Chive flower blossom vinegar

I came home from work this evening knowing that I would be enveloped in raspberries for the better part of the night. Tonight I had raspberry jam making on the agenda.

But before I got down to business, I popped out into the garden to check on something that I have been checking on every evening for the past week. My chives! When-oh-when are those babies going to blossom? Each night I pop my head out the door anxious to see if the flowers will have opened, because I have plans for those babies. I love chives. I could put them in almost anything. Great in a salad, great in salsa, great in chili...you get the picture.

I made tarragon vinegar a couple of months ago and I just can't get enough of it. Flavoured vinegars are amazing and so versatile, so I started to think about what chive blossom vinegar would be like and in my mind, it sounded GREAT!

Flavoured vinegars are so easy, so if like me, you have noticed that your chive blossoms are about to open up their beautiful little blooms and you are wondering what you could do with them, you have come to the right place cause I am about to tell you.

Like me, you wait until those babies have bloomed and the flowers have opened. Then you cut them all off, put them in a big bowl of cold water and give them a good rinse. You are not the only one that has been waiting anxiously for these flowers to open. Numerous insects have been waiting to enjoy them as well and we don't need any protein in our flavoured vinegar. So give them a good rinse. Use a salad spinner if you want to be extra thorough.

Then get your jar, which you will have previously sanitized and stuff the flowers inside it. 1/2 or 3/4 full is what I always aim for. Then depending on your budget you can do one of two things. 1) you can fill that jar full of regular old white vinegar or 2) you can fill the jar full of white wine vinegar. I usually opt for white wine but you can do either.

Then cover that jar with 2 layers of saran wrap and let it sit for at least 2 weeks in a cool dark place. Give the jar a swirl every couple of days. 2 weeks later, strain the liquid, discard the flowers and put your vinegar into a pretty jar of your choice and enjoy!

Not only does this vinegar taste ever so subtly of onions but it will turn a soft purple lavender in colour which makes this vinegar particularly lovely to look at in a jar and makes a great hostess gift for all of the bbq's or cottages you will get invited to this summer.

3 easy steps to an afternoon pick-me-up

I was out later than usual last night. My friend Sheri was in town from Scotland and a group of us met up for a few drinks. So this afternoon after I took a nap on the lawn in the sunshine with my dog Betty I needed a little something to shake out the cobwebs and get me energized to make a batch of jam. Allow me to introduce you to the Afternoon Energizer

Ingredients:

4-5 ice cubes

1/2 cup of milk

1/4 cup of Coffee Booziness

Mix all 3 ingredients in your blender of choice, pour into a nice tall glass and enjoy. It is exactly what this Sunday afternoon called out for!

Happy Easter! And Oatmeal pancakes

So this post was really inspired by Brad when he commented on my Coffee Liquor post on my facebook wall. He suggested it might go well with pancakes. Well that thought stuck in my mind like a burr and this morning I decided to treat James to a nice Easter breakfast. Well at least that is what I told him ;). In reality it was more for me.

I have an oatmeal pancake recipe that I just love. I like pancakes but I find they can be rather heavy. These pancakes are almost more like a crepe than they are a pancake. What would you call that a prepe? Anyways, my friend Kim Turner out in BC shared this recipe with me a few years back and since then it is all I ever make.

Kim's Oatmeal Pancakes

1 cup buttermilk fresh*
1 egg
3 tbsp corn oil or butter
3/4tsp  baking powder
3/4tsp  baking soda
1/2 cup white flour (no substitutes)    
1/2 cup oats  (quaker quick oats not instant are best)
              
mix dry ingredients
mix wet ingredients separately
then add together

Put batter in the pan, once there are bubbles flip and lightly cook the other side.

* I have never used buttermilk when I make them. I take just slightly under a cup of milk and add a tbsp of vinegar and let it sit for 5 minutes.

I decided strawberries would be a nice addition to serve with the pancakes alongside the more adult syrup :), but I know my friend Kim cooks blueberries right into the pancakes, so feel free to experiment with whatever fruit you want.

Now doesn't that look like a perfect way to start the long weekend! And Brad you were absolutely right...it was delicious.

Have a great Easter weekend everyone!

Coffee Liquor is Complete!

For the past 3.5 weeks I have felt like a stalker in my own home. Finally tonight after a fantastic day at the U of T Scarborough Campus Farmer's Market, I could take it no more, it was time I got better acquainted with my 'stalkee'. I never thought you could become obsessed with an inanimate object, but on March 12th when I completed this post I realized that having something that I knew was going to be ever so tasty sitting in my cupboard for 4 weeks before I could indulge was perhaps going to be a personal challenge.

Every few days I would look in the cupboard and evaluate it's chocolatey brown smoothness. I made the biggest mistake last Sunday when I decided it was time to smell it and determine if it was ready to jar. If only there were a way to capture and share with you the wonderful smell, you would share my obsession. I am not a coffee drinker but I have always loved the smell of coffee as it brews. Well combine that with fresh vanilla and bourbon and it is enough to make a girl go weak in the knees.

I started by washing a couple of decorative jars, because even though I am intrinsically a selfish person :), I knew that this was a delight that I would have to share with others. The first person to invite me over for dinner will get a lovely jar of this Coffee Liquor, so get your invites out quick!

Then I placed a moist coffee filter (I used a moist coffee filter because I didn't want any of this liquid of the Gods to get absorbed unnecessarily)  in a strainer and strained the liquid and removed the vanilla pods, then using another clean moist coffee filter, I strained it again.

The final step is simple. Using a funnel I transfered the liquid into the decorative jars and sealed them up and put them in the cupboard.

Well actually, I lie...that was the second to last step. With my official taste tester out of town, I felt that I have no choice except to sample a small glass to ensure quality. I put a smal dollop of fresh cream in a glass with the coffee liquor and drank it back. My oh my...it was worth the wait.

BBQ Meatloaf with Caramelized Onions

In my on-going challenge to myself to try recipes using my preserves, I decided to use my Caramelized Onion and Garlic Jam on an old favourite - Meatloaf. My Auntie Dena shared this recipe with me years ago and it is by far the best meatloaf recipe I have ever come across and it worked out perfectly with my jam.

Let's just cut right to the recipe, because honestly, you will want to make it for dinner tomorrow night.

2 tbsp olive oil

3 large onions sliced

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp cide or rice vinegar

2lbs ground beef

1 egg

3/4 cup of your favourite bbq sauce

1tbsp dijon mustard

1tbsp worchestershire sauce

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

3/4 cup bread crumbs

Topping

2 tbsp Caramelized onion and roasted garlic jam

1) Heat oil in a large skillet and cook onions 20-30 minutes or are until brown and tender. Add sugar and vinegar, cook 5 more minutes. Cool. Remove 1/2 cup onion and chop finely for the meat loaf.

2) Place meat in large bown and add cooled chopped onions, egg, bbq sauce, mustard, worchestershire sauce, salt, cumin parsley and bread crumbs. Knead together.

3) Place meat mixture in a large loaf pan lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Cover with either. Bake at 350 for 1.5 hours.

4) Uncover. Smear with 2tbsp caramelized onion and roasted garlic jam and remainder of onions. If onions are dark- cover once more. Bake 15 minutes more.

Let rest for a couple of minutes and then serve.

Delicious!!!

Coffee + Brandy + Vodka + a preserving girl

This experiment was inspired by my official taste tester; my husband. One of the marmalades that I make is Orange Marmalade with Vanilla and Brown Sugar and the other day James came down the stairs having obviously just sampled some from the fridge, saying "You know what would take this jam over the top?" And when I asked him what, he had a very simple response. "Rum". It got me thinking about how nice dark rum would compliment the marmalade. But seeing as Seville Orange season is behind us and I won't be making any more marmalade for a little while I decided to see what else I could come up with that might be more of an 'adult' jam, jelly or marmalade. I flipped through the recipes that my mom, nona and Aunts have handed down to me and came across what I thought was a perfect grey Monday experiment, though neither jam, nor jelly nor marmalade.  I will call it "Coffee Booziness" for lack of a better name.

Now I have to apologize if this is a recipe that someone out there created and never wanted shared in this way. The only reference I have is a rather old looking recipe card written out by my mom.

2 cups fresh ground coffee. French Roast is the best

3 cups boiling water

2.5 cups white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 vanilla bean, chopped

2.25 cups vodka

.75 cup brandy

Combine the coffee and the boiling water in a glass or metal bowl and stir for 1-2 minutes and then with a sieve lined with a coffee filter, drain the mixture over a medium sized pot and discard the coffee grounds.

Add the white and brown sugar and heat the mixture until the sugar completely dissolves and then remove from heat and add the chopped vanilla.

In a large glass jar combine the cooled coffee mixture with the vodka and the brandy. Cover the jar with a couple of layers of plastic and place it in your "cool room" (Like any of us have one of these any more, but I am copying the recipe word for word, so translate that to - in a cool, dark place).

Now here comes the hard part...as much as you may want the instant gratification of an after dinner "coffee booziness" I am afraid you have to wait at least 3 weeks. My mom says 3-5, so I am going to go with 3 and see how we fare.

After 3-5 agonizingly painful weeks, line the sieve once again with a coffee filter and place over a bowl. Strain the liquid and discard the vanilla. Pour the liquid into a jar, or fancy bottle of your choice (that has of course been nicely cleaned and sterilized) and either close the clamp or pour yourself some asap to try.

I think this would be amazing over vanilla ice cream. If you read my posts I guess you have come to realize that I think almost everything would be amazing over vanilla ice cream. That is why I can NEVER have any in the house. But in 3 weeks time, I might make an exception!

And if you are hoping for a bottle of this for yourself, just invite James and I over for dinner in 3-4 weeks and you might get one as your hostess gift :)

Spicy Tomato Jam and Oven-Fried Potatoes

I have set a challenge for myself. Create or adapt a recipe once a week to either compliment or use one of my jams or jellies in a new and interesting way. Today with the temperatures reaching the mid teens which is basically unheard of for March 11th, we decided to bbq some sausages from our local butcher on The Big Green Egg and I decided to address my challenge head on.

Up until now, I have simply been using my Spicy Tomato Jam in toasted panini's or on a cracker with cheese. But today, I decided to use it as an alternative to traditional ketchup. But not just on frozen french fries. No, I was going to create some oven fried potatoes as the perfect partner to this spicy yet somewhat sweet jam.

You can adapt the number of potatoes to suit your needs and then keep the spice mix for the next time if you make too much. Or you can subsitute sweet potato in for regular potato.

Spicy Oven Fried Potatoes

3-4 Medium Potatoes

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp crushed or finely chopped fennel seeds

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper

1/4 tsp salt (I find sea salt or kosher salt worked perfectly)

2 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds

Wash and dry your potatoes. I kept the skin on but the decision is yours as I think this recipe would work either way. Cut lengthwise into slivers. Place them into a bowl and toss them with the oil.

Using a small knife or mortar and pestle, either finely chop or mash your fennel seeds.

In a separate bowl mix fennel, cayenne pepper, salt and sesame seeds. Sprinkle over the potatoes and toss until all potato pieces are nicely covered.

Line a baking sheet with tin foil and spread. Bake at 400 degrees F for 40-60 minutes, making sure to turn the potatoes to cook evenly. Today I took mine out of the oven after only 30 minutes and they were cooked through, just not browned.

Take them out of the oven and dip them into the Spicy Tomato Sauce and ENJOY!