Summer Bounty - Part III

Red Currants simmering

     One of my favourite discoveries this summer has been the joy of making jellies.  It was something I was always a bit afraid of, thinking it would be difficult and time-consuming, but that could not be further from the truth!  Two weekends ago I made my first-ever batch of red currant jelly and last weekend I followed up with my first-ever batch of black currant jelly.  Knowing that currant season is short, I was thrilled to find more red currants at the market this morning.  I bought two pints, rinsed them well and followed a recipe from one of my mother's old, English cook books, Practical COOKERY for all, which I'm pretty sure is from the '50s.

Mash

                                         Red-currant Jelly

     3 lb. red currants     3/4 pint water     Sugar
     Time: about 50 minutes.  Temperature: low to moderate

Method: Put the fruit into a colander and spray with cold water to clean.  Do not remove the stalks.  Put into a preserving pan with the water.  Bring very slowly to the boil.  Cook the fruit very gently until all the berries are pulpy - about thirty to thirty-five minutes.
     Strain through a jelly bag and leave to drip for several hours.
     Measure the juice which is collected, then pour it into a pan and bring to the boil.  To each pint add three-quarters to one pound of sugar, stirring until dissolved.  Continue to boil briskly for ten minutes.  Test for setting.  Pot and cover.

Jelly-bagging!

     The above is the recipe verbatim but I should add a few of my own notes: preserving pan?  I used a regular pot, no lid necessary, and mashed the fruit with a potato masher after it had simmered and become soft.  This time round, I added a crushed, dried pepper to the mash to give the jelly some zing. I bought a jelly bag from a local kitchen store and it was the perfect size for the rim of my Mexican glass pitcher, which had the added bonus of being useful for pouring out the juice after the three or so hours of dripping.  N.B. do not squeeze the jelly bag to get more juice as this results in the jelly being cloudy, instead of lovely and clear.

Finished product

     Serving suggestion: every weekend, CC and I have cheesy bagels.  We get Montreal-style bagels from the market, toast them and then I add sliced cheese - CC likes cheddar, I prefer spiced Gouda or Oka - and then put them under the grill in the oven until the cheese is runny.  Lately, I have been spreading jelly on the bagels, post-toasting and pre-grilling - the colour is great, and the taste is tres je ne sais quoi.

Summer Bounty - Part II

Apricots, washed and ready to go

     Saturday in G-town is market day, and I love checking out all of the fresh, local produce.  Lately, I have gotten into canning and have found it easy and satisfying, especially when you get to enjoy a taste of summer year round.  Today, I bought a quart of apricots, to make some more apricot chutney (I made a batch 2 weeks ago, but have already given lots away).  I follow the following recipe, but changed it to accommodate the weight of fruit: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Apricot-Chutney-102012.

Half the recipe's worth

     It's quite simple to follow.  Chop the fruit according to preference - I like smaller pieces because I use small (125 mL) mason jars.  In a large pot combine the cider vinegar, fruit, spices, finely chopped red onion and raisins - I used a combination of small, dark Thompson raisins and the larger, golden raisins to provide variety in colour and texture. Allow to simmer, uncovered, for an hour, and then add to pre-sterilized jars.  Voila, you now have a delicious accompaniment for cheese or meat.  The batch I made before was great with sausage rolls and Shepherd's Pie, but let your imagination run wild!

Ready for simmering

                                      

Yum!

Summer Bounty - Part I

Raw

     Two weeks ago, CC had a fall from a ladder while pruning some vines away from the roof of the house.  He unknowingly disturbed a wasp's nest, they attacked, he panicked and fell, fracturing his tibia.  He had his surgery just over a week ago and his been home almost a week.  His parents came by last weekend bearing gifts of fresh fruit - grapes, cherries, plums and peaches.  As CC is somewhat bed bound I spent most of today in the kitchen dealing with our bounty of fruit.  I made a fruit salad with some of it and stewed the rest.  For the raw fruit, I just cut them in chunks and sprinkled freshly-squeezed lemon juice over top to help preserve them.  For the stewed fruit, I cut them as above (sans grapes), added some of last weeks leftover blueberries and an apple, and cooked them slowly in a pot with some sugar and Calvados.  It's a great way to get rid of overripe/bruised fruit (gag).  I like the fruit salad with yoghurt for breakfast and CC likes the stewed fruit with muesli for his morning start.  Both are packed with fibre, vitamins and nutrients, a good start to any day!

Ready for stewing

Ready to eat (bowl not included)

Graffiti - Art or Vandalism?

     Down the hill from us is a trail that goes along the Speed River and passes by an apartment building.  The wall adjacent to the path is the side of the underground parking, and is not pretty, to say the least.  Lots of "kids" (read ne'er-do-wells) hang out down there at night, letting off fireworks and getting up to other mischief, including spray-painting the wall.  Recently, after some years of some quite interesting painting and scrawling, the owners of the building painted the whole "canvas" grey.  Well, it wasn't long before some creative types set to work making the bland, grey canvas into their own studio.  Sure, there are some tags and other ugly bits of work, but I'm intrigued by the "stencillers", who clearly have put some time and effort into their work.  I thought I'd share some examples with you.

Pickling Time

     Every year, when the gherkins are in at the market, CC prepares Dill Pickles.  Now, I was never much of a pickle fan until I tried CC's.  They are crunchy and very tasty, so I thought I would share his recipe with you.

     After scrubbing and drying the gherkins off they are sorted according to size.  The jars are washed on the hot cycle in the dishwasher and allowed to dry and the lids are boiled in water on the stove.  The gherkins are pricked with a fork to allow the vinegar solution to penetrate the flesh.

     CC crams as many gherkins into the glass jars as he can, then adds two peeled cloves of garlic (purchased from the market), a small bunch of fresh dill (also purchased at the market), 1 tablespoon of pickling salt, 1/4 teaspoon alum and then 1/2 - 3/4 cup white vinegar (depending on the size of the jar). He then adds boiling water to the top of the jar, puts the lid on, flips the jar upside down and lets it rest overnight.  He then flips it right-side up and puts it in a cool, dark place for 6 weeks.  Then, it's time to enjoy!  They are great by themselves of course, but we also add slices on top of burgers or chop them up in potato salad. YUM!

Friday Night Storm

     The last week has been very hot and humid, but the weather finally broke this past Friday.  As I was taking the bus home, I noticed a lot of dark, fast-moving clouds with some scary-looking ones further north and wasn't sure I was going to make it home in time before the inevitable rain started.  Luckily, I got on my bike and sped home and the first drops started to fall once I was safely ensconced in the homestead! CC and I rushed around and shut windows as the skies opened up and a torrential downpour ensued.  Right after it stopped, we opened up all the doors and windows to try and air out the still-humid house.  We then headed downtown to do some banking and get some gelato, but on the way back home, we got caught in another downpour and both got soaked.  It was still quite warm in the house, but we opened up all of the doors and windows to get a cross-breeze before we went to bed. I was awoken at 12:30 a.m. by the sound of a poster falling off the wall and noticed a LOT of thunder and lightning.  Just as I shut the windows and doors we had an even more violent storm with the wind whipping the backyard trees around crazily.  It didn't last long and I didn't see a lot  of damage out back.

    The next day, Saturday, we headed off to Toronto to visit my brother and his family, and as we passed Royal City Park, we noticed yellow tape and lots of trees and branches down.  It had already suffered a lot of damage earlier this year after being hit by an ice storm, so this was a surprise, to say the least.

     Today, after lunch, we decided to head down to the park to see the damage for ourselves.  Even though there was lots of yellow tape up and signs advising people of the potential hazards, lots of people were walking amongst the remains of the trees to survey the storm's destruction. A couple of tall, older evergreens had been broken in half with their top halves lying on the ground, and a couple of large trees were completely uprooted, lying on the ground with their roots exposed.  Interestingly, the park was once a dump, so beneath the roots was all sorts of old garbage - metal, glass, etc.  Fortunately, the trees that came down didn't seem to hit any of the newer trees that had been planted after the last, destructive storm.

It's Been a While...

Gow Bridge post rainstorm

     ...but we have been having a LOT of rain and I have not been taking many photographs.  It has also been quite humid, so my energy levels are low and I have not been out exploring much on bike nor on foot.  It's killer humid today and my reading glasses are getting fogged up as I write this!

Still Life

     Instead of focussing on one thing we have done recently, I'm going to give a few, smaller updates.  The Guelph farmer's market has moved into the Exhibition Park Arena for the summer while they work on the old building.  It's a much larger space, but it has lost a lot of the intimacy of the older building and even though the ceiling is much higher, it feels airless most of the time.  CC bought some lovely field-grown roses and did some wonderful arrangements for the house including the one above.

New Lithops Emerging

     The house plants are all doing very well, especially when we moved a lot of them outside to get some of the torrential rainwater we have been experiencing.  Everything is looking lush and is sending out lots of new leaves.  The most interesting, by far, is the above Lithops or Stone Plant.  I bought it some months ago at Belgian Nurseries as I had always wanted one.  After flowering, they go dormant and shed their previous year's growth to reveal a shiny, new plant underneath.  It's like something out of a science fiction movie and happens very slowly.  I'm hoping to get it to flower this winter - stay tuned...

Black Raspberries

     We have six, mature Walnut Trees in the back yard, so it is impossible to have any kind of vegetable garden, although we do have an underused herb pot.  We do, however, have lots of black raspberries and I love going out into the back yard and picking all the ripe ones and eating them then and there.  If they have been warmed by the sun, even better!  They are not very sweet and have quite a lot of seeds in them, but are tasty nonetheless.