I landed in Los Angeles late last night, picked up a rental car, and drove to my best-friend-from-college’s apartment. As I zipped along the freeway, I felt both totally at home and entirely out of place. I was born in this city and lived here until I was nearly nine years old. I have a sense of deep, near-cellular recognition with this land and its scents (eucalyptus! dry grass! smog!). I am happy to visit (and to teach a class at The Gourmandise School on Tuesday!), but it is not my place.
After that, I fly back to Portland for all of 29 hours, spend a little time with my sister and curly-headed nephew and then back to Philadelphia. It has been a wonderful west coast book tour and I’m so grateful to all the people who had me into their store, gave me places to sleep, and came out to see me and say hi.
Now, links.
- A sweet video of strawberry picking and a recipe for easy strawberry freezer jam.
- Sweet green tomato preserves.
- Strawberry blood orange jam.
- Quick apricot pickles. Yum!
- Roasted strawberries. If you’ve never made them, do try preparing them this way. You won’t be sad.
- How to make small batches of pectin rich jelly in order to boost your set naturally.
- Fried pickles! With green goddess aioli! Talk about putting your preserves into action!
- Lacto-fermented pickled cherries. If you have access to slightly underripe cherries, I beg you to try this!
- I posted about Asian Pickles on Saturday, but you don’t just have to take my word for its greatness. Sidewalk Shoes and The Kitchn like it too.
Thanks to Fillmore Container, for hosting such a generous giveaway last week, as well as to all of you who took the time to leave a comment and share your jar longings! The winner (selected at random) is #914/Shannon. She said, “Love this website! Immediately I found this pour lid that attaches to the canning jar which is perfect for when I make salad dressings. So whether or not (which I hope so) win I will be buying this and more.”
Congratulations, Shannon!
Marisa ~ love that top photo. If only my pantry looked like that. I need to do a major overhaul. Thank you for linking to my green tomato preserves post, and for all the other delicious links ~ especially those quick apricot pickles. Definitely trying those. Cheers and happy 4th!
Congratulations to Shannon on the win.
Love them pantry shelves. Reminds me of an old country kitchen.
Every so often I need a fried green tomato fix, but you can’t buy green tomatoes in the winter. I just learned how to can a sliced green tomato that can be fried! I canned it in a Ball wide mouth Elite, using my 5th burner pot, and it took 7 minutes! Now that’s EASY! Here’s where I found the recipe:
http://www.5acresandadream.com/2011/11/canned-green-tomatoes-for-frying.html
Great idea Brenda!
Thanks Shannon, for writing about the pour spout. I am ordering that for our jars of maple syrup.
Obsessed with this image from The Pantry!
Yay Shannon, that pour spout is pretty cool, I missed that. Congratulations!
Great kitchen shelves. And I really need to make some fried pickles. Thanks for the link.
Wow!!! This is so wonderful. Thank you so much for hosting this very generous giveaway. I know what I’ll be doing tonight ~ looking through every page of the Fillmore Container website!