Thanksgiving Goodness

 Hey, remember the best fig jam of my life?  

I decided it would be perfect for sharing as a Thanksgiving appetizer.

Homemade treats taste better when you share, anyway.

Why not serve with sweet cheese and little baguette slices?

Jazzed up the cream cheese with tons of orange zest, a splash of OJ, 1 Tbsp sugar, & top secret ingredient 1-2 Tbsp Cointreau (do not skip this--it really makes it taste like orange!)

Success! 

I am so thankful for everyone and everything in my life.

A sweet holiday to all.

xoxo

I wanna jam it wid you.

You know it's going to be a good Sunday when you go out for coffee and come back reaping the neighborhood bounty.  

So, what to do with a bucketful of local apples 

...and neighborhood Kadota figs?

Vanilla-cinnamon apple sauce and this awesome golden fig jam.  I used port in place of brandy and tangerines for the lemon.  

Spectacular.

Um, also, this makes the third type of jam in my freezer.  I'm out of control at this point.

Jam sampled here with chevre and whole grain ciabatta.  

Can't wait to try with a super sharp white cheddar!

Now, to tackle these glorious cherry tomatoes from my cousin's backyard

...who's hungry?

Wanderlust: Germany 2012

Come, follow me through Germany.  

You're in for a pleasant surprise.

Because I found a country where the locals were eager to hear I was having a good time.  Where German moms offer bowls of white asparagus and dumpling soup on summer evenings, then sweet butter on brown bread with pumpkin seeds in the morning.

I found a place where each town boasts their own special blend of beer and sausage,

where you can lose yourself in apple orchards,

old-world streets,

or wooded footpaths

wheat fields,

or night festivals.

Come, wander with me the back roads of Bavaria,



retrace the footsteps of the resistance movement in Munich,



find beauty in the strangest places,

construction in Berlin

or ride the ultra-modern U-Bahn all night long.

Why visit Germany?  Because this is a place ripped straight from daydreams:
Lake Constance,

the famed Neuschwanstein castle,

secret cafés in Berlin,

and Munich's Viktualienmarkt

(my daydreams often involve markets)...

(You know I fully shlepped a bottle of this vinegar flavored with local honey back to California.  And it is delicious!)

I let everything go in an Alpine lake,

and awoke with the sun on my skin and an overwhelming sense of calm,
of quiet, of stillness.

Why visit Germany?  Because this is a place where you must remember to never forget,

Ina guides me through Berlin's Holocaust memorial, as people appear and disappear amongst the concrete pillars


Where you must remember that free thinking does not come for free,

and that with democracy comes great responsibility.

the Reichstag, Berlin

Because these lessons go beyond Germany or America, beyond the consciousness of the individual.  Because we must continue to look towards the future, aligning ourselves with the global community, with greater humanity.  Because it is the right thing to do.

East Side Gallery, site of former Berlin Wall

Because truly understanding people can be complicated.  Because people are complicated.

Because, despite our differences, we must rely on human connection, kinship, on empathy and understanding.  Life is too short to do otherwise. 

and this great world is much smaller than it seems.  

Jahre Deutschland, 

Vielen Dank für Alles!

Fridge Pickles

Confession: I was born without a sweet tooth.  Since I was a kid, I have always preferred salty to sweet.  And as my romance with beer continues, so does my need for salty snacks: for roasted peanuts, hunks of parmesan, jars of fancy olives, and, of course, you already know my obsession with popcorn.  But summer brings barbecue season and mountains of farmer's market cucumbers, which means it's time to make pickles.

Pickles bring out the old country in me.  The shtetl in me.  The hot summers by the Danube in me.  (Never mind that any pickles I ate were dished out in the suburbs).  Maybe I am somehow channeling the kitchens of my past, but I do know this: when there are pickles on the table, I cannot stop eating them.  And nothing, I tell you, nothing makes a burger taste so right as housemade pickles.  Maybe it's that the spicy vinegar cuts the grease?  Or maybe it's because we always like what mom served, and my mom always served pickles.

Want to make pickles like my mom?  Let's do it!

Fill a clean jar or container about 3/4 of the way full of veggies.  Cucumbers can be sliced and go right in the jar.  Onions too.  If you are pickling other vegetables (my other jar is filled with radishes, carrots, and peppers), they should be blanched in boiling water for a minute, then plunged into ice water before you put them up for pickling.

Next, for one jar of pickles, combine 1 cup white vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp kosher salt, 1 tsp dill seed, 2 bay leaves, 5 cloves, 1 clove of garlic, slices of onion, crushed black pepper, and crushed pepper flakes if you like things spicy (which I do).  Liquid should cover your solids--if not, top off with more white vinegar.  Repeat for the next jar, and so on.

Close the lid tight and shake it up so the sugar will dissolve a little and hard spices will distribute throughout.  This beautiful jar in the front is cucumber done with fresh jalapeno slices--yum!  You could easily play around with the flavors, like substituting star anise for the dill.  Go wild.  

As the name implies, put your fridge pickles in the refrigerator, not on a pantry shelf.  Cucumber pickles will be ready to eat in a day and keep in the fridge up to a month.  Other veggies may take up to a week to pickle--just an excuse for you to open the jar and sample to see if they're done.

I mean, it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

Seeing red

Strawberry season is here and I cannot control myself.

Look at me, sipping a kir royale adorned with strawberry slices at 3:00 in the afternoon for no reason whatsoever.

     
   

Oh, wait, there is a reason - summer vacation!

I wait for the once-a-year red berry madness and then gorge out of my mind.  I've been putting them in everything, including a spinach salad with Indian-spiced walnuts and plum vinaigrette that I made for a dinner party, and also in some fabulous mixed-berry buttermilk scones that were devoured before I could photograph them.

Um, yes please.

So of course I had to make strawberry jam, this time with a little help from my cousins Matt and Madhuri.

           

Tried a different recipe than the usual freezer jam, adding some lemon zest and a splash of creme de casis, just for kicks.  I highly recommend this recipe.  Check it out:

Naturally, there was also homemade strawberry ice cream.
I mean, it seemed like the thing to do.

Wish I could figure out how they do the strawberry balsamic ice cream at Bi Rite, but this was good too!
Whew, earned our treat!