Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Berries and cukes

We've got a bumper crop of blackberries this summer -- the most we've ever had by far.  I think this is due to my careful desperate pruning at the beginning of the summer.  Really, after only moderately trimming them for the past nine years, the blackberry plants were taking over the backyard.  I hacked them way back just so they wouldn't swallow us up.  I guess it turns out that they really needed a good pruning.  Who knew?!


Other than eating them by the handful or topping tapioca pudding with them, I'm absolutely loving this Blackberry Gin Fizz recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  Of course, I haven't yet made anything from Deb's wonderful food blog that I didn't enjoy.  This cocktail, though, is especially delicious.  Next up, blackberry pie and syrup for pancakes.  Yum!


And check out our cucumber plants this year!  I really don't understand how we can have such an abundance with so little rain -- I don't water them much, I swear!  We've got both the pickling type and regular slicing kind for eating raw.  On Sunday the hubby set up an outdoor kitchen for me with the propane burner he uses for brewing beer, and I made a batch of bread and butter pickles.  I've made these pickles every year for at least the past five years, and they go over pretty well in our house.  We're still harvesting several cukes a day, though, so I think I'll be putting up dill spears this year, too.  What else?  Maybe a big batch of tzatziki sauce to freeze?


Ellie likes to help with the harvest... and to goof off for photos.  Here she is with a couple of the scant green beans we've had so far, (They don't even make it into the house before they're eaten raw!) and a yellow carrot from her own tiny garden.

Hope your gardens are flourishing as well!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Chai in a jar

Some afternoons, when I'm dragging a bit and I don't want/need another cup of coffee, a mug of chai tea is just the thing to hit the spot.  It's spicy, a bit sweet, and refreshing... but also a wee bit of a pain to make.  Until I discovered a recipe for this yummy make-ahead chai concentrate, made with sweetened condensed milk.  Just mix all the ingredients in a jar and allow to sit overnight.  Then add a tablespoon or more of the mixture to a cup of strong black tea.  The concentrate will keep, refrigerated, for weeks.  If you enjoy it as much as I do, though, you'll need to mix up a new batch long before that!

The recipe below is a modified version of the one in Pip Lincolne's book Sew La Tea Do, and similar to this one.

RECIPE:
14 ounces organic or non-organic sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom 
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves


Enjoy!