For the Love of Food

Last Spring my son was accepted to one of the preschools in historic downtown.  We have a few friends from our garden who also send their children there.  One of theme was a regular at the preschools “workshop” where parents get together and can jellies and make jewelry to be sold at the local Christmas market to raise money for different activities the children do in preschool.

Now, i haven’t had a chance to be part of a club or group that does things for fun (like crafts) since I was in high school.  So, I jumped at the opportunity to join the workshop.  We meet once a month around 8pm, crack open a bottle of wine, bring some snacks, and work on different crafts and talk.  It’s really so much fun and a great way to meet other moms/women – especially when you don’t know many people.

So…when I heard about their need for jellies, I got really excited and ran home in search of a unique recipe.  I came across a recipe on MyRecipes.com for a watermelon jelly, tweaked it, and ended up with something everyone was talking about!

The mom who is in charge of the organization for the jelly/jam/preserves/chutney sales gave my jelly the name “Toskanischer Sommer” (Tuscan Summer – in German).  I went by the market everyday with my camera to get a picture of it with the other jellies, but it was never out.  Then, the only day I show up without a camera, they are selling it..so these are pictures I took with my cell phone.

Much to my delight, all of my jelly was sold out in 2 days!!! Continue Reading »

This cranberry sauce is my father-in-law’s recipe. And, this is the only part of our Thanksgiving meal that we didn’t actually make ourselves.

While we can find (expensive) cranberries here in Germany -yes, Ocean Spray to be exact – my father-in-law sent us some of his homemade cranberry sauce as a gift, and it would have been a shame not to use it – since it tastes so good.

I did not grow-up eating cranberry sauce. I’m not sure how old I was the first time I tasted it – maybe I was already in college. So, I am not as “in love” with it as my husband is. Our guests enjoyed the sauce with their turkey, but, my husband, as usual, pulled out a spoon and finished it off after he finished his meal. Continue Reading »

As some of you may know, I started a second version of Taste&Create called Taste&Create Seasonal Edition. It differs from the regular Taste&Create in that each month there is a new season-appropriate theme.

This month’s theme was Spring, and in sticking with that I chose to make my partner’s Heavenly rhubarb and vanilla jam.

I was pleased to come across a blog that has predominantly vegan dishes. I actually used to be vegetarian, but now-a-days it’s meat-lover’s paradise in my kitchen. You don’t have to be a vegetarian/vegan to enjoy a meat/dairy/animal-free dish every once in a while. So hop on over to Munchkin mail and see what entices you!

I had to tweak the recipe slightly b/c I had slightly more rhubarb than the recipe originally called for, but the proportions are the same.

To be honest, I was surprised that me preserves didn’t taste slightly sour or tangy at all. I thought the rhubarb would give it a slightly tangy flavor, but either there was more than enough fructose to cancel it out or my rhubarb wasn’t ready to be picked yet.

Since i have never cooked/baked with rhubarb, I’m not sure what it exactly tastes like, but the preserves had a nice soft vanilla flavor to them and I thoroughly enjoyed them! Next time I will try by mixing in different fruits…maybe even some strawberries! Continue Reading »

I have been putting this post off for a while now. I have actually been really excited about writing it, but I really wanted some peace and quite to be able to sit at the computer and devote time to you.

My little guy is finally asleep….

So, the other day I made my way to Ikea – I live 30 minutes by foot and 8 minutes by bus away – to see what I could find in the lines of some props for blogging. I know my food looks sooo good just hanging out there by its self on the plate, but I just want to throw some life in there! Hey, it was Jaden’s great idea! Continue Reading »

I don’t usually like to show myself in my food photos, but I just had to share the amazing smell of this peach jelly with you! And, since smell-o-vision still doesn’t exist, this is the best way I can share this super yummy smell with you.

I remember eating peach jelly on occasion as a child…it was quite boring. I always favored the really sweet strawberry jellies that we could find. But, since I was a jelly making mood and peaches were in season, I decided to give it a go myself and see if I couldn’t come up with something better. Continue Reading »

Because I am still unable to eat sugars other than fructose, I decided to make my own jelly. I was starting to get jealous of my husband when he made his delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I recently found out that I can buy jelly in town that only contains fructose, but it’s so much more fun to make yourself, and the selection in the stores is quite slim.

Our wonderful neighbor brought us a large bowl of Zwetchgen (small European plums). Apparently because it’s been raining so much, the fruits have been falling off the trees too early and ripening too quickly. They’re not sweet enough to eat raw, but too ripe to let them sit until they’re sweet enough. This makes them great candidates for jelly.

Basic Jelly recipe: Continue Reading »