From the category archives:

Preserves

Pink Grapefruit Curd with Honey

by Laura 14 April 2012
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This pink grapefruit curd is buttery and silky and pleasantly piquant with a strong note of honey. Eat it smeared on toast, biscuits, or scones; stirred into plain yogurt or oatmeal or porridge; rolled up in a jellyroll or between cake layers; or piped into plain cookies. Share This: Recommend on FacebookShare on PinterestShare with [...]

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Five-minute Cranberry Schmutz

by Laura 14 December 2011
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Alongside a Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey or smeared on sandwiches, this five-minute, four-ingredient cranberry schmutz is a little tart, a little sweet, and exactly perfect.  I’m putting a little on a pumpkin muffin for breakfast, too.  If there were ever a reason to stop sliding that factory cranberry sludge out of a can, this is [...]

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Lemon Balm Syrup

by Laura 2 July 2011
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It’s my birthday today, so I’ll be brief.  I’ve got celebrating to do!  I made this lemon balm syrup the other day with a summer tipple in mind (recipe soon), but I think it would nice in iced tea or brushed onto cake layers, too.  Lemon balm is a member of the mint family and [...]

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Strawberry Lemon Verbena Refrigerator Jam with Candied Lemon Slices

by Laura 1 July 2011
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Yesterday morning I went out to the hen house in my pajamas at six o’clock in the morning to open the door to the coop. Instead of the usual parade, Beatrice emerged first. She needs a minute or two, thank you very much, to sort out this whole business. When you’re second to last to [...]

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One-pot Rhubarb Cordial, Sauce, & Compote

by Laura 24 May 2011
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I really should have posted this as the three-in-one it is in the first place.  So here it is, in all its glorious simplicity.  You start with a three and a half pound bouquet of rhubarb.  Once you have it diced, 15 minutes of cooking yields three cups cordial, three cups compote, and two cups [...]

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Rhubarb Cordial

by Laura 19 May 2011
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Definitions for cordials seem rather contradictory.  Dictionary dot com defines one as “a strong, sweetened, aromatic alcoholic liquor or liqueur;” others describe a sweet, nonalcoholic fruit concentrate.  My favorite definition comes from Merriam Webster: “tending to revive, cheer or invigorate,” and is associated with cordial waters.  It seems the most fitting for this rhubarb cordial.  [...]

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Ten-minute Rhubarb Vanilla Conserve

by Laura 12 May 2011
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Thirteen years ago, during the first spring in our house, I discovered that you could make a simple rhubarb conserve in less than ten minutes.  We’ve come to call it a refrigerator preserve, since there isn’t a high heat canning process involved, and the springtime jars vanish from our refrigerator so quickly it would be [...]

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Pearl Muffins & Winter Citrus Jelly

by Laura 12 March 2011
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I picked up my Honey Girl this morning from an early flight from Boston.  She is my pearl, my sunshine, my joy.  So it seemed fitting to make these pearl muffins and some shiny-wiggly, glowy-jiggly winter citrus jelly for her welcome-home breakfast.  I took the syrup I boiled down yesterday from the candied winter citrus [...]

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Quince Paste

by Laura 11 December 2010
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I went to a fancy grocery store this week in search of liquid pectin and kumquats thinking, They have everything, right?  I struck out, but I certainly had fun.  This kind of shopping is my own personal kid-in-a-candy-store experience: every kind of European butter, clotted cream, an olive bar the size of a swimming pool, [...]

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Pickled and Candied Brown Turkey Figs

by Laura 13 October 2010
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This summer I was treated to a storybook week in Santa Fe: beautiful meals, four delicious operas, and charming company.  It was my first time in the city, and I was overwhelmed by the quality of the light, the vastness of the sky, and the lavender mountains at sunset.  It was an unexpectedly beautiful place, [...]

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