You’ll Never Have This Recipe, Again. [Or, Crumb Kuchen, While Women March on Washington DC]

Today’s coffee cake, Crumb Kuchen, is brought to you by the notion that you can’t go back. You will go forward, armed with the experience of kitchens past. This is a great little cake, but I can’t make it what it once was–a recipe from my mother’s college roommate, Lois Hampson, from a time when buttermilk was scarce and you’d sour milk with vinegar.

No. My cake must move forward. I take the basic ingredients and I make it my own. I like to think I’ve made it a bit better. (Truly, it’s a bit better batter.) But I’m not the only person who can make a coffee cake great. Lots of people have the same talent and wherewithal. When my family makes Crumb Kuchen, years from now, they’ll make their own version, even though they will make it because I made it before them.

You also can’t make this recipe quite the way it’s pictured because, first, I made two mistakes. When it says “a handful” of the “like pie crust” mixture, it means about 1/4 cup. I’d removed too much. Also, the original recipe assumes the baker knows you need an egg to provide structure and richness. The lowly egg creates a smoother batter (it has a magical reaction that stabilizes the air bubbles called emulsifying) and adds flavor.

I realized my omission when I couldn’t spread the batter in the baking dish. I’m that quick. So I dumped it back in the mixing bowl, added the egg, and wrote “1 egg” on my recipe card’s ingredient list. I’d lost the first round of crunchy topping, but I’d miraculously kept a precious bit, which ultimately made a better crumble.

People do that: make mistakes. No one’s perfect. Not one person. No matter how great they think they are, they are just lowly human beings. I repeat: no one can fix everyone’s mistakes. It’s called “delusions of grandeur.” Or narcissism.

I hope the younger people in my family realize that the only way to get a good coffee cake is (1) to actually push your sleeves up and try to make one, (2) to read a recipe that reflects the combined experience of the cooks who came before, and (3) there’s no god-like baker who will deliver to them the perfect cake. You can’t just yell, “Make coffee cake great, again!” They need to believe they can and make their own.

Cake one bakes oneself tastes better, anyways.

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Crumb Kuchen
~Original Recipe: Lois Hampson | Adapted by Jeri Preston
Ingredients in bold font below.

First:
>Preheat oven to 325º.
>Add 1 T. apple cider vinegar (or white) to 1 c. whole milk to curdle. Set aside.

Next:
In large bowl, add
2 c. unbleached flour
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. chopped pecans (or walnuts)
3/4 c. chilled butter, cut in tablespoons
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. allspice
>Cut, as you would pie dough. (If you have no experience making your own pie, a pastry cutter run through your ingredients should cause them all to crumble together and form clumps the size of peas. You can also “cut” with a fork, if you’re kitchen accessory poor.)
>Set aside 1/4 – 1/3 c. of the crumbly mixture.
>Add
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder

Next:
>Lightly beat 1 egg with a fork until broken.
>Add egg and curdled milk to all dry ingredients. Beat 2-3 minutes on medium speed.

Bake:
>Butter or use baking spray on 9 x 13″ baking dish.
>Pour in batter. Spread w/ spatula if necessary.
>Sprinkle on previously saved crumble mixture.
>If desired, additional chopped nuts can be sprinkled on the top. (I used another 1/2 c. chopped pecans.)
>Bake @ 325º 30-35 minutes, until center is set. Glass pans may bake more quickly.

Topping:
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 T. milk
>Stir until dry ingredients are incorporated.
>Drizzle over slightly warm cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abundance

Yesterday, I had a good cry. I was actually sitting in my bed with my morning coffee, tears running in sad little tracks down my face. My solitary cry wasn’t enough. I called my husband to watch me. I asked him not to interrupt, which he did fairly well, while I told my tale of woe. This made me feel not quite so alone. He was a good buffer. I recommend a good buffer, whether it be a friend, partner, or stranger on a bus.

It also gave me a good headache.

I’m a pretty good Bible generalist. I can remember the gist of verses and have to look them up for the specific passage. My dissatisfaction and unhappiness put me in mind of this passage:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. … I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. … not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

There are a lot of thieves today. Do you ever have the feeling that joy has been ripped from you? That something beyond your control took something precious and left devastation in its wake? If you acknowledge that evil exists in many incarnations, it is ridiculously easy to look around and find root sources.

Still, with time speeding along, with you and I swept in its current, even the most intrepid craft can get carried beyond, snagged in a rip tide. No matter how hard we try to steer with paddle and tiller, we get swirling within life’s eddies.

Abundance is an interesting concept. We know its meaning: you have lots of something, plenty, a veritable cornucopia of somethings. Your cup overflows. Not like spilled coffee or soda’s carbonation run amok. Like a bower of roses, like a waterfall, like a tail that won’t stop wagging.

Today, because I am tired of headaches, I decided to look for abundance. To map it out, to touch it, to plan for it.

My friends show abundant love and caring. My neighborhood is abundantly serene even with lawn mowers and legalized fireworks. My refrigerator has abundant food. My kids’ calls and texts are abundant. We have an abundance of trees in my yard. Even with the concern of gun control, safety abundantly surrounds me. My community welcomes visitors with abundance – we just celebrated with a festival that was abundantly attended. (This is me and my friend Lydia at Downtown Main Martini Bar & Grille. They have a menu overflowing with martinis and great tapas.)

Where is your abundance? What is the thief trying to steal from you? In what ways are you living abundantly?

I decided today to make friends with this word. I’m leery of “blessings.” It seems overused by evangelists and calls into question whether those who have less are not blessed. Do those who live in poverty not deserve blessings?

Instead, I am focusing on the ways I live in abundance. An abundance of tears and self-pity are my motivation.

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If you know me, you know I have a somewhat disjointed sense of humor (and I thank you for sticking with me). But I was thinking, when I decided to try this recipe, that very soon we’ll have an abundance of zucchini. Those who plant it know of that which I speak. Those who work in offices where co-workers try to pawn off this abundance might as well embrace it.

When I was little, my mom’s solution to overgrown zucchini was to bake a dozen loaves of bread and freeze it. Why not give a loaf to all your neighbors and friends? Let’s overflow with abundance. Let’s make:

Chocolate Zucchini Bread 

Recipe adapted from Motiva Beaucoup from the Joy of Baking

(Makes one – 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf.)

• 11/2 cups shredded raw zucchini
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 cup buttermilk*
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (coated in flour)
• optional: 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans

Prep: Preheat oven to 350°F with a rack in the center of the oven. Grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Place chocolate chips in small bowl and coat with 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour (this prevents the chips from falling to the bottom of the batter in the pan).

Grate the zucchini, using a medium sized grater, and set aside on paper towel to drain slightly. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and allspice. Set aside.

With a mixer, beat the buttermilk, sugars, eggs, and vanilla extract until well blended (about 2 minutes). Fold in the grated zucchini. Add the flour mixture, beating just until combined. Then fold in the chocolate chips. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake a toothpick/cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 65 minutes. You will be tempted to rush this, but it takes all the time!

Place on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan and cool completely.

(*Original recipe called for oil, but I’m tired of oil in zucchini breads, as they are so heavy. I might try sour cream on a different day. Use whatever you have in abundance.)

 

The Party’s Over (Sort of): Happy Red Clam Sauce & Linguine

The party’s over. Your tree may (or may not) be down and all signs of the holidays away, but most of us still need to recover from the rush of family, friends, and food. You still need to eat well.

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

It’s time for the final fantastically fast food recipe: Happy Red Clam Sauce & Linguine

I found the original recipe, “Chet’s Red Clam Sauce,” years ago in a Bon Appétite, in that section reserved for home cooks with good stuff to share that wouldn’t necessarily merit its own article. Chet, bless his heart, won me over with his down and dirty quick sauce.

With a little adaptation, our family had a classic. We’ve served this version of Chet’s for about twenty-five years. It’s a winner every time and, as long as you have the pantry ingredients, it’s on the table in under a half hour.

BTW: Little kids will eat it because they have no idea what a clam might be and they don’t care, either. You may find adults are the same. Just make sure your guests aren’t allergic to shell fish.

Also, it doubles easily. If you’ve got an army of people to feed, carry on. Just get more pasta.

That’s right. Happy new year to you.

Happy Red Clam Sauce & Linguine
Serves 6

6-8 cloves fresh garlic, minced
4 T butter
2 T olive oil
28 oz can tomato sauce (don’t use salt-free – the seafood needs it)
1 T rosemary
2 T basil
2 T oregano
3 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T sugar
3 – 4 cans drained minced clams
1 lb linguine

Put your pasta water on to boil. Saute butter, oil and garlic until garlic starts to turn golden.  Add tomato sauce and herbs to garlic mixture and simmer for 5 minutes. (Your pasta water should start boiling at some point in this process….) Add clams to tomato sauce mixture. Cook 10-12 minutes (or as long as it takes to cook your linguine).

Suggestion: serve with a nice garlic bread and simple salad. Pictured is a spinach and hard-boiled egg salad with an olive oil dressing. If you have a nice Parmesan, get it out, but you’ll be fine without it. A nice, hearty red wine would not go amiss.

Some may notice that the serving pieces look quite a bit like Christmas dishes. You’re right. The party’s not quite over here.

Escalloped Potatoes 101

As with most fantastically fast food, escalloped potatoes come from a basic recipe, this one from an old Fannie Farmer cookbook.

Fanny Farmer is dear to my heart, as growing up in Ohio, we had many candy stores (oh, the mint chocolate candy bar!) and a candy factory right up the road. But the candy has no relation to the woman, who published The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook in 1896.

Fannie Merritt Farmer became the Boston Cooking School principal in 1892. As an advocate for the science of cooking, she helped to standardize measurements in recipes, rather than the “pinch of” and “handful of,” imprecise instructions common in that era.

And, by way of clarification, there is no cheese in this type of baked potato casserole. If you’ve got cheese, you’ve got au gratin.

Anyway, it still comes down to your basic recipe and quality ingredients.

Fantastically Fast Food: Escalloped Potatoes*
Serves 6-8 

6-8 Russet potatoes (buy local, if you can)
1/2 c butter
1/2 c  flour
1 c milk (2%, at least) and 1/2 c  half & half
secret ingredient: 1/2 tsp fresh nutmeg

Prepare a shallow casserole dish with olive oil or butter. Slice russets (one at a time, until the dish is full) thinly. I left the skins on for color and a rustic contrast. The key is to slice uniformly, so that the casserole cooks evenly.

Line dish with one layer of sliced potato. Sprinkle lightly with flour. Dot with butter – about a tablespoon or so for each layer should do – and lightly salt and pepper between each.

When dish is full, prepare milk for topping: I used a cup of 2% local dairy milk (which has a higher fat content then a nationally produced chain dairy) and about 1/2 cup of half & half. (This is not the time to count calories to the nth degree – – if you’re going to do that, bake a potato and have done with it.) Warm in a sauce pan, taking care not to bring it to a boil or to scald it. You’re just taking the chill off.

Pour over casserole. Finally, and this is the fun part, if you have a little nutmeg, sprinkle it over the top with your last layer of flour, salt, and pepper. If you can, find fresh nutmeg and use a microplane. The smell and hint of spice is amazing.

Bake one hour at 350° until potatoes are fork-tender. Let sit for 5-10 minutes to allow the sauce to settle.

Amazing. You’ll thank me later….it takes minutes to prepare, but with pure/local ingredients, its a gift from the food gods.

“Back Then” Note*: My mom used to make escalloped potatoes with 1/2″ bone-in pork chops on the top and a thin layer of apple as the very topmost layer. Thinly sliced pork enables you to bake this in about the same amount of time. If you’re a “one dish meal” person, give it a go. All you need is a salad or relish on the side.

And a little etymology: 

I prefer the phrase ‘escalloped,’ not scalloped, but the http://www.freedictionary.com has a fun history for either:

“Middle English scalop, from Old French escalope, shell, perhaps of Germanic origin (akin to Dutch schelp, seashell), or from Old Frenchescale, scale; see scale¹ + Old French (envel)ope, enveloping cover (from enveloper, to envelop; see envelop).]”

Open cupboards: what do you see?

My mother-in-law, Shirley, is the best ever….and for years, she hid her famous cheese ball recipe from me.

The first time I requested it, when Bill & I were newlyweds, she gave me a fake version. I could tell when I tasted it. Turns out, it’s a secret recipe, and you have to earn it. Now, years later, we talk about where we’ll be each time we make it.

We look out our kitchen windows and consider.

Each time we mix the ingredients, we’re at a different place in life. Moved ahead. Moved on. Things have come and gone. The cheese ball and its secrets remain.

I can’t tell you – – I’d have to shoot you, but it’s one of the most requested items at every Preston family gathering. Even still, I think she’s held something back. Mine never turns out like hers. Maybe it’s the shredder…maybe she adds more hard-boiled egg. This year, I tried a little more pimento.

Where was I, this year, when I made it? I’m 54. The kids are somewhat grown…only one in college, coming and going. I’m in college, sort of, at least I just finished my first Master’s level class. Certain things have changed.

But I’m still the same person, too, the one that opens too many cupboards when she’s cooking, but still likes a tidy kitchen. One that prefers vintage recipes, although I still try new ones. One that bakes a dozen kinds of cookies and watches old  movies over and over.

At this time of the “rolling year,” its time to open your cupboards and look around. What do you see?

 

 

 

 

 

(PS This is actually how I cook…I did not stage these cupboards. It may surprise some people who think I’m always organized.)

1933 Detroit News Menu Cook Book: Porcupines

It’s time for comfort food, isn’t it? Perfect, crisp fall days. Work in the yard and around the house, preparing for winter. Football, in the background, on TV. Delicious cider and apples.

And flashback food.

My good friend, Mary, gave me this darling little cookbook. It’s purple with white polka dots and says, The Detroit News Menu Cook Book*.  Apparently, menus were tough to assemble back in the Great Depression.  The book is small – the pages are 5×8″ – conserving paper.

Its forward cites the “magic of radiotelephony,” as the News was producing shows like Hints for Housewives and Tonight’s Dinner by Radio. The recipes are extensions of the shows, broadcast as an “intimate chat with women in their homes.”

I suppose, somewhere out there, one of you is thinking of this as an intimate chat, although most media (to me, at least) seems as far away from intimate as can be.

But sharing food is intimate – it sends a message, conveys levels of caring, speaks to the heart.

You won’t find these Baby Porcupines prickly – they’re easy and tasty. I made the Corn Meal Rolls that were in the menu, but the rest is better left to the past (buttered onions, orange and lettuce salad, cottage pudding and fruit sauce).

The very next page calls for finnan haddie (I looked it up – it’s haddock) and parsley potatoes…again, not making the grade, here, but there’s a recipe for French chocolate you may see during the holidays.

Until then, enjoy an intimate dinner with family or friends.

Your complete menu? Add a spring greens salad, very light, with a nice garlic salad dressing. Try a nice piece of dark chocolate or pumpkin bars for dessert.

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I’ll type this the way they wrote it – you’ll see that they were also conserving type space with the ingredients listing. My adaptation are in italics.

Baby Porcupines
One pound ground round steak, 1 cup bread crumbs, 1 egg, 4 tablespoons chopped onions, 2 tablespoons chopped green pepper (4 tablespoons), 1 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper (1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper), 3/4 cup raw rice, 1 cup tomato soup or puree (puree is a “purer” ingredient, but if you’re a soup lover, go for it), 2 cups boiling water. (Do add all the water. I was skeptical, but the rice needs it and you’ll love the sauce.)

Mix all but last 3 ingredients. Shape into small cakes (3″ loosely rolled balls, see photo) and roll in uncooked rice. Heat soup and water in heavy pan with tight-fitting cover. Dutch oven is ideal for this (cast iron skillet, making sure to allow space around each for better cooking, wrapped with foil). Place cakes in tomato mixture, cover and cook slowly 45 minutes or until meat is tender and rice is done (350º for 45-55 minutes).

This made about 1 dozen meatballs. A good serving size is 2-3. You might like extra rice on the side. Garlic lovers may be saying, “Gee, why not add it?” These were very flavorful and tasty; you’d likely be masking the onion and pepper flavors. But it’s yours to try.

Corn Meal Rolls

One and one-fourth cups flour, 2 tablespoons fat (used Crisco, but I might try softened butter), 1 egg, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup corn meal, 4 teaspoons baking powder.

Sift together dry ingredients. Rub in shortening (cut in with a pastry cutter). Add well beaten egg and milk. Roll out (at least an inch thick). Fold over as for Parker House rolls, brush tops with beaten eggs or milk (I tried milk…think I would try melted butter and a little dust of sugar). Bake in hot oven, 400 degrees, 10 minutes.

After rolling, the dough may also be cut with a small biscuit cutter, placed on a greased baking sheet, and baked for bisuits. (I did this style, as I’ve never made a Parker House roll, but I’d probably try folding them over the next time. My husband liked them with the sauce, as a whole bite of food.)

*by Myrtle Calkins, © The Detroit News, Printed in the United States of America at the Lakeside Press

 

 

 

Underestimated

Don’t ever underestimate the deliciousness that is a basic, classic meal.

Oh, we’re all tempted to be attracted to the trendy and tiny micro-portions from time to time. We love junk food. As you know, I am a huge fan of salt & vinegar potato chips: 8 chips, from the bag, on the way home from the grocery.

There’s the thrill of a great stuffed sub sandwich, the decadent nacho platter, and a freshly fantastic goat cheese salad. But, in all this, our go-to 1950’s food still holds a place when you need satisfying sustenance.

It has the benefit of looking great on a plate, too.

My son, Sam, recently called for details on cooking bone-free chicken. I’m guessing there are some new cooks, out there, who also need this info. Add some garlic-mashed red potatoes and a simple green salad. And kiss the hip cuisine and fast food goodbye.
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Baking Boneless Chicken
1-2 lbs boneless chicken breasts
1 bottle (12-16 oz) decent barbeque sauce
salt & pepper
Place your rinsed and (patted) dry chicken breasts in a 9×13 inch baking pan, brush with barbeque sauce, sprinkle w/ salt & pepper, and bake 20-25 mins in a 350° oven. Or, bring the grill up to moderate heat and (after coating w/ sauce, s&p) bake, covered, 15-20 minutes (check inside for doneness).

Smashing Red Potatoes
2-3 pounds small red skinned potatoes*
butter (1/2 stick on hand)
chives or green scallions
salt & pepper
Wash potatoes. Place in a pan with enough water to cover all potatoes. Add 1-2 T salt to water. Boil potatoes until tender (when you poke w/ a fork, skin will break and fork will sink in neatly – if you can’t tell by this, take one out, cut it, and try it). Remove from heat, pour off excess water, and mash (in pan – saves bowls). Add 2-3 T butter at a time, continuing to mash to a course texture. Add a little milk, if you like them creamier (or even, gasp, real cream), but it’s not necessary. S&P to taste.
*We leave the skins on ours – they’re prettier this way – but if you you want to peel them, go crazy.

Simple Green Salad
This is so easy these days, it’s almost criminal. Buy pre-washed spinach or microgreens, some heirloom or regular grape tomatoes, peel, seed, and slice a cucumber (many people have digestive problems with the seeds, and they make the salad watery).  Toss a few croutons on top – we used a lovely bleu cheese dressing, grinding black pepper on top.
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Can I say something about today’s culture and the concept of underestimation?

It’s all too common. We’ve become “wowed” by the unusual, the bizarre, the alternative, the strange. We’ve almost become so bored, so filled with ennui, that as a group, we almost can’t recognize what’s plain, solid, and true.

Don’t let yourself be swayed, friend.

 

 

 

 

 

Canned (Chili Sauce)

Canned (Chili Sauce).

Canned (Chili Sauce)

Today, we attempted a vintage chili sauce* recipe.

First hurdle: what’s a peck? And how many pecks are in a bushel?

You’d think you could just Google it, but in reality, it’s a mysterious language spoken by farmers over the centuries. A peck is not by weight, it’s by volume, so a peck of tomatoes fills a certain space…as does a peck of peaches or apples.

Half-peck of apples (from Wikipedia).

I read, in Encyclopedia Britannica, that the peck measurement was first used in the 14th century for flour. It was standardized as a unit of volume measurement in the 1800’s. You could not prove this by me.

At any rate: 4 pecks = 1 bushel. Does that help? It didn’t help us, either. We both bought a box of tomatoes that the farm stand employee said was 3/4 of a bushel. So, is that 3 pecks? Here’s a pic of the box, which was about 3x2x2.

Another fun thing about making vintage recipes is that you may or may not have the legend, a map from the people who’ve used it before you. The story behind this chili sauce is that my mother-in-law and her friend would start this early in the morning, letting the ingredients simmer all day, They’d invite their men for cocktails (the hour for this is 5p, in case you’re not a cocktail drinker).

While they sat eating Saga cheese with Water Crackers and drinking Scotch, the lids would pop. Apparently (we learned), the lids need a second tightening. Shirley and Pat would hear the “pops” of the lids and say, “It’s time to go screw.”  This is just one reason why I love my mother-in-law.

Today, two women who’d never canned in their adult years attempted a pretty big recipe. It worked.

I’ll leave notes on what we learned. You can do it.

My husband likes to say that if our food supply is ever cut off, we’ll need these skills. That’s as may be. The reason I think you should make it is that it’s delicious, as in you’ll want to cover every surface with it – hamburgers, chicken, pasta, eggs, potatoes. Your skin. Maybe not. But it’s damn good.

*Note: a friend just asked about chili sauce. It’s a condiment. If you went to the grocery store to buy it, you’d find it with cocktail sauce and catsup. An enhancer, you’d use it on the things I’ve listed above – maybe like a salsa – but this one also plays nicely with pasta and rice.

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Chili Sauce
From: Dorothy Navale (Pat McKone’s mother), Pat McKone (Shirley’s friend), Shirley Preston (Jeri’s MIL), and Louise Wilcox (Shirley’s mother), and now, Jeri Preston (daughter-in-law to Shirley)

Makes 14-16 pint jars: sterilize your canning equipment, both jars and lids, in steaming water (does not need to be rolling boil). Set aside and cool.

 

Ingredients
• ½ bushel (2 pecks) tomatoes
• 4 T salt
• 4 t cinnamon
• 2 t allspice
• 1 t cayenne pepper (we used 2t saracha, instead)
• 1 t black pepper
• 1 t ground cloves
• 12 medium onions (“the size that are bagged,” says my MIL)
• 5 red peppers
• 1 green pepper (“for Louise”  –  apparently, the McKone/Navale recipe called for all red peppers, and the Wilcox called for green – Shirley kept one green as a nod to her mom)
• 2 jalepeῆo peppers (you know to seed and remove the membrane, right?)
• 2 qts cider vinegar
• 5 c white sugar

Directions
1. Vegetables can be small chopped the night before.

Vegetables into pot.

2. Blanch and peel tomatoes (this means you add the tomatoes to almost boiling water, waiting until the skin splits – we found that mashing the tomatoes before they go into the pots helped them cook down).

Two pots ready to simmer.

3. Add all, vegetables and spices (to stock pots (Shirley says it takes two in the beginning, then, as the day goes on and they reduce, you can get it into one pan – I’m not sure we left our batch on the stove long enough…we were not able to combine pans, but it did cook down nicely).

4. Cook (simmer) to desired consistency (takes all day, according to her recollection and ours, too, because you need 4-6 hours of cooking down and stirring and cooking down and stirring….you get the picture…an immersion blender would’ve been nice, but we used a giant whisk).

Cooking down.

5. Can in sterilized jars. We were advised by a colleague to make sure the neck and seal area of the jar was very clean. If not, seals will not occur. After “pop,” tighten lids again, as they loosen (a silicone mit would’ve been nice, but we just used a pot holder).

Place jars into water with two inches of water over lids for 10-15 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where are you when you make this?  The women’s hands it’s touched and the families that ate it.