Choppin' Broccoli

Okay, I admit it, every time I make broccoli, I think of Dana Carvey in this skit....whatever happened to Dana Carvey?  Last I remembered, he was in Wayne's World....and then I can't remember the last time I've seen him around. But when I make broccoli, he is right there with me in the kitchen, as is Adam Sandler when I make sloppy joes. Man, just even hearing that youtube video once has that song burn into my brain cells for the rest of the night...you too?  It definitely cancels out the broccoli.  But anyway, tonight's post is about the broccoli I made for dinner, as recommended by my neighbor Martha.  It's from Cook's Illustrated, but I made it less fussy than how they do it.   It's great!  My son said it tasted like buffalo chicken wings, but with broccoli and he actually ate some.  

 

Stir Fried Broccoli with Chile Garlic Sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon dry sherry
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons Asian chili-garlic sauce
2 medium garlic cloves , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds broccoli , florets cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon sugar

Instructions
1. Mix water, sherry, soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch, and chili-garlic sauce together in small bowl.
2  Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just beginning to smoke. Add broccoli and sprinkle with sugar; cook, stirring frequently, until broccoli is well-browned, 8 to 10 minutes.
3  Push broccoli to sides of skillet to clear center; add remaining vegetable oil, garlic and red pepper flakesre and cook, mashing with rubber spatula, until fragrant, 15 to 20 seconds. Stir to combine garlic mixture with broccoli.
4.  Add the sauce that's in the bowl stirring constantly, until florets are cooked through, stalks are tender-crisp, and sauce is thickened, 30 to 45 seconds. Serve.

Can Jam Herbs: May Wine Jelly

As I write this post, I should make a note of the weather. Right now it's a balmy 41 degrees here in Ann Arbor, and it's my sad duty to report that I saw snowflakes flying this morning when I headed to the farmer's market. There was asparagus at the market, and a few stalks are up in my tiny little herb garden, but despite that fact, I think we've returned to winter. I took this picture outside in my flower pot of pansies. and I was shivering so bad, I am surprised I got at least one picture that looked okay. The National Weather Service has issued a freeze warning for tonight. It's a good thing that pansies can take it. Whoever called wimps a "pansy" didn't know what they were talking about!

This month's Can Jam challenge is herbs. Most everything I can contains herbs, but I wanted to try to can something I have never canned before, so I decided to try to make jelly. I'm not a huge fan of commercially prepared pectin - I like to render my own pectin with lemons and apples, but I had a box of powdered pectin left over from a canning project from a while ago that I wanted to use up. I had read about wine jellies and wanted to give one a try for my first foray into jelly making. One of the goals of Can Jam is to preserve local foods, so I looked in my garden and determined that I had some oregano up already, exactly one leaf on my sage plant, and a small amount sweet woodruff in the front shade garden, and it got me thinking about May Wine.

May Wine is a traditional German drink made in spring and drunk on May Day (May 1). It's made of a sweet wine with added sugar and some sprigs of dried sweet woodruff.   It's considered a spring tonic of sorts.  It there is something I need right now, it's a spring tonic. You might know sweet woodruff - it's a groundcover that looks like something out of some 1960s wallpaper....

See what I mean?

I have made and drunk May Wine - it tastes just like spring smells...grassy and new.  Now, how to make that into a jelly?  I could envision eating some toast and butter with some May Wine jelly in the morning for breakast, sitting out on the back deck with a pot of Roos Roast, the best coffee in the world.  I can already smell the lilacs and honeysuckle in bloom around me - the birds are singing, etc.  Where to start?  May Wine is usually made from sweet German wines, so I made a trip to my local grocery store and found this local wine and it was on sale for $8/bottle.  Pelee Island Winery Late Harvest Riesling....it's local, even though it is made in Canada.  It seems odd to call a wine made in Canada as local, but trust me when I say that Pelee Island isn't  too far south from here.    Yes, you heard me right, south.  Some parts of Canada are actually SOUTH of the U.S.  Check it out! It's true!!  Remember that old Journey song Don't Stop Believin' where there's the line about "He was just a city boy...born and raised in south Detroit"?  I'm here to tell you and Steve Perry (BTW nice leopard print top in the video, Steve!)  and the rest of Journey that there is no such thing as South Detroit - because directly south of Detroit is Windsor, fool.  That's Windsor, Ontario.   It's in CANADA...

Okay, I feel better now that I have shared that with you.   Let's get back to the May Wine Jelly.   I made the start of some May Wine by steeping about 10 sprigs of dried sweet woodruff that I stole out of my neighbor's flowerbed (mine isn't as plush as hers) in a bottle of that late harvest Riesling overnight. The sweeter the wine, the better.  The woodruff needs to be dried, or it won't properly flavor the May Wine, so I dried it simply by putting it in the microwave on high for a minute between some paper towels.  This works well for any kind of herb.   If you were going to make May Wine, you'd steep the woodruff in the wine and then sweeten the wine with some sugar and drink it on the rocks.   Since I was adding sugar to my jelly, I didn't add any to the wine. To make wine jelly, I followed a typical wine jelly recipe that included some sugar and lemon juice and boxed pectin.   Wine jellies need to be boiled a bit longer than non alcoholic based spreads because the extra boiling time concentrates the wine flavor and evaoprates a bit more of the alcohol, which can interfere with the jelly setting up.

May Wine Jelly
3 1/4 c. white wine that has been steeped in sweet woodruff, strained
1/2 c. lemon juice
1 package 1.75 oz. powdered pectin
4 1/2 c. sugar

Prepare canner, lids and jars.  In a large deep saucepan, combine wine and lemon juice.  Whisk in pectin until dissolved, and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.  Add sugar and return to a full rolling boil, stirring contantly, for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and skim off foam.   Working quickly, pour the jelly into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Wipe rim. place lid on jar and adjust bands.  Process for 10 minutes and let cool.

The verdict?   The jelly tastes really grapey, and springlike.   It's a bit sweeter than I would have liked - I don't advise messing with the amount of sugar because it is needed for the pectin to set up and I am unsure if it would do well because of the alcohol in the wine without enough sugar.   It is the easiest thing I have ever canned in my life!  I can't wait to try some more herbal wine jellies to use as glazes for meat and vegetables.   In the fall, I always have more herbs in the garden than I know what to do with.  Thank you Can Jam!
 

Breakfast sausage and egg sandwiches

My kids love a breakfast sandwich in the morning before school.   I buy high fiber English muffins, low fat cheddar, and farm fresh eggs. and I've been making my own breakfast sausage.   I cheat - I don't grind my own meat, instead I buy a pound of ground pork and mix it with a pound of ground white meat turkey to make it lower fat.  I like this Alton Brown recipe  for the spices.  Come Sunday night, I am too grumpy to mix up the spices every week, so here is the breakfast sausage spice mix I made up for the sausage spices.  I know that Alton says to use fresh herbs, but I used dried.  Here's my recipe:

1 lb. ground pork
1 lb. ground white meat turkey
4 T. breakfast sausage spice mix

Mix all ingredients together the night before - usually Sunday night for me.   Freeze half of the sausage to use next week.   On Monday morning, make 10 sausage patties and cook them all in a cast iron frying pan while drinking copious amounts of Roos Roast.   Reserve 2 patties, and put the others in the fridge to reheat for the rest of the week.  Toast 2 English muffins, top the bottom half them with a sausage patty and some cheddar.   

In the frying pan, fry two eggs to the cherubs' current egg preference (currently eggs over easy but this can and will change AT ANY TIME.  Do not expect to be warned!)  Top the sausage patty and cheese with the egg, and then top with the other half of muffin.  For the remaining days of the week, fry a couple bacon slices to render enough fat in the pan to fry the eggs, or use butter.   Heat the sausage patties made on Monday in the microwave.   Fry eggs as usual.   Repeat as necessary!  After the cherubs are done with their breakfast, sit at the kitchen table in your bathrobe and eat some toast and drink one more cup of Roos Roast.  

Contemplate the day while reading whatever it is you might be reading currently while you wait for your eldest to get out of the shower.  Yell about missing the bus to roust eldest cherub out of shower, and blow dry your own hair to drive her out of the bathroom.  Listen to shreiking while cherubs can't find jeans to wear/band instrument/missing math homework/backpack.  Threaten to have carpool partner have to drive cherubs to school and assess $10 school transport fee. 

Miraculously cherubs make the bus, use remaining 10 minutes to don engineering uniform (for women, currently it's Nine West pants in black, brown or gray, comfortable shoes, top that doesn't show too much cleavage) and don minimal amount of makeup - engineers never wear too much make up.  Survey hair grayness and determine whether you look 46 years old or not.  Decide not, pack your own backpack and meet your carpool partner to take part in yet another rousing day at the orifice. 

Kneaded Bread vs. No Knead Bread - a comparison and some camping ideas

I've been reviewing a cookbook I got out of the library called Kneadlessly Simple by Nancy Baggett.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, this cookbook might be better named "Needlessly Complicated", but it does provide some valuable insight on making breads that rely on a slow rise as opposed to kneading.   I am convinced that all around, a kneaded bread recipe is easier to make, but I'd love to use no knead breads for camping.   I can mix things up ahead of time, and leave them in the cooler for their initial rise, and then in the sun for their second rise.  I'd like to make more breads in my camping Dutch ovens this summer.   Ms. Baggett suggests that any regular kneaded bread recipe can be transformed into a no knead bread recipe by comparing it to a similar recipe in her book and adopting some of the same techniques.   So I am going to try comparing my favorite white bread recipe with one of hers in the book.   Here's how the recipes compare - the KS technique requires a little less flour an a little more water.  Using the no knead technique, all of the dry ingredients are mixed together, and then they are mixed with the wet ingredients and stired.   The dough should be stiff, but sticky.   Cover the bowl, and it can be refrigerated for a while, and then left to rise for the first time for 15 - 20 hours.   For a camping trip, I could see mixing up the dough on a Thursday night, and then refrigerating it until it was time to leave.  Then, I'd put it in the cooler, and when we got to our final destination on a Friday evening, leaving the dough in the car to rise overnight.    Then, in the morning, I'd punch it down and cut the dough in half and let half rise during the day for dinner.  I'd put the other half back in the cooler and take it out before bedtime to rise again in the car for breakfast rolls the following morning.   Similarly, one could make one loaf one day and then save the other half in the fridge to make the next day.  I am wondering if the dough could be frozen before the second rise....my guess is that it could, but I am not sure.  I'll have to experiment!

For the baking part, for the KS recipe, preheat the oven to 425, then lower the temp to 400 F. Bake for 35 - 45 minutes, until the top is nicely browned.Cover the top with foil and make another 15 - 25 minutes, or until the tem reaches 208-210 F with an instant read thermometer.    The MS recipe is about the same....For Dutch oven cookery, I found a handy trick on this website:

•   Virtually everything needs to cook at 350F, and here's the magic number 2 for Dutch oven cookery.
•  2 coals per inch of oven diameter
• place 2 more coals than the oven size on the lid, and
• place 2 less than the oven size under it.
• I have a 12 inch oven and and a 10 inch oven, so that would mean I would use 24 coals for the 12 inch oven, and then I'd put 2 more coals on top (14) and 2 less on the bottom (10)  
• To successfully brown breads, however, you must alter the cooking process for the last five to eight minutes of the traditional 25-30 minute, 350° baking time.
• Put a light coat of oil on the interior of a cool oven (including the lid), and let the rolls or bread complete their final rise in the oven prior to applying the coals.
• Place the oven on the coals with the proper number of coals on top as noted earlier. Remember: no coals directly under the center of the oven.  Putting them under the center of the oven will make a hot spot and it will burn.  They should be placed 1 inch apart in a circle under the oven.
• When there are five to eight minutes left in the cooking time, lift the lid, lightly brush the tops of the breads with butter, replace the lid, then take all the coals from under the oven and distribute them evenly on the top. With all the heat now on the lid, check the bread every couple of minutes until you think it looks perfect. After brushing the coals and ashes from the lid, remove it, tilt the oven over a bread board, and your perfect bread will gently fall out.

I can't wait for camping this summer!

No knead breads

One of the best things about being part of the Can Jam, a monthly canning challenge, is that I read the blogs of my fellow Can Jammers. A while ago, I became intrigued with a post about a yeasted banana bread on one of them, but curiously, it didn't have the actual recipe for the bread. I placed a hold on the book Kneadlessly Simple by Nancy Baggett at the library, and I got it this week. This cookbook fully exploits every facet of the no knead bread fad...i.e. using a long, slow rise with very wet dough that was widely popular in the 19th century and still popular in Europe. I have tried the famous Mark Bittman recipe for No Knead Bread and it was the first loaf of bread I have successfully ever made. I then read Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, but determined that process was going to require more refrigerator real estate than I was willing to devote to bread. In an issue of Martha Stewart Living, I saw a recipe for regular kneaded bread and decided to give a kneading a try again, and it came out wonderfully. So I've been on a veritable bread making kick for the last couple of months!

I decided to give the recipe for yeasted banana Bundt style coffee ring a try in Kneadlessly Simple. I have to say I found this cookbook really confusing to understand and the recipes not straightforward at all, despite the book's promising name. I found the recipes writing style annoying.   It was like reading Mad Libs - remember that kid's came where there's a story with blanks and you fill in the nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. to make a funny story? Same thing with these recipes - there's a formula, and ingredients and methods are plugged in repeatedly, whether it makes sense or not.   Plus, the author uses something called the "KS quotient", but she never explains what it means. I can't help my math nerdliness, but I was expecting a quotient to indicate dividing something - maybe dividing the recipe?? But then it dawned on me that the "KS quotient" was the author's way of rating how difficult the recipe is. KS stands for "kneadlessly simple". Doh! (or maybe I should say "Dough" because this is a bread making blog post). Anyway, the yeasted banana bread recipe was rated a KS quotient of "Easy".

There were many faults with the recipe as it was written - the rise times took much longer, rapid rise techniques didn't work, and there were too many optional directions.  One size doesn't fit all...I am wondering if the recipe was tested repeatedly.  Sure doesn't sound like it.  The ingredients list was strange....for example, the author lists 6 1/2 T. clover honey....seriously???? Why use tablespoons as the unit measurement?  Why not cups?  Is that half tablespoon really going to make or break the recipe? 1/4 c. is 4 tablespoons, so I just measured this out in a measuring cup and eyeballed it a smidge above the 1/4 c. line and called it a day. The end result could have been sweeter, so in my adaptation, I've goosed up the honey to a half cup. And do we really need to call out what kind of pollen the bees used to make the honey? I don't think anyone would use a unique tasting honey like buckwheat or something for baking. Why not just call it "honey"?  Also, I would increase the chocolate amount - just use the whole bag of chips.  Lastly, the author makes a big deal about using ice water in her recipes to slow down the rise. She even has a paragraph devoted to "readying the ice water". I had no idea making ice water was so difficult! Furthermore, I don't think the temperature of the water is going to make much of a difference in the end result. Her goal was to stall the rise as much as possible, but I think that ice water wouldn't do much to the rise time anyway. I've forgotten how to do the heat transfer calculation that would tell me how long it would take a cup of ice water to get to room temperature, but common sense tells me "not very long" and plus, yeast gives off a lot of heat anyway. She might have achieved a slower rise by freezing the flour instead. Jim Lahey doesn't give a hoot about the water temperature in the famous Mark Bittman No Knead Bread recipe. So, my gut is telling me don't bother with the water temperature. It won't matter. Here's the recipe with my adaptations to make the process easier to understand, and the actual processing times it took to make it. It took lots longer than the recipe implied. The recipe is a good one to start on a Friday night to eat for a Sunday morning breakfast. It would make excellent French toast for an elegant Sunday brunch!

Yeasted Banana Bundt Style Coffee Ring

3 1/2 c. bread flour
1 t. salt
3/4 t. instant yeast (look for a jar labeled "Bread Machine Yeast" in the baking aisle of the grocery store)
3 mashed overly ripe bananas
1/2 c. honey
2 T. vegetable oil
1 1/2 t. grated orange zest
3/4 c. water
2 T. butter, melted and cooled
12 oz. bag bittersweet chocolate morsels

In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt and yeast. In a stand mixer bowl, add bananas honey, oil, zest, water and butter, stir to combine with paddle attachment. Add flour mixture, and stir until combined. It will be a wet, rubbery dough. Place in a well oiled large bowl and cover and allow to rise 18 hours in a cool spot.

The next day, add the chocolate morsels, stirring with a spoon to combine. Press the dough into a 10-12 cup well oiled Bundt pan, brush the top with melted butter. Allow the dough to rise again until double....this took me about 8 hours in the microwave with the door closed. Bake in a 375F oven with the rack one notch lower than center for 25 minutes. Cover with foil and bake for another 15 minutes, or until the internal temp reaches 208- 210F. Let it cool on a wire rack. Drizzle with chocolate glaze if desired.

Later, I'll write some more about this cookbook. Despite my critique of it's style and my questioning of it's techniques, it does give great insights on how to convert any bread recipe you might have to a no knead recipe, and I think that would be very interesting to try.   I'd like to use more no knead breads this summer while camping. No knead breads would be excellent to mix up ahead of time and bake in a Dutch oven over charcoal. I can't wait for summer camping!

Best-Ever Lemon Meringue Pie

I'm posting this recipe for a lemon meringue pie that I've had great success with....it is from an old Farm Journal cookbook.   I'm always on the lookout for Farm Journal cookbooks anytime I'm at a garage sale or used book sale.   They always have great recipes in them.   This one comes from Farm Journal's Best-Ever Recipes.   The trick to this pie is that some of the meringue is mixed in the lemon filling, and it makes it more creamy, less weepy and gummy. 

Best-Ever Lemon Meringue Pie
printer friendly
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup water
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 Tablespoons butter or regular margarine
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 baked 9-inch pie shell

Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon salt in saucepan; heat to boiling. Mix cornstarch and 1/3 cup water to make smooth paste. Gradually add to boiling mixture, stirring constantly. Cook until thick and clear. Remove from heat.

Beat together egg yolks and lemon juice; stir into mixture. Return to heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture bubbles again. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and lemon rind. Cover; cool to lukewarm.

Combine egg whites and 1/4 teaspoon salt in bowl; beat until frothy. Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar, beating until glossy peaks form. Stir 2 rounded Tablespoonfuls of meringue into lukewarm filling. Pour into pie shell. Top with remaining meringue, spreading evenly.

Bake in 325 F. oven 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Photographing Food

I admit it, I hate taking pictures of food for this blog, so I avoid it at all cost.   All I have is 2 point and shoot 35 mm digital cameras, and I noticed that I hate the way they take pics of what I make.   My food looks lots better than my pictures.   I used to joke with a friend about a local guy's food blog - his pictures look like the kind of food you might make for a Halloween party, and put it in a medicine jar labeled "Brains" or "Guts".  The fact is - mine doesn't look much better.   I once knew a food blogger thant spent more time and used more equipment staging her food photos than I spent on my wedding photos!   I'd really rather spend my time cooking, thanks!  But great pictures would certainly enhance my blog.
However, recently I found these tips on NYT that I think might help me.   For one thing, natural light is alwasy better....another issue is that shots with a point and shoot camera in limited light often come out blurry.  I found both of these things out by trial and errror.   Looks like I need to move my food picture taking outside all the time.   I can't wait to try some of these ideas out.

Orangette

One of the first food blogs I ever read was Orangette, and I think Molly Wizenberg's blog is an inspiration for many food bloggers, myself included - she's been at it since 2004.   In fact, I think "Orangette" could actually be termed a phase of food blogging - the Orangette phase is when a person first becomes aware of food blogging.  Then, a would-be food blogger thinks they can do it themselves and starts writing one - many food blogs die on the vine right here.  I can't tell you how many folks tell me they have started a food blog and I dutifully add it to my reader list to watch a few posts happen and then....nothing.   I am not sure why so many bloggers don't make it past the beginning.  Sometimes, I think it might be too narrow of a focus...it is difficult to fashion an entire food blog around a short lived Weston A. Price devotion brought to a tragic end by a Twinkie binge, or a raw food diet a menopausal writer has suddenly adopted because it's a legitimate, healthy sounding way to return to the eating disorder she had when she was a teen to lose weight.  So, my advice to any fledgling food blog writer is to keep your focus broadly on food.    Because it might be entertaining to read about the Twinkie binge in a blog post.  And that's the next phase of blogging...building a readership.  Getting folks to read your blog is another phase of food blogging - I recommend telling your friends about your blog, commenting on other blogs and linking to your blog, joining blogging networks like the Michigan Lady Food Bloggers or  Tigress Can Jam or Daring Bakers/Cooks. 

Eventually, I moved on from Orangette's blog...I can't really remember why I got tired of it, but I did.  Another blog I used to read all the time was Smitten Kitchen.  However, the other day I picked up Molly Wizenberg's book about her blog called A Homemade Life, and I think I might have a clue why I stopped. The book starts out wonderfully, and I love what she writes about growing up and learning about food from her father.   However, the second half of the book is all about her new husband and how wonderful he is, and the climax of the book is her wedding day!   This is the same mistake a young Martha Stewart made in her early cooking books, too.  She always wrote these gushing things about her wonderful husband Andy, and "Mr. Wonderful" ended up leaving her for her young assistant in midlife.   So no matter how charmed a life you live, writing like that day after day ends up sounding like a braggy year round Christmas letter.   Same thing with Smitten Kitchen - I quit reading that one when all she would write about is the fabulous free vacation she received in Club Med for writing a food blog.   The recipes in the beginning of the book, before she met Brandon, are better sounding to me than the ones in the end of the book.   Despite what she considers his amazing palate, I think the recipes once he shows up on the scene aren't thing's I want to make.  Perhaps it's because he is a vegetarian, or is really particular about vinegars.   I am not sure.   However, Molly's book reminded me of the great recipes on Orangette.   I understand that together, Brandon and Molly have opened up a pizza restaurant in Seattle called Delancey and perhaps the real life experience of owning a business together will tone down the posts about how terrific Brandon is.  It's a different life once you have to work for a living, and running a restaurant is a totally different experience than cooking at home.   I am going to have to start reading it again...Molly is a wonderful food writer.

There are lots of wonderful sounding recipes in this book, but I am not sure I want to own it.  Luckily, most of the the recipes I want to try are all on the Orangette blog:

Blueberry-Raspberry Pound Cake - a great idea for this summer, when I can't figure out what to do with them all
Banana Bread with chocolate and Crystallized Ginger - love chocolate and banana together
Chocolate Cupcakes with Bittersweet Glaze - it's this recipe, but she subs yogurt in for the buttermilk and glazes them with 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted.  I think that sounds like an excellent way to top a cupcake.
Stewed Prunes - and here I thought I was the only person in the world that loved prunes!
Buckwheat Pancakes - not found on the blog, but I found it on Culinate.
Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Cake with Glazed Oranges - not the exact same recipe is on her blog, but close
Coconut Macaroons with Chocolate Ganache
Bouchons Au Thon - made from canned tuna - perfect for a day when there's nothing to eat around.
French Style Yogurt Cake with Lemon - the recipe that enticed her future husband
Roasted Eggplant Ratatouille - I can't find this recipe out there anywhere, but the trick is to roast the eggplant sliced for 30 minutes on 400 F, flipping halfway through.  It would be good to make when I'm up to my ass in tomatoes come summer
Ed Fretwell Soup - made when her dad was sick, sounds like a great winter recipe
Doron's Meatballs with Pine Nuts, Cilantro and Golden Rasins - I am always looking for more recipes that use ground meat.
Scottish Scones with Lemon and Ginger - the not too sweet kind of scone, just the kind I like!
Slow Roasted Tomatoes with Coriander - see above item reference about up to my ass in tomatoes...what to do with...etc.
Pickled Grapes - couldn't find it on Oragnette, but I found it here. If I like them, I'll figure out how to can them safely
Winning Hearts and Minds Cake - in the book she uses only regular butter, and suggests that the cake improves with freezing.