Consider the Pantry

It is possible to make jam from dreams. Just add fruit and sugar. -Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

Category Archives: Blog

Rhubarb, ginger, babies

Saturday, June 19, 2010

(Alright, before getting into the rhube, time to come clean: I’m ’bout to have a bébé over here. Any day now. Hence the slowing down of the blogging, right down to a trickle. Renovations and some frantic nesting have left me very little time to consider the pantry with. And just in time for canning [...]

Also filed in | Tagged rhubarb and ginger, rhubarb-ginger jam recipe, The Complete Book of Preserving | Comments (8)

L’asperge est arrivée: spring’s first pickles!

Monday, May 10, 2010

The Quebec asparagus season runs from about Mother’s Day until Saint-Jean Baptiste (that’s our “national” holiday, June 24). So: welcome, oh tall, skinny friend, oh gentle perfumer of urine. Yes, besides sprouts and lettuces, asparagus is about the only thing from Quebec at the market at the moment. Though I did spot a bit [...]

Also filed in | Tagged pickled asparagus, pickled asparagus with dill, Quebec asparagus | Comments (2)

Jar world semi-weekly round-up #5

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Alright, so this has blossomed into a sometimes semi-monthly round-up. So be it. I like to think of this blog as a slow blog, you know, like slow food. I take my sweet time doing the mise-en-place, put a post on the burner and simmer it, bake ideas for a week or more at low [...]

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Putting the jam in pudding

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

With canning season just a month or two away, I’ve taken stock of last year’s bounty and have switched gears from rationing to gobbling and giving away my goodies to make way for this year’s crop of jars. So we’re ploughing through the brandied peaches, pickles, fruit butters, jams and relishes that have made it [...]

Also filed in | Tagged almond cake with apricot jam, baking with jam, British jam puddings, general satisfaction pudding, jam desserts, jam roly poly, Supper for a Song, Tamasin Day-Lewis | Comments (3)

La dulce vida

Friday, March 19, 2010

Just back from a month in South America. Yup, I made those last two marmalades before I left and posted about them from Buenos Aires. Pretty sneaky, huh?
While in Argentina and Uruguay, I picked up a serious dulce de leche habit. I had it twice, sometimes three times, a day. Smeared on toast in the [...]

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Teenage mutant ninja oranges

Sunday, March 7, 2010

I’ve boarded the runaway marmalade train and can’t seem to jump off. And so we find our selves delving into this, my third marmalade-focused post in a row. Go hard or go home, right? To be honest, I’m a relative newcomer to the hallowed halls of marm, but here’s a lovely, poetic ode [...]

Also filed in | Tagged blood orange marmalade, Nigel Slater Seville orange marmalade, orange marmalade, oraninja, Tarocco orange marmalade | Comments (0)

My lemon has a name: it’s M-E-Y-E-R

Monday, February 22, 2010

Hello, sunshine. Alas, it will be another few months, early May at the earliest, before we Quebecers get our hands on anything grown locally (that is, anything that hasn’t been sitting in cold storage for six months – like apples, carrots, onions and cabbage). And though I’m not a fan of those bloated, rose-coloured Mexican [...]

Also filed in | Tagged easy marmalade, Meyer lemon and vanilla marmalade, Meyer lemon marmalade, Meyer lemon marmalade recipe, Meyer lemons | Comments (6)

Jar world semi-weekly round-up #4 – marmalade special

Sunday, February 14, 2010

* Can jam madness
Well, Tigress in a Jam has sparked a flurry of activity among online canners with her monthly can jam challenge (this canner travels too much and couldn’t commit but I love the idea!). January was citrus month and the results were amazing – 19 marmalades were concocted. Check them out. This project [...]

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French jam session

Monday, February 1, 2010

OK, taste-test time. Fun. As previously mentioned, I brought some small French jams back from Paris in my very small bag. I’ve been meaning to start doing taste-tests on this lil’ bloggy woggy, so voila: the first one.
I firmly believe that jam is best appreciated on fresh baguette with a tiny smear of unsalted butter. [...]

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Paris in a jar

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Well, lucky, lucky me. After all that complaining about Montreal winter, I got to jet off to Paris for a week. So, really, I have zero right to complain. Not that Paris was much warmer, but all the foie gras and other decadent delights distracted my love and I from the cold. January is actually [...]

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