Yes I CAN!

That title is irresistibly lame, by the way.

Despite my job as a research scientist, my graduate degree and the fact that I self-identify as a liberal feminist, I truly long to be a 1920’s housewife.  And I do not say that disparagingly because I know that life was hard back then…harder than I can probably imagine.  So I kind of want to be a 1920’s housewife, but with cable, the internet, a car and of course my KitchenAid Mixer and my Cuisinart food processor.  I say all of this because I am going through another domestic diva phase of wanting to make all of our food from scratch.  Maybe its the economy or perhaps its all of the recent processed food contamination issues.  Whatever it is, I just feel like I’m saving money and protecting our health more if I make food from the rawest ingredients that my time will allow.  No, this doesn’t include milling my own flour or growing my own produce (yet), so call me a hypocrite if you’d like.

For a while now, starting when I lived in Tucson, I have been making the effort to freeze semi-prepared (pureed) food like roasted eggplant or roasted butternut squash so that I can buy produce when it is cheap and in-season and enjoy the flavor of it all year in easy soups.  Well, freezing is good but its applications are somewhat limited.  This brings me to my next foray in food preservation – canning.  I chose to use my birthday money on canning supplies.  Super dorky, but to me its the beginning of a fun hobby, and the possibilities are almost endless.  Fresh salsa from farmers market produce, jams, marmalade, pickles, dessert spreads, condiments, tomatoes, fruit…this list goes on and on.  Unfortunately I am starting this during the Winter months when produce is not at its finest, so I’m working with what I can (no pun intended).  For my first adventure in canning, I made orange marmalade and pickled garlic.

Orange Marmalade and Pickled Garlic

Aside from the endless peeling, the garlic was quite quick and easy.  Plus, the pickling really takes the hot bite out of the garlic, leaving a subtle, briney flavor.  Its yummy and healthy, although maybe not so good for my breath!  The orange marmalade was a bit more difficult to deal with.  I followed Alton Brown’s recipe and was missing one key piece of equipment – a candy thermometer.  Never in my life, despite all the cooking I do, have I felt the need to purchase a candy thermometer…until now.   The recipe calls for the mixture to reach a very specific 222-223F.  I had to guess-timate on this.  That was a bad idea.  What I ended up with in my preserved bottles is tasty and nice-looking, but quite runny.  Not really suitable for use as a “spread” on toast.  What it will be good for is a maranade for chicken or fish as well as a dessert topping or mix-in.  I’ll use it up somehow!  Anyway, its a cheap experiment, probably only about $5 for all the supplies for 11 bottles of the stuff!

The product of a hard day's work.

I’ve also been using our slow cooker a whole lot lately.  I got a new cookbook for it that has wonderful so far.  I’m 3 for 3 so far on delicious recipes from the book.   If you are looking for a way to make a cheap cut of meat into a mouth-watering meal, its only 8 hours away in your crock pot!  And by the way, I would post more photos of my successfully made meals, except I rarely think about photographing them until I am half-way through eating.  I’ll do my best to improve upon this, but no promises.