I made a sunny limequat syrup during a wild storm. A branches breaking, fences falling down, water blowing sideways kind of storm. I took the limequats off the tree when I heard the weather was coming. They’d been calling out for picking for a couple weeks, so the bad weather was a good excuse. It was also good…
If my friends know me for any one preserve, this is it. For a long time, this recipe for Meyer Lemon Marmalade was available only in an eBook I published in 2011. I stopped selling that book a while back. I decided to make the recipe available here with what I think is a handy new tip…
Over the years, I’ve read many lists of tips for bloggers. One tip that stuck with me is “Don’t apologize if you haven’t posted for a while.” I agree. It would feel terribly self-important to apologize. I don’t know about you, but there are only a few bloggers I’d miss if I didn’t hear from…
It’s been a long time since I posted here. So long that I forgot one of the main reasons I started this blog, which was to keep track of jam recipes when something turns out well. I scratched out this recipe on a scrap of paper, then I was asking myself where I should put…
At this time of year, citrus is rolling all over the Internet. Lately, I’ve seen lemons, blood oranges, and lots of kumquats. I thought I’d better get my act together and write up this recipe before all the good grapefruits turn into strawberries, as they will before we know it. (You can see from the date in the…
Last summer a friend gave me frozen plums. Enormous, icy bricks of purple, purple plums. They’d been tucked away in her freezer for quite a while, and she needed to clear them out in anticipation of moving. So this fall, when I haven’t had time to preserve a single thing, I’ve been opening the freezer…
The other day I spent hours working on an apricot thing that turned out terribly. It happens to everyone with a recipe blog: You get what you think is a great idea — in this case it was sugar-free vanilla apricot butter made in a slow cooker — and you launch into your preparations with…
My neighbor Joanne got three new hens: Cairo, Dubai, and Pauline. Joanne is getting ready to move and had sworn off new chickens, but when she saw these three babies getting trampled in an enclosure of bigger pullets, she scooped them right up. They’re curious about everything, especially Dubai, pictured above: What’s in that basket?…
This week, I got to drive down to the central coast of California to spend a couple of days in Big Sur. That meant passing through some of the best fruit and veggie growing regions in the state. More particularly, it meant bringing home four pounds of early variety Brooks cherries from a roadside stand…
I’m excited to share this new cookbook with you. Even if I weren’t personally connected with it, I’d say Hollyhock Garden to Table would be a fine addition to your kitchen resources. What’s fun for me is that I am connected with it, in three small ways: First, it is written and photographed by two…
A couple weeks ago, I got hold of my very first bergamots. Is it worth noting that spell check wants me to replace “bergamots” with “flabbergasts”? Bergamots are, in many ways, a flabbergasty citrus fruit. They are astonishingly fragrant. (You probably already know they’re responsible for the unique scent and flavor of Earl Grey tea.)…
Come July, when our too-short Blenheim apricot season arrives, I’m going to make an entire case of honeyed apricots from Marisa’s Food in Jars cookbook. Last summer, I made only four pints. I didn’t know then that I was going to give up sugar and that these apricots could serve as the base for a…