CakeWalk

One of the surprising blessings that came along with having children was getting to know my neighbors. I live in a small neighborhood of about 3 streets wide, a collection of maybe 100 homes that before kids I knew nothing about. Introverted by nature, I politely went about my day coming to and fro without much interaction with the community around me, exchanging a few pleasantries maybe but not really knowing anyone personally. Kids changed that. Suddenly, you begin to run into the same people while running after a toddling youngster: you discover that your kids play well with their kids, you are on a first name basis with every dog on the block, and you find that the people around you are really interesting and creative and lend a huge impact to your daily life.

Monday I spent part of the morning with a few lovely women as our children played hard together. There seems to be an unstated rule that conversation can be quickly interrupted for any number of reasons, which is actually quite nice. It frees you from the rigor of conducting yourself in a more proper manner; I've never felt like I've been very good at moderating the flow of conversation, so stopping one abruptly to run after a child and then starting up a new one suits me pretty well.

My friend Susan is a musician and we got to talking. She was saying how she had material that had been on hold since before her son was born (5 years) and how she should never do that because it interrupts the process. I immediately thought about my own creative processes. If I don't take the time to document something that really inspires or excites me within a day or so of making it, I just let it go. "Of the moment" is so much part of the thing that makes my writing mine, makes it relevant to me as I look back on it.

It's really not so unlike preservation as I capture that split second that the food goes in the jar, I also sieze the feeling around it - the light in the kitchen creating pictures that echo the weather outside and even the time of day I had the time to muster the thoughts to the page. Making that time seems ever more difficult as the summer is in full swing and there are so many things that just pop up on a day to day basis. Prioritizing my online life falls to the back of the line, even when there have been so many things worthy of sharing.

Food in Jars' Peach Sriracha Jam (Honey Sweetened Peach Chutney) I made last week.

The summer is the heaviest preserving season, and traditionally I think I've been much more creative than I've been this year. Short both on time and money, I didn't overdo or overthink my pantry shelves. I have smaller batches and just enough based on what was eaten most heavily last year. Where I used to make the time to stand stirring the pot with excess, I now stirred it with just enough - thankful for it and happy I knew where to turn for solid recipes when I didn't have the wiggle room for experimentation.

I got peaches at two different times, and split both with neighbors. (You can read about the first peach adventure here.) Quickly enamored of the honey-sweetened peach chutney that Marisa McClellan posted on her site Food in Jars, I turned to her latest book as the peaches softened and I felt guilty just eating them all standing alone over the sink. I made the small batch last week and was totally addicted. I had exactly 2 lbs. of precious peaches left, and got to thinking that making the recipe into a more homogenized butter might be a pretty swell idea. It takes a little longer for the boiling butter to thicken and it spatters up the stove something terrible, but all in all I think it's worth it. It's like a spicy peach ketchup, and I've been trying it on everything. And, just as you'd suspect, it is good on everything.

Peach Sriracha Butter (adapted from Marisa McClellan's recipe in Preserving by the Pint)
yields about 2 half pints

2 lbs. peaches, pitted and pureed (I used a Vitamix, but you could use a regular blender)
1 c. granulated sugar
juice of 1 lime
1/4 c. Sriracha sauce

Combine the peach puree, sugar, and lime juice in a preserving pot (I used a 3 quart shallow saute pan, despite the spattering issue). Over medium high heat, cook and stir frequently until the butter reduced and thickens, 20-30 minutes. You should be able to draw the spoon through the butter and the trail doesn't fill in quickly. Just before hitting the right consistency (aim for a thick ketchup), stir in the Sriracha and bring back to a simmer until thickened.

Pour into sterilized jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace, and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Does anyone ever remember tossing out a bottle of Sriracha? It seems to just last forever, and then disappear...

Peaches have now come and gone. I really shouldn't dare make any more sweet preserves for the year, but have enough extra for gifts and special occasions. I have too many open jars of jam floating around the fridge in a never-ending tetris game of space. I'll have to invite a lot of the neighbors over to help me polish them off!

When I got my review copy of Marisa McClellan's latest book a few weeks back, time seemed to stand still for the moment and I almost immediately read the entire thing cover to cover. I had been looking forward to cracking open this one since I had the pleasure of testing a few of the recipes for it last year, and it truly is a lovely addition to the growing canning book section of my kitchen library.

I couldn't help but think as I turned page after page that Marisa is going to be writing new books for years. She has the magic trifecta in her cookery books: timeless recipes, succinct instructions, and simple inspirations. She is passionate about her craft, and eager to share with everyone - which I think is the underlying theme of Preserving by the Pint. Organized by season, this book encourages everyone to make small batches using local and seasonal foods. It tempts us to branch out and try something maybe we haven't considered before, even to source special ingredients that might not be cost efficient if making a more traditionally sized amount.

Personally I like to can for my storage shelves, but with my ongoing quest for sugar reduction, having a jar or two of a really stellar preserves is an excellent idea - especially since I can tend towards the hoarding jams and jellies even when I've made 8 or 9 jars of them. After finishing the book, I immediate found some Meyer lemons at my co-op to make Candied Meyer Lemon Slices. Only needing a pound for the recipe made it feel doable for me when I didn't have the foresight to get on the Lemon Ladies list for bulk fruit like Marisa did. (And, she had made a beautiful Meyer Lemon Syrup on her blog not long before, and I was feeling especially bad for missing the lemon season...)

I really loved these candied lemons, they had a nice marmalade texture and trademark Meyer lemon astrengency. I was glad I had a little bit of the syrup leftover which set into a little lemon jelly to enjoy right away on morning toast. I intend to make a pound cake for my birthday in September and crown it with a jar of them, and I should be able to save a jar that long since the 2 jar yield leaves me one to enjoy before then.

Spring in my neck of the woods also signals maple syruping time and for a while my family had planned to make it to an Amish neighbor's sugaring operation to reacquaint ourselves with the small miracle that is maple syrup. Last weekend, a small group of family members went to see Daniel Hochstetler's rustic sugar shack. We arrived just as he was getting the fire going underneath a stainless vat of sap. Already, he had harvested over 100 gallons of finished syrup and he was hoping for another good week of syruping weather. (Last year was a perfect year for syrup; they harvested more than 300 gallons and still had some leftover before starting this year. If boiled to the proper temperature, maple syrup never really spoils. The two past seasons make up for the strangely warm spring two years ago when there was no syrup to be found.) My Mom and Dad generously sent me home with 2 gallons, which usually can last us the whole year if we watch our pancake breakfasts...

I respect the Amish desire not to have their faces photographed, but was able to capture a photo of Daniel and his sugar shack from a distance...

As I stood there breathing in the sauna of maple scented sap, I was dreaming of a recipe Marisa included in the book for Blueberry Maple Jam - thankful for my hoarding of a gallon bagful of blueberries in my freezer from last year, and thankful for a new harvest of syrup to replenish my waning stores. When I got back home, I started the jam right away but got busy. Fortunately, letting the fruit macerate overnight with the syrup and brown sugar is an acceptable practice. My yield was a little less than the 2 half-pints, but I suspect it is because I used frozen fruit. I haven't had blueberry jam in ages - in part because of the amount of berries it requires - and this one was so good. I was actually glad I was a little shy of a second half pint so I had some to enjoy right away.

I made this jam with frozen berries and using the metric weights. As I mentioned above, I think I lost a little volume due to the frozen fruit - but this is so good I probably wouldn't have needed to can it! If canning, be sure to use the bottled lemon juice. As Marisa explains, maple syrup is lower in acidity than sugar and the bottled lemon juice ensures a safe acid level.

Blueberry Maple Jam (Marisa McClellan, Preserving by the Pint)

Yields 2 half-pints

1 dry quart fresh blueberries, rinsed, pickedd over, and mashed (about 1 1/2 lbs. / 680 g.)
3/4 c. / 175 g. packed light brown sugar
1/2 c. / 120 ml pure maple syrup
2 T. bottled lemon juice

Prepare a boiling water bath and 2 half-pint jars. Place 2 lids in a small sauce pan of water and bring to a gentle simmer.

Combine the blueberries, sugar, maple syrup, and lemon juice in a large skillet. (I used this 3-quart one, which was a perfect size.) Stir to help the sugar dissolve and to integrate the maple syrup. Once the mixture has begun to look syrupy, place the skillet over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.

Stirring regularly, bring the fruit to a boil and cook until it bubbles and looks quite thick, 10-12 minutes. It's done when you pull a spatula through the jam and it doesn't immediately rush in to fill the space you've cleared.

When the jam is finished cooking, remove the pot from the heat and pour into the prepared jars. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

I can't say I've ever used my 3 quart saucepan to make jam before, and that is a great tip for small batches in particular. The surface area helps evaporate the liquid faster; I really couldn't believe the small batch was finished cooking in just 10 minutes.

Another great thing about this book is that if you make just a few jars of something, you wouldn't necessarily have to can it if you didn't want to. Save yourself a jar, and share another with a neighbor or two and save yourself a hot water bath and the canning time. But I am looking forward to a little patchwork of fully preserved jars on the shelf by the first frost of fall, new preserves from this beautiful book to take me through the winter and help me wait out the time until Marisa's next book.

You can catch more glimpses of Preserving by the Pint at The Preserved Life, Well Preserved, Hip Girls Guide to Homemaking (still a couple of days left to enter their giveaway), and of course at Food in Jars where you can also find Marisa's upcoming appearances.