessory maker Cuppow! They are the creator of the original mason jar travel mug topper and, more recently, of the BNTO, a cup that fits into a wide mouth mason jar and transforms it into a lunch box. They also have a small stash of signed copies of Preserving by the Pint.

Next is our friends at Fillmore Container. They sell all manner of canning jars and lids, as well as a handful of books and jar accessories. They’re a family-owned business based in Lancaster, PA and they happily work with home canners and commercial producers alike. Visit their blog for lots of good canning tricks and tips.

Our friends at MightyNest are back for July as well. They are an amazing resource for non-toxic, natural, and organic products for homes and families and recently added my beloved 4th Burner Pot to their stock.

Mrs. Wages is also back for another month of canning goodness! I’ve written for them for the last three summers and this year, we’re teaming up for an official partnership. They make all sorts of pectins and canning mixes. Make sure to sign up for their newsletter for monthly installments of canning goodness.

Last, but certainly not least is Preserving Now! Operated by Lyn Deardorff, Preserving Now is both a website and school dedicated to helping people expand their canning and preserving skills. If you’re in the Atlanta area, make sure to check out her schedule of upcoming classes and events!

If you’d like to be a sponsor, there are lots of spots available, starting at just $75 a month.

Please visit my sponsorship page for more details!
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