Author: Jenny (Page 52 of 56)

Lavender Whipped Cream

July 8, 2015 / Jenny / 17 Comments

This luxurious whipped cream is infused with a subtle hint of lavender. It turns a serving of fresh fruit into a wonderfully indulgent treat. Lavender seems to be all the rage this summer, so I have been inspired to make something with it too. We have lots of lavender flourishing in our garden, and I like to pick the flowers and put them in vases to make the house smell good, but I had never used it in food until I made this whipped cream. I am so happy I tried this recipe, because I absolutely love it. Sometimes it feels so good to make something special and delicious, even if (or especially if) it is impractical and not completely necessary. I often get bogged down in the necessary duties of life, and need to be reminded to lighten up! Making this whipped cream did that–it was just for fun and pleasure. I felt like I was stepping back in time a bit to make this, back to when people took the time to soak the lavender flowers in whipping cream overnight, and then whipped the cream by hand until it fluffed up into delicate peaks of sweetness.

The lavender makes this a special whipped cream, and I was happy my making of this coincided with a visit from some special friends I don’t get to see very often. A very dear college friend (and former cross country teammate) and her sister visited our house yesterday. One of them lives in Spain and the other lives in Senegal, so it was such a treat to have them and one of their daughters at our table, taste-testing the whipped cream for me (they liked it a lot). I loved visiting with them, talking about old times, and hearing about the different cultures and food traditions in the countries they now call home.

I stumbled upon this recipe for lavender whipped cream in a wonderful cookbook, called Cranbrook Reflections: A Culinary Collection. I say stumbled upon because my kids and I happened to be at a library that was having a used book sale, and because I love collecting cookbooks, I gravitated to the cookbook section and found it. In any case, I will be making this whipped cream again, since we have a great supply of lavender and I want to try it with all the upcoming seasonal fruits.

It tasted delicious with watermelon chunks and blueberries, though the watermelon made it a little watery at the bottom of the jar. It also tasted wonderful with just blueberries, and as they are not as full of liquid, there was no water at the bottom. I can imagine it would also be great with raspberries, peaches, and of course strawberries. As long as you plan ahead a few hours to make time for the cream to absorb the flavor of the lavender flowers, this whipped cream is really easy and fun to make. I am sharing this post over at Angie’s Fiesta Friday site with a bunch of inspiring bloggers.

Lavender Whipped Cream

Servings: about 2 cups of whipped cream
Time: about 8 hours for soaking and about 10-15 minutes of hands-on time
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Ingredients:

1 cup of heavy cream
3 tablespoons of fresh lavender flowers, without the stems (or 1 tablespoon of dried lavender flowers)
1 tablespoon of sugar

Directions:

Pour the cup of heavy cream into a small bowl. Add the lavender flowers. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours so the cream absorbs the flavor of the lavender flowers. Then pour through a wire mesh strainer (or if you don’t have one, you can also use a colander with small holes) to carefully remove the flowers from the cream. Beat the cream in a bowl until it is almost stiff, and then add the sugar gradually. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over-beat. The first couple of times I made whipped cream by hand, I pretty much made butter because I beat it too much. Keep an eye on the texture and stop when the peaks form. Garnish with fresh lavender flowers if you wish. Use this whipped cream to top any kind of fruit. Enjoy!

This recipe is adapted from Cranbrook Reflections: A Culinary Collection.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

July 3, 2015 / Jenny / 3 Comments

The combination of strawberries and rhubarb is one of my all-time favorites. The sweetness of the strawberries mellows the tartness of the rhubarb, yet there is still enough tartness in this crisp to make it bright and lively. I love this recipe because it is so simple, so easy, and it allows the fresh flavors of the fruits to really shine. There is just enough brown sugar to sweeten the fruit filling without overpowering it.

It is lovely here in northern Michigan, and I am thankful to have the chance to spend a few days here at my family’s place, where we can walk to the beach and the town, with a beautiful view of the water in almost every direction. After an extremely busy spring, it is so nice to have some time to recharge and slow down, soaking in the absolute beauty of this area. Just like at home, I like to use food that is in season, and right now strawberries and rhubarb are easy to come by up here at farmers markets and produce stands. WiFi is not so easy to come by here (and that is not always a bad thing), and we don’t have many cookbooks here, so I walked to the library in town to look for a recipe for a fruit crisp. As I was browsing through cookbooks, one recipe caught my eye because of its simplicity. It comes from Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook, “My Father’s Daughter.” It is a basic fruit crisp recipe that can be used with any type of seasonal fruit, and I like this recipe so much, I am going to use it for upcoming crisps with raspberries, blueberries, and peaches, as they come into season. I will share an adaptation of it below, using strawberries and rhubarb. I did make a couple of changes–I used all-purpose flour instead of spelt flour since that is what we had in the cupboard, and I added 2 tablespoons more of the brown sugar, since rhubarb is not as naturally sweet as other fruits. Still, this recipe uses less overall sugar than many of the ones I have tried, and I like it that way. You can adjust the sweetness to your own tastes.

Perhaps it is because the strawberries and rhubarb are late spring/early summer fruits, or perhaps it is because I am writing this post very near Lake Michigan, which always makes me feel inspired, but in any case, making this crisp reminded me that summer is still young and full of possibilities. The days are long and full of bright sunlight. I have been breathing in the clean, northern air, and it smells like pine trees and fresh water. It is only just recently that our schedule has slowed down enough that we can have more leisurely dinners. We have had time to eat outside, watching the boats go down the channel into Lake Michigan. Tomorrow we head for home, where it will still be summer, and we will still be able to eat dinner outside. The lakes close to my home are much smaller than Lake Michigan, but they are still beautiful. And as much as I don’t want to leave here, I love to be home. I hope you all have a lovely weekend, and savor it as much as possible.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Servings: 4-6
Time: about 15 minutes of prep time and 45 minutes of baking time
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Ingredients for the fruit filling:

2 cups of strawberries, washed and sliced
2 cups of rhubarb, washed and diced
1 tablespoon of flour (I used all-purpose flour, but you can use spelt flour or another type of flour)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of brown sugar (adjust the amount of sugar to your own tastes)

Ingredients for the crisp topping:

1/4 cup flour (again, I used all-purpose flour, but you can use the type of flour you prefer)
1 cup rolled oats (the old-fashioned kind, not instant or quick-cooking)
a pinch of salt (optional)
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Prepare the fruit and place it in a lightly greased 9 inch pie baking dish. Stir in the tablespoon of flour and the brown sugar and mix until combined.

In a medium bowl, stir together the 1/4 cup flour, the oats, and the salt. Cut the butter in with a fork or a pastry cutter and gently stir/mash until the mixture forms balls about the size of peas. Spread the mixture evenly over the fruit in the pie pan. Bake in your oven for about 45 minutes, or until the topping is golden and the fruit starts to bubble. Serve warm. It tastes great by itself or with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

This recipe is adapted from “My Father’s Daughter” by Gwyneth Paltrow

Strawberry Freezer Jam

June 25, 2015 / Jenny / 12 Comments

Strawberry jam allows us to capture the bright flavor of fresh strawberries so we can have a fleeting taste of summer all year long. The jars full of jam lined up in my freezer are like frosted, sparkling jewels, promising a bit of luxury in the bare winter. It takes some time and effort to make jam, but when I taste a spoonful of the delicious stuff on my toast, it is all worth it. And though it has a softer set, freezer jam is much quicker to make than the cooked version.

My kids and I went over to my mom’s house a couple of days ago to make strawberry jam. My husband was at work that day, or he would have come too. We have been doing this for a number of years now. It is always a festive atmosphere, probably because strawberry season makes it feel like summer is really here, and we are taking part in it, savoring and preserving its sweetness. One of my nieces was born a few years ago while we making jam, and one of my nephews was born right around that time too, so I think I also associate jam-making with new possibilities. The juneberries are almost always ripe at the same time as strawberry jam-making time, so the kids often slip away on breaks to eat juneberries off of the huge bush in the back yard. This year, my daughter and son were both old enough to be extremely helpful and key players in the process. It is fun to see them grow and take on new responsibilities.

When the kids were younger, my dad was always part of the strawberry jam operation–mainly he took photos of us and entertained the kids when they were tired of mashing strawberries. This year was the second time he was not with us, and we missed him dearly. There is an empty spot now where he used to be, but I believe he is with us in spirit, glad we are carrying on the tradition, and laughing with us each time my mom sends me to the store to get more jelly jars or more sugar. We never seem to have our supplies organized. But the jam always turns out well anyway.

Savoring the moment and trying to capture it and preserve it for the future are two seemingly opposing forces. But somehow they connect for me when I am working with food or with photographs. Strawberries are really best when eaten right after they have been picked. Eating a fresh strawberry is a wonderful way to experience the feeling of summer; it grounds us in the moment. Preserving the lovely and unforgettable taste of strawberries in jam is honoring the moment, because we know it is brief and fleeting, and very soon there will be no more local strawberries till next year. To me, making jam symbolizes the honoring of moments and the passing of moments. We try to make the most of each moment and each season as it comes.

The recipe below is adapted from the one found in the Sure-jell packet. The recipe is for making approximately four 12 ounce jars of jam, but you can definitely double, triple, or quadruple it, depending on how many strawberries you have, how much jam you want, and how much time you want to spend in the kitchen–we made 40 jars! It may seem like the recipe calls for a lot of sugar, but the sugar helps the jam set properly. As long as a person doesn’t eat a whole jar of jam in one sitting, it really isn’t that much sugar per spoonful of jam, and at least it is real sugar, and not high fructose corn syrup! The freezer jam is easy to make, and truly preserves the wonderful fresh flavor of the fruit.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Servings: approximately four 12-ounce jars of jam
Time: about 30 minutes
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Ingredients:

4 cups of strawberries (they become about 2 cups when mashed)
4 cups of sugar, preferably pure cane sugar
1 package of Sure-Jell pectin

Supplies:

glass jam/jelly jars used for canning, with lids and seals
a funnel
medium saucepan
dry measuring cup
liquid measuring cup
2 large bowls
a ladle

Directions:

Wash your canning jars, lids and screw tops in very hot, soapy water (or the jars can go in the dishwasher, but tops probably should not–thoroughly was them by hand). Make sure they are thoroughly dry. (Because you are storing the jars in the freezer, they don’t need to be officially sterilized and sealed.) Some people use plastic freezer jars too, but I like the look of the glass jars.

Thoroughly wash the strawberries. Gently pull the stems off of the berries, and measure four cups of them (with a dry measuring cup) into a large bowl. Mash the strawberries with a potato masher, leaving some bits of the fruit–don’t mash it into a complete liquid. Stir in four cups of sugar. It is important to use the exact amount of sugar, in order for the jam to set properly. Let the strawberry-sugar mixture sit for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir 1 package of Sure-Jell Premium Fruit Pectin and 3/4 cup water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Boil for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add the pectin mixture to the strawberry-sugar mixture. Stir for 3 minutes, or unitl the sugar is completely dissolved and no longer grainy (it’s okay if a few sugar crystals remain). Immediately fill the jars (this is where a funnel comes in really handy!), leaving a half-inch space at the tops for expansion during freezing. Wipe the lid area clean of any sticky drips with a clean, damp cloth. Cover with lids. If you are using the screw-top lids, make sure the lids are secured tightly.

Let the jam stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Then refrigerate for up to three weeks, or put in the freezer for up to one year. If the jam is frozen, thaw it in the refrigerator before using. Enjoy!

Notes:

This recipe is adapted from the recipe found in the package of Sure-Jell.

Make sure you use the exact amount of sugar called for in the recipe, in order for the jam to set properly.

If you are doubling, tripling, etc., the recipe, do it by making a batch at a time.