Bye Bye Fruitcake

Jeff ate a whole fruitcake today, cheesecloth and all. One cup rum and a quarter bottle of brandy in Jeff's tummy. He also took a couple nips of the second one, so it will not be a gift to anyone.

Jeff is drunk and not so much into eating his dinner.

Dumb dog.

****Update: Jeff puked on my leg. Just a little, but it still sucked.

Fermentation in the Basement

First- Be sure to read all 5 of today's posts. I have been very busy.

So, how can one call themselves a cook and not have something fermenting in the basement? I figure you can't, so I started some sauerkraut.

One only needs three things to make sauerkraut. First, salt and cabbage:
Second, limoncello:

Start by shredding the cabbage very thinly:

For every five pounds of cabbage you need 3 Tablespoons of salt. But, you want to salt it a little at a time.

You want to mix it up and really rub the salt into the cabbage, causing the cabbage to release liquid.

Once you get it all mixed, you pack it into your fermenting vessel very tightly. You really want to pack it down.

The vessel:

The packed down cabbage:

After it is all tightly packed, place a cloth over the cabbage. On top of that goes a tight fitting plate to keep it all under its juices. On top of that is a bag of water to weigh it all down.

Then you put it in the basement for three weeks. I will have to scrape off any scum every couple days and make sure it doesn't get nasty. Then I will be able to can it for enjoyment all year long. Exciting.

Tasty Pickled Eggs

The famous bar food pickled eggs... Do they make good Christmas gifts? I think so.

Start with two dozen eggs and boil them.

After they are done, peel and rinse them.
CJ and I both suck at peeling eggs. Some were lost. Some are misshapen. Sadness.

Prepare the pickling liquid.
There are tons of recipes out there. Some with beets, some with balsamic vinegar, some needing to sit a day, some a month, it is sort of crazy. I made up my own recipe.
4 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
A few cloves garlic
Some slices of ginger
A small handful of pickling spices.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Pack the eggs into the sterilized jars.

Process with your normal canning procedures.

Fruitcakes!!!

Clearly, I've been busy lately. I'm giving food for Christmas gifts this year to friends, so I have to have a lot to hand out. Plus, I want it for me!

I love good fruitcake. We were at Lunds today, they had tiny fruitcakes, without alcohol, with nasty candied fruits for $9.99. OUTRAGEOUS. So, I made my own
I mostly used Alton Brown's Free Range Fruitcake. I love Alton. If anyone is looking for a gift for me, an Alton Brown book would be perfect.

To start, take all the dried fruit, the fruit peels, and your rum, mix it, and stick it in the fridge for at least 24 hours. Stir from time to time.

Next, put it all in a pot with sugar and apple juice.

Add butter


Grind up your spices
and throw them in to the pot.

At this time, it needs to come to a boil, so, I opened a bottle of wine.

After it does the boiling thing, it has to cool for a while. I started another project, which we will get to in the next post.

Once cooled, stir in the dry ingredients

And eggs


Your batter looks like this
I added nuts to it too.

Put in a pan and cook.

Once it comes out, you immediately douse with brandy.

Once completely cool, I covered them (I doubled the recipe) with cheese cloth and doused again with brandy. They are stored in Tupperware containers and will be doused with brandy every few days until Christmas. Nummy.

Rum Cranberries

I made Rum Cranberries for a couple Thanksgivings. They are fantastic. I was able to can a few jars, so we still have some around the house. I may make more.

Start by making a simple syrup and infusing spices in it.

Chop, peel, and core a couple apples.

A couple cups of cranberries need to be rinsed.

All go into the syrup and are cooked for about 15 minutes.

Add a cup of rum, bring to a boil, and you have deliciousness.

Of course, I failed to get a final pic, but we all know what cranberries look like.

How We Roll

The other night, I brought home all the fixings for sushi, but not the patience for actually making it. Behold, lazy person sushi. Tastes the same, just not as pretty.

Canning, Canning, Canning

CJ and I took a few days off to get the house in order, so in addition to painting, I've done some more canning.

Today, I made some Beer Mustard.
Take a bottle of beer.
Add a package of brown mustard seeds.

Bring them to a boil and let sit for a couple hours.

Then you put them in the food processor. It is supposed to break up the mustard seeds. It didn't, and I don't have a mortar and pestle. I think this may be a problem.

Put it all back in the pot and add some seasoning, vinegar, and cook down for awhile.
Then, of course, jar.
Quite honestly, it tasted disgusting going into the jars. I'm afraid it is going to be just as bad coming out.

Oh, and the cranberry mustard I made, same problems, it will probably all be thrown away.

I did make some tasty cranberries a couple days ago.

And I mixed up some muffins today for dessert. Num.
Carrot pumpkin muffins.

Easy Red Wine Jelly

Red Wine Jelly is super easy. I made it in less than half an hour.

Start with one bottle of red wine.
Add 1/2 cup lemon juice
Add one packet of pectin
Whisk all those things together and bring to a boil.
Add 4 1/2 cups of sugar.
And bring it all to a hard boil, stirring constantly. Keep it at a hard boil for two minutes. Then can using your standard canning techniques.

Jalapeno Jelly

I spent most of the day making Jalapeno Jelly today.

First, you start with jalapenos, a green pepper, 4 lbs. of apples, 1 c. cranberries, white vinegar and water.You cook it down to a mush that looks like applesauce, but stinks up your house and makes your eyes burn.

From there, you need to strain it for a couple hours.
After those few hours, you get about 4 cups of liquid.
Next, you mix it with 3 1/2 cups of sugar and heat to about 220 degrees.
Lastly, you use standard canning techniques to store.
As you can see, I ended up with 6 and a half tiny jars for hours of work. It is very good though, so worth it.

I am a Slacker

Sorry about the weeks of not posting. It wasn't that I haven't been cooking, I have. It is just that I didn't get pics of everything and that I'm lazy.

So, here you go, a big long list of things I've made recently, with some pics.

1) Roasted chicken- One of CJ's favorites. Super easy and real tasty.
2) Split pea soup
How I love split pea soup. I made a whole bunch last week, froze some, and have been eating it for a few days.
3) Squash- Sauteed with some onions, one of my favorites.
4) Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Ugly, but good.
5) Fava beans and tomatoes- I threw this together real quick one night, and it turned out good. By real quick, I mean under 3 minutes.
6) Homemade applesauce


7) Carnitas

These were really good. Take a couple pounds of pork shoulder and cut into cubes. Add enough water to cover, the juice from a small lime, and a couple pinches of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes on medium low covered. Uncover once tender and let water boil off. When it does, it will start frying itself in its own fat.

We ate it as we do tacos. It was really good. REALLY GOOD. The recipe came from my new cookbook, The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. The cookbook is also great. If you are interested in learning to cook real food, it is a great starter. She does the basics, then goes on to other things, all which look excellent and simple.