Linda Ly's Blog, page 19

Feijoa-Pear Chutney (and a Master Recipe for Making Any Chutney)

Every fall, a casual stroll through our garden proves to be quite precarious. Why?

Because the ground looks like this.

Dozens of feijoas lay scattered across the mulch, dropping from our two-story-tall feijoa tree with a plop so loud, I sometimes hear them from inside the house. Most of the time, they drop because they’re ripe and ready, as feijoas tend to do — but occasionally we find a few with nibbles on the ends, the castoffs of squirrels enjoying a little snack.

It’s not uncommon to...

Five Things Friday

The five little things that made my week…

1. I love a well-organized seed bin! Currently down to 190 seed varieties after sorting and tossing the older packets. (Click here for my guide on figuring out the shelf life of your seeds.)

2. Fall harvest of feijoas (from this week, anyway!) that’s making the house smell deliciously good. It’s a soft, sweet floral scent that just stops you in your tracks. I’ve managed to can or give away three-quarters of that fruit so far, and the rest will be fr...

So Long, Summer: A Recap

As I sit down to write for the first time in weeks, the political noise on social media is taking a backseat to more important matters. An entire summer of pictures are downloaded and sorted, the first round of edits are back in my project manager’s hands, and my book cover is finalized. The house is clean, the baby is sleeping, and I’ve even squeezed in some long-overdue garden chores. (This picture, by the way, is an overgrown beet that had been sitting in soil for over a year!) In spite o...

Sriracha Stem Pickles on Freshly Preserved Ideas

Those of you who’ve cooked from The CSA Cookbook know that I love to use the odds and ends of vegetables in my recipes — in part because I try to waste as little as possible in the kitchen, and because these “scraps” are vegetables in their own right, full of flavor and texture.

Chard stems are one such scrap that’s sometimes discarded or composted when recipes only call for the tender leaves. The stems, however, have a mild flavor that plays well with other ingredients and a pleasant crispn...

Chipotle Tomato Jam on Freshly Preserved Ideas

Hello, friends. We are deep in the dog days of summer, and despite the heat wave that I hear is also happening all over the country, this is one of my favorite times of year. The ocean is warm, the backyard barbecue/pool party game is strong, and the summer vegetable garden is at its peak.

This is when the tomatoes are at their juiciest, sweetest, and richest, and a late summer harvest means there’s sometimes more than I can eat in a week. For those times, there’s tomato jam.

I’ve always bee...

Fiesta Peppers for International Can-It-Forward Day

Hello friends! Happy Can-It-Forward Day! In partnership with Ball Canning, I’ll be celebrating and sharing the simple joys of home preserving with fellow canners, gardeners, and food lovers today — live, on-air, at 3 pm ET!

Tune in to Facebook Live on the Ball Canning page, where you can watch me demo a refrigerator pickle recipe inspired by the Mexican taquerías in my neighborhood.

These Fiesta Peppers have just the right amount of crispness, tang, and heat to punch up your favorite Tex-Mex...

Four Months, Four Thoughts

(Gemma at one day old.)

I feel like I just wrote this post, yet here I am with a post about my four-month-old. Four months old! Officially out of the “fourth trimester,” out of newborn stage, and onto greater things like grabbing, rolling, and bouncing.

When other parents say it goes by in the blink of an eye, they aren’t kidding. I recently put away the last of her newborn clothes and could not believe how tiny she used to be. I’ve made my husband promise that we won’t utter the words “I ca...

Five Things Friday

The five little things that made my week…

1. Vintage Ball jars that I scored in Orderville, Utah, in a random antiques store a couple weeks ago. I adore the blue color and am so happy Ball brought it back with this year’s Collection Elite Color Series. As one of their ambassadors, I’ve been working with this great brand all summer to promote the simple pleasures of whole food and home canning. They recently released a survey about gardeners and how they plant, preserve, and prepare their har...

Watch Me on Facebook Live on International Can-It-Forward Day!

As an official ambassador for Ball Canning, I’ve been developing a series of preserving recipes for the brand this summer. (Did you miss them? Click over to my first two recipes, Quick Pickled Roasted Beets and Balsamic Strawberry Jam.)

And, I have another one coming to you next week in conjunction with a very special event. On Friday, July 22, 2016, Ball will be hosting its sixth annual International Can-It-Forward Day, a celebration to share— or pay forward— the joys of canning and bring t...

If You Like Good Food in the Great Outdoors…

I recently returned from a road trip around the Southwest and the Rockies, two weeks spent visiting family in Nevada, staying in an Earthship in New Mexico, attending a wedding in Colorado, and touring national parks in Utah. It was part pleasure, part work. (Though when your work is pleasure, it makes a photographically gorgeous trip like that so sublime.)

Along the way, we camped and cooked in a variety of kitchens both indoors and out, built crackling fires beside high alpine lakes, and s...