Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

This is the Jam that friends of QD may recognize in their Christmas packages, unless it's already been eaten by our husbands!

The recipe is slightly adapted from The Complete Book of Year-Round Small-Batch Preserving. I grabbed all of the preserving books at my local branch of the library, and I particularly liked this one for it's approachability. The recipes have proved tasty, too.

The jam takes at least 32 hours, so plan ahead. The long resting times allow the pectin in the strawberries to develop without excessive cooking so the beautiful red color of the fruit is maintained.

4 cups halved or quartered (depending on size) firm strawberries
2 cups finely chopped red rhubarb
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup bottled lemon juice

1. Mix berries, rhubarb and sugar in a non-reactive (stainless steel or enamel) pot and let stand for 8 hours, stirring occasionally.

2. Bring fruit and sugar to a boil over medium heat. Add lemon juice and return to a boil without adjusting heat. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 24 hours.

3. Bring fruit mixture to a rapid boil over high heat and boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and test for gel formation. Continue boiling at 3-5 minute intervals until mixture forms a gel. **

4. Once the mixture forms a gel, process in sterilized jars in hot water.

Makes 2 to 3 pints.

** To test for gel formation, have a plate chilling in the freezer while you cook the jam. Remove the plate and place a spoonful of hot jam onto it. Return it to the freezer for 2 minutes. If the jam moves slowly across the plate when you tilt the plate to one side and/or wrinkles when you press your finger into the edge of the spoonful of jam, then the mixture has cooked enough.

Bully Barley

We're trying to introduce ourselves to more of the whole grains in this world. Last night we ate pearled barley. Later this week: spelt. So while Danidoodle and Jesse use these all the time, they are new over here at the house of meat and potatoes. The barley was a huge hit. Patrick even took the leftovers for lunch and asked me to write down what I did. So here it is. For the record. So that I can make it again. Yums.

Saute about 5-10 min:
1 med onion
2 sm heads of garlic (about 5-8 cloves)
2 Tbs butter

Add and stir:
2 Tbs curry
Cook about 5 min.

Add:
2 chopped apples
2-3 sausages (hot and Italian)
1 1/2 c pearled barley
3 c. chicken stock

Stir frequently and cook until liquid is absorbed.

Serves 4 with a little bit of leftovers.

Carrot Orzo

This carrot orzo from Epicurious.com is fantastic. Even Patrick liked it! And it can easily be gluten free.



yield: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

* 6 ounces peeled baby carrots (about 1 1/4 cups; from 16-ounce package)
* 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
* 1 cup orzo (rice-shaped pasta; about 8 ounces)
* 1 1/2 cups water
* 1 1/4 cups low-salt chicken broth
* 1 large garlic clove, minced
* 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* 2 tablespoons chopped green onions
* 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary

Preparation

Place carrots in processor. Using on/off turns, finely chop carrots. Melt butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add orzo and carrots; sauté until orzo is golden, about 5 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups water, broth, and garlic; cook uncovered over medium heat until all liquid is absorbed, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Stir in cheese, green onions, and rosemary. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Grandma's Home Brew Eggshell Fertilizer

Earlier one of our number shared a few ideas for solving quotidian problems. Laundry stains, if I remember right. I just thought of something my Grandma used to do. To make a 'fertilizer' for all her flowers (outdoors) she used to take all our egg shells and throw them in a gallon jug with the top cut off. Cover with water. Let them sit. Until they stink. A couple weeks?

This egg shell juice makes a great natural free fertilizer for all your flowers! (And I'm sure it'd be great for tomato plants, as well, as they tend to get blossom end rot when lacking certain nutrients.) I can't speak as to the 'why' it works, but can testify that it does.

Winter Soup Swap - Pumpkin Soup - GFDF

Pumpkin Soup - GFDF (Gluten Free Dairy Free)

3 large, yellow onions, chopped
4 Tablespoons butter or your favorite substitute
4 large Yukon gold potatoes cut into chunks
6 carrots cut into chunks
2 teaspoons salt (salt to taste)
2 Tablespoons Herbs de Province
4 minced cloves of garlic
1 (28 oz) can chopped tomatoes in juice - I used 5 medium tomatoes, chopped so as to fly under the PVR (Patrick's Vegetable Radar)
2 (26 oz) cartons chicken broth

1 cup half and half or cream (unless you're making the dairy free version)
¼ cup sherry
2 (15 oz) cans of pumpkin - (I used about 36 oz of pureed triamble pumpkin*)

Melt butter in soup pot. Add onions and garlic and sauté for 5-10 minutes. Add potatoes and carrots and sauté 10 minutes more. Add chicken stock, salt, herbs de province, & tomatoes and simmer until the vegetables are tender, approximately 30 minutes. Add the pumpkin and simmer until you're ready to eat!

Made: just over 5 quarts

Options from here:
Serve as is.

Stir in 1 cup of half and half to make a cream soup. The half and half shouldn’t be very cold when you add it. (This obviously makes the soup NON-dairy free.)

Serve soup as is and cream on the side.

If you would like you can puree the soup and add the cream and sherry at the end.

___

Brian got this recipe from a friend at work - and came home after trying it saying, "IT was really good - and I could eat it!" Poor multi-allergic hubby.

I think this will be my contribution to the soup swap this month - I'm feeling uninspired by my original carrot & ginger idea. *Plus, I have one beautiful triamble pumpkin from the garden that I would like to humbly share - in the hopes that the God of gardens and soup swaps would see fit to give me a more prolific garden next year.

My One and Only Triamble Pumpkin - 12 lb.
Alternatively entitled,
"The Ugliest (but supposedly yummiest) Little Pumpkin"

Winter Soup Swap - Apple and Pumpkin Soup

Some of us here at Quotidian Dignities have decided to try a winter soup swap. I don't know about you but I can't make one meals worth of soup to save my life. I'm always half way into the recipe only to realize my 8 qt pot is not big enough. So I transfer and start praying that the soup turns out good enough to either give away or eat for weeks.

Instead of fighting this mass feeding instinct, I decided to ask some friends to join me and then share what they make too much of. This way we each get different soups to eat all month rather than being forced to think of new ways to use the soup I made way too much of.

The recipe for my first soup swap is below. The recipe said it made enough for 4 servings but I thought it looked like a lot more than that. Since I needed 12 servings I decided to only double the recipe. I got 12 quarts. So unless you eat 6 c of soup as one serving, you can safely assume that one recipe makes way more than four servings! Count on being able to feed 12 with bread and salad or even more if you pour the soup over rice. I put mine in 1 qt canning jars and put the jars in the freezer to pull out if someone has a baby or if I have a house full of dinner guests. Or if I just don't feel like cooking.

APPLE AND PUMPKIN SOUP

Roast:
2 lg butternut squash, pumpkin or winter squash

Saute:
3 or 4 medium onions, coarsely diced
2 Tbs curry powder
4 Tbs olive oil (or 2 T butter and 2 T olive oil)

Add:
6 peeled, cored, and slice apples
1 qt chicken stock
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
peeled and cubed squash

Simmer till all is soft.
Puree in batches.

Add:
2 c fresh apple cider
1-2 qt chicken stock

Soup should be a little sweet and thick so add stock accordingly. Salt and pepper to taste. Its really yummy and not at all spicy. You could add a chipotle sauce when you serve it or diced jalapenos, etc. The recipe suggests serving with sour cream, diced apple, and toasted pecans. Which sounds great if I'm serving it to someone who cares about presentation.

This recipe makes about 6 quarts.