Only a week into December and it's freezing! (Ok, by California standards) I hope despite the chilly weather, you've been able to get out and enjoy yourselves. Post-Thanksgiving, Mr.S and I took Kidlet #1 to the San Francisco International Auto Show at the Moscone Center. (Thanks for the tickets Grace and Lawrence!) Kidlet #1 loves sports cars, so he and his dad were gawking at all the cool rides and talking a bunch of auto gibberish that I couldn't comprehend. (I'm used to this, as they engage in the same car nerd talk when we watch Top Gear or Fast 'n Loud.) I'm not that into car shows but I did have a nice time perusing all the new vehicles (the modified street vehicles were my favorite) and afterwards we went to Japantown, where I stocked up on Japanese sundries and snacks at Nijiya Market and Ichiban Kan. Mr.S and Kidlet #1 were also very patient while I spent an inordinate amount of time perusing the aisles of kitchen gadgets at Daiso. As a trade-off, I didn't grouse when they begged to grab dinner at Fisherman's Wharf.

Here's a few photos from the car show:










For some reason the SF trip spurred a cookie baking kick in me (maybe it was all the cute baking stuff at Daiso?) and I baked a TON of cookies the following week in the cottage's kitchen. Additionally, I chose to break in a cute tea towel  that a friend gave me as a birthday gift earlier this year. The tea towel is screen printed with a short poem by William Carlos Williams called, "This is Just to Say." I love plums and seeing that poem made me crave some juicy, ripe summer plums. Unfortunately, it's December so I was a bit SOL; however, I remembered that I had made a big batch of delicious rosemary plum jam this summer. I gave a lot of it away but I had a few jars still squirreled away in the cupboard. So in addition to the various other cookies I made, I also whipped up some fresh thumbprint cookies with homemade rosemary plum jam. Mmmm!


My thumbprint cookies have always been a crowd favorite - they're the perfect blend of savory and sweet. The trick is - I use Alice Water's sweet tart dough recipe paired with one of my own jams...strawberry balsamic, ginger peach, blackberry lime, etc. The rosemary plum is my favorite though. Plus it's super easy to make- I use a standard recipe for plum jam and just add in some fresh rosemary.



Rosemary-Plum Jam

Ingredients

3 lbs. fresh plums
a couple sprigs of fresh rosemary
7 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 pouch liquid pectin

Instructions

1. Wash your fruit, cut in half, twist and remove pit. Chop. Place in food processor.

2. Wash rosemary. Remove needles from stem. Discard stem. Chop. Place chopped needles in with plums.

3. Give the processor a good pulse/chop or two. You want the processor to crush the fruit mixture (but not puree it). Alternately, if you're not too fussy - you can chop the plums finely with a kitchen knife and call it a day. It'll cook down.

5. Pour rosemary-plum mixture into a large heavy bottomed pot.  Add lemon juice then sugar. Place on high heat and bring to a full rolling boil boil. Stir constantly while the softened fruit and sugar meld.

6. When it gets to be a full rolling boil (rolling boil-= boiling so hard it can't be stirred down, it keeps bubbling), add the pectin in quickly. Keep stirring the entire time.

7.  Return to full rolling boil for exactly 1 minute. Check to see if the jam has set. If it has, remove it from the heat. Skim off any foam.

8. Ladle the jam (while it's still hot) into hot, sterilized half-pint jars. Leave a 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims, secure the lids and finger tighten the rings. Then follow the procedure for processing in a hot water bath.

PS This jam is also amazing when paired with roast pork.

How to sterilize jars and lids
How to hot water bath/can your jam

If you're one of the lucky ones who has ready access to a flourishing fig tree, I'm sure you're up to your eyeballs in sweet, ripe figs right about now. One easy way to use up some of your bounty is to make some fig jam. This is a super easy recipe that utilizes honey instead of sugar. I just made a batch this week with a bag of plump Mission figs my friend Dawn gave me and some local honey I buy from another friend, Neal. Since it was a small batch I skipped water bathing the jam and just popped it in the fridge. It'll keep there for about a month, but I'm sure it'll get eaten up much sooner than that. Plopped on some Greek yogurt, spread on some fresh-baked bread or accompanying a simple cheese platter...mmm...I'm getting hungry just thinking about the uses!





Small Batch Honey-Fig Jam

Ingredients

2 pounds fresh figs, cut into quarters

1.5 cups good quality honey (go for the lighter color honey, so that it won't overwhelm the flavor of the figs)

6 tablespoons of water

lemon zest of 1 lemon

4 tablespoons of lemon juice


Instructions

1. Sterilize your half-pint jars in boiling water. Place your lids in a pan of VERY hot (but not boiling) water for at least 5 minutes.

2.  Wash figs and remove stems. (I don't peel them as the skins get quite soft during the cooking process and I like the texture.) Slice figs into quarters.

3. In a large saucepan, combine the figs, honey and water. Let sit (unheated) for about 25-30 minutes.

4. Bring mixture to a boil then reduce heat immediately to a simmer and cook for about 30-40 minutes. Stirring frequently (you don't want the honey to burn). You'll notice that the figs will start to break down and the mixture will thicken. (Optional: If you want smaller bits, you can mash them up a bit with a potato masher at this point.)

5. Add lemon zest and juice. Stir. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.

6. Remove from heat. Ladle into hot-sterilized jars. Place lid on. Allow to cool, place in fridge.

7. Will keep for about a month, refrigerated.

Did you have a nice weekend? Mine took a turn for the crazy right near the end. I spent Friday and Saturday at a friend's in Lodi, where we did an insane amount of canning- pickled red onions, marinara, spicy red pepper spread and dilly beans. Supervised by Miss Mija, tiny dog extraordinaire:



My feet ached intensely by Saturday night from standing all day, thank goodness we were able to drink a lot of wine to dull the pain. Sunday, I thought I had a little bit of time to laze about before attending a dinner party in the eve, but that plan was shot to hell when a crazy drug addict tried to break into my cottage- in the middle of the day, WHILE I WAS HOME. When I confronted her, she tried to tell me her cousin lived here...what the hell? I ended up calling the police, they came out and took a report and they think they might know who the perp is. Luckily, the dinner party was fun and took my mind off of things. Funny enough, I wasn't scared by the burglary incident, I was MAD though!

Anyhow, while in Lodi, my friend Cate and I made several jars of pickled red onions. They came out terrific and since you can eat them right away, I did! (I've had a hankering for pickled onions ever since Mr.S. and I stopped at a nearby Mexican restaurant and they threw a few on my carnitas.




Pickled Red Onions (adapted from "Put 'Em Up!" by Sherri Brooks Vinton)

Ingredients

6 lbs. small red onions
6 cups distilled white vinegar
3 cups water
9 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons salt

Instructions

1. Sliced onions. We used a food processor.

2. In a large non-reactive bowl- mix together: vinegar, water, sugar and salt. Make sure the sugar and salt dissolves thoroughly.

3. Add the sliced onions and stir well so that everything's coated.




4. Let it sit for about an hour. Once the onions get wilty, you can go ahead and put them in jars.

5. We were able to make 11 half-pint jars and 2 pint jars. Refrigerate, will stay good for at least a month.

6. Be sure to keep the leftover extra pickling juice- you can use it when making vinaigrette for your salad.

Fourteen dollars for a jar of lemon curd? U-uh, no way, nein! Remember all those Meyer lemons I had taking over my kitchen? Well, some of them got put to good use earlier this week…they were turned into a batch of creamy, tangy lemon curd. Mmm! Have you had it before? It’s wonderful…like a jarful of liquid sunshine. Lemon curd is super easy to make and you can use it in all kinds of dishes- as a filling for a tart, to put on thumbprint cookies or spooned over homemade ice cream just to name a few. My favorite way to eat lemon curd though is to pop a dollop on a fresh blackberry scone. The tartness of the curd complements the sweetness of the berries perfectly.

To make this batch of curd, I used a recipe from (the now defunct) Gourmet Magazine; however, I made a few changes. If you’d like to see the original recipe, you can find it here: Gourmet- Lemon Curd.

Oh, I also had a little help from my lovely assistant:




Isn’t he super adorbs? With a name like Pepper, this cute guy is right at home in the kitchen. I love it when Mr. S. lets me borrow him for the day. Pepper supervised the curd making and afterwards we took a much needed nap. He’s an excellent napper, as you can see.




Lemon Curd

Ingredients

(3 Meyer Lemons for juicing and zesting)

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon zest (I used my handy dandy microplane)

1/2 cup sugar

3 large eggs

3/4 stick unsalted butter, sliced into six pieces


Instructions

- Bring about 3 inches of water to a simmer in a medium-sized pot.

- Whisk together juice, zest, sugar, and eggs in a large non-reactive bowl.

- Place the bowl on top of the pot of water, without the bottom of the bowl actually touching the water (essentially, you’re creating a makeshift double boiler).

- Stir in the butter a piece at a time, allowing each piece to melt and whisking frequently; until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubble appears on surface, about 6-8 minutes. Take care not to overcook the curd.

- Remove the bowl of curd from the heat and pour the mixture through a sieve that you’ve placed on top of a new bowl. Gently work the curd through the sieve using a wooden spoon.

- Cover the lemon curd with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic wrap directly onto the surface (this prevents a skin from forming on the top). Keep in fridge until completely chilled (about one hour).