crafty_packrat

Half-gallon of chocolate milk, pint of mixed berry yogurt smoothie, cracked black pepper chevre, chocolate chip goat milk cheesecake (slice), loaf of country white sandwich bread, boule of jalapeno cheddar bread, a two-pack of cheddar biscuits, 3 different lemonades, cherry blossom (cherry-lime) kettle corn, All-american (tri-color berry) kettle corn, a quart of blueberries, a quart of red sweet cherries (for cherry ketchup), 2 pints of pie cherries, 2 pints mixed sweet yellow and dark red cherries (I think they might be an outcross with actual black cherries, they're so good), a pint of saskatoons(!), red raspberries, beef borek, vegetable borek, baklava, 2 Taste of India handpies, 3 Chicken fajita handpies, 1 box Raspberry almond Squares, 1 Black Forest pound cake, 1 buttermilk cake, 1 stack of blue-be-doodles (blueberry lemon cookies), 1 stack of loaded oatmeal cookies, and a box of cookie bloopers.

I bought the saskatoons planning to make them into small-batch rare berry jam, using the recipe which basically "Berries, sugar, lemon juice" and goes into 4 oz jam jars. They look rather like blueberries, but smaller, a dark shiny purple, and more round. They aren't as sweet as blueberries, with a smoky or earthy undertaste. Next week, if I can, I'll buy a quart of them and use them in the blueberry chipotle ketchup recipe from Saveur instead of blueberries; that would make an excellent bbq sauce, I think.

I did ask the place where I got the red raspberries if they had black raspberries as well -- they did but they only have 4 flats of them today and they sold out before I got there. I'll have to be there at market open next week if I want to get black raspberries, and I definitely do. They are so delicious!

I got a compliment on my eShakti skirt -- it's the same bold lemon yellow as my yellow dress, but it's got even larger pockets.

Now that I've changed out of my yellow skirt -- not a thing to wear when cooking with cherries and blueberries -- I might go make a pie!

Persimmons, red bartlett pears, winter banana and nittany apples, a dozen medium eggs, batard of white bread, quart of creamline milk, chicken empanada, cheese danish, and quart of honeycrisp apple cider.

Made garden huckleberry pie yesterday. Used the Renaissance Pastry recipe from Shakespeare's Kitchen for the crusts. Pie is very very purple .

Also made Dark Pork Stock using bone from a pork shoulder, meaty neck bones, and trotters (very cheap!). Almost too much stock to deal with, but I'll make French Onion Soup with some and reduce and freeze the rest.

This weekend I'm trying some more experimental baking -- lots of recipes out of Shakespeare's Kitchen.

This one is a desert recipe adapted from a period side dish from Lombardy -- sweet beets with crystalized ginger and creme fraiche.

Ingredients

6 small golden or red beets, peeled and grated (about 2 or 3 cups?)
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 package frozen puff-pastry shells (6 shells)
1/2 cup creme fraiche
2 tablespoons crystalized ginger

Shredding the beets in my tiny food processor seemed to work, but they ( do bleed everywhere )
The honey I used was purple aster honey from Bees and Blossoms, who were at the winter farmer market this year. It's slightly spicy, and good for pairing with stronger flavors.



Once the beets are baked, they definitely need to be drained or they're too messy in the pastry shells -- but I think this would make a nice party dish, if I can bake the beets and shells beforehand and just assembly the pastries right before serving.

They're certainly pretty ( -- and tasty too. )