#6 Carrot and Onion Slaw and It's this special thing they do in Sweden

Let me begin by saying this is a delightful addition to anyone's kitchen because it is so versatile.You can eat it on a burger, a potato, on salad, on sandwiches, in tacos, on EGGS! This would be amazing atop an egg sandwich, Mmmm, creamy egg yolk and vinegar...yes, yes my pretty.

Does anyone ever feel like a weirdo when they introduce someone to one of their concoctions? For instance, the thought of eating this slaw atop an egg makes me all gooey inside however if I told anyone this I feel like they would balk and refuse my delicacy.

So I devised a plan to prevent these awkward occurrences. Anytime someone questions your, ahem, unique palette just say, "It's this special thing they do in Sweden". That's it!  I have created an example below.

Me: Dude, wanna try these super yummy egg sandwiches I made?
Sister: What is that stuff?  **Points to slaw**
Me: Oh that? it's this special thing they do in Sweden.
Sister: In Sweden? Well then it must be cool.
Me: YEA! **squints eyes and points a fork towards sister** You'll eat it and you'll like it!

All right let's get down to the nitty gritty.  This type of preservation method is called a dry pack.  Meaning you pack everything into the jars with no liquid at first.  Once packed you dump boiling vinegar over everything.

Carrot and Onion Slaw adapted from Put a Lid on it.

Alls you need:

4 cups matchstick carrots, chop em up as best you can
2 cups julienne red onion
3 cloves thinly sliced garlic
1 Tablespoons dried oregano
1 Tablespoons dried basil
1 Tablespoons fine salt
1 Teaspoon black pepper
1/2 Teaspoon. red pepper flakes
16 oz. white wine vinegar

First you have to chop everything up and dump it in a big bowl (expect the vinegar, silly).  Then you gotta put all the spices in the bowl.  Make sure you have your jars sanitizing while you do this.

 Then you are gonna heat up that white wine vinegar until its boiling.  Meanwhile pack your jars with the carrot/onion mixture.  Dump the vinegar into the jars and then process according to your altitude.  For me 10 minutes.

Now think of all the weird mofo stuff you can put this on!  I could not wait so I put some of the extra slaw on an open sammie with roast beef.  Yea Baby!  And the thing I love most?  It's canned so it'll last months, maybe years? outside the fridge (until opened)!

Taste Testing and 1-95

Hi all!

Sorry I have been MIA the last couple days but my husband and I drove from Rhode Island to Florida for my best friends wedding!  The wedding took place in Tampa FL and I was the matron of honor!  It was fabulous, the day before it was raining really bad and before the bride walked out it was overcast!  But the moment she walked down the aisle to sun peeked out from behind the clouds.

So the drive to Florida was interesting to say the least, it was long....very long, a total of 20 hours driving nonstop.  We drove through the night and switched whenever we got tired/needed gas.  On our way back up we stopped at one of the roadside tourist shops and I came across a fantastic array of jams, jellies, marms, and chutneys, they were all made in Florida too!  There were so many yummy sounding flavors that I just got a sampler pack.

I'm still getting back into the swing of things and I will be posting a new recipe this weekend:-)

Drunken Oatmeal Cookies

Hello Jammies!

Last night I indulged in a "couple" glasses of wine while watching Shark Tank with my husband.  Well around 11:00 pm he says he wants oatmeal cookies, seriously.   Dudes, alls I have to say is everyone should try drunk baking sometime and I'll tell you why.

Firstly, alcohol has a tendency to make you overestimate yourself.  After a few sips of wine you are a rocket scientist, after a bottle you can make oatmeal cookies with NO RECIPE!

Secondly you go with your gut and make it the way YOU like it.  Meh, I really like raisins so I am going to pour a mofo into the bowl.

Nows, alls I really remember is this:

1 egg
1 stick o butter (alls we had)
1/2 cup o brown sugar
1/2 cup of flour
1 cup of oatmeal
2 Tablespoons of honey
a shake of baking soda
a jigger of cinnamon
raisins however many you want

First I added the melted butter to the egg and brown sugar and whisked till I got bored.  Then I dumped in the dry stuff and mixed till it looked like it would make some good cookies.  Last thing I did was dump in a mofo load of raisins.  Baked at 350 till the edges looked brown (like 15 minutes).  They were awesome!

I know this isn't a jam post but let's face it, the story is entertaining.  Also, I really really want to make jam tomorrow but we are getting ready to drive from Rhode Island to Florida...on Valentines day.  My best friend is getting hitched in Tampa!  I am super excited and the drive down will probably be...entertaining.

#5 Carrot Cake Jam

So I was thinking of doing another citrus marmalade/jelly but I am going to be in my home state of Florida in two weeks... My parents house just happens to be surrounded by orange groves and I am going to take great advantage of them!

When I was little my mom would hitch up the trailer to the lawnmower (yeehaw!) then my 2 sisters and I would climb into the trailer wearing nothing but long t-shirts and flip flops. We would then drive across our dirt road to pick all the oranges we could ever want!

My sisters and I had loads of adventures in those abandoned orange groves. Some of those included cleaning up an old trailer, spying on mafia men and running from bigfoot (he was always a few feet behind us). Now to the Carrot Cake Jam:

Alls you need:
1 1/2 cups of carrot, finely shaved
1 1/2 cups of pear, chopped and cored
1 3/4 cups of crushed pineapple, including juice
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 heaping teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons of pectin
6 cups of sugar

Makes 7 half-pints or 3 1/2 pints

First you are gonna dump the carrots, pears, pineapple, lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a big mofo pot.  I actually added a little water too because I was nervous about how dry everything was, I think it helped.   Also, an easy way to grate carrots is to place the grater in a bowl slanted sideways, it prevents you from accidentally grating your knuckles off and contains all the carrot shavings.  It should look like the image below:

So bring this all to a simmer for about 10 mins.  Then you dump in the pectin and swirl it around, make everything be friends.  

Bring this all to a boil and dump in 6 cups of sugar, I know, I know, wah wah so much sugar, but look, you might eat 2 tablspoons of this delishousness a day, which equals like...a teeny bit of sugar, you are not going to eat a pint of it. sheesh.

Now bring this back to a bubbling mess and ladle into sterilized hot jars leaving about 1/4 inch headspace. Process in a water bath for at least 10 minutes remove and listen to all those beautiful pings.


Not only does this jam smell simply marvelous, it tastes just the same.  After having some of this you will feel all warm and gooey inside.  The jam fairies were with me on this one, because it is stellar!

Playing dress up.

So, if you have canned your own food then you know it's important to label and date it.  Sure you could just grab some masking tape and scribble the info on it but what if you want to give this as a gift? 

This week I've been working on creating some cute homemade labels AND you don't need a printer (Have you seen the prices of printer ink?!).

Alls you need is:

Some sticky labels (you could choose many different shapes and sizes).
Stamps
Ink pad/paints
Imagination

I decided to do a variety of designs on my labels.  I think the best stamps to use are small and can be repeated over and over.  I also tried to use lighter inks so my writing would show up over it. Oh, and sometimes you can find cute stamps on clearance at target, just check near their scrapbooking section.

So have a little fun and purty up them there jars!