Apple Butter & Jalapeno Jam Daring Cooks

John from Eat4Fun came up with a fabulous challenge for September's Daring Cooks challenge. We were presented with two recipes, one for apple butter and one for bruschetta in a jar. The challenge was to try our hand at some canning, and include at least one of the recipes that he posted.

I grew up in Pennsylvania and apple butter is a staple for the Pennsylvania Dutch. I am not Pennsylvania Dutch, they are of German descent, but in my college cottage cheese and apple butter were always on the salad bar.

I prefer my apple butter with as few additional ingredients as possible. I used golden delicious apples, apple cider, and cinnamon. I cooked the apple until they were mush and then cooked them some more, eventually adding a little cinnamon. I ended up with a jar for the refrigerator and some bags for the freezer.



I have had my eye on a jalapeno jelly. It calls for red peppers, green peppers, jalapenos, red wine vinegar, sugar and pectin. It is a simple recipe but makes two beautiful jars of jam.




The recipe is from Chevys and Rio Bravo's Fresh Mex Cookbook. It is a real fun cookbook. Sweet Hot Jalapeno Jelly

Wear gloves while you prepare the peppers.

3/4 cup chopped red bell peppers (one large for me)
3/4 cup chopped green bell peppers
1/3 cup diced and seeded jalapenos (about three large)
2-3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon freshly squeeze lime juice
6 tablespoons Certo liquid pectin.

Combine the peppers, jalapenos, sugar, vinegar, and lime juice in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Heat until warm and sugar is dissolved.

Pour the mixture in a blender or food processor and blend for 5 seconds. Return the blended mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface. Decrease the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

Stir in the pectin (follow the directions on the pectin for boiling time), increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cool. The jelly will set as it cools down. When cool, cover and refrigerate for up to 5 days.

I brought this into work and put it on cream cheese and served it with crackers. It was gone in minutes.

I grew up helping my mother can. We canned whatever was available, peaches, apples, strawberries, tomatoes. It is a science, with set rules to keep everyone safe. John did a great job incorporating those rules in his post. It was a fun challenge, I wish that I had posted on time.

Recipe-swap onion "carbonara" - Around My French Table

We have an agreement in my house. We will all tighten our belts and avoid frivolous spending in an attempt to recover from our trip to Europe. Everyone thinks it would be a wise fiscal move. We appeared to all be in agreement.

Unfortunately, I have an addiction to cookbooks. Generally, I can ignore them. I looked at a few cookbooks in a book store in Paris. Totally in French, using that wonderful metric system that I am trying to convince the United States to follow. And I was able to walk away. Pretty easily actually, since apparently although I can recall word for word some of my high school French lessons (Michelle and Anne watching TV instead of studying) I appear to have forgotten all the useful words. I am certain that I never knew the common recipe words.

There are a few things that I tried in Paris that I would like to replicate at home. We had some wonderful mussels. Actually, any time they were on a menu, I ordered them. There were some that had been broiled in cream and perhaps leeks. They are on my to do list.

I had a tart from the Salon de The that I must learn how to make.



Visions of recipes were swirling in my head. And then when we returned, I learned that Dorie Greenspan's new book around my french table was available at Amazon.com I get Dorie's newsletter so I know that I like the way that she writes. I was tempted.

I have seen the baked goods that the bloggers who are in Tuesdays with Dorie bake. They are consistently some of the most delicious looking sweets from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan and if I was a baker, I'd be in the group. But my house is almost devoid of sweet teeth.

I remained tempted. I looked at Amazon.com's page. Someone had reviewed it and had made a quiche, I have recipes for quiches, delicious recipes, I could withstand the temptation. But I bought 4" tart pans with removal bottoms instead...

Then, Gaarp at Of Cabbages & King Cakes wrote about Dorie's recipe for eggplant caviar. Who can resist eggplant? I just planted some lovely plants for our fall garden. What if I have no recipes when they are ready for harvest? So I bought the book, I caved, completely. To Gaarp's peer pressure.

What a wonderful read. Far better than the material for my master's of nursing... I could spend the day reading the cookbook.

I decided to try the recipe swap onion "carbonara." In my house, creamed onions are the sought after Thanksgiving side. These looked delicious. With onions, bacon, cream, egg, butter and Parmesan how could you go wrong?

It is an easy recipe, that started with thinly sliced steamed onions. I have never steamed onions. Mixed with the bacon and the carbonara sauce they were delightful. I am so excited. It is a beautiful book, tempting recipes, I guess it isn't the worst addiction.

Pita Bread Modern Baker

I signed up to make the pita bread in the bread section of Nick Malgieri's The Modern Baker for the Modern Baker Challenge. I have made these pitas four times, but blogging has been the real challenge.

It is the same excuse every time. I make these for dinner, I get picture of the process up to the end product. By the time we pull them out of the oven, I am putting things on the table. We sit, we laugh, we eat.... We eat them all before I photograph them.

Today I decided to make these while I was alone in the house. Emily and Tom had to go to school early this morning for a mandatory meeting on going to college. No one was thrilled to leave the house on a Saturday morning. Maybe fresh pitas for lunch will perk them up.

This is an easy recipe. The mis en place consists of flour, salt, warm water, olive oil and yeast.



The salt and flour are combined, the yeast is mixed into the water and then the olive oil is added. The liquids are combined with the flour for two minutes and then the dough rests for 10 mins.

The dough is kneaded for a few minutes, allowed to double then divided into 12 pieces.



The pieces rest and then are rolled into rounds.



The rounds rest and then are baked. I've made a batch of hummus and some tzatziki and everything is ready for lunch.

I find that I need to add an extra 1/4 cup of flour to this recipe. I also find that sometimes my pitas puff and sometimes they don't. I don't exactly know why. But this recipe is a keeper.

Soft Butter Rolls - Mellow Bakers

I have been a neglectful baker. All of my starters need attention. My cook books are lonely. My instant yeast is in the back of the refrigerator!

The summer months were whirlwinds of activity. I took my girl scouts to New England, we came back, unpacked and then my family was back on a plane to Europe. The day after we came back, I went back to work. I work as a school nurse in a middle and high school that has a large number of kids with health issues. I like to have everything organized, a complete mis en place shall we say, for the school environment. Until that is accomplished, I feel unsettled.

I started another 8week, 3 credit grad school class on Monday and was instantly overwhelmed. The first week is the roughest and then I find some kind of rhythm. I think hip hop...

The good news is, things are getting organized. At home and school. All of my starters got some attention. They all still smelled quite delicious when I took them out of storage. I love the way starters smell.

My liquid starter is quite perky. My stiff starter may need a little more tlc. My desk at work is organized. We have a three day weekend.

Lets do some baking.

Mellow bakers has three breads posted for September; cheese bread, soft butter rolls and sourdough rye with walnuts. The cheese bread and the sourdough rye need starters that haven't been languishing in the refrigerator.

The butter rolls seemed perfect. My husband was making white chili and was willing to use the butter rolls instead of corned bread as an accompaniment.

The dough came together quickly, flour, salt, sugar, yeast, egg, water, butter and dry milk. I use King Arthur's Baker's Special Dry Milk. It really think that it is better than my supermarket variety.



I made the dough in my stand mixer. It fermented for a little more than an hour. I divided the dough into 24 and formed two pans full of rolls, they proofed for only a half an hour. I cut the baking time in half because Abby's were overcooked when she checked hers and I have been finding that my oven cooks faster than Mr. Hamelman's. After 15 minutes they were done.

We enjoyed them. I have a favorite dinner roll recipe, that I got from Mags who got them from Frieda...Maybe some day I will have a bake off.

Vacation

Years ago we decided that we would try to go to Europe, with our three children, for our 25th anniversary. One of our children had a job commitment, so he could only join us for one of our planned two week adventure. Our first week was spent on the MSC Splendida. MSC is an Italian cruise line. We decided that if we were going to Europe, we were going to try to immerse ourselves in the culture. Probably 80% of the people on the cruise line were Italian, with some French, Germans, Dutch, English thrown in. We were the minority, which was fine by me.

I had never been on a cruise. I wasn't sure that I would like it. There are some definite advantages to a cruise. Every morning we woke up in a different port. We got to see five countries. You don't get to see five countries, just a little taste of them. But we have some ideas as to where we would go if we went again.

We would eat breakfast and head off. We had coffee and baked goods it a lot of towns. Our first stop was our shortest, Tunisia. The old town had some beautiful buildings but the number of people intently trying to sell you things was startling.



We went back to the ship for dinner. Dinner always including a pasta course and the risotto was amazing. Every night a different area of Italy was highlighted. We had some good food on the ship.

The next day we work up in Malta. Malta was amazing. There are forts and armor every where. Walking around Valleta was beautiful. We got a ticket to go to a couple museums.



I enjoy a museum. I may enjoy two museums. But by my third museums, I may sit in the courtyard, people watching. I may run into Rod Stewart who had performed the night before.



The next day, we woke up in Messina. We had hired a driver to take us to Castelmola and Taormina. Two picturesque towns high up in the mountains. We enjoyed strolling around and eating gellato and drinking coffee. I could retire here. Serve travelers coffee.





This is the town's public library. Could you read here?



Rome was a big day for us. The port is about 1.25 hours from Rome. We had hired a licensed driver/tour guide to show us the town. It was a whirlwind of activity. We were underground, we were above ground. In ruins, surrounded by bones. Finally, we stopped for a delicious lunch. The pasta and fish were suburb. Fish were piled in the restaurant, ready for your selection. What a lovely day.




The next day was Genoa. We hopped on a double decker tour bus and went all around town. Stopping for coffee and pastries and finally eating some pizza in the plaza by this church.



On Sunday, we went to Mass in French in Marseilles. Where has it gone, all that French that I studied?





By this point, I wanted off the ship because I knew that the next day, Joe would fly into Barcelona and we would all be together. Something that doesn't happen often it seems.





We did a whirlwind tour of Barcelona and flew to Paris to spend some time in our spacious, 500 sq ft apartment. In Texas, spacious and 500 sq feet don't go together...




I loved our apartment. Down the block from a metro stop, a open air market, a boulangerie. The ideal location for us.




We bought a museum pass... How to balance museums and foodie finds? It is a very delicate balance.





We will probably have to return to perfect the balance.

I've Been Away

80% sourdough rye with a rye flour soaker

The breads for July for Mellow Bakers include two rye breads. One of the rye breads contains rye chops. Rye chops are chopped up rye berries. I have been on an elusive search for rye berries. There is only one local grocery store left.

I actually flew to New England and searched for rye chops. OK, so the trip to King Arthur Flour store just happened to fit into my New England trip. It doesn't matter, there were no rye chops in the store. A wonderful store, filled with flour and linens and beautiful things for the kitchen. There is a bakery in the store filled with beautiful delicious goods. I am glad that it is on the other side of the country from me. They were able to suggest a place in Vermont where I could find rye chops, unfortunately, we did not have time to go exploring for whole grains.

So, I have made the 80 percent Sourdough Rye. The night before baking, you make a sourdough with whole-rye flour, water, sourdough culture. You also make rye paste, boiling water is poured on rye flour and left to soften over night.

In the morning I had a bubbly sourdough and a gooey soaker. They were combined with some rye flour, high gluten flour, water, salt and yeast. It made a sticky dough. It was allowed to ferment for 30 mins and then shaped. I needed to use a bit of flour to shape the gooey mess into two loaves. I wondered while I was working with the rye, why it always reminds me of kindergarten and glue paste. I wondered what a mud bath was like while I tried to wash it off my hands.

The loaves fermented again and then were supposedly left for 24 hours to stabilize the texture of the crumb. Except my husband came home and does not believe that any loaf should sit around unsampled for 24 hours. It is a delightful rye. Perhaps the best rye bread that I have ever made.



I saw some beautiful slashing on my travels. I stopped off at the Standard Baking Co. in Portland Maine. I really enjoyed Portland, add it onto your travel list. What a delightful New England town. The customers in the Standard Baking Co. thought that I was odd when I photographed the breads, but look at the slashing.