Marisa McClellan's Blog, page 59
August 1, 2016
August Sponsors: Cuppow, Fillmore Container, Mrs. Wages, Orchard Road, Punk Domestics, and Mason Jar Lifestyle
Welcome August! It’s the beginning of the month, which means it’s time to thank the companies that help make Food in Jars possible! Tell them you appreciate their support of my work with a purchase or a social follow!
Back in the top spot are our friends at Cuppow. They are the creator of the original mason jar travel mug topper and the BNTO, a small plastic cup that transforms a canning jar into a snack or lunch box. Parents and kids love their EIO set, with its grippy silicone sleeve and a lid that makes for easy sipping.
Lancaster, PA-based and family-owned Fillmore Container are next! They sell all manner of canning jars, lids, and other preservation gear (and recently, they added Mrs. Wages products to their line-up). This month, they’ve teamed up with Countryside Magazine to offer four weeks of canning-centric giveaways, so make sure to enter! I have two blog posts and giveaways featuring their products coming up this month, so stay tuned!
Our friends at Mrs. Wages are on the roster again this month. They make pectin, vinegar, and more canning mixes than I can count. Their website is an incredible preserving resource and I can’t say enough good things about their salsa mix. If you need a little help getting your produce into jars, remember to seek out their products!
Orchard Road makes mason jars, lids, and rings for home canners. Their jars are sold in packs of six and come in sturdy boxes that can be used for storage. Orchard Road’s physical distribution is limited, but their online store is open for business, so you can now order them straight from the source.
Looking for a culinary travel adventure? Don’t miss the Italian tours that Sean Timberlake from Punk Domestics leads. He’s currently booking a trip for the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. It takes place October 6-12 and is not to be missed!
Mason Jar Lifestyle is a one-stop shopping site for all the jar lovers out there. They sell all manner of mason jar accessories and adaptors. If you’re in the market for lids, straws, and cozies to transform your mason jars into travel mugs, make sure to check them out!
If your company or small business is interested in becoming a sponsor, you can find more details here. I offer discounts for multiple month purchases and am always happy to work with your budget. Leave a comment on this post or drop me a note to learn more!
Related Posts:
July Sponsors: Cuppow, Fillmore Container, Knives Ship Free, Mrs. Wages, and more!
June Sponsors: Cuppow, EcoJarz, Fillmore Container, Mrs. Wages, Mason Jar Lifestyle
August Sponsors: Cuppow, iLids, Mason Jar reCAP, Fillmore Container, and More!
August Sponsors: Cuppow, Fillmore Container, Mrs. Wages, Punk Domestics, and Mason Jar Lifestyle
Welcome August! It’s the beginning of the month, which means it’s time to thank the companies that help make Food in Jars possible! Tell them you appreciate their support of my work with a purchase or a social follow!
Back in the top spot are our friends at Cuppow. They are the creator of the original mason jar travel mug topper and the BNTO, a small plastic cup that transforms a canning jar into a snack or lunch box. Parents and kids love their EIO set, with its grippy silicone sleeve and a lid that makes for easy sipping.
Lancaster, PA-based and family-owned Fillmore Container are next! They sell all manner of canning jars, lids, and other preservation gear. Their blog has been in high gear for the canning season, with lots of recipes and round-ups to help you find your next preserving project. I have two blog posts and giveaways featuring their products coming up this month, so stay tuned!
Our friends at Mrs. Wages are on the roster again this month. They make pectin, vinegar, and more canning mixes than I can count. Their website is an incredible preserving resource and I can’t say enough good things about their salsa mix. If you need a little help getting your produce into jars, remember to seek out their products!
Looking for a culinary travel adventure? Don’t miss the Italian tours that Sean Timberlake from Punk Domestics leads. He’s currently booking a trip for the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. It takes place October 6-12 and is not to be missed!
Mason Jar Lifestyle is a one-stop shopping site for all the jar lovers out there. They sell all manner of mason jar accessories and adaptors. If you’re in the market for lids, straws, and cozies to transform your mason jars into travel mugs, make sure to check them out!
If your company or small business is interested in becoming a sponsor, you can find more details here. I offer discounts for multiple month purchases and am always happy to work with your budget. Leave a comment on this post or drop me a note to learn more!
Related Posts:
July Sponsors: Cuppow, Fillmore Container, Knives Ship Free, Mrs. Wages, and more!
November Sponsors: Cuppow, Fillmore Container, Fermentools, Mrs. Wages, Hobby Hill Farm, & Mason Jar Lifestyle
June Sponsors: Cuppow, EcoJarz, Fillmore Container, Mrs. Wages, Mason Jar Lifestyle
July 31, 2016
Links: Pickled Fruit, Lavender, and Winners
I feel like I type some configuration of these words every year, but I can’t quite believe how quickly this summer is flying by. How is tomorrow August? Rather than wax poetic about the passage of time, I’m just going to dig into these links.
Cherry tomato confit.
Pickled ginger peaches.
And eight more ways to pickle fruit.
Homemade maraschino cherries.
Peach, blueberry, and lemon verbena jam.
Tips on preserving with lavender.
Low sugar bread and butter pickles.
DIY root beer syrup.
Useful info on preserving vegetables.
As soon as the weather cools a little, I’m going to try this sourdough recipe.
No recipes in this link, just photos of a gloriously jar-filled kitchen.
Now time for some winners (and I’m a giveaway behind0. First up, the winner of the Mrs. Wages tomato basket from two weeks ago is #120/Joy. The winners of last week’s The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving and the stainless steel rings from Mason Jar Lifestyle are #117/Maria C., #238/Anita E., and #316/Kristal.
Related Posts:
Links: Poached Tomatoes, Spicy Beans, and a Winner
Links: Rhubarb, Blueberries, and a Winner
Links: Canning Myths, Co-ops, and a Winner
July 29, 2016
Food Swap Cookbook Philadelphia Events
Friends! Next week, Chicago-based food writer and cookbook author Emily Paster is coming to Philadelphia to promote her new book, Food Swap!. She’ll be making an appearance at our summer food swap on August 3 at the Awbury Arboretum (there are still spots available and you can register here) and will be teaching a class at Cook at 2 pm on Saturday, August 6.
Together, the two of us will be at the Headhouse Square Farmers Market on Sunday, August 7 from 10 am to 2 pm. We’ll both be sampling treats from our books and will have copies on hand for sale and signature.
Oh, and if you’re looking for me this weekend, I’ll be demoing small batches of honey-sweetened stonefruit jam at the Callowhill Whole Foods Market on Saturday, July 30 from 12 noon to 4 pm!
Related Posts:
No Links and a Whole Foods Market Gift Card Winner
Deal Alert: Sweet Cherries on Sale Tomorrow at Whole Foods Market
Upcoming Classes and Events: Glen Mills! Syracuse! Perkasie! Troy, NY! Chicago!
July 28, 2016
Simple Apricot Jam Recipe
This simple apricot jam is made with just fruit and sugar. The recipe is calculated using a three to one ratio, so it can easily be scaled up or down, depending on how many apricots you have to start.
This is the first summer in nearly six years that I’m not working on a cookbook. While this scares me a little bit (I like knowing that I have the next project locked down), it also feels totally liberating. Because it means that I am free to make whatever I want. What’s more, everything I make can eventually make it to the blog. I don’t have to hold anything back.
A couple weeks ago, I got about 22 pounds of apricot seconds from a local grower. If I was producing for a book, those apricots would have been earmarked for particular projects. I would have needed to have made interesting flavor combinations. What’s more, I would have been timing every aspect of the cooking process, to be sure that I could accurately represent the process in writing.
Instead, I made three large batches of plain, unadulterated, totally simple apricot jam. Just apricots and sugar, measured by weight, macerated overnight, and cooked down into slightly runny, intensely tart, vividly orange jam.
Because, my friends, as much as I like apricot butter, apricot jam spiked with rosemary or thyme, and apricot chutney, this very simple apricot jam is one of my favorite things on the planet. And because I was canning only to please myself, that is what I made.
My whole sensory self was engaged as the jam cooks. I watched the bubbles, felt the fruit thickening as I stirred. The fragrance of cooking sugar rode up with the steam and the sound of the boil became more frenzied as the process neared completion.
This is not canning that easily fits into a book. It doesn’t bring anything new or novel to the table. It is, in fact, how people have been making jam for a very long time. But it brings me joy. It’s artful, creative jam making.
A note on working with seconds. Normally, when calculating recipes by weight, I measure out the fruit before I pit and quarter it, figuring that the loss will be minimal. However, when I’m working with seconds that require more trimming and culling than unmarred fruit, I wait until after I’m done with the prep work to weigh the fruit and calculate how much sugar to use. It’s this second approach that you’ll see reflected in the recipe below.
PrintBasic Apricot Jam
Ingredients
6 pounds pitted, trimmed, and roughly diced apricots2 pounds sugar
Instructions
Combine the apricots with the sugar and let them macerate for at least an hour (overnight is even better).When you're ready to cook, prepare a boiling water bath canner and enough jars to hold around 5 pints of product (I use a combination of quarter, half and full pints for my jam).
Pour the macerated fruit into a low, wide, non-reactive pan and set it over high heat.
Bring the fruit to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally at the start of cooking, and nearly constantly towards the end.
The cooking process will take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the width of your pan, the water content in the fruit, and the heat output of your stove.
You're looking for the jam to get glossy, for thick layers to form on the walls of the pan, and for the jam to sheet nicely off your spoon or spatula. When it does all that, it will be done.
When the jam is thick enough for you, remove the pan from the heat and funnel the jam into your prepared jars.
Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes. When the time is up, remove the jars from the canner and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool. When the jars are cool enough to handle, test the seals. Sealed jars are shelf stable for a year or more. Unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly.
Notes
As you can see from this recipe, it uses a ratio of three parts fruit to one part sugar. You can easily scale the size of this recipe up or down depending on how much fruit you have. Once your fruit is prepped, put a bowl on your scale. Zero out the weight and weigh the fruit. Divide the weight by three and add that amount of sugar. Done!
3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/07/simple-apricot-jam-recipe/Related Posts:
Preserves in Action: Peanut Butter and Spicy Apricot Jam
Honey Sweetened Apricot Thyme Jam at Simple Bites
A Giant Potato Pancake for Eat, Write, Retreat’s Amazing Apps Culinary Challenge
July 25, 2016
Giveaway: The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving + Mason Jar Lifestyle
Friends, I had such a good time participating in International Can-It-Forward Day last week! Many thanks to all of you who took the time to tune in to ask questions, leave comments, and otherwise engage with my demo (if you missed it, you can see the video here).
This week, I’m hoping to keep all that good #CanItForward energy alive with fabulous giveaway. I have three copies of The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving to give away. This wonderful book came out back in May and is such an amazing addition to our collective canning libraries.
The book features reasonably sized recipes across the food preservation spectrum. It digs into water bath canning, fermentation, pressure canning, freezing, dehydrating, curing, and smoking. Additionally, there is a liberal sprinkling of recipes designed to help you use up what you’ve put up. Oh, and did I mention all the gorgeous, full-color pictures? It’s truly a lovely book.
In addition to giving away three copies of this book, our friends at Mason Jar Lifestyle also want to help continue the #CanItForward love and so are adding to the goodness. They’ve offered to kick in a set of regular and wide mouth stainless steel mason jar rings for each of the three winners. These rings are great for mason jar fermentation set-ups because they don’t rust.
Want to enter the giveaway? Here’s how to do it.
Leave a comment on this post and tell me what your favorite food preservation method is these days. Are you fermenting more often than you’re pulling out your water bath canner?
Comments will close at 11:59 pm on Saturday, July 30, 2016. The winner will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday, July 31, 2016.
Giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents (and is void where prohibited).
One comment per person, please.
PS – Fellow #CanItForward presenter Malia Karlinsky had a bit of trouble with her livestream and so a lot of people missed it. If you want to see her demo as it should have been, watch it here.
Disclosure: I am a compensated Ball Canning ambassador. However, this blog post is outside our partnership. I’m simply featuring this book because I think my readers will be interested. Additionally, Mason Jar Lifestyle is a Food in Jars sponsor. As always, all opinions remain entirely my own.
Related Posts:
Giveaway: Mason Jar Lifestyle Mother’s Day Coffee Gift Set
Giveaway: Round Collection Elite Jam Jars (sponsored by Fillmore Container)
Giveaway: Mason Jar Lifestyle Gift Cards
July 22, 2016
Spicy Heirloom Tomato Chutney for International Can-It-Forward Day
Friends! The big day is finally here! It’s International Can-It-Forward Day (#canitforward)! All day today, there will be live demos on the Ball Canning Facebook page from chefs, bloggers, and home cooks. At 2 pm eastern time, I’ll be streaming live from my dining room, showing you how to make my Spicy Heirloom Tomato Chutney.
Today, I’ll be making this chutney with an assortment of small tomatoes, because that’s what’s currently in season in Philadelphia. As we get further into tomato season, I’ll make it with larger slicers and meaty paste tomatoes. It’s a great recipe to have in your resource file towards the end of the season, when you just need a handy way to deal with an abundant harvest!
You can get the recipe over on Freshly Preserved Ideas, the Ball Canning Tumblr page.
And don’t forget. Today isn’t just about live demonstrations. There’s also a charity component to the day’s events. For every like, share, reaction and comment on the Can-It-Forward Day Facebook Live videos on July 22, Ball Canning will donate $1 to the following local charities (up to $1000 per charity):
Southside Middle School Panther Pantry (Muncie, Indiana) selected by Jarden Home Brands
The Food Trust (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) selected by Marisa McClellan (that’s me!)
EnrichLA (Los Angeles, California) selected by Linda Ly, Garden Betty
Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee (Nashville, Tennessee) selected by Angie Holden, The Country Chic Cottage
Food Lifeline (Seattle, Washington) selected by Malia Karlinsky, Yesterday on Tuesday
I chose The Food Trust because they are a Philadelphia-based organization that works to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, nutritious food and the information necessary to make healthy decisions. I have personally seen the positive impact they’ve had on Philadelphia in the years I’ve lived here and I’m really delighted to be able to help support them!
Let the fun being!
Disclosure: I am a paid ambassador for Jarden Home Brands’ Ball Canning brand. However, all thoughts and opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Related Posts:
International Can-It-Forward Day Charity and Participation Pledge
Can-It-Forward Demo Videos Now Available on FreshPreserving.com + Home Depot Gift Card Giveaway
Gingery Pickled Blueberries for International Can-It-Forward Day
July 21, 2016
Red Currant Jelly
Tart, sweet, and gorgeously ruby-hued, this red currant jelly is the perfect way to make the most of a relatively small amount of currants.
Over the years, I’ve canned nearly everything there is to be canned. I’ve done every stripe of stonefruit, all the common berries, and have pickled nearly everything I could. The list of things I’d not worked with was relatively short. However, there were a few notable things that had thus far avoided my jam pan. Chief among them, currants.
It wasn’t that I was disinterested in currants. The issue was simply that they were either impossible to find or cost-prohibitive when I did come across a small display. And so they remained on firmly on the list of things I wanted to experience but just hadn’t gotten to yet.
Happily, Ben Wenk of Three Springs Fruit Farm has started growing an array of hard-to-find fruits, including gooseberries and currents in multiple colors. A couple weeks ago, he cut me a deal on a mixed flat of currants so that I could finally see what all the fuss was about.
I brought them home and promptly consulted Pam Corbin’s The River Cottage Preserves Handbook (like I mentioned in my gooseberry jam post, she is my first stop any time I’m working with unfamiliar fruit that is common in the UK). I followed her instructions for simmering the fruit in water until soft.
Somewhere in my apartment, I have a jelly bag and draining rig, but I could not put my hands on it the day I started this jelly. I used a nut milk bag to separate the pulp from the juice and it worked nicely.
I also flouted the advice* in the book and squeezed the heck of out of the currant solids, trying to wrest out every last bit of juice (I only started with a little less than two pounds of red currants, so I wanted to get as much from them as was possible). I wound up with three cups of juice, when all was done.
Once you’ve extracted the juice, the work of making the red currant jelly is quick. Currants are quick pectin-rich, so all they need is sugar and a few minutes of boiling and they’re ready to set into jelly. I used Pam’s ratio of 1 cup of juice to 1 cup of sugar. While I normally opt for lower sugar preserves, currants are so tart and tannic, that in this case, the sugar doesn’t feel at all overwhelming.
Following Pam’s instructions, I brought the juice to a boil first and then added the sugar. Once combined, I noticed signs of setting within five minutes. The temperature was a gel-friendly 221F and the droplets hanging off the spatula were thing and viscous. In the end, I had four half pints of glowing, gorgeously red jelly.
*Both Pam and conventional wisdom says that if you squeeze the bag, you’ll end up with cloudy jelly. I don’t particularly care if my jelly isn’t perfectly clear, so I pressed and squeezed that bag. I got an additional 1/2 cup of juice for my efforts, so it was well worth it.
PrintRed Currant Jelly
Ingredients
3 cups red currant juice3 cups granulated sugar
Instructions
Prepare a boiling water bath and four half pint jars.Pour the currant juice into a low, wide, non-reactive pot and bring to a boil. Once it begins to roll, stir in the sugar.
Boil for 5-8 minutes, until the jelly begins to set. Once it passes a set test, remove it from the heat.
Funnel into prepared jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.
Notes
To make red currant juice, simmer fruit with water for 45 to 50 minutes. Use 1 cup of water for every pound of fruit. Pour liquid and pulp into a jelly bag and strain overnight. Ignore instructions to avoid squeezing the bag and give it good, solid press. That juice is precious!
3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/07/red-currant-jelly/Related Posts:
Tiny Batch Gooseberry Jam
Three Springs Fruit Farm + Food in Jars
July 19, 2016
Homemade Chickpea Flatbread
These homemade chickpea flatbread rounds are gluten-free, low carb, and high in protein. They’re also easy to make and quite delicious.
On Saturday, my cousin hosted a family gathering. It was a lovely evening with a generous spread of food. When it was all over, Scott and I had a large grocery bag full of leftovers to bring home. After two nights of salads topped with cold cuts, marinated vegetables, and cubes of cheese, we needed a change. And so I made chickpea flatbread.
Faced with a fridge full of sandwich makings, most people would just reach for a loaf of bread. However, we’ve been trying to cut back on carbs late. This homemade chickpea flatbread, while not without some carbs, is a really great, high protein alternative to regular sandwich bread.
For those of you familiar with socca (and in fact, I adapted my version from the socca recipe in Clotilde Dusolier‘s The French Market Cookbook), this recipe will seem familiar to you. It’s a simple batter made of chickpea flour, water, salt, cumin, and a little olive oil. However, instead of pour a large amount of batter into a skillet and transferring it to the oven to cook they way you do when you make socca, I treat it like crepe batter.
I heat a large cast iron skillet, grease it with a little refined coconut oil (it’s the highest smoke point oil I regularly keep around), and the pour a large serving spoon’s worth of batter into the pan. I use the back of the spoon to spread it out as thin as I can make it. They cook on the first side for two or three minutes, and then another minute or two on the reverse. A flexible fish spatula is my favorite tool for flipping.
I find that it’s a lot like making pancakes. The first one sticks and looks terrible, but as you get a feel for the pan and that day’s batter, they get easier. The end result are thin, flexible flatbread rounds that you can use for sandwiches or as a bread to dip in soup.
Tonight, Scott made himself a pair of deli meat wraps, while I stuffed mine with roasted eggplant dip and an assortment of veggies. They’re satisfying and delicious, particularly if you haven’t had a good loaf of sourdough in a while.
PrintChickpea Flatbread
Yield: makes between 8 and 10 flatbread rounds, depending on how big you make them and how thinly you spread the batter
Ingredients
2 2/3 cups chickpea flour2 cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cumin
refined coconut oil or some other high smoke point oil for cooking
Instructions
Combine all the ingredients in a blender container and blend until combined (when I don't want to get the blender dirty, I combine the ingredients in a 4 cup measuring cup and use an immersion blender to get a smooth, even textured batter). Let the batter rest for at least half an hour before cooking.Once the batter has rested, heat a 10 inch cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Once it's hot, brush the pan with the coconut oil and apply the first spoonful of batter, using the back to smooth it out into an even round that is between four and five inches in diameter.
Cook for two to three minutes on the first side. You know it's ready to flip when the bubbles that appear around the edges pop and stay open. The uncooked side will also go from looking shiny to taking on a matte finish.
Scoot a flexible spatula around the edges of the bread to loosen it from the pan and flip (the first couple always tear for me).
Brush the pan with a touch more oil and repeat the process until you've used all the batter.
They are best eaten immediately, but you can also keep them in a ziptop bag in the fridge and refresh them in a toaster oven the next day. 3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/07/homemade-chickpea-flatbread/
Related Posts:
Maple Sweetened Banana Oat Cake
Hachiya Persimmon Oatcakes
Weddings, Winners and Chocolate Cake
July 18, 2016
A Mrs. Wages Tomato Mix Giveaway
I look forward to tomato season all year. Because I don’t have a garden, it always starts for me when the hot house tomatoes appear at my local farmers market. Then, there comes a trickle of small tomatoes like sungold and cherry tomatoes. And then finally, the torrent. Tables heaped with heirlooms, slicers, and sturdy paste tomatoes.
Because I know that tomato season is fleeting, I make a point of canning at least 100 pounds of tomatoes each season (and sometimes more!). I can them whole, make puree, and cook pans of tomatoes down into thick, flavorful pastes. I also like to employ a little help and so occasionally turn to a package of Mrs. Wages salsa or pasta sauce. Made from spices, dehydrated herbs, citric acid, and salt, these packets are such a time saver.
So this week, I’m giving away a whole assortment of Mrs. Wages Tomato Mixes. The basket will contain an assortment of mixes, including pizza sauce, classic salsa, Bloody Mary, ketchup, and much more. If you’re interested in a chance to win this giant package of tomato canning goodness, here’s what you do.
Leave a comment on this post and tell me about your favorite way to preserve tomatoes. Are you a whole peeled person? Or perhaps all your tomatoes are dedicated to batches of tomato jam. There is no wrong answer.
Comments will close at 11:59 pm on Saturday, July 23, 2016. The winner will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday, July 24, 2016.
Giveaway is open to US residents only (and is void where prohibited).
One comment per person, please.
Mrs. Wages regularly sends out newsletters and posts useful canning info on Facebook, so make sure subscribe and like to stay in the know.
Disclosure: Mrs. Wages is a Food in Jars sponsor of this site. However, all opinions expressed are my own.
Related Posts:
Giveaway: Mrs. Wages Perfect Pickle Sampler
Links: Poached Tomatoes, Spicy Beans, and a Winner
Giveaway: Mrs. Wages Tomato Basket
