Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Reusable canning lids?!?! Wow...

Now that these are back on the market, I'm interested in trying them!

Tattler Reusable Canning Jar Lids

No BPA? Sign me up! I'm going to have to get a few to do some fall jams... I wonder if they're available locally...


Adventures of a Frugal Treehugger is hosting a giveaway for a couple dozen lids, too!

Yes, I am entering - If you end up winning, you have to give me a small-mouth lid to try, ok?

Monday, May 24, 2010

CSA Boxes for Last 2 weeks - Ending May 22

















Potatoes, thyme, strawberries, apriums, cabbage, romaine lettuce, grapefruits, radishes, carrots, and fava beans.

I should note that this was the tiniest cabbage head in the world...

















Cute, eh?

After all that veggie-putting-awayness, I had breakfast! Yogurt with apriums, strawberries, cherries, and avocado honey:

And that leaves the most recent box:





Apriums, artichokes, english peas, carrots, red spring onions, leaf lettuce, rainier cherries, and chocolate mint.

I should say that a fair portion of those cherries didn't make it home. Hell, they didn't even make it the 5 minute drive to the farmer's market!

For those of you who are wondering what an aprium is, it's a plum / apricot hybrid, with about 75% of the genetics coming from the apricot side. It's pretty tasty, and I have a lot of them. I'll probably slice some and freeze them in mini cupcake wells for yogurt in the summer.

I have some upcoming posts that will expound on the virtues of a good, organic ramen, and how to spruce up your ramen noodles with fab veggies and meats! Meanwhile, I have to cook those ramens and eat them. I'll probably end up making a series of it, so stay tuned!

Csa box...




-- Sent from my Palm Pre






















Oranges, mandarins, artichokes, baby shallots, sugar snap peas, red leaf lettuce, strawberries, marjoram, thyme flowers, and the first tomatoes!!! :D

Oh, what to do, what to do!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Something New: Jam and Nebula Awards

I just tried something new! I made golden raspberry jam, a low-sugar version sweetened with avocado blossom honey. I also made Moore cherry preserves with the same honey.

I tried an aprium. It's 75% apricot and 25% plum. Nummy! It came in my CSA box last week. I put it over plain yogurt with cherries and strawberries, and was completely nummy.

The other new thing: I now have a writer pal who won a Nebula Award on Saturday! Her name is Eugie Foster, and she won for best novelette. It's a great story, you should check it out! While it's not really a new thing for me, it's a wonderfully new thing for Eugie, and I want to congratulate her!

Hmmm... what new stuff should I try this week?

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Something New

I've been lax. I admit it. I have not kept up with "Something New" postings. Basically, the concept is that each week, I will try something new. I have still done many new things, just not posted about them.

I also realized how many of my New things involve food. Hmmmm.

So, what are some New things I've done or tried? Here are some since the last post:

Joined a CSA.
Invented a bread recipe (port wine swirl. num.).
Taken a Vegas trip with my love.
Played Blackjack at a real table for real money.
Worked with real artichokes.
Made a bunch of recipes from a single duck.
Ate yellowtail collar at a sushi restaurant (it was the bomb!).
Rendered and used duck fat. Rendered lard.
Made homemade cat food.
Bought a ceramic Neti pot and made my own blend for the water.
Made pancetta-wrapped asparagus.
Made from-scratch demi-glace.
Made pita bread.
Used Rhubarb in a recipe.
Wandered around the disused animal cages in an abandoned zoo.
Walked the entire length of the Las Vegas strip.
Cooked fresh morel mushrooms.
Successfully trapped a missing cat.
Baked bread on a grill.
Went to a farmer's market on a Los Angeles rooftop.
Saw the view from the Griffith Park Observatory.
Waited on Gary Sinise.
Waited on Nichelle Nichols (ZOMG!!!1!).
Kept my cool in a rude situation.
Lost my cool actually defending myself (a first!) in another situation.
Tried a new (to me) herb called za'atar.
Baked potatoes after coating them in bacon grease.
Stayed in a hotel room twice the size of my house.
Located organic ramen!
Successfully wrangled a free room upgrade.
Successfully salvaged melted chap-stick.
Dehydrated fruit in my car. Yes, intentionally and with good effect.
Eaten from excellent food trucks.
And last, I *think* I might have positively affected my grade in a class through delicate bribery - with jam.

Yep. I haven't posted, but I've been very busy!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Stuff Jenna Likes

Welcome to the new segment: STUFF JENNA LIKES!
Here, at Stuff Jenna Likes, we review, well, stuff that Jenna likes. As in, likes, uses, buys, and thinks are good anough to recommend to you.

The current new love:

Trader Joe's Vintage Root Beer


















This is a new beverage available at Trader Joe's. It's $3.99 a 4-pack. There is no HFCS (high fructose corn syrup)! Yay! Just cane sugar. It has a mellow, smooth root beer flavor. It's not overly fizzy, either. I need to buy more and turn them into floats. I'm cutting back on soda and trying to eliminate HFCS entirely, so these are a good splurge. I actually like these a little bit more than the Hansen's root beer, which also has no HFCS, but as these are a mite pricier, that's what I'd expect. Usually TJ's carries mostly diet Hansen's (ICK! Artificial sweetener!), so this is also great for a soda that I can be assured is available in non-diet form.

They also have a Cola version and an Orange Cream soda version. I tried the Cola version and did not like it at all. Tasted like diet. Blech. But this is not "Stuff that Jenna Does NOT Like", so I'll skip that review for now. In all fairness, Gabriel liked it.  I will try the orange version and get back to you.

Monday, May 3, 2010

CSA Box May 1, 2010

















Ooooh, tasty! The sugar snap peas made their way into some organic ramen along with one of the baby garlics and a carrot. I'm thinking that a brown butter sage sauce would be good on something this week. But what?

I need to get cracking with potatoes - I'm still 4 weeks behind in eating our supply. However, we are not getting more this week, so I can catch up maybe. I saw an interesting accordion potatoes recipe - I'll try it and see if it's good.

Also bought a flat of organic strawberries from a farm on Free Comic Book Day. Twelve baskets of berries for $16. *gasp*

So far, I've had a lot of strawberries and yogurt, chopped a lot for the freezer, and made a strawberry rhubarb jam. I still have strawberry ice cream and dried strawberries to do. Then, I have to invent other things to do with 9,000 more strawberries.

Oh, and what's coming in the CSA box this week? You guessed it! Strawberries! *facepalm*