New Cookbook Review: The Food in Jars Kitchen

The Food in Jars Kitchen is a cookbook after my own heart: it uses little bits of food in clever, flexible ways and gives the home-canned pantry lots of work to do.  I've been keeping track over the years of what my family eats, so I've cut back on making jam because we don't go through much toast and jam.  Marisa is evangelical about people like me in her Introduction - there's so much more to do with jam than toast! She is giving me an "empty-jar-to-empty jar education."

When my copy came in the mail, I put my nose in it and my pencil to paper as I jotted down all the recipes I could make right away.  There are so many! I did make three before I wrote this post, and I will make all of them again.

Also, please note: I received this book free as a review copy, but my opinions and my decision to write a review are my own.

First, I made Popunders.  Isn't that the most adorable name? I made them one morning at breakfast time and while we did, indeed, spoon a little jam in their little hollows, I could also see a dab of cheese or pesto or a bit of anything that I would put on bread.  Popunders are super-fast to whip up, sugar-free, made with pantry staples and standard muffin pans, and just need 20 minutes in the oven, no-preheating needed.

 Even though Marisa recommends them hot from the oven, we found they made a perfectly fine snack at room temperature a few hours later.

For a family gathering, I made the Concord Grape Butter Pizza with Camembert.  Oh! that was delicious! When I make and can grape juice in the fall, I use the spent skins to make grape butter, so I've got plenty of grape butter on hand.

I followed Marisa's pizza crust recipe instead of using my standard favorite, and it was the perfect thickness and texture for its toppings as well as easy to make and handle.  Marisa also explains the ratio of sweet spread to cheese to green topping which is helpful to cooks who want to go off-recipe.  I used Brie instead of Camembert and chopped arugula instead of baby arugula.  So, so, so delicious. I will definitely be making this for future neighborhood potlucks.

Yesterday, I made Marisa's Jam-Lacquered Chicken Wings for supper (excellent name!). I buy whole chickens and when I cut them up to cook, I've been collecting the wings separately in the freezer.  I've never made wings before, just threw them into stock, but I was determined to try since Ben has requested wings several times. 

Marisa's recipe was very clear and produced excellent results.  I didn't know meat can literally cook under the broiler - I typically just use the broiler to brown something.  But the wings cooked under the broiler exactly as Marisa indicated.  To paint the wings, I finished up jars of fig jam and grape butter and added some tomato jam as well as enough runny pepper jam (from 2013! it was waiting for its destiny) to give them a nice kick.

Next time, I will salt the wings on both sides and also broil them on both sides to increase the caramelization.  I find it annoying to get my fingers so messy for such a little bit of  (ok, delicious) meat, but my family was loving these wings, so ok, I do love seeing my people enjoy their food. Too bad my fingers were too sticky to operate my camera!

There is really a lot more to love in this cookbook.  I'm going to use my onion jam in a Goat Cheese Savory Jam Tart, and I'm going to consider all the options for a jar of apple butter that I don't think we will spread on toast.  I appreciate Marisa's inclusion of some basic canning recipes in the final section because I have a deep yearning for Orange Marmalade Ice Cream and no marmalade in my pantry.

 I have two small quibbles with the book, both of which are typical of me and typical of most cookbooks being published (and probably not Marisa's decisions, either).  I prefer spiral bound cookbooks for kitchen use because it's tricky to get a stiff hardcover book to stay open while I cook. But good job keeping the recipes mostly on the same spread! It's also very tricky to turn pages between ingredient list and instructions while cooking.   I also prefer a very detailed index that includes major ingredients as entries so that I can look up recipes based on the ingredients they use, not just the recipe name or type.

I highly recommend the Food in Jars Kitchen cookbook.  It's beautiful to look at and full of recipes for daily cooking - from quick-the-kids-need-a-snack to the fancy-food potluck happening on the weekend. 

Breakfast Mushrooms

My family and I have parted ways over breakfast, and it's great! I had been still making breakfast for everyone every morning, a default mode left from the days when the big kids were too little to make their own.  They had started to grumble because different morning temperaments have different breakfast requirements, can I get an amen? 

It was one of these situations that happens often with growing kids where I forgot to step back and reevaluate the routine, and once I did, it seemed so obvious that we needed some tweaks! I still set Phoebe up with breakfast, but first and foremost, I please myself at breakfast time and provision everybody else.

Sometimes they want ideas, or I coax them to eat a perishable that needs to be used; sometimes I even make muffins or something and then they eat them . . . or not (I make sure the leftovers can be frozen so that food is not being wasted). The big kids and my husband really appreciate making their own choices, and I appreciate the break.

I'm on a savory breakfast kick, so I'm often making mushrooms. Simple, delicious mushrooms that make me feel like a hobbit at home eating breakfast (certainly not out on the lonesome, dangerous trail to destroy the ring - oh no, but at home in Bag End with the sun shining and the kettle humming).  

I chop a number of creminis, usually more than I think because they shrink as they fry, then I fry them in a little bacon grease over medium heat.  The trick to frying mushrooms is not to stir them too much at the beginning, but let them release their water and start to brown. 

I sprinkle them with some dried thyme, fresh pepper, and truffle salt.  I keep a small jar of truffle salt to really amplify mushroom flavor when mushrooms star in a recipe. 

When the mushrooms look nicely browned and the kitchen smells like a hobbit-hole, I turn the heat down to low and splash in a tablespoon or two of heavy cream as I stir.  The cream will sizzle and then disappear as it clings to the mushrooms. If you want creamed mushrooms, then sprinkle the mushrooms with a bit of flour before you add the cream, and add more cream to make a sauce that will thicken as you stir.  So so so so so good.  

How do you do breakfast at your house?

The Good Food Fight

"The processed food industry has transformed our food into a quasi-drug. . . What happened is that cheap, calorie-dense foods that are highly rewarding to your brain are now ubiquitous.  Once you've had a glass of orange juice, you are not likely to be as satisfied with a healthier and less caloric orange that you have to peel. . . Although it's far easier said than done, just limiting exposure to high-calorie foods and recreational drugs would naturally reset our brains to find pleasure in healthier foods and life without drugs."

from  "What Cookies and Meth Have in Common" by Richard Friedman in the June 30 New York Times

Here we have roasted feta on homemade whole wheat sourdough toast, sprinkled with thyme from the front porch pots with a side of delectable cantaloupe and black coffee.   I am definitely finding pleasure in this breakfast.

But I am finding it hard to limit my my family's exposure to high-calorie foods in the general mayhem and party that is summer. One example: kids' meals at a barbeque joint served with 16-oz. sodas, even for Phoebe.  Of course, I didn't let them drink the whole things, but it takes vigilance and education to help them understand that glittering bottle. Sometimes, I am just tired of trying, but then I read an inspiring quote like the one above and push away the processed food. Fight the good food fight, everybody!

Chewy Granola or Skillet Oatmeal

We eat a lot of oats at our house for breakfast, between baked oatmeal, muffins, and granola.  And now I have another iteration of oats for breakfast!  

This recipe is from Fountain Avenue Kitchen, where Ann also calls this "chewy granola" and "not-mushy oatmeal."  But since the "mushiness" of cooked oatmeal doesn't bother me, I ignored that name to call this "chew granola" or "skillet oatmeal."

I love how quick this recipe is, and like a granola, it is endlessly customizable.  The texture reminds me of baked oatmeal, but without the need of an oven and eggs. Furthermore, sometimes in the morning, I want a soft chewy thing to eat instead of the serious crunch of granola.  Granola is too crunchy for Phoebe, but she can eat this oatmeal and loves it.

I'm sorry I only have one strange photo of the skillet oatmeal; breakfast time is a blur around here.  That's traditional crunchy granola in the big jar and and the leftover skillet oatmeal in the small jar, just to give you an idea of its appearance. 

People are busy around here, let me tell you!  Their projects overtake them at any time of day.

Skillet Oatmeal - serves 4

Heat to steaming and set aside (I do this in the microwave):

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup milk

In large skillet, melt:

2 Tbsp. coconut oil or butter

Add and saute together, stirring frequently:

2 cups rolled oats

1-2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. coconut, optional

Cook and stir until the oats are toasted and the sugar is starting to caramelize, a few minutes.  Pour the hot milk/water over the oats mixture and stand back - it will steam intensely.  Stir.  Cover pan and reduce heat to low for a few minutes until oats have absorbed the liquid.

Serve hot or room temperature with a dollop of yogurt, fruit, toasted nuts, etc.  Keeps in the fridge and reheats nicely in the microwave.

Notes:  

1.I use my 14" shallow pan for this recipe because as Ann explains, you want the liquid to barely cover the bottom of the pan and moisten the oats.

2. Quick oats would turn to mush in this recipe!

3. Ann uses just water for the liquid, but I like the creaminess of the milk and the protein match between milk and grain.

A Simple Peach Tartine

I would have called this "cheese toast with peaches" but the internets have informed me that this is called a "tartine."  I like that fancy word!

A slice of homemade sourdough bread, a slice of sweet sharp Dubliner, toasted together.  Then I put some sweet luscious peach slices over top.  Just wonderful.  Peaches are typically paired with a very mild cheese like ricotta, but I think they are assertive enough to partner the nutty cheddar.  This was a quick bite before I left for a bridal shower one evening, and it's been repeated as breakfast several times.

The Week in Breakfasts (5.23.16)

Monday:
two kinds of muffins from the freezer
fruit salad

We had been away all day Sunday, so I needed something super easy.  The fruit salad was a last-minute quickie to use up some odds and ends of home-canned pears, banana, orange, and defrosted blueberries.  I had bought a boatload of oranges for Ben's soccer game which was canceled due to rain.

Tuesday:
cheesy bacon toasts
sliced oranges

I love these toasts because they are so simple and savory. I probably make them once a week since Jennifer put them on my radar.

Wednesday:
defrosted pancakes + peanut butter + syrup
bananas or pears

Sometimes I have a pancake or two left from Saturday breakfast.  I stash them in a bag in the freezer, and when enough have accumulated, I heat them up in the oven in a covered casserole for breakfast.  My kids are confused because it's not Saturday, which cracks me up.

Thursday:
eggs scrambled with spinach and cheese
sliced oranges
toast

I love the flavors of a spinach omelet, but my method is a quick hack for school mornings.  Put some washed spinach leaves in oil in a skillet.  Just when they are starting to wilt, stir, and then crack in some eggs.  Break up the eggs as you stir them around a bit, but I don't disturb them too much because I'm rooting around in the cheese drawer and making toast and waking up children.  Toss in some small chunks of cheese.  Gently give a flip or a stir, but I don't do any vigorous scrambling.  Remove from heat as soon as there are no runny bits left and before it browns.

Friday:
avocado on toast - some of us had pepper jam, too
sliced oranges

Experimenting with Yeast-Raised Coffee Cakes

I mentioned that I was trying these coffee cakes back in the blizzard, but I have no notes and only one photo to show for it. 

The day before breakfast, I make a sweet yeast dough and let it rise once.  Then I spread it or roll it up for a 9x13 pan with some kind of fruity or nut stuff.  It hangs out in the fridge overnight, I bake it the next morning, and sometimes drizzle something over it.  

I love the texture of yeasted baked goods for breakfast over traditional coffee cakes made with baking powder or soda which can seem like eating cake for breakfast.  Too sweet for me!  

These are the combinations (to the best of my faulty memory) I have tried so far:

apple pie filling in the middle with cheddar cheese over top

blueberry/ginger pie filling with lime drizzle on top

raisins and toasted walnuts

Moravian sugar cake - butter, cinnamon and sugar on top

a caramel one from Marion Cunningham's breakfast book

home-canned maraschino cherries (mushy), thickened, with cream cheese drizzle on top

blueberry with lime drizzle

I promise to buckle down and post a real recipe for these coffee cakes.  Just hard to take notes and photos at breakfast around here!

Currant Caraway Scones for Breakfast

Well, good grief.  We have been so sick at our house!  Everyone, I'm sorry to say, and even as I type this, the baby has a stuffy nose and Ben has a sore throat and fever.  But that is manageable compared to the stomach flu that went round and round for two weeks, starting when my husband went down with the real-deal influenza.

So you can understand why I've been so silent here, just keeping up with the dailies which included lots of laundry and lots of special diets for the sickies.

I do have a backlog of photos, so let's see if I can kick out more posts soon (oh, and my laptop died and now I have a new one, so I had to struggle through that thicket, too).

Let's start with simple and quick:  these are "currant" (raisin) scones with caraway seed, split open with slices of mellow pear and nutty-sweet Irish cheddar (Dubliner), drizzled with honey.  Can I get an amen?  Yes, a wonderful breakfast with thanks to Martha Stewart for the idea.

Snapshots from a Modern Blizzard

Plenty of time to sew new boots for Phoebe.  I felted a thrift store sweater vest, and this time I added some calico toes and rick rack. 

Genevieve deeply desired to make snow candy.  I sicced her on her father.

 He would like it put on the record that he got up off the sofa, out of a nap, to indulge her.

There's a sidewalk under there.  The city imposed a travel ban which made for even deeper silence and peace.

 I am messing around with yeasted coffee cakes currently.  This has a strawberry filling and a cream cheese drizzle.

 Oh look, our very own chocolate covered strawberry!

 And whoops, this is the result of the snow candy the morning after.  It all melted.  Wonder if the snow will. . .

Potato Breakfast Pizza with Shortcuts

I got the flavor profile from Good and Cheap, but the shortcuts are all mine.  I love a savory breakfast, and this one has satisfying carbs, no challenging flavors for the sensitive early-morning palate, and a bit of protein from the cheese.

The day before I want this pizza for breakfast, I get out the baking sheet I use for pizza.  I slice a large potato thinly and a large onion - toss them gently with a little oil or bacon grease (not too much because I want them to get dry and roasted), some salt and pepper.  I spread the potato and onion over the pan and since this is going to be the pizza pan, I can see the amount of topping I am making. I like a single layer of potatoes and onions.  Pop the pan of veggies into a hot oven to roast - maybe in tandem with another oven project? and mix up a half-batch of pizza dough.

When the potatoes and onions are tender and brown in spots, let it cool on the counter.  Cover it.  Now you are ready for the morning.

I do not refrigerate the potatoes and onions because I'm not worried about anything happening to them and I don't want to make another dish dirty (or make space in the fridge for the big pan).

In the morning, turn the oven to preheat to 500.  Slide the potatoes and onions off the baking sheet, sprinkle it with cornmeal, and stretch/pat the dough onto the sheet.  Shingle the potatoes and onions on the dough, slice some cheese (I used Swiss here, but I would also use an aged cheddar or fresh mozzarella) and put it on sparingly.  Bake the pizza at 500 for 12-15 minutes.

Perfect served with a side of applesauce and a deep cup of black coffee.

Apple Pie Biscuits

This is a lovely autumn breakfast when the mornings are cool and you crave doughy apple-y things.  I followed Joy the Baker's method, but I used angel biscuit dough that I had in the fridge already and I didn't bother with the eggwash/sugar/cinnamon on top.  The apple pie filling took literally 5 minutes to make because there's only one apple to peel and dice. 

I didn't cut the biscuits as small as she did, and then, later when the house was quiet, I poured some butterscotch sauce over the last one and that was amazing.  

I do adore that butterscotch .  We poured some over wacky cake last evening with raspberries from our friends' garden.  A delicious way to say good-bye to the raspberries now that the apples are here.

Eating Humble Crepe

A while ago, I blogged about how I did not see the point of crepes.  I may have offended some of my bloggy friends with my opinionated posts - oh dear, and I'm sorry to Jennifer and Jane.

Then, one of my friends (she of the amazing  Mocha Drops) brought us a container of spinach crepe batter to help out after Phoebe was born.  My friend said her family starts out with savory fillings (tomato/mozzarella/basil, sauteed mushrooms/cheese) and then move to sweet ones like Nutella and berries.  My family fell instantly, deeply in love with crepes.  Everyone took turns making them.

  I know one of the reasons I did not like my first try at crepes was that we didn't just throw some fillings in and eat them out of hand.  Instead, I followed the directions to make crepes, make a filling, and then bake them.  It was just too much work for me.

Now, we sort of stand around the pan and make and eat crepes and drink coffee and jiggle the baby all in one fell swoop.

Since summer is now too hot to find spinach at market, I've been making these excellent buckwheat crepes.  One morning, I made a creamy stuff to go with the berries based on the pie filling of this recipe:  I beat some cream cheese and sugar together, then added heavy cream and whipped it to soft peaks.  Divine.  My personal favorite filling is leftover sauteed greens with some ragged shreds of cheese.

Buckwheat Crepes, adapated from David Lebovitz

Whisk together or beat in a blender:
2 cups whole milk
1/4 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. neutral oil
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. buckwheat flour
3/4 cup whole wheat all-purpose flour
3 eggs

Refrigerate batter overnight.  In morning, allow batter to sit out at room temperature for 1 hour if you have time.  Then, whip briefly again and occasionally during the frying session as the flour will settle on the bottom.  Fry in 1/4 cupfuls, tipped and swirled into a thin disc, in a 12" skillet, greasing occasionally by wiping with a paper towel dipped in shortening or butter.

Check Lebovitz' recipe for helpful cooking instructions - I do use my fingers to flip them as he suggests! I use my well-seasoned cast-iron skillet.

Also, note that all-purpose flour is a blend of hard and soft wheat flours, so you can use half regular (hard) wheat flour and half pastry (soft) wheat flour. Or use white all-purpose flour.

Tweaking Two of My Standard Recipes

I do like to mess around with recipes, even my standard recipes I've made for years.  It's one of the perks of my job as a cookbook editor to get ideas from other peoples' recipes and then there's Pinterest, where I collect recipes that I'm curious about (and I do have a board, Recipe Verdicts, where I make notes on my results).

In this case, I was thinking of other ways to flavor sticky buns, which I usually make caramel pecan. I decided to see if I could bring in the flavors of cardamom balls, sort of a baklava-type profile.

I used my standard sweet roll dough and method (recipe in this post).  When the dough was rolled into a rectangle, I spread it with 3 Tbsp. softened butter.  I sprinkled on 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, 1 cup finely chopped walnuts, and 1 1/4 tsp. ground cardamom mixed with 1/3 cup brown sugar.  I rolled up the dough and sliced it into rounds.  I placed the rounds in a pan that was buttered with 2 Tbsp. butter with 1/3 cup honey drizzled evenly over it.  I followed the baking method for the recipe I linked to above.

Genevieve was very impressed that I was making up a recipe - she thinks this recipe could make me famous, bless her heart.  She was worried that I wasn't writing it down as I went along, so she got a paper and pencil and recorded the measurements and ingredients as I went along (I wasn't really measuring - I was guessing for the sake of her efforts).

Her book at breakfast, however, was much more fascinating than the buns.

Delicious!  I might try adding a sesame presence next time - either toasted sesame seeds in the dough, or perhaps some tahini spread inside the buns with the other goodies.

Then I took Jennifer's raves about Ruth Reichl's cherry pie to heart.  I made my standard sour cherry pie, but I used Ruth Reichl's fabulous crumb topping instead of the traditional pie crumbs I use.  Amazing!  I think I will be trying Ruth Reichl's crumbs on some other fruit pies as well.