Marisa McClellan's Blog, page 62

Opinel Bread and Jam Set Giveaway

Years ago, I picked up a little folding Opinel knife at some long-forgotten kitchenwares store. I bought it on a whim (driven by a romantic vision of lazy summer picnics), but unlike many spur-of-the-moment buys, this little knife has proved its worth many times over.

In reality, that knife hasn’t been on a great number of leisurely picnics. Instead, it’s been in the food bag for nearly every daytrip and road trip we’ve taken over the five or so years. It has been pressed into service in underequipped kitchens, has helped divvy sandwiches at rest stops, and has played a role in many an impromptu foraging expedition.

So, when the nice PR rep for Opinel got in touch a couple months ago to ask if I might like to try some of their other products, I sent off a hasty yes. We settled on a little trio of useful tools to feature here. For the last month or so, I’ve been using their sturdy bread knife, a sweet little spreading knife, and a quick, super sharp peeler.

Much like the folding knife that has been such a workhorse, the knife, spreader, and peeler are simple, well-made, and incredibly useful tools. Paired with a jar of jam, the spreader or the butter knife would make a really nice shower or hostess gift.

Thanks to the nice folks at Opinel, I have a the blue-handled set of bread knife, spreader, and peeler to give away to one lucky Food in Jars reader. Here’s how to enter.

Leave a comment on this post and tell me about your favorite impulse buy.
Comments will close at 11:59 pm eastern time on Saturday, June 25, 2016. Winners will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday, June 26, 2016.
Giveaway open to United States and Canadian residents. Void where prohibited.
One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.

Disclosure: Opinel sent me the tools you see pictured above for photography and review purposes, and has also providing the giveaway units. The tools were provided at no cost to me. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. 

Related Posts:

Giveaway: Canning Ladle and Paring Knives from Villagers
Cherry Swag Bag Giveaway from Northwest Cherries
Giveaway: Mrs. Wages Perfect Pickle Sampler

Upcoming Events: Omega Institute! Cornwall Public Library! Valley Variety!

Happy summer, friends! I hope you all had good weekends, bursting with good food and father’s day celebrations. I’m dropping in this morning with a quick reminder of some of my upcoming events. I head to the Hudson Valley on Friday morning and I’ll be in the area through the holiday weekend for a family wedding. As is my habit, I’m combining vacation with a workshop, a library event, and a hands-on class.

Tuesday, June 21 (Maywood, NJ)

I’m headed up to the Maywood Public Library in Maywood, NJ for a free canning demo and book signing. I’ll be making a small batch of Strawberry Cocoa Jam and will answer all your burning canning questions. The demo starts at 7 pm and will last about an hour. Books will be available for sale and signing.

Friday, June 24 through Sunday, June 26 (Rhinebeck, NY)

This is my weekend-long canning workshop at the Omega Institute. We’ll make 10-12 preserves and will dive deep into the minutia of food preservation. There are actually a few spots still available in the workshop and we welcome last-minute registrations. Details and registration information here.

Tuesday, June 28 (Cornwall, NY)

I’ll be at the Cornwall Public Library in Cornwall, NY for a canning demo and book signing. The demo starts at 6:30 pm and the program will last about an hour. Afterwards, I’ll have copies of all three of my books available for sale and, as always, I’ll be delighted to sign them.

Wednesday, June 29 (Hudson, NY)

Two years ago I taught a workshop at Valley Variety in Hudson, and I liked it so much that we’re doing it again! This time, we’ll be making two recipes from Naturally Sweet Food in Jars (Vanilla Peach Jam and Tomato Chutney) and digging in the details of preserving with natural sweeteners. I’m also bringing an assortment of preserves from my pantry, that shop owner Chuck will pair with cheese and wine. The class is from 6:30 – 8:30 pm and costs $50 per person. Register here.

For my complete calendar, click here. 

Related Posts:

Upcoming Classes: Mullica Hill and Chestnut Hill
Last Call for Food Preservation Workshop at the Omega Institute
Jam & Tea at Valley Forge Flowers with WHYY

Cookbook Fair at Headhouse Square Farmers Market

Quick note, Philly-area friends! This Sunday, June 19, I will be at the Headhouse Square Farmers Market from 10 am until 2 pm with a few other local cookbook authors for a small book fair.

The other authors scheduled to appear are Amanda Feifer (Ferment Your Vegetables), Jax Peters Lowell (The Gluten-Free Revolution), and Michael Solomonov (Zahav). Jill Ross from The Cookbook Stall at Reading Terminal Market will be on hand to sell books. Come out and say hi!

Related Posts:

Recipe Reminder: Chive Blossom Vinegar
Herbs in Jars
Kale and Carrot Salad

Cherry Swag Bag Giveaway from Northwest Cherries

Earlier this week, I got a box containing a little over 10 pounds of sweet, ripe Northwest Cherries from Washington State. I look forward to this shipment every summer and each time it arrives, I can’t quite believe my good fortune. After all, cherries are among the most precious of the summer fruit.

These cherries come to me as part of my participation in the Canbassador program. It’s an awareness campaign that the folks from Northwest Cherries and the Washington State Fruit Commission run in order to shine a spotlight on their beautiful stonefruit!

This is my seventh year participating in their Canbassador program (wrap your mind around that one!) and over that time, I’ve developed a whole bunch of recipes featuring their fruit.

Honey Sweetened Roasted Nectarine Compote (2015)
Spiced Nectarine Jam (2015)
Sweet Cherry Rhubarb Jam (2015)
Cherry Kompot (2015)
Sweet Cherry Chutney (2015)
Slow Cooker Peach Vanilla Butter (2014)
Low Sugar Spiced Peach Jam (2014)
Lazy Peach Preserves (2013)
Honey-Sweetened Peach Chutney (2013)
Oven-Roasted Nectarine Butter (2012)
Luisa Weiss’s Spiced Plum Butter (2012)
Italian Plum Jam with Star Anise (2011)
Honey-Sweetened Apricot Lavender Butter (2011)
Apricot-Blackberry Jam (2010)
Pickled Sweet Cherries (2010)

Next week, I’ll start posting my 2016 recipes, but before we get to those, I have some fun news. This year, I’m not the only one who is going to get a box of delicious cherries. One of my lovely readers is also going to get a shipment of delicious Northwest Cherries, along with a swag bag that will contain a cherry branded water bottle and Oxo cherry pitter.

This cherry swag bag giveaway has a tight turnaround because we’ve got to pick a winner before the season ends (and cherries come and go quite quickly)! Use the Rafflecopter widget below and make sure to tell your friends.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Related Posts:

Honey-Sweetened Roasted Nectarine Compote
Spiced Nectarine Jam
Sweet Cherry Rhubarb Jam

Low Sugar Apricot Strawberry Jam

This sweet, tangy, and bright apricot strawberry jam is the perfect marriage of early season stonefruit and juicy berries. Try it stirred into yogurt or as a glaze for roast chicken.

Several weeks ago, before the local season for either apricots or strawberries started, I found myself wandering through Reading Terminal Market. I was there to pick up a few things for a recipe development gig, and had no intention of buying out-of-season fruit that had traveled great distances.

I was walking with purpose towards the herbs, when the sight of a pile of tiny, brightly hued apricots stopped me mid-step and I was suddenly powerless to resist them. Before I knew what I was doing, I had a plastic bag in my hand and I was filling it with perfect fruit. With the bag nestled into my basket, I went a few more steps before I was again stopped by a display of incredibly fragrant strawberries. They joined the apricots. This is the not the first time I’ve fallen sway to fruit.

Once home, I snacked on the fruit a bit (both to get a sense of their state of sweet and tart, and because it all smelled so good) and then weighed out what remained. I worked up a recipe ratio in my head and got to the work of pitted, hulling, and chopping.

In the end, I used 2 1/2 pounds of apricots and 1 1/2 pounds of strawberries. Using a ratio of four parts fruit to one part sugar, I measured out 2 cups of sugar, which is approximately 1 pound. I settled the fruit into my Kilner jam pan, added most of the sugar, gave it a good stir, and then let it sit for several hours, so that the sugar could dissolve and help draw the juice from the fruit. Later, I added some lemon juice to help balance the flavors, and used Pomona’s Pectin to get it to set up.

Once cooked, I had exactly five half pints of really delicious, that starts with the flavor of apricots and finishes with the strawberry. I typically keep a box of recently made jams and preserves next to my front door, so that I can easily grab things to share with friends and neighbors. However, this is one that I’ve actively kept out of the box, because I want to keep it all for myself. It’s just that good.

PrintLow Sugar Apricot Strawberry Jam

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds apricots, pitted and chopped
1 1/2 pounds strawberries, hulled and chopped
2 cups sugar, divided
1 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon calcium water
1 tablespoon Pomona's Pectin powder

Instructions

Combine the chopped apricots and strawberries in a large, wide non-reactive pan. Add 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar and stir to combine. Let the fruit sit and get juicy for at least an hour.
When you're ready to cook, prepare a canning pot and 5 half pints.
Add the lemon juice and calcium water to the pot. Stir vigorously to combine.
Set the pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium high and cook until the apricot slices come apart, the berries break down, and the liquid thickens.
Whisk the pectin powder into the reserved sugar. Add the pectin-spiked sugar to the cooking fruit in two or three batches, stirring to integrate between each addition.
Cook for an additional minute or two, until you see visible signs of thickening.
Remove the jam from the heat and funnel it into prepared jars. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/06/low-sugar-apricot-strawberry-jam/

Related Posts:

Low Sugar Blackberry Rhubarb Jam
Maple Bourbon Apple Butter + OXO On Illuminating Digital Immersion Blender
Low Sugar Pear Cranberry Jam

Cookbooks: The Modern Preserver

These days, it takes a lot for a canning book to delight me. After all, I’ve spent the better part of the last decade totally immersed in jamming, pickling, and preserving. I sometimes even begin to think that perhaps I’ve seen every trick and flavor combination there is. And then a book like The Modern Preserver drops out of the sky and into my mailbox, and I am delighted.

Written by Kylee Newton, an artisan jam maker from New Zealand and now based in London, The Modern Preserver offers up a familiar and fresh array of jams, pickles, compotes, jellies, cordials, and more. The design is clean, the photography is gorgeous, and the voice of the book is reliable and charming.

The book opens with a short introduction that details Kylee’s background, and then offers a bit of information about her ethos as a preserver. From there, she talks about the rules of preserving. Do know that this section is far briefer than it would be in an American book. I’ll dig a little more into that in a moment.

Following the intro, we dig into the recipes. The first section contains Relishes, Chutneys, and Sauces. Next up is Pickles, Fermentations, and Vinegars; followed by Jams, Jellies, and Compotes; and Curds, Candies, and Fruit Cheeses. Bringing up the rear of the book are the Syrups, Cordials, and Alcohol.

I have bookmarked a goodly number of recipes in this book, and every time I open it, I find something else that I’d like to make, or at the very least, use as inspiration for a related preserve (Blackberry Relish! How had I never thought to make that!)

My only quibble with this book is that there’s no acknowledgement that best practices for preserving vary depending on where you are in the world. Here in the US, it’s standard practice that we use jars designed for canning (not recycled jars from store-bought preserves). We use two pieces lids and we make sure that the flat lids are new each time we can. And finally, we run everything we make through a boiling water bath. None of this is in the book (I’m a little bit surprised that the US publisher didn’t make them at least add an appendix referencing the different standards).

All that said, I will still be preserving from this book. I’m just going to make sure that I bring along my food science knowledge and general understanding of canning. Everything will be packed into appropriate jars and will get a trip through the canning pot (to determine timing, I’ll reference recipes with similar ingredients and densities).

Now, with all that off my chest, let’s have a giveaway! The kind folks at The Countryman Press have given me one copy of this gorgeous book to give away. Here’s how to enter!

Leave a comment on this post tell me about a recipe source that’s been serving as inspiration for you lately.
Comments will close at 11:59 pm eastern time on Saturday, June 18, 2016. A winner will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday, June 19, 2016.
Giveaway open to United States and Canadian residents. Void where prohibited.
One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.

Disclosure: The Countryman Press sent me the copy you see pictured above for photography and review purposes, and is also providing the giveaway unit. Both are being provided at no cost to me. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. 

Related Posts:

Cookbooks: Saving the Season
Cookbooks: Fine Preserving, Salt Sugar Smoke, and Whole Larder Love
Cookbooks: Put ’em Up Fruit + Giveaway

Links: Rhubarb, Blueberries, and a Winner

Last week’s trip to Chicago was so terrific. I did seven events in six days, caught up with friends, helped raise money for the Ferrer Foundation, and met so many of you lovely folks. I got home on Saturday morning, and have spent the last 36 hours doing laundry, catching up with work, and spending time with my husband (he’s such a good sport about my frequent travels). Now, links!

Rhubarb syrup with sweet woodruff.
Rhubarb raspberry sauce.
Lavender ginger pickled blueberries.
Habanero mango pickled zucchini.
Purple lilac simple syrup.
Five mistakes to avoid when making strawberry jam (with tips from me!).
Garlicky yogurt with golden beets and dill.
Homemade coconut/dairy yogurt.

The winner of last week’s Mrs. Wages giveaway is #161/Lily Walbridge.

Related Posts:

Links: Poached Tomatoes, Spicy Beans, and a Winner
Links: Cherries, Pickles, and a Winner
Links: Strawberries, Rhubarb, and Winners

Hear Me Each Week on Local Mouthful

Did you know that I make a podcast called Local Mouthful? Each week, my friend and co-host Joy Manning and I sit down at my dining room table or hers, and spend half an hour talking about a wildly broad range of food topics (including things like cookbooks, favorite seasonal ingredients, how to reclaim your kitchen routine, homemade pizza, and much more).

Part of what makes Local Mouthful unique is the fact that Joy and I have known one another for a very long time. We met back in 2003, when we worked together at a non-profit in the Philadelphia. We were both lowly assistants and ended up bonding over our shared misery. I left the job, we lost touch for awhile, and when we reconnected, we’d both stumbled into food writing jobs. We’ve been friends ever since.

Each episode of Local Mouthful is about half an hour long. You can listen directly on the website, or you can subscribe via iTunes or whichever other podcast app you most enjoy. It’s great company for walks, commutes, or any time you want some cheerful voices with you while you make dinner. Hopefully you’ll check it out!

Related Posts:

Local Mouthful’s 25th Episode
Updates from the West Coast Book Tour
Upcoming Events: Greensgrow! Local Mouthful Potluck!

Blackberry Lavender Jam on Freshly Preserved Ideas

This summer, I’m teaming up with the folks at Ball Canning (much like I did last year) to help spread the word about the many pleasures of home canning AND their annual International Can-It-Forward Day. You’ll be hearing lots more about the various CIFD events and the fun new tools they’ve made available online this summer over the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled.

To kick off this year’s partnership, I’ve got a recipe for you. I’ve actually developed a series of recipes that will live on the new Tumblr from our Ball Canning friends, called Freshly Preserving Ideas. The first of those recipes, Blackberry Lavender Jam, went live today.

This jam contains a medium amount of sugar, has a mellow hint of lavender, and is just the right balance of sweet and tart. If blackberries are already in season where you live, I encourage you to make this one immediately. And if you’ve still got some time to go, bookmark it for the moment they arrive.

Related Posts:

Can-It-Forward Demo Videos Now Available on FreshPreserving.com + Home Depot Gift Card Giveaway
International Can-It-Forward Day Saturday, August 1
Giveaway: Round Collection Elite Jam Jars (sponsored by Fillmore Container)

Free Canning Class at the Easton Public Market

Attention Lehigh Valley area readers! I need your help! This Monday, June 13, I am going to be recording a canning video in the demo kitchen at the Easton Public Market. At 3 pm that day, we want to film a canning class in action, and for that, we need a live audience.

We need 5-8 people who are willing to hang out for an hour, watch as I demonstrate how to make jam, and who are okay with the possibility of briefly being on camera (the hour we film will probably get edited down to just a couple of minutes). In return for your help, I will bring an assortment of preserves and send each participant home with a jar of something delicious.

If you’re able to come and join us on Monday, use the form below to sign up. Thank you!

Loading…

Related Posts:

Last Call for Food Preservation Workshop at the Omega Institute
Upcoming Events: Easton, Hanover Township, Franklin Township, & Chicago!
Linvilla Canning Demo on for Sunday, September 25