store update

My dad had a class reunion recently and was on the planning committee. This involved door prizes, which led to making a couple sets of cards:




While working on the design (inspired by a drawing by Charlie Harper), I drew a bigger bird first, and thought these would be perfect for Christmas cards!




So if you are searching for something unique for Christmas, pop me an email and we can work out a design using the cardinal. Realize it's hand drawn, so each card will look different.

suggestion

I wanted to make a batch of marshmallows to take to Alaska with us, as I'm not sure if they've had the pleasure of homemade marshmallows.

Our peach tree did give us peaches, but they had to be cut up, as the Japanese beetles (as well as brown rot) ruined much of the crop. By the end, we were turning some of them into sauce to pop into the freezer, so I saved ¼ cup to make peach marshmallows!

Something I'm going to invest in is concentrated food coloring. I put just a teeny bit in of this and think it's the way to go:

You probably can't see the subtly in the picture above, but the 'mallows are faintly peachy colored. I probably could have added a little more and still been on target with the color.

And speaking of subtly, the flavor is also light, so if you don't know that they're peach, you may not be able to figure out what they are. I used cardamom powdered sugar/rice flour mix to coat (the cardamom sugar was leftover from apricot bars) and think it complements the peach.

olio

Blackberries! We've frozen them, given them away, made cake, turned them into freezer jam and still have them coming out our ears.

The author of the Berry Bible was on WPR last month and she mentioned making blackberry soup, which intrigued me enough to look up some recipes. Her quick, on-air recipe was berries, yogurt and lime juice. The other one I decided to use consisted of berries, sugar, brandy, ice cream and peaches. Here's the final result:

3 c blackberries
½ c water
3 T sugar
2 peaches, peeled and sliced
juice from ½ a lime
1 c yogurt

Place berries and water in a saucepan, cover and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from stove and press berries through a sieve. Stir in sugar and refrigerate.

Mash peaches and lime juice to desired consistency (by hand or in a blender). Add to cold blackberries. Stir in yogurt and chill until ready to serve.

I kept my peaches a little chunky and added a few slightly mashed berries at the end to beef up the soup a little bit. The yogurt on hand was vanilla, which I think went very nicely. Finally, I garnished with a couple basil leaves. It made about a quart.

This works well as dessert, too!

Book recommendation: Gods and Kings by Lynn Austin
Recipe recommendation: Blackberry Peach Soup
Music recommendation: Bottom Line Duo

glow

Woooo! Another Colorful Monday that I'm ready for! Presenting: golden yellow!


Though a bit cliché, I couldn't help but pop the jar into some sunlight. I bought this honey last year at the Burlington Farmer's Market for canning honey-spice peaches. Mmm...