Plum Butter (Powidl)

Hi all:

My friend Margaret, the one I spend vast amounts of time discussing recipes with, also wanted to make plum butter this summer.  She is Polish, so plum butter factors in largely with her culture.  We Austrians also love our plums and I remember many a recipe that my mom made growing up, that used "Powidl" (a very thick plum jam. Pronounced Poe-Veedal).

It would appear, that I am trying to emulate my friend Margaret.  She made preserved, chopped garlic for the freezer, I made preserved, chopped garlic for the freezer.  She stated she wanted to make plum butter, I decided I had to make plum butter. You get the picture........ I have to say though, she certainly does have some very good ideas!

Well, this summer I brought home about 2 pounds of freshly picked purple plums and they were starting to go soft, so I thought I better jump on the "Margaret band wagon" and make my own Powidl.

This is what I did:

Powidl (plum butter)

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2 pounds purple plums - washed, take out pit and cut into small pieces

Approx. 1/2 c. - 3/4 c. White sugar 

Small amount of water (about 1 T. Perhaps. Not much more)

(This made 2 small jars of plum butter)

I googled plum butter on the Internet and saw that some people made theirs in a slow cooker.  Brilliant I thought!!  Just throw everything in, and cook on low overnight.  Well, I accidentally added too much water so the overnight cooking turned into overnight plus another 8 hours, and it still wasn't reduced.  I then put the mixture into a saucepan and simmered it on a slow boil for about 1 hour, stirring constantly, until it reduced down to a thick paste. I then put the plum butter into washed jars with lids and refrigerated them. Use them fairly soon after opening. I am not sure how long these will last since they are not processed in boiling water, but since I was giving 1 jar away, I knew I could get through the other jar fairly quickly.

Moral of the story: don't add too much water. A lot of water will come out of the plums as they cook. Also, I think I would just make this in a saucepan next time, where you can control the temperature and increase it as needed.  Just keep stirring, so it doesn't burn.

If you were making a large quantity and storing it for a long time, I would definitely sterilize the jars as well and process them in a boiling bath. You can never be too safe.

Try this plum butter and see how you like it.  It is not too sweet and is a nice change from the everyday.

Happy plumming!

Rosie

Best Healthy Smoothie Ever!

Hi all:

I must confess.... I am addicted to Kale smoothies.  I started making these a couple of months ago and now I can't stop drinking them.  I actually crave them now and have a mini panic attack when I am out of one of the ingredients. Every day, I mentally juggle how much of each ingredient I have left in my kitchen and I plan out when I need to go back to the grocery store, so I don't run out. Yes, it is that bad.

How did I get hooked, you might ask?  Well, let's rewind a few months.  My husband, the uber athlete who runs marathons and thinks nothing of going for gruelling 12 km hikes on a whim, came home one day with a smoothie from one of our juice joints here in Canada; Jugo Juice.  It seems one of his running buddies told him about their Mighty Kale smoothies so he bought one and brought it home.  I had to try it.  One sip and I was hooked. It was delicious!

Now, for my husband to even THINK about consuming anything remotely close to a green vegetable, is a miracle.  You might think he is very health conscious, given that he runs long distances; you would be very wrong.  The closest he gets to eating vegetables, is eating  potato chips with his meal. ( In his mind, they are potatoes, after all.) Yes, he really is that bad and it was so unlike him to come home with one of these healthy concoctions.

Well, I have never enjoyed a smoothie so much as that.  I went back to Jugo Juice several times, but it became expensive to feed this kale smoothie habit so I started making them at home.  They are much cheaper and just as flavourful. You only need 6 simple ingredients and a good blender.

Here is my recipe:

Kale Smoothie

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6-8 ounces (about 1 cup) of pure unsweetened apple juice (not from concentrate)

2 ounces (about 1/4 cup) of pure unsweetened orange juice (not from concentrate)

1 handful of clean, washed spinach - stems and all

1 handful of clean, washed kale - stems and all

1 handful of frozen pineapple

1 handful of frozen mango

In a blender, add the apple juice, orange juice and the spinach.  Mix on the purée setting until the spinach is broken down. (Puree the spinach first and then add the kale. This will help your blender from clogging up with too much vegetable matter all at once) Add the kale (it works best to tear up the kale into smaller pieces) and blend on purée until well blended.  Add the frozen pineapple and use the Crush Ice button until smooth.  Add the frozen kale and use the Crush Ice button until smooth and all is incorporated.  That's it!

Here's the apple juice.

Here, I have added the orange juice.

I use spinach that is pre-washed. I wash it again anyways. You never know......

Add the spinach, stems and all.

Spinach is blended.

Add the kale, stems and all.

This is about how much pineapple I use; about 1 large handful. I just reach into the bag and grab some.  No fussy measuring for me.  Blend on the Crush Ice setting, to make it smooth and break up the ice chunks.

Next, add the mango. Use about the same amount of mango as pineapple. Just reach in and grab some. I tend to like more pineapple flavour than mango in mine, but you can decide.  Blend on the Crush Ice setting again, until smooth. Et voila!

I have to say, I am loving my Kitchenaid blender. I bought it on sale a few months ago. I struggled for many years with a cheaper blender that never blended well, so this is a real treat to use.  Too bad it doesn't match my lavender Kitchenaid mixer. I have to say, I love Kitchenaid appliances! You can always count on them!!

Cheers!  I have to say though, after I drink one of these, I  get really thirsty, so I often have a glass of cold water after I drink one.  It must be the spinach.  I think it dries out your mouth??? Not sure.

Enjoy and let me know if these become addicting to you too.  Who woulda thunk that drinking kale could be so delicious??  And think of all those nutrients!

Bye for now,

Rosie

"Farmyard Friends" baby quilt

Hi all:

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My nephew and his lovely wife recently had their first baby; a boy, so naturally I wanted to make them a quilt for the baby.  This was the perfect opportunity to use up that cute farm animal fabric I had been saving. I cut up squares and used strips I had left over from another baby quilt and patched it all together in a hap-hazard way.  I think it turned out very well.  What do you think?

Here, I am trying different layouts for the strips.

How cute is this fabric?

Here you can see the meandering quilting I had a professional quilter do on it. I have basically given up trying to machine quilt on my machine.

Here it is, bound, backed and ready to love.  I found this cute flannel farm animal fabric that just happened to work perfectly with the colours.

Another happy quilt for another happy baby.

Happy sewing,

Rosie

Great find at Harrods in London

Hi all:

My trip to England was fantastic!! I spent 1 week in London and 1 week travelling throughout the rest of England. It was beautiful and even better than I had expected.

Of course a trip to London would not be complete without a stop at Harrods. I was beyond ecstatic to see all that Harrods had to offer. The displays were stunning, the decor was beautiful and the experience was beyond belief!!!  I want to go back to London just to go back to Harrods.

You can imagine how thrilled I was when I saw this little beauty sitting and waiting for me on display at Harrods.  I wanted to bring back something from London that said " I've been to London" and this was the most perfect thing I could imagine.  Better yet, it was on sale for only (dare I confess) £20.00 and the matching wallets were on sale for £7.50.

Pink patent leather.  How yummy!!!

I am swooning as I type this.  I am sure you will too.

Pip, pip, cheerio and all that!!

Rosie

Preserved Fresh Garlic

Hi all:

As the long days of summer are winding down, it is now time to preserve all those fresh fruits and vegetables we have gathered over the past few months.

My friend Margaret, who is Polish, is very like-minded to me:  we both love to cook, try new recipes and make things from scratch. I come by those traits honestly as well, having an Austrian background. Growing up, my mother made most things from scratch, including bread and strudel; no wonder I love baked items so much!  Margaret and I can spend hours chatting all summer long about dumplings and soups and cheeses and goulashes so when she said she was going to "put up" her Russian garlic, I just had to get the scoop and try it myself.

She enlightened me a few weeks back, about the nasty garlic showing up in our supermarkets.  I had realized myself a couple of years ago, that "Gee, why is garlic so cheap right now?" I shrugged and carried on and used the garlic I had always used.  Well, Margaret schooled, that garlic is sometimes grown in very nebulous conditions, thus the low cost. She elaborated and let's just say that the growing conditions and untreated fertilizers used, would be more suited to that found in a barnyard. Aghast, I did some research and sure enough, there was enough information out there to change my garlic habits forever. Moral of the story:  use fresh, local garlic when you can and avoid the white, cheap garlic grown elsewhere, that is readily available.

Up at the cottage, where it is hot and dry, there grows an abundance of local Russian garlic (the red kind) and Margaret now preserves this garlic for future use. It is quite expensive to buy fresh (between $9.99-$12.99/ pound) but if you preserve it like this, you can ensure you have garlic all year long. No more running to the store in a panic, to pick up "that other garlic".

I tried Margaret's method for the first time and here is what I did.  I will let you know how it turns out although she swears by it and often gives it away as gifts to friends and neighbours as well.  It is quite simple really: chop the garlic, add oil, then freeze.

Smash each clove with the flat side of your knife, to remove the peel.  Be careful here!

Margaret's Preserved Garlic Method

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Fresh local garlic

Good quality olive oil

Canning jars with lids - any size (I used the smallest I could find)

I washed then sterilized 4 small Mason canning jars and lids for about 15-20 minutes. While they were boiling, I peeled and chopped 4 large heads of Russian garlic. I used 1 whole head of garlic for each small Mason jar. I chopped the garlic medium fine and added it to the sterilized jar. I then added enough olive oil to cover the garlic completely and then added the sterilized lids and rings.  Cool for several hours, then put into the freezer for future use.  I believe Margaret said it should last for about 1-2 months in the fridge, once opened.

That's it!!  So simple. I look forward to no longer running out of garlic or finding my last clove is dried out. How many times has that happened? You are sure you have garlic in the fridge, but when you reach for it, you realize it is drier than a witch's toenail!?

Let me know if anyone tries this and what you think.  I will pass on the comments to Margaret.

Happy canning,

Rosie

Graduation at last!

Hi all:

Well, I finally made it through graduation! After 6 long, gruelling years of daily practice, homework, (pulling my hair out) studying, reading etc., I have officially received my Diploma of Performing Arts - Music. I am thrilled that I can now say that I went to music school.  It has always been a dream of mine and now I have finally realized it.  I am sure my family is equally as thrilled, to no longer have to listen to me practice sight-singing or trying to identify harmonic compound intervals.  That was one tough class!

My next goal is to teach the trumpet to students and I will now send my resume off to various music schools and hope that something comes my way. Thus begins a new chapter in my life. I will continue to play in my jazz band and hopefully teach students during the day. If I can figure out how, I would like to post a recording of a rehearsal of my final jury piece that I performed. It was the first movement of Hummel's Trumpet Concerto - standard trumpet repertoire. I found I had the most difficulty with the ornaments; the turns and mordents. The lip busting ending from bar 270 onwards, was not difficult - just a lot of fun to play. I enjoyed that part but I did find I sometimes ran out of air at the ending of bar 299. I opted to not  play the half note G in bar 294, but rather took a big gulp of air there so I could continue to the end.  It was challenging, but very fun to rehearse and learn. Anyways, if you are unfamiliar with this piece, I urge you to find the performance played by Ryan Anthony and listen to it. This was the version on the CD that accompanied my music score. I believe Wynton Marsalis also recorded it.

Well, until my next post, have a great rest of the summer.

Rosie