Pressure Cooker Dreams

Does anyone out there own a pressure cooker? I know some of you do, or maybe you remember your mom or your grandma having one? Well, I do not own one and I have also never used one. I have terrifying memories of being in the kitchen with my mom when I was much younger, when suddenly a harmless, low whistle would emerge from a large pot on the stove. This low whistle would then gain in decibel quite quickly, until it was finally screeching itself silly – and it was at that point where I clearly remember my mom would start yelling at me “get out of the kitchen!” “go into the living room, right now!!!”. I think she was even more afraid of that pressure cooker than I was. I was asking her about this just the other night and she and I were giggling about those frightening moments, but she did remark that this scary device made the most juicy meat out of ”not so great” cuts of meat. She had me drooling with some of her recollections. I am branching out and I am going to review my very first product on this blog. I am sure this will not be a regular occurrence, but I have never been asked before and I actually thought that some of you may be interested in learning about pressure cookers. I have been contacted by CSN stores who sell all sorts of things for the kitchen, the home, the office and they even sell very cool Kids Bedding. They are going to send me a pressure cooker and I am going to make something for you all to drool over. That is the plan anyways, let”s hope I do not blow the roof off the kitchen! Stay tuned.  Read More

Canning Across America (and Canada!)

I came upon this video on a website that I subscribe to and visit quite often which is called Canning Across America. This is a great site if you want to learn about canning straight up from the basics – all the way to some more complicated preservation processes. They have how-to videos, a blog, literally tons of recipes and you can even follow them on twitter @Canvolution. They seem to be a collective of about 27 contributors whom include writers, gardeners and cooks. The reason I like this particular video is that is demystifies the canning process. In this short little vid, Audra Wolf deconstructs canning very quickly back to a basic physic lesson. She simplifies the process, explains why it works, why you should not be afraid of it and why you should try it (because its awesome!). When winter starts to drag on like this (blast February!), I find myself dreaming of summer”s bounty of fruits and vegetables and of course all of the ways in which you can cook, prepare and preserve them. If you want to eat more locally in Ontario, canning will eventually make itself onto your radar in order for you to live happily through these cold months and this fabulous website is filled with golden nuggets of information for beginner and pro alike. Enjoy!  Read More

Red Pepper Jelly "Bee"

Last Thursday night, I went over to a friend”s house in the country for a little “Red Pepper Bee”. My friend Karen invited me to join herself and a few other ladies to make some Red Pepper Jelly. Well, it was for sure a fun night! Lots of laughs and many things learned. For instance, there is more than one way to make Red Pepper Jelly. In fact, there are hundreds of recipes available online to make this sweet and hot concoction. We had a go at making three different recipes that Karen had found online and for the record, one of them failed completely! It”s taste was on, but its consistency was way off the mark – it was, liquid rather than jell-like. The beauty of a failure in canning, cooking and even baking is that you can usually salvage something wonderful from the wreckage. I took home six small jars of jelly from the night of canning and only one of them set correctly. The others? Well, I marinated 3 pork tenderloins for some friends on the weekend in the gooey disaster and it was delicious! The picture above is of the one jar that set wonderfully and I can”t wait to crack it open in December and spread it over some cheese…yum! Red peppers are readily available at all the farmers markets right now. As with many fruits and vegetables this year, the season was a little late but there should be lots coming in now.  Read More

Bock Bock Bock..Cluck! Duenk Farms Chicken Sale

photo: unicornretreat from morgeFile.com If you are like me, you cracked open your freezer when barbecue season opened up, you stuck your head in there and you took a good look around. Then, with great dismay you concluded it was getting far too empty, I mean, come on now, you should not be able to stick your head in there, it should be jam-packed full to the brim! Well, I have some very good news for you if you are a chicken fan – Duenk Farms in Denfield is having their twice annual chicken sale! Yippee! I don”t know if I could fit a whole chicken on my bbq at once, but I will give it a try! Just kidding, I am roasted chicken fan, it is one of the good things in life. Here is the deal for this sale,you can call Karen directly and arrange ahead of time to pick up a chicken or two or three! Duenk”s farms is a small chicken operation that raises chickens for eggs mostly. They have about 65 chickens that lay daily. I have also been told and will report with great glee (yes I am a bonafide food nerd) that they have fresh turkeys around Thanksgiving time! Count me in Karen! This deal gets even better,the Duenk Farm chicken is ecologically raised (meaning indoor outdoor pens) and they mix their own seed blend on site out of flax and some other grains so I am pretty sure that increases the omegas in it (but I am no expert!) and of course the processing is government inspected (in case you like to know such things). Farm Fresh Chicken Saturday, June 20th, 2009. Pick up between 10 am and 5 pm Whole chickens $3.oo/pound Phone Karen Eatwell: 519-232-4105 Karen Eatwell Duenk Farms 25425 New Ontario Rd Today Karen emailed me some more info on another event that is taking place this month at the farm. She is involved with putting on a Jam Session. No, no no peoples! You do not have to know how to play the guitar, its a STRAWBERRY JAM session. This mini course will teach you how to make the jam yourself with local berries and then can/jar it up for some serious jam enjoyment later on in the winter. This course is only $10 plus the cost of the berries (approx. $4). Just bring 4 1/2 pint jars and your smile – everything else is taken care of. Call her very soon – it happens on Wednesday, June 24th in the evening. See you at the sale! kelly  Read More

Spicy Tomato Chutney

This week I had an abundance of tomatoes..I am talking about a lot of tomatoes..seriously. To quote Grey in Grey”s Anatomy (which started again this week- yahoo!). Seriously! Tons of them coming in from my little, yet abundant garden. Many of my tomatoes are yellow this year- I am not quite sure why. You see, I cannot remember when I was planting the tomatoes this spring, if I actually planted yellow tomatoes or not, but as it turns out, I have a profuse amount of yellow tomatoes. Perfectly formed, ripe.. but still..yellow. It”s probably due to lack of sunshine and too much water this summer, but its all okay in my books because they still taste delicious! To give credit where credit is definitely due – I saw this recipe last fall on another blogger”s site and bookmarked it for this year because it sounded very “yum-0″. Colour note: Mine is more a wonderful orange color, due to the mixture of yellow and red tomatoes. Here is where you can find the original recipe: http://becksposhnosh.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-make-wonderful-spicy-tomato.html And the following recipe is what I did. It is very similar, but still different. Enjoy! Spicy Tomato Chutney 8 tablespoons of Olive oil 2 tsp mustard seeds (brown or black) 2 tsp fennel seeds 2 tsp cumin seeds 4 dried red chilies 1 tsp cayenne pepper 4 cups sugar 2 1/2 cups white distilled vinegar 4 1/2 lbs tomatoes – yellow and red salt to taste Heat your olive oil in a large tall pan. Add in mustard seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds,dried red chilies and cayenne pepper. Cook a couple of minutes until the seeds start to pop and spit. Reduce the heat to low,add the vinegar and sugar – stir until sugar is dissolved into the vinegar. Core all of your tomatoes – then add them into the vinegar solution. You can leave the skins on because you are going to simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally, where after this hour, start to pick out the tomatoes skins with a pair of tongs. Continue to cook for about a half hour more on low until the tomatoes have all turned to mush and sauce thickens up a bit. Pick out what you see left of the dried (now wet!) chilies. Note: the consistency to me seems quite runny, but so be it.. I think it will still be delish. Get your jars all sanitized – it should be about 7-8 medium sized jars. Pour the spicy chutney into your jars, and seal. Put filled jars into a hot water bath (cover the jars at least 2 inches of water) for another 10-15 minutes, remove to cool – you should hear the pop as you take them out, but don”t freak out if they don”t pop straight away..some will pop later. If you have jars that do not “pop” you will need to store these in the fridge and eat within 1.5 – 2 weeks. This chutney is spicy! I have not decided what I will eat it with just yet – I am thinking with cheese or on sandwiches and burgers.. ah.. decisions, decisions.  Read More

Canned Peaches

Well, here they are. My beauties. My golden peaches. I am so proud of them, yet at the same time I have that uneasiness that comes along with canning your own fruits. I worry, will they poison me when I dig into them during the winter? Will I develop botulism or perhaps another one of those mouldy diseases when I digest these pretty peaches? I should hope not… but, all the same, I do have that uneasy feeling – as I am sure that some of you out there that have ventured into the world of preserving may have too. All worries aside, canning is a very easy process – and as long as you follow all the safety directions from a good book – canning has very minimal risks and is well worth the effort! When it comes down to it, I want to be a good locavore. I want with all my heart to avoid those lovely, tropical glories that lay waiting in the grocery store in December, January and February. I know its wrong to pick up that pineapple or even that innocent looking strawberry from Cali. – I am the one that made my own rules and it is now up to me to choose to follow them or not. Today, I felt like a good locavore. I decided to think ahead, to plan. We are currently in the midst of the high season,you can get almost anything your local food heart desires right now. This means that now is the time to be planning out what you will put in your gullet over the winter months that will keep your good locavore heart happy. For inspiration,I have posted my peaches for you. I hope you are inspired to think ahead so that you don”t find yourself in December fondling the peaches at A&P and telling yourself they will taste good, because they won”t.. you know it… I know it and A&P knows it, but they will sell them to you anyways.. and you will (mark my blog-words) be disappointed! How to Can Peaches- Kelly Stylie You will need: About 21 peaches Simple Syrup (3 cups sugar and 5 cups water) Boiling Water 6 pint mason jars with lids (500ml) Lemon Juice and more water First thing. get your lids and jars boiling (to sterilize them). Next, boil another pot of water to blanch your peaches in, also get a big bowl of ice water ready. Carefully dunk your peaches in the boiling water for 40-60 seconds. Remove and put in ice water for a moment. This will release the skins from the peaches. Peel peaches, remove pit and slice how you like. Place peaches in a new bowl that has a mixture of 4 cups water and 1/4 cup of lemon. This is a mixture to help keep the fruit from discolouring. Make your syrup. Take 3 cups of sugar and 5 cups of water and boil, then keep warm. Pack peaches into your sterilized jars. Pack fruit to 3/4 inches from rim, fill with syrup to 1/2 inch of rim. Use a long narrow object to remove any air bubbles before sealing (I like to use a wooden chopstick). Be sure to wipe the rim with a clean, sterile cloth before placing lid on jar. Place ring on jar and only tighten with two fingers.. not too tight! Boil your jars for 20 minutes covered in water.. make sure all lids have popped before storing. If you have never canned before, try it with a friend first that has some experience at it. Also, get a really good book. There are so many books available now, I do have a few – but one that is essential and has all the basics in it – is the Bernardin Guide to Home Preserving. Good luck!  Read More

Pantry Reserves Getting Low!

photo: kelly hunt If you, (like me) are new to this whole “eating a little more locally” concept – than that may mean that you (just like me) were not as well prepared for eating locally throughout this long, and what seemed like a never ending winter. At the end of the summer last year, I had my most treasured cousin come over and we “put up” some veggies – which basically means that we did some canning, also known as preserving to some folk, or storing local, fresh food for the winter. We spent a whole day chopping, peeling boiling, stirring, sterilizing,bonding,and eventually canning all kinds of things. It was very long work and not easy by any means, but it is true what all of those old farm wives say, it was so rewarding at the end, and absolutely worth all of the sweat time. I felt I had accomplished a great many things and was simply amazed at how much food we had chopped and bottled up. That is of course, until recently, when my husband proclaimed that he has just polished off the last jar of beets, which made me go wandering into my happy place (the pantry) for a peek at what was left. We are now in the middle of April, and basically are down to a few bottles of barbeque relish, and one lonely jar of delicious tomato chutney, eek! Not much, but asparagus and lettuce are just around the fresh and locally grown corner. I am making a mental note to make even more food next year as I now know the basics and won”t be doing it all in one day. I will spread out the “putting up”. Thank you Nicole, as I have told you before, you are the best country cousin ever and I had a great time. To my readers that may be reading all the way to the end, there is an amazing recipe that that calls for tons of tomatoes and peaches and all kinds of other summer goodies that will yield 3 seperate delicious recipes as the end product, that I will be posting in the recipe section.  Read More