While sipping said amazing cocktail (and then wanting another), I realized that we never posted our favorite jam recipe. So here it is – blueberry lime jam + blueberry bramble cocktail. It’s also awesome as the filling in a coconut layer cake . . . → Read More: Blueberries for Morning and Night]]> I had planned to post a delicious way to use up all those CSA greens, but then Erik met a friend for a drink last night and I made myself a post-baby-bedtime cocktail.

While sipping said amazing cocktail (and then wanting another), I realized that we never posted our favorite jam recipe. So here it is – blueberry lime jam + blueberry bramble cocktail. It’s also awesome as the filling in a coconut layer cake or stirred into yogurt (especially homemade!). Enjoy.

NOTE: In the interest of brevity, I haven’t included detailed canning instructions. See our post on canning for more details on the canning process and safety. If you haven’t canned before, this is a good one to start with, because it’s just as good as a syrup, so you really can’t mess up on the gelling stage.

Blueberry Lime Jam

Makes about 10 quarter-pint (4 ounce) jars

Directions

1. Prepare your jars, lids, bands, and equipment.
2. Put a couple of small dishes in the freezer. You’ll see why…
3. Put all the ingredients into a big pot – the wider, the better – and boil until gelled, stirring occasionally. A wide pot will help this happen faster than a narrow one, but it could take about 20 minutes of boiling. Be careful to keep the boil under control – stirring more frequently as time goes on will help with this; sugar boils up and out of the pot quickly and can cause nasty burns.

   To test for gelling, put a teaspoon of jam on one of your freezer plates and return to the freezer for a minute or two. If you can draw a clean line through the jam after this short stint in the freezer, it’s ready. (See our vanilla rhubarb jam post for a photo)

4. Fill your jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace
5. Process for 10 minutes.

Now for the fun part – 1 ounce lemon juice, 1-2 ounces vodka or gin, 1 tablespoon jam, and finish with ice and seltzer. Mmmmmm….

Smoothies are an easy way to cram more veggies into your day. A little fruit covers . . . → Read More: How to Make a Winter Smoothie with Local Ingredients]]> In the winter, I usually crave hot breakfasts. Oatmeal with applesauce and peanut butter, eggs of all sorts, or pancakes. Recently, I haven’t been eating particularly well, so I’ve been trying to get a little “insurance” at breakfast to make up for the Pad Thai at lunch and burger, fries, and a shake at dinner. Yep. That was yesterday.

Smoothies are an easy way to cram more veggies into your day. A little fruit covers up the healthy taste and if the green color bothers you, just avert your eyes. This has become my go-to recipe, but you can make some tweaks if it’s not sweet enough for you. Add a tablespoon of maple syrup or use a whole peach/banana instead of half.

We don’t have a fancy blender…although I really really really want one, I can’t justify the crazy price. There’s an easy technique for making a good smoothie with a normal blender. Check out this video from Good Eats – the technique info starts at about 4:22.

My blender has four speeds. I run it on the first until the vortex starts, then each higher speed for one minute. If a bubble forms, I turn off the blender, give it a little shake to encourage the “burp”, then turn the speed back up. It takes about 4 minutes of blending, but that’s enough time to put away the ingredients and make a cup of tea.

If you want to get crazy, add half an avocado to the mix. We ordered a box of them from California Avocados Direct, a responsible family farm, and were blown away.

Local Winter Smoothie

Makes 1 large smoothie

Directions

1. If you are organized and want to be like Alton Brown, prep your smoothie the night before. Put everything except the ice cubes into the blender (in order) and stash it in the fridge. In the morning, add the ice and blend, following the directions above. Make sure all the spinach/kale blends in. Sometimes a leaf or two will stick to the side. This is a great way to have a nice smoothie even on a busy morning.
2. If you, like me, are usually not that with it at bedtime, make your smoothie when you’re ready to eat it. Add all the ingredients to the blender (in order) and blend, following the directions above. It might take a little longer for the vortex to form, because the fruit is still frozen, but you can get it going by stopping the blender and smushing the spinach/kale down toward the blades. When you start up the blender again, the smoothie should start moving. It might take a couple of tries. If it’s really giving you trouble, add a little more water/juice/milk. It’ll thin out your smoothie, but usually does the trick.

Dad! Don’t read this post until Sunday!

My dad has many amazing qualities. He can make a game out of anything – including rolled up socks, the packing material from our new blinds, and a big bucket leftover from some construction project. Incidentally, bucket rides also illuminated one of my mom’s best qualities – trusting that her husband wouldn’t put her kids in the hospital and letting us have some crazy fun.

Dad . . . → Read More: Father’s Day Breakfast Idea: How to Make Homemade Pop Tarts]]>

Dad! Don’t read this post until Sunday!

My dad has many amazing qualities. He can make a game out of anything – including rolled up socks, the packing material from our new blinds, and a big bucket leftover from some construction project. Incidentally, bucket rides also illuminated one of my mom’s best qualities – trusting that her husband wouldn’t put her kids in the hospital and letting us have some crazy fun.

Dad will also support me no matter what – even if it’s listening to me hyperventalate on the phone because I spotted a mouse in my first solo apartment or eating a weird vegetarian meal I cook for him. Oh sure, he’ll eat kale for breakfast to make me feel good, but what does he really want? PopTarts and Diet Pepsi. If you were ever in his car before he retired, you know what I mean. Crumbs and cans galore! Might not be Wheaties, but it’s certainly the breakfast of one of my biggest champions.

So for Fathers’ Day 2012, I give you bacon and jam toaster tarts. Make them for the dad in your life or for yourself, just cuz it’s Sunday and breakfast should be fun sometimes. I froze these and then sent them overnight. Just take one out of the freezer and pop it in the toaster, Dad. Love you!!

Some quick notes on the recipe…First, the dough is almost exactly the same as my standard pie crust with extra salt and sugar for flavor. I also added a splash of vinegar to the water on the advice of my friend Mike, who says it will lend extra flakiness. Second, this is a great way to use up some of last year’s lingering jams. Nothing on the larder shelves caught my fancy, so I made a quick strawberry rhubarb jam from what I had around. Store-bought jam is just fine, too.

Fathers’ Day Toaster Tarts

Makes 10 tarts

Directions

1. Follow these directions to make dough for a double crust pie, adding the vinegar to the ice water and the sugar and salt to the dry ingredients. After you’ve put the dough in the refrigerator, come back to this recipe.
2. While the dough is chilling, make the icing by combining the confectioners’ sugar with 2 tablespoons of water. Whisk until smooth.
3. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
4. To roll the dough, you need a decent amount of space. We’re aiming for a rectangle that’s 15 inches on one side and 8 inches on the other, so you’ll need to roll your dough a little bit larger to account for uneven edges. Find your counter, clean it, and lightly flour it. Keep some flour on hand for the rolling process.
5. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
6. Take one of the dough halves out of the refrigerator. Prepare your filling, so that it’s ready to do when the dough is. Beat the egg and have a pastry brush nearby. If you don’t have a pastry brush, you can use your fingers, but it’s slower.
7. Now, roll out the dough carefully. This is one of those situations when it really helps to be a bit nuts about neatness. Do your best to keep it in a rectangle twice as long on one side as the other. I use a bench scraper to push the ragged edges flat and to help me flip the dough around every few rolls, so that it doesn’t stick to the counter. Use that flour when you need it.
8. Once your dough is large enough, use a ruler and a thin knife to measure and cut a 15-inch by 8-inch rectangle. Don’t worry about moving it yet.
9. Along each of the 15-inch sides, make a little mark with the knife every three inches. Use the ruler and the knife to connect the marks, so that you now have five long rectangles (8 inches by 3 inches). Again, don’t move anything.



10. Using the pastry brush, paint all the edges with egg wash.



11. Place about a teaspoon of filling on one the end of a rectangle. Fold the dough in half to cover the filling and transfer the tart to the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining four tarts.



12. Seal the edges of each tart with your fingers, then use the tines of a fork to crimp them. Poke a few holes in the top of each tart with the fork.



13. Brush or drizzle some icing over each tart. Don’t worry about being too neat. You won’t notice once they’re baked.



14. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly brown. Just like the real thing, you will finish these in the toaster. If you want to eat them immediately, bake them for about 10 minutes longer.



15. Store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Sunday nights are for Game of Thrones in our household. I don’t know about you, but I always want to order dinner on special TV nights. Whatever your show is, there’s something ritualistic about waiting for the doorbell to ring and then curling up on the couch with a fork and a pile of delicious, but kind of bad for you, food. A gigantic salad just doesn’t do it for me while I’m watching . . . → Read More: Why Buy? D-I-Y! Chinese Takeout Edition]]>

Sunday nights are for Game of Thrones in our household. I don’t know about you, but I always want to order dinner on special TV nights. Whatever your show is, there’s something ritualistic about waiting for the doorbell to ring and then curling up on the couch with a fork and a pile of delicious, but kind of bad for you, food. A gigantic salad just doesn’t do it for me while I’m watching intrigue unfurl.

To stay strong against the temptation of the stack of delivery menus this week, I searched through my recipe collection to find something new and tantalizing. Mission accomplished! I LOVE Chinese food, but have been avoiding it due to some migraine issues. I’m also a big fan of scallops – or fishy marshmallows, as Erik calls them. Chinese food + scallops + spicy + some greens (so you don’t feel too bad) = General Tso’s scallops! Delicious enough that I might have to make them again next Sunday. Unless our copy of A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook arrives by then.

There are two things that might scare you off from this recipe.

First – Shouldn’t we be avoiding seafood? Mercury and overfishing and all? The Environmental Defense Fund says that scallops are low in contaminants, so we can eat more than four meals a month without concern. It recommends bay scallops (the small ones) over sea scallops (the marshmallow-sized ones), because the usual harvesting method is less harmful to the environment. Sea scallops are still “ECO-OK”, though.

Second – You seriously want me to fry those things three times? Yes, I do. Here’s the problem. If you use a low temperature for long enough to cook them through, they’ll be really greasy. If you cook them only at the high temperature, they’ll burn before they finish cooking. This is a worthwhile compromise. I was skeptical too, but it was really much easier than I expected. Just make sure that you have a thermometer that goes up to 400 degrees and everything is ready to go before you start frying. The oil heats up pretty quickly, since it’s not very deep. (If you don’t have a wok, use your widest pot.) Since each cooking time is short, it’s really no more work than stirring a pot for 5 minutes. Things move pretty quickly once you start frying, which you can take advantage of if you’re well-prepared beforehand.

Okay, one more thing. Our recipe calls for kale flowers, which you might not be able to find. They’re just the flower buds from overwintered kale, but we hadn’t seen them before this season. They taste kind of like broccoli rabe, but less bitter. If you can’t find them, feel free to use broccoli (which the original recipe calls for anyway) or broccoli rabe. You could also just leave it out.

Beware! The original recipe from The New York Times calls for marinating the scallops for six to eight hours. We didn’t overlooked that and only did it for three. Still delicious.

General Tso’s Scallops

Serves 4

Directions

1. Make the marinade by mixing the egg, 1 1/2 TBsp of rice wine, 1 tsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp sunflower oil, and 1/4 cup of cornstarch in a medium bowl. Add the scallops; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 3 to 8 hours.
2. When you are ready to cook, make the sauce by combining in a small bowl 1 TBsp of rice wine, 2 TBsp of soy sauce, the chicken stock, sugar, and white vinegar.
3. In another small bowl, mix the arrowroot powder with 1 1/2 TBsp of warm water until it dissolves.
4. Put the remaining 1/2 cup of cornstarch in a wide bowl (I used a small casserole dish). Remove the scallops from the marinade with a fork, giving each a little shake to remove the excess liquid. Toss the scallops in the cornstarch so all sides are coated.
5. Add 4 cups of peanut/safflower oil to your wok or large pot. Set a colander or strainer over a large bowl. You will fry the scallops three times. Start heating the oil on high and check the temperature every few minutes. Once it comes up to the right temperature, carefully put the scallops into the oil and start the timer. After the time has elapsed, remove them with a spider or slotted spoon and allow them to drain in the colander while the oil heats up to the next temperature.

   

   • Stage 1: 280 degrees for 30 seconds (shake off the excess cornstarch before adding the scallops to the oil)

     

   • Stage 2: 350 degrees for 20 seconds

     

   • Stage 3: 375 degrees for 45 seconds

     

6. Once the scallops are fried three times, turn off the heat. Pour the oil into another pot so that it can cool. If you want, you can filter the oil through a coffee filter and reuse it. Wipe any remaining little bits out of the wok with a paper towel. 
7. Get the sauce, dissolved arrowroot powder, dried peppers, garlic, ginger, scallions, balsamic vinegar, and sesame oil ready and near the wok. It’s go time! Be careful about breathing in the aromas coming off of the wok. The spiciness can irritate your nose and lungs, so just don’t hang your head over it.
8. Put the wok back on high heat. Once it’s hot, add 1 TBsp of peanut/safflower oil. Swirl it around the wok and then pour out all but 1 tsp. 
9. Add the chili peppers to the wok. Stir them around until they start to burn. 
10. Add the garlic, ginger, and scallions. Stir for about 10 seconds. 
11. Add the sauce, stirring until it boils (which might be immediately). 
12. Give the dissolved arrowroot powder a stir and then pour it in. Stir until the sauce thickens (which might be immediately). Turn off the heat. 
13. Add the scallops and steamed kale flowers to the wok and toss to coat. Add the balsamic vinegar and sesame oil and stir.

      

14. Serve with rice. Eat on couch. Stare at TV. 

Here’s one more root vegetable recipe before we switch over to asparagus and salad greens. I clipped this out of a New York Magazine while we still lived in NYC, because we occasionally shopped at Windfall Farms. I also don’t really have any good rutabaga recipes, other than our standard roast-everything-in-a-pan method. “Hold on there, Lindsay”, you might say, “The title of this post says ‘turnip’ not ‘rutabaga’.” Yes, observant reader, it is actually . . . → Read More: Gilfeather Turnip Casserole]]>

Here’s one more root vegetable recipe before we switch over to asparagus and salad greens. I clipped this out of a New York Magazine while we still lived in NYC, because we occasionally shopped at Windfall Farms. I also don’t really have any good rutabaga recipes, other than our standard roast-everything-in-a-pan method. “Hold on there, Lindsay”, you might say, “The title of this post says ‘turnip’ not ‘rutabaga’.” Yes, observant reader, it is actually a rutabaga, but Mr. John Gilfeather thought it was a turnip. Also, Jerusalem artichokes are neither Israeli nor artichokes. What can I say? Vegetable identity crisis.

The Gilfeather turnip is a Slow Food Ark of Taste product, which makes it worth seeking out. The Ark of Taste program finds and protects endangered flavors – those beloved by old-timers, but threatened by industrial agriculture. Just for fun, here are some other Ark of Taste products from the Northeast.

• Bay scallops
• Boiled cider (used as a sweetener)
• “Old-Type” Rhode Island Red chicken
• Shrub (okay, not technically a Northeast thing, but a new favorite of mine)
• True Red Cranberry bean

Kind of makes me want to make an Ark of Taste bingo game…

Back the to rutabaga! It looks like a big white turnip, but is a little milder with less of a bite. Originating in southern Vermont, it’s even more local to us now that we’ve moved to Boston, so I was delighted to find one in one of our last CSA pick-ups.

This would make a great light lunch, but we cooked up some sausages to make a more substantial meal. It was nice and fluffy, like mashed potatoes, but with a more complex flavor – just enough peppery-ness.

Gilfeather Turnip Casserole

Serves 4 as a side or 2 as an entrée

Directions

1. Peel the rutabagas and chop them into cubes. Try to make the chunks close in size, so that they all cook in the same amount of time.
2. In a medium pot, add the rutabagas, a pinch of salt, and enough water to cover. Boil until the rutabagas are soft, about 30 minutes.
3. Once the rutabagas are soft, drain them and allow them to cool for a few minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
5. Put the rutabagas, eggs, milk, salt, spices, and flour into a food processor and process until smooth. If you don’t have a food processor, you can mash everything by hand, but I’d recommend mashing the rutabagas until they’re smooth first, then the eggs (one at a time), then the rest. This will help you get all the chunks out.
6. Rub just a little of the butter on the bottom and sides of a 1-quart soufflé dish. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish.
7. Use a fork to mash the remaining butter into the bread crumbs and sprinkle it over the top of the rutabaga mash.
8. Bake for an hour or until the buttery crumbs are nicely browned.

Looking at that photo, I think that it would be a really pretty side for dinner guests if it were baked in individual ramekins. It’s not terribly attractive sunk down in that big soufflé dish (we don’t have a 1-quart one, so I used what we had).

Our winter CSA gave us SO many potatoes this winter. All sorts of varieties and colors, too. I’m not sure why, but potatoes are never top of mind when I’m meal planning. I’ll be better prepared next winter, but I let too many of them spoil this year. Does anyone have a good method for storing them? We’ve tried lots of things, but without success.

Anyway…we had two paper sacks of potatoes (some purple . . . → Read More: Working Through the Potato Bags: Potato Peanut Curry]]>

Our winter CSA gave us SO many potatoes this winter. All sorts of varieties and colors, too. I’m not sure why, but potatoes are never top of mind when I’m meal planning. I’ll be better prepared next winter, but I let too many of them spoil this year. Does anyone have a good method for storing them? We’ve tried lots of things, but without success.

Anyway…we had two paper sacks of potatoes (some purple and some white) and a couple of random sweet potatoes. The purple ones were starting to sprout and the sweet potatoes were drying out. Never fear! Curry is here! Super delicious, super easy curry, that is.

This recipe is from Wildly Affordable Organic by Linda Watson, the genius behind Cook for Good. Erik and I tried to take the Cook for Good Challenge a couple of years ago, but had to bail due to some unexpected business travel. We got some great recipes out of it, though. This is one of them and I’d definitely recommend it for the night you get home late from work and are tempted by the takeout menu. It only takes about 25 minutes and is made from ingredients you probably have already.

This is filling enough that I don’t think rice is necessary, but put some on before you start the curry if you want it.

Potato Peanut Curry
From the book Wildly Affordable Organic by Linda Watson. Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2011. www.dacapopresscookbooks.com

Serves 4 (or 3 if you’re really hungry)

Directions

1. Dice the potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes.
2. In a medium pot, add the potatoes, tomatoes, water (or water/tomato juice mixture), and salt.
3. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, turn down the heat so that it simmers gently.

   

4. While the potatoes are cooking, chop the garlic finely. You could also put it through a garlic press, but I prefer to mince it with a knife, since I already have the cutting board out.
5. Put the garlic, vegetable oil, tahini, peanut butter, and cayenne pepper into a microwave-safe bowl. (Note: I accidentally put the turmeric in, too, which I wasn’t supposed to do. It turned out great.) Microwave on medium-high (80%) for two minutes.

   

6. Add the turmeric to the tahini-garlic mixture, if you didn’t already, and stir it into the cooking potatoes.
7. Let the curry continue to simmer until the potatoes are tender. This will take about 15 minutes, if you made the tahini-garlic sauce at an average speed, or 5 minutes, if you, like me, had to run to the store for tahini you though you had, but didn’t.
8. Garnish with a little sprinkle of parsley. I think this would be good with a dollop of yogurt, too.

The final week of the Dark Days Challenge is focused on breakfast. We’ve done a bunch of breakfast posts, so we were a bit stumped. I wanted to do another baked good, but didn’t want to split two dozen muffins or a whole coffee cake with Erik over the next two days. Yogurt and granola parfait with strawberries? I just couldn’t decide. So then I forgot all about it… ….until this morning. I was . . . → Read More: Dark Days Challenge: Breakfast]]>

The final week of the Dark Days Challenge is focused on breakfast. We’ve done a bunch of breakfast posts, so we were a bit stumped.

I wanted to do another baked good, but didn’t want to split two dozen muffins or a whole coffee cake with Erik over the next two days.

Yogurt and granola parfait with strawberries? I just couldn’t decide. So then I forgot all about it…

….until this morning. I was out for a run in the beautiful almost-spring weather and remembered. Dang it! So here’s what I had for breakfast – two poached eggs on leftover mixed green salad with sunflower thyme pesto. Completely local, but maybe not breakfast-y enough for some people. It totally hit the spot for me, though. Maybe I’ll have a muffin for lunch to even things out.

Many of our friends have had babies in the last couple of years. We’re really lucky to have this amazing group of kids to play with and moms and dads to admire. They’ve given me quite a bit of food-related knowledge. For example, if it falls on the floor, it is either totally contaminated (first kid) or fine after you shake off the dog hair (second kid).

I’ve also learned that one of . . . → Read More: Why Buy? DIY! How to Make “Hot Pockets”]]>

Many of our friends have had babies in the last couple of years. We’re really lucky to have this amazing group of kids to play with and moms and dads to admire. They’ve given me quite a bit of food-related knowledge. For example, if it falls on the floor, it is either totally contaminated (first kid) or fine after you shake off the dog hair (second kid).

I’ve also learned that one of the best things you can give parents of a newborn is food that can be eaten with one hand. Since we really like these “haute” pockets (shmancy, huh?), we figured they’d be an awesome food gift for our friends who just had their second daughter…especially since their first child is only a year old. Heroes!!

This recipe does take a little bit of time, but it makes six good-sized pockets, enough for almost a week of lunches. They’re sturdy enough to toss in your purse (maybe wrapped in one of these cute food cozies) and taste just as good at room temperature as they do warm. I haven’t tried it, but I’m sure you could freeze and reheat them like the real thing (2 minutes in the microwave or 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven).

In my quest to convert you to the DIY version, I tried to look up comparable nutrition information. I gave up. They’re all so meaty and cheesy that it’s not a fair contest. You could fill this dough with whatever you want, though, so if you have a favorite flavor, give it a try!

Greens-Stuffed Haute Pockets

Serves 6

Directions

1. To make the dough, add the yeast to 1/2 cup of room temperature water. This will dissolve the yeast so that it’s ready to work.
2. Whisk together the flour, 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt, and sugar. This is sort of a lazy girl’s version of sifting.
3. Whisk together one egg and the olive oil. Add this and the dissolved yeast to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until it forms a shaggy (i.e. dry) dough.
4. Dust a clean counter with flour and dump out the dough. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes until becomes nice and smooth. It shouldn’t be sticky, so knead in a little more flour if it is.
5. Pour a drop of olive oil into a clean bowl. Form the dough into a ball, put it in the bowl, and roll it around in the oil. Cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rise for an hour or until it has approximately doubled.
6. While the dough is rising, get a big pot of water boiling. While it’s heating up, prepare your greens by removing the stems/ribs.
7. Once the water is boiling, blanch the greens. To do this, add a couple of big handfuls of greens to the water and cook for 3 minutes (only 1 minute for spinach). Don’t crowd the pot too much. While the greens are cooking, fill a big bowl with ice water. Once the time is up, shock the greens (stop them from cooking) by transferring them from the pot to the ice water. Use tongs or a spider to let most of the hot water drain off first. Once the greens are cool, drain them well.
8. Once all the greens are blanched, shocked, and drained, squeeze the pile with your hands to remove most of the water. Then, roll up the greens to a dishtowel that you don’t really care about and wring out some more water. Avoid white towels, because they’ll turn green. The idea is to get rid of as much water as you can so that the pockets aren’t soggy.
9. After you’ve squeezed and squeezed, you’ll have a loaf of compacted greens. Chop this up into about 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Set aside until the dough has risen.
10. Once the dough has risen, put the ball on a lightly floured counter and cut it into six equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball and let them rest on the counter for 15 minutes. This will relax the dough so that it doesn’t spring back when you roll it out.
11. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
12. While the dough is resting, beat the second egg and add almost all of it to the greens. Save about 2 tablespoons. Add the garlic, cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper to the greens and mix well. I like to use a fork, because it helps to break up the clumpy greens. Plus, I just used it to beat the egg, so it’s already dirty.



13. After 15 minutes, roll one of the dough balls into a circle approximately 7 inches across (that’s about the size of my hand). If you keep your counter floured and rotate the dough after each roll, you’ll keep it from sticking and get a better circle.
14. Lightly pack the greens mixture into a 1/2-cup measuring cup and turn them out onto the bottom half of your dough circle. You might need to use a slightly larger or smaller cup, depending on the volume of your greens. Using the reserved egg mixture, brush a little onto the bottom edge of the circle. You could use your finger if you don’t have a brush. Stretch the top of the circle over the greens to meet the bottom edge. Fold and crimp the edges together. The egg will help glue the pocket shut.
15. Transfer the pocket to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or lightly dusted with cornmeal and repeat with the other five dough balls. Three pockets will fit on each sheet pan. Brush the pockets with the remaining egg for a nice, shiny finish.
16. Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through for even browning.

Taza Chocolate makes really SOLE-ful chocolate, if you’ll allow me that somewhat . . . → Read More: Somerville’s Own Taza Chocolate]]> My parents came to visit in December and it was so so cold. My plans of wandering around the city were squashed. We didn’t even want to walk to the nearest bus stop. But d’y'know what’s nearer than the nearest bus stop? A CHOCOLATE FACTORY! For serious. Where’s the closest place to get a snack? A CHOCOLATE FACTORY! Yeah, that’s how we roll.

Taza Chocolate makes really SOLE-ful chocolate, if you’ll allow me that somewhat over-used acronym. Beyond Fair Trade, Taza Chocolate is “Direct Trade” certified, which adheres to the following principles:

1. We work exclusively with certified organic cacao farms that practice sustainable agricultural methods.
2. We pay a premium of at least 500 US dollars per metric ton above the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) price on the date of invoice to the producers of our cacao beans for high quality cacao with 95 percent fermentation rates or more and dried to 7 percent moisture or less.
3. We physically visit each cacao producer or producer group at least once a year to build long-term, sustainable relationships.
4. We only buy cacao from producers using fair and humane work practices.
5. We never purchase cacao from producers engaging in child or slave labor.

Source: Taza Chocolate website

Their chocolate is Mexican-style, which has a nice gritty quality and really fruity flavor. “Gritty” might not be something you think you want in chocolate, but it’s pretty tasty. The straight-up chocolate is great, but my favorite part of Taza is all the crazy stuff, like salt and pepper hot chocolate discs. Or chocolate-covered ginger. Mmmmm….

They also make roasted cacao nibs, which are a great nut substitute. They definitely have a chocolate flavor, but it’s much subtler than chocolate chips. We remade these cranberry muffins substituting 3/4 cup of nibs for the carrots. Wicked! (I’m really becoming a Bay Stater, now, huh?)

If you want more info and live in the area, you should definitely check out their factory tour. Gena at Choosing Raw just wrote a post on them, too, so check out her site for another take on the greatness of Taza. If only they were still open, so that I could swing by for a snack…

Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a wonderful 2011. Ours was very exciting – we traveled to some interesting places (here and here), got engaged, and moved to Somerville, MA. Whew! 2012 promises to be a fun one as well. We wish you all happiness, health, and delicious food!!

After last night’s festivities, you might want to top your burnt toast with this marmalade full of vitamin C and fructose and just . . . → Read More: How to Make Clementine Marmalade]]>

Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a wonderful 2011. Ours was very exciting – we traveled to some interesting places (here and here), got engaged, and moved to Somerville, MA. Whew! 2012 promises to be a fun one as well. We wish you all happiness, health, and delicious food!!

After last night’s festivities, you might want to top your burnt toast with this marmalade full of vitamin C and fructose and just a tiny bit of whiskey. Once you slice up all the clementines, it comes together pretty quickly. If you don’t process it, you can have it ready in about an hour. It’s got a nice bittersweet flavor that would work well with rich food, if you get sick of toast – a glaze for salmon or maybe in a grilled cheese sandwich.

Hair of the Dog Marmalade

Makes 6 4-ounce jars

Directions

1. Prepare your canning tools, if you’re processing this. (Steps 3, 4, and 6)
2. Since we won’t be removing the peels, wash the clementines really well. They might be coated in wax, so give them a good scrub. Slice the clementines as thinly as you can, discarding the first and last slices and any seeds. I have a cutting board with a little moat, which is really helpful for catching the juice. If you’re using a regular cutting board, consider pouring the juice into your pot occasionally, so that you don’t lose any of it.
3. Add the clementine slices, juice, grated apple and carrot, and water to a wide saucepan. Put the cinnamon sticks and allspice berries into a tea ball or tie them up in a square of cheesecloth and add them to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil.
4. Once the mixture is boiling, stir in the sugar and lemon juice. Once the sugar has dissolved, raise the heat to high and boil hard for about 15 minutes or until the liquid has thickened considerably. I know this is a vague description, but it’s done when there’s only a little puddle of liquid at the bottom of the pan.
5. Remove and discard the spices and stir in the whiskey.
6. If you’re canning this, fill your jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace, and process for 10 minutes. (Steps 7+)