Magical Granola Dust

I think that every parent walks the line between feeding their kids healthy food and feeding their kids food that they don't have to fight with them over. With my kids being more active lately, they need more energy, and they always seem to be "staaaaaaarving". So, when I can find recipes that they enjoy that are easy and nutritious, I feel like I've hit the jackpot.

Granola dust is one of those recipes. I came across the idea from a Jamie Oliver recipe, and adapted it to better suit my kids' tastes. It's packed full of nutritional powerhouses like oats, nuts, seeds, and antioxidants, and I tried to keep the sugar down while still making it sweet enough that my kids don't feel tempted to add their own. 

I'm Baaaaaaack... And I Brought Butternut Vanilla Bean Jam!

It's been a while. I'm sorry about that. Life has been hitting hard, and actually reality has been taking priority instead of the blogosphere.

But I'm back, and I think you'll enjoy what I've got. You see, just because I haven't been blogging doesn't mean I haven't been cooking and creating! So, now I have a backlog of recipes to get out to all of you. But let's not get ahead of ourselves...

Today's recipe is one that I'm really thrilled with. Long story short, one of my littles was home sick today, and I got a little extra play time in the kitchen. I had seen a while back a picture of some pumpkin jam, and I found the idea intriguing. Today, my butternut squash called out to me instead, and I decided to throw in some vanilla beans, since I like the combo of vanilla and squash. 

Canning Cherries

I love country roads.  You just never know what kinds of goodies you'll find, hidden on those wooded bends, tucked in with the farms and streams.  The Hubs knows that if we see a farmstand on one of those country road drives, we're probably stopping.  And, trust me, he's usually glad that we do.

Such is how I came across all these fresh, sweet, delicious Michigan cherries.

Party Time - A Brainy Party!

So, if you follow me on Facebook, you might have noticed that I pretty much went off radar for the weekend, because we had a big framily (close friends and family) party for my little two...who I guess are getting to be not so little anymore.  Sigh.

My youngest two have birthdays a week apart, so we just have the party for both of them, but sometimes, deciding on a party theme is rough.  This year, my son wanted Thomas the Tank Engine, and my daughter wanted zombies.  They discussed amongst themselves and told me that they had decided that we should have a Thomas the Zombie Tank Engine Party.  Ummmm...

Yeah, I was not up to that creative challenge this time of year.  So I started showing them ideas of cool projects we could do, things that I thought they might like, and we decided on this "Use your Brain" party.  A little art, a little science, a lot of fun.

And I mean a LOT of fun!  We had so much fun, that I decided to share the activities with you here.

May's Preserve Trifecta Part Three: Honey Lavender Apricot Butter

Okay, so we've gone over the Meyer Lemon Rosemary Marmalade and the Rosemary Rhubarb Jelly from the amazing cookbook Preserving by the Pint, so that means that it's time for the last one I promised you: Honey-Sweetened Apricot Lavender Butter!

My family goes nuts for the short apricot season, and every spring, when I see those first apricots hit the markets, I know that they're going to be tough and tart, not sweet and squishy like they should be, but I almost always end up buying them anyway.  Those fuzzy little flirts.  This recipe is fantastic because even if your apricots are less than perfect, they cook down into a nice fruit butter.  The sweetness of the honey and the floral notes of the lavender round it out nicely, making it a perfect early summer spread to enjoy on your back porch.

May's Preserve Trifecta Part Two: Rosemary Rhubarb Jelly

All right, so I've already shared the Meyer Lemon Rhubarb Marmalade, and now it's time to continue on the rhubarb train with Rosemary Rhubarb Jelly, another great recipe I tried from Preserving by the Pint!

May's Preserve Trifecta Part One: Meyer Lemon Rhubarb Marmalade

Eating locally and seasonally is a hot topic these days, and while I like it in theory and the intentions behind it, it's much hard to practice than it seems on the surface.  I mean, Illinois has a relatively limited growing season, and there are just some things that will never grow here, even in our sweltering summers.  Bananas, pineapples, pretty much any citrus...if I strictly ate locally, these would be off limits.  Then there's the tricky issue of seasonality.  I try to store, freeze, and preserve as much fruit as we can hold, but there's some times when nothing will do except for some fresh blueberries, or a real strawberry.

But I do try to make the most of seasonal foods while they're here.  I'm just on the start of my canning journey.  I've been canning a couple of years, and while no one's gotten botulism yet, I still am not super comfortable with my canning skills.  Following a recipe, possibly making small alterations to the flavoring?  Cool.  Making my own up out of the blue?  No way, Jose.  Enter Preserving by the Pint, by Marisa McClellan, a great cookbook that my family gave me for Christmas.

Nutty Sweetness...Oh, and I Made Chestnut Jam Too.

I have a thing for chestnuts.  And yes, I'm starting to realize that I say that about a lot of foods, but it's true.  Different foods are, in some ways, like books to me.  They can transport me to another place or time, bring back memories, or open my eyes to new horizons.

Chestnuts are one of those foods for me.  They always make me feel like I'm on a picnic in the European countryside, or cooking with an elderly woman in her Italian villa, or walking down the dark streets of London in winter with some roasted chestnuts to warm my cold hands, or snacking with friends in my Parisian dream kitchen (although they never snack in France, so that one is a stretch).  Those fantasies are actually a little odd, now that I think of it, because some of my favorite chestnut snacks come from the Asian market, where I can't read 90 percent of the packages, but if I see a picture of a chestnut, I will snatch it up and gobble it down.  Tiny round pancakes sandwiched with a rich chestnut jam are always the first thing I head for at the candy shop in Chinatown.  But somehow, they still feel very European to me.

Sweet and Spicy: No, Not Just Me, the Pepper Jelly Too!

We get a lot of peppers of all sorts from our vegetable CSA.  Sweet ones, mild ones, hot ones, uber-hot ones...and I'm one of those freaks who loves pepper flavor, but doesn't like crunching straight into a raw pepper.  As far as spice goes, I tend to stay on the mid-to-mild side of things as well.  I don't mind a kick, but I hate things that burn just for the spite of it.  So sometimes, when the CSA is pepper-plentiful, I get in over my head with the hot peppers.

I can grab a serrano or two and whip up some salsa, I might chop a red chili and throw it in some beef broh with onions and noodles for a warming lunch, but when I have handfuls of pepper and an hour or so on my hands, I can whip up a mean bunch of pepper jelly.  You can do it too.

Chop up some sweet peppers, about 3/4 cups chopped.  Throw them right into a one cup measure.  Then chop up some hot peppers and fill the measure to a full cup.  Keep a few seeds in there, if you want more heat.  I usually take most of them out, but I don't stress if a few find their way into the mix.  Feel free to play with the ratio, more or less spice as you like.  This is what works for me.  I had a variety of hot peppers: some Hungarian wax, some chilies, some serranos, and some...I really am not even sure.

Making the Best of Things: Green Tomato Jam

The weather's getting colder, and it's finally starting to feel like fall around here.  Which is both invigorating and depressing.  On the one hand, it's kind of a relief that the work-intensive gardening season is coming to a close.  On the other hand, I hate not being able to go out and grab something for dinner from the yard.  But, for now, I'm just doing my best to harvest and preserve whatever fresh homegrown veggies I can from my gardens.

Tomatoes are tricky things.  If it's not warm enough, they won't ripen.  And if a frost happens to hit, they pretty much roll over and die.  So, with this cooler weather, I had bunches of tiny green cherry tomatoes on my bushes, and not much hope for them.  I mean, I do love fried green tomatoes but that battering, dipping, rolling and frying is a lot of work for tomato slices that are only an inch in diameter.  My middle child, the adventurous eater and tomato snatcher, grabbed a green tomato and popped it in her mouth...and then immediately started spitting it out all over and racing for something else to get the taste out.  So naturally, I had to try it too.  They are pretty gross.  Bitter, astringent, a little sour, but not in a good way.  But then it came to me...currants, some gooseberries, things like that have those qualities too, and they make amazing jams and jellies.

I mean, what can go wrong with dumping a ton of sugar on something and cooking it down until it's a sticky, delicious mess?

Pumpkin Caramel Sauce

I know, I know.  No witty title today.  And this is going to be a short and sweet recipe as well, in many ways.

I had another post planned, but then I woke up and saw this recipe for pumpkin coconut caramel sauce in my Facebook feed.  I had to try it.

This week has been exhausting.  Today was full of obligations, and we're having a much-needed night with friends tonight, where I said I'd bring an appetizer and dessert.  Oh, and adult beverage, which I tend to always just bring along.  But I had no focus, so no plans for what those things actually were.

Pumpkin caramel sauce...over sliced apples...with assorted toppings like nuts, mini chocolate chips, sprinkles...make your own caramel apple bar!  Dessert!

Jewels in the Garden - Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

We are coming into major tomato time around these parts.

Last weekend we were away, and when we got back, I found a ton of ripe fruit on my cherry tomato plants.  Thing is, from now for at least a month, I'll probably get this much every other day.

Quick and Easy Dilly Beans

My middle child has many strengths, and many talents.  Somehow, over the last year, she has established herself as the dilly bean queen.  Her sour, garlicky, delicious specialty has quickly become legendary among our friends and family.  She's pretty proud of it, and she has been scoping out my garden waiting for the arrival of these:

And this:

The Best Things You Probably Aren't Eating Yet: Garlic Scapes

Behold the garlic scape.  Small yet mighty, beautiful but with a bite, simple in look but intense in flavor.  Garlic scapes and I were introduced through my CSA the first year we joined it, and I fell in love at first taste.

Lilacs Lilacs Lilacs

I love lilacs.  A lot of people that I know love lilacs.  I think it's hard not to.  They are purple, which is one of my 8 favorite colors.  They smell divine.  And when they appear on their bushes, you know that summer is on its' way.

My personal love of lilacs may slightly have been influenced by the town that I grew up in: Lombard, Illinois. Otherwise known as the Lilac Village.  And let me tell you, they are very VERY serious about lilacs.  Hardcore.  I'm talking a Lilac Ball, a Lilac Queen crowned, and even a Lilac Parade.  It sounds like something you'd find in a quaint country town...and it feels like it too...but it's smack dab in the middle of the suburbs of Chicago.

Drink Your Citrus!

Some of you may follow From Scratch on Twitter or Facebook, and you might remember that I was experimenting a couple of months ago with making my own limoncello and blood orangecello.  Which was one of those ideas that could either turn out awesome or a horrible failure, with very little in-between.

I'm happy to say that, at least as far as the blood orangecello goes, it was a huge success!

So, I'm proud to share my method with you, so that you too can get a delicious, orangy (or whatever flavor you decide to try) buzz from your own homemade liquor.

I started by googling "homemade limoncello".  I know, total creative genius.  But, as it turns out, there are at least 487,000 different recipes on the internet in English for "homemade limoncello".  Huh.  So, not as easy as I thought.  Some of these called for Everclear.  Which my well-stocked liquor cabinet does not have.  And I was feeling too thrifty (i.e. cheap and lazy) to go out and buy some.  We did, however, have an overabundance of vodka, as a couple of friends of ours always seem to come over with a new bottle, drink a couple of drinks, and then leave the rest at our house.  Some of the recipes mentioned that you could substitute vodka for the Everclear, so good to go there.

Jelly From the Weeds

I love that saying that talks about how you can think of a field of dandelions as a field full of weeds, or you can see it as a field full of potential wishes.  Not that I want that field to be my yard, personally, but it makes me smile to think about it when I see a field of dandelions somewhere else.

Dandelions also make me think back to high school, where they were the focus of a well-intentioned school project gone awry.  You see, in my advance literature class one year, we divided up into groups, each group was to read a chosen novel and then create their own project to present the novel to the class.  When I saw the title "Dandelion Wine", it called to me.  Baby, I was born this way. So, spearheading my group, I instigated several courses of dandelion edibles that we would serve as our final project.  This was back in the day before Google, so I was largely dependent on some Native American cookbooks hidden in our library.  We had crispy fritters made from dandelion greens and cornmeal, a lightly dressed dandelion green salad, candied dandelion flowers, and, the grand finale, our dandelion wine...which was a few bottles of sparkling grape juice that we shoved dandelion flowers into.  I mean, you can't being alcohol into school, duh.

Jammy Chicken

Some days, you just need a delicious but low-maintenance dinner.  A dinner that it's really hard to screw up. A dinner that doesn't need chopping or stirring or babysitting.  A dinner that's ready for the table in 30 minutes.  A dinner that you can make with what you already have.

Here's a dinner like that for you:

You'll need salt, pepper, some jelly or jam, some balsamic vinegar (Okay, that's probably optional...any liquid that goes well with the jelly flavor is fine.  Or even water.), pepper, and some boneless chicken breasts.  Oh, and a little oil or cooking spray to grease the dish.  That's not pictured.