August 2012

Summertime… and the livin’s easy.

“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” -Sylvia Plath ; Summer has pretty much all but flown by, hasn’t it? Seems like yesterday I posted a little group of pictures of the start of summer… & now all the Back-to-School stuff has […]

Rose petal hibiscus tea jelly.

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” ― C.S. Lewis ; Is that not the prettiest jelly you’ve ever seen? ; It really is. And it’s not just because I took these photos with a magical new addition to my life, although yeah, this […]

Blackberry jam cupcakes with lime.

A couple of months ago, I made some blackberry lime jam. And then (true to form), in all the summer hubbub, I genuinely forgot all about it. I say “true to form” because I do that a lot. I make something that I’m dying to use, and then I forget about it. Months later, I […]

Canning for dummies.

; No, I don’t think you’re all dummies. But I realize that for a lot of my readers, this is the closest they’ll get to a canning blog. Most of you are here for the cupcakes or baked goods, maybe even the macaroni & cheese or pizza, but that doesn’t mean you can’t expand your […]

Refreshment is only 8-10 hours away.

….. And no, I don’t mean a trip to the Caribbean, although I’m sure that’s fantastic. I mean iced tea. I’ve wanted to make sun-brewed iced tea for a while now. I did it a few times as a kid, but as a kid (and young adult) my taste in tea was pretty much either […]

Cherry-bomb cupcakes for Julia’s birthday.

“The best way to execute French cooking is to get good & loaded & whack the hell out of a chicken. Bon Appetit.” -Julia Child ; ; I think every food blogger in the universe has been inspired by the book and the ensuing movie Julie & Julia; or at the very least thought, “Wow… […]

Quick & dirty chive vinegar pickles.

Oh, pickles. You come into my life oh so quickly this time of year… and get eaten up oh so quickly. And then I’m hounded for more pickles by the pickle monsters that plague my existence. Good thing I love them. And that I’ve got plenty of jars to fill. ; Yeah, I’ve got a […]

Raspberry-jalapeño-cilantro jam, or “rasp-jalantro.”

“One must maintain a little bittle of summer, even in the middle of winter.” -Henry David Thoreau ; I saw that quote the other day and it struck me, probably because I related it to the blog. How could I not, really? In a few ways…one, canning & preserving. Aren’t the two of those things […]

Very cherry berry cobbler.

I want to thank everyone for all the birthday wishes! I know I posted the other day but that post was set up to go off in case I wasn’t around, and I didn’t get the chance to personalize it. But I was blown away by all the e-mails, messages, Facebook comments, Twitter messages/replies, Instagram […]

Asian-inspired quick pickles.

My grandmother had a thing for all things Asian. She was totally immersed in the culture. She read Pearl S. Buck books over & over again (The Good Earth being a favorite), collected cloisonné ginger jars & imported Japanese figurines, had a large Buddha statue sitting cross-legged in meditation pose next to her couch, had […]