Rhubarb-Orange Marmalade

So this marmalade came into being because we have a LOT of rhubarb. Last year, at the beginning of spring, my husband and I split our plant into 8 smaller plants. We gave away 4 of them, and kept 4. Those divisions were fairly large and now I have 4 huge plants.

My rhubarb is green. It's a Victoria-type that's very sweet, very tender and tends to have thinner stalks that get very long. The bottoms are red, but the lengths are a celery green.

Those oranges are fairly large oranges.

There are a lot of recipes for orange-rhubarb marmalade on the internet. They call for various cooking methods and varying amounts of the ingredients. Sometimes they have nuts or spices in them. Our recipe is fairly simple, but it's really tasty. My daughter did the cooking. I did the harvesting and gave her the recipe.

Rhubarb-Orange Marmalade- makes 3 pints of marmalade

You will need:

7 cups of  rhubarb  (12-15 stalks)
2 large navel oranges
6 cups of sugar
2 cups of water

Wash your fruits. Anything that you grow yourself and you know what gets on it, you can decide how best to wash it. For oranges from the store, wash with a bit of soap and water. For store bought rhubarb, dunk it in 1:4 vinegar water mix, scrub lightly, then rinse.

Zest the oranges into a bowl using a paring knife, microplane or vegetable peeler. After that, cut the orange into quarters, and cut off the peel and pith. Then cut the quarters in smaller pieces and put them in the bowl.

Cut the rhubarb into half inch pieces. This might require cutting them in half length-wise then chopping them into smaller pieces.

Put the rhubarb, oranges, sugar and water into a heavy bottomed 5 quart pan and bring to a boil. Turn it down and let it simmer for about an hour stirring frequently. It will thicken. Check it by lifting the spoon, when it sheets off the spoon, it's ready.

While you're doing that, prepare your jars. We used a combination of 4 oz jars and those gorgeous Ball Canning Elite Jelly Jars that are in the photo.

Fill the jars leaving a 1/4 inch headroom, remove bubbles, wipe rims and process jars (hot water method) for 10 minutes.

This makes a lovely, tart and sweet marmalade that is delicious on pancakes according to my daughter who is eating some just that way right this moment. Me? It's hard not eating it just by the spoonful, but I'm looking forward to trying it on chocolate ice cream.

Why I need the Ball Blue Book® Guide 37th Edition

I planted too much zucchini.

Right now it's only seedlings, but it's still there. I can see the future and it's going to be entirely too much. But my kids, who LOVE zucchini are still think I should have planted more. After all, the package had 30 seeds and we plant all of the radish over a summer. No, I didn't plant zucchini, that's madness. But 6 of 7 seeds I planted are growing. 6 zucchini bushes.

My raspberries? Are trying to take over the world. I've mentioned them before, my incredibly sweet raspberries accidental hybrid raspberries? Once upon a time I planted 3 canes.

Yeah, that's a wall of raspberry plants. With lots of flowers.

Then of course my rhubarb, which is very large, very happy and needs to be split this year.

Which brings me to the new Ball Blue Book® Guide to Preserving (shortened frequently to Ball Blue Book or Ball Blue Book Guide)- the 37th edition is a HUGE update from last year, and every year brings new recipes and is always the most current information on safe food preservation. So even if you have old copies, it's well worth it to get the most current edition at least every other year. This year is one you should definitely have-

Same great format, this book is the number 1 canning reference in my kitchen. Yes, I have a lot of canning books and love them all- but this is the one everyone needs. It teaches you step by step canning basics, and you check out the videos on the Ball Canning website for more information. Then it has recipes.

Jams, salsas, ketchup, juices, jellies, relishes, ways to use them, non-canning methods like dehydration and jerky as well. How to preserve darn near any food item to use or giveaway as gifts (a jar of jam is a great way to say "I love you") , everything well indexed. I LOVE the index, Apples to Zucchini (well, actually Acid to Zucchini-Pineapple Doughnuts, but it sounds better the other way)

Too much zucchini- call friends, see who is willing to take zucchini. Then look up the recipes for what you know you'll still have leftover-

Several kinds of pickles, a wonderful looking jardiniere, relish, the above mentioned doughnuts, dehydrated zucchini chips. I'm set! What doesn't wind up on the grill, in soup, in baked goods or passed off to friends and family will get used in these recipes. I know my son will eat the heck out of hot zucchini pickles in the fall and winter.

Raspberries- preserves, jams, jellies, conserves, fruit leather and juice. All set there too. I know some people say they can eat all the raspberries they grow- but last year I got quarts and quarts of berries and this year is looking even bigger.

At the end of the book is a trouble shooting section, and a section that explains how to tell if your canned goods went off and how to dispose of them.

When people ask me about canning, this is the book I recommend to them to get started. It might be the only book you need. It's no fluff. There are pictures, but most of it is recipes that are clearly written and easy to read and follow.

Follow Ball Canning on Facebook and Twitter for more information, recipes and occasionally nifty jar crafts.
You can get the book from Ball Canning-  Ball Blue Book® Guide
Or you can get it from Amazon here-

Follow Don't Eat the Paste on Facebook

Amazon.com affiliate links don't affect your cost, and provide extra income to me personally, which helps support this site.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

Suet Pudding and the joy of old recipe cards

You can click on the image above to make it larger.

I'm still going through my parents home, and it's hard choosing what to keep, what to donate but there is also joy. Things like finding a collection of old recipe cards. The card above is hand written by my Great-grandmother- Jane Bradley, and it's from my Great-Aunt's mother-in-law. I'm so grateful to my cousin Jane who was able to identify the handwriting. Now I know what to look for! My grandmother's typewriter and handwriting are easy for me to recognize.

The history just amazes me. It's too good not to share.

Ten Eyck Suet Pudding

1 cup molasses
1 cup sweet milk
1 cup suet chopped fine
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup currants
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda

Salt and season to taste (I'd suggest mace, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves)

Steam for 1 hour.

I've never tried this recipe, but plan to this summer. Maybe modify it with the berries I have available.

Want more of my family recipes? Some of these have printable recipe cards!

Burnt Cream
Lemon Cups
Lemon Bars
Ball Cookies
Tapioca Pudding and a Salad dressing recipe
Cranberry Bread

Grandma had a sweet tooth and loved lemon. I'll be posting more recipes later!

Book Review- Effortless Bento

Wow. Seriously, just WOW. This cookbook is my favorite new cookbook for the year.

It's released by Vertical Inc., so as you can guess, it's a carefully edited English edition of a Japanese book. So this is the real thing. The bentos aren't cute, this isn't a how to make cartoon characters out of carrots, nori and rice cookbook. There isn't a hot dog octopus in the whole thing. The focus is attractive and delicious food that can be prepared ahead to pack into a lunch box and the recipes are just as appropriate for adults as for children. These are the lunches you pack to make your co-workers jealous, and to give you a good reason not to skip lunch.

So starting at the beginning, there is a very good overview of how to safely pack lunches so you don't risk giving yourself a case of food poisoning. It talks about the different kinds of bento boxes, how to keep things cool, and how to pack the lunches so everything is at the optimum temperature.

Then the recipes. 300 of them! Now, I know that some recipes aren't going to appeal to everyone. For example, my husband won't eat squid. My son will. My daughter is hit and miss with nori, and my son eats it toasted instead of chips. Well, actually I think every single recipe in this book is something my son would eat. He loves Japanese food. This cookbook has a lot of tasty options for Americanized tastes. You cook a certain number of servings ahead of time, and freeze or refrigerate them so packing lunch is fast.

Some of the ingredients can be tricky to find if you don't live in an area with great markets but a lot of the recipes are a lot more accessible. So you might not be able to find fishcake and lotus root- but pork cutlets and panko crumbs are easy to find. Some recipes you can make substitutes. Like if you can't find kabocha in your area, substitute butternut squash. The cooking methods are easy to learn.

The truth is, as much as I'm loving the recipes, the book is worth it for the tips, hints, and quick recipes sections which include furikake (rice seasoning), pickles, vegetables, instant soups and a nice collection of onigiri (rice balls) recipes.

I'm loving this cookbook, and happily recommend it.
Like Vertical Inc on Facebook to find out more about the cookbooks, craft books and manga they publish!


Amazon.com affiliate links don't affect your cost, and provide extra income to me personally, which helps support this site.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

It's so easy being green- tomatoes, jars and salsa (with a giveaway!)

You already know that we are big fans of Ball® jars and food preservation products. We use them for everything. Drinking glasses with their new lids, canning!! making yogurt and more recently making chia pudding. 

Ball® sent me some really cool things to review, use and enjoy AND they are going to give away the same things to one lucky reader!

The Ball Blue Book® Guide is THE go to guide for food preservation. Between this book and a good extension service, you have a wealth of information ready to go for preserving your garden and summer market finds for the year. 

The Ball® Heritage Green Jars are my favorite. It's hard to choose, because the Elite jars are so stylish, and last year's blue jars are my daughter's favorite color- but green is my favorite. Look how pretty that color is! This year they come in two sizes- pints and quarts. 

The Herb Series
The  Ball® Dry Herb Jars are really nice. If you grow herbs (and you should, it's so easy and can be done in containers)- all you do is hang them to dry, then after they are completely dry, put them in the jars. I like the jars because they are nice, wide and easy to fill compared to using standard spice jars and a funnel. They also have shaker tops. Those are the jars with the black lids, the green flips up to reveal generously sized holes for shaking crushed herbs into your recipes. 

The  Ball® 5 Blade Herb Scissors are really helpful for fresh herbs. If you look on top of the sheath for them, you can see some chives that I've chopped into nice small rings. Already to go into all sorts of summer recipes, they also work fantastically well for leafy herbs like cilantro. 

At the end of this post, I'll tell you how you can win all these things, plus a Fresh Herb Keeper, and Ball® Frozen Herb Starters. The Ball® Fresh Herb Keeper is the ideal way to keep things like cilantro fresh in your fridge for a couple of days. Those leafy herbs that tend to wilt too quickly stay fresh and pretty enough to use for a garnish in the keeper, and the Frozen Herb Starters are silicone trays with lids that you can make frozen cubes that are ready for recipes. Put your favorite soup seasonings stock or water and freeze for fresh flavor that's ready to go, or you can use olive oil and other fats as well. 

Ball® Canning and International Can-It-Forward-Day

Tomorrow, August 16th, there will be events across the Ball® Canning social channels. They are pretty nifty. A live webcast canning demonstration by Chef  Hugh Acheson, a demonstration of how to make Pepper Jelly using the Ball® FreshTECH Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker (I have one, and love it, my daughter loves it even more), crafts, even more canning and recipes- check the link above for a complete schedule and follow Ball® on their social channels- 
@BallCanning on Twitter, Follow BallCanning on Pinterest, like on BallCanning on Facebook

 Did you see the little tomatoes in the photo above? 

I have 8 beautiful tomato plants, and so far have had 2 red tomatoes. There are a lot of flowers, and a lot of green tomatoes. A quick search on FreshPreserving.com yielded this recipe for a salsa verde that uses the Ball® FreshTECH Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker. So easy, we have the cilantro and tomatoes in our garden, the rest of the fresh ingredients can be gotten at a farmer's market, and it will look gorgeous in those green jars. 

So do you want to win everything I mentioned? 

• Ball Blue Book® Guide 
• Ball® Heritage Green Jars pint and quart size
• Ball® Dry Herb Jars
• Ball® 5 Blade Herb Scissors
• Ball®Fresh Herb Keeper
• Ball® Frozen Herb Starters

Leave a comment here or on my Facebook post 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rubber Duck Recipe Page

I seem to be on a rubber duck kick. This duck wants to cook for you!

This recipe page is available in both a black and white version to color and a color version. I'm still working on the PDF-fillable version because the new version of Acrobat is just enough different that somehow my forms keep wanting to send themselves instead of just being saved after being filled in. So for now, you'll have to write your recipe by hand.

I hope you enjoy this printable recipe page. Click on the images for a larger version to print!

Color version:

Black and white version:

Yogurt and the Pretty Green Jar

I rigged up a white background to show off the green!

If you've liked Ball® Canning and Recipes on Facebook (and you should!)- then you've seen the announcement that while the limited run of blue jars is ending, they are starting to make GREEN jars. Even better? These come in both pint and quart sizes and really are just that pretty. They are Heritage Collection jars, and inspired by the Ball Perfection Jars. The are manufactured to the normal high quality of Ball jars and absolutely gorgeous. The color is fantastic, the lid sizes are also standard so the rings, plastic caps and accessories you have will work with these jars.
Pre-order Spring Green Jars
I love the Heritage Blue jars and blue is my daughter's favorite color. Green is my favorite color, so I'm just thrilled with the new release. If you really love the blue, you have a limited window to buy more before they are gone.

The jars shown are the quart sized Heritage Collection green jar and the Ball Collection Elite half-pint. The yogurt shown is Viili.

Viili is:
mesophilic- which means that it sets at room temperature, no heat necessary
heirloom- which means that the culture itself can be reused and shared indefinitely.

Ball® pint and quart jars are perfect for making yogurt using heirloom cultures. Why? Because it makes it even easier. My son uses a Heritage blue pint jar for his yogurt. He makes a batch, puts it in a bowl, washes the jar, then puts back in two spoonfuls of yogurt. He tops that with milk and then puts a plastic cap on it to shake it up and mix in the yogurt. Takes off the cap and puts a coffee filter on top of the jar, and then adds a canning band to hold that in place. Sets it out on his counter top until it's set and fixes two 1 cup servings of yogurt for himself. He uses the yogurt both sweet with fruit or extracts, or adds savory spices to use it as a dip or topping.

Using the quart jar, you'd put in a 1/2 cup of your finished yogurt to start your next batch. When it gets low, I measure what's left in a measuring cup, wash the jar and start the next batch. I like plastic caps for jars after they are opened. It saves wear and tear on rings to store them properly, and the caps are inexpensive, washable and reusable.

There are a few kinds of mesophilic cultures, so it's about finding the one you like best. Piima is lovely in smoothies and has a cream cheese flavor that works well with cream added to the milk. Matsoni/Caspian Sea yogurt is very tart, Viili is mild with a neat ropey/jelly like texture, Filmjolk is the yogurt I recommend to people who don't really like yogurt. It's very mild, and excellent for desserts.
The piima works so well for smoothies that I've never tried thickening it, but for the rest, adding in some cream and some instant dry milk with the milk/starter mix makes a thicker yogurt without having to add anything that's not milk.

For flavoring- my family uses all sorts of stuff. Homemade jellies and jams, frozen fruit, sugar, maple syrup, homemade caramel sauce, cocoa powder- the important thing to remember is that you need to keep some yogurt completely plain to culture your next batch. We've found the easiest is just to have all the yogurt plain in the fridge then flavor individual servings.

Ball® sent me the green jars for review purposes. The Elite jar is from my personal collection and my personal choice for packed lunches and yogurt servings because of the shape of the jar and the wide mouth.

An easier, less expensive way to make yogurt

So lately, in between drawing lots of what are hopefully very groovy mandalas (another preview at the end of this)- I've been thinking of my hippie mom a lot and started making yogurt again.

Now I've always made yogurt just like she did. A bit of plain yogurt with live cultures from the grocery store or a freeze dried culture. But this time I decided to try something new (old!) for me- mesophilic heirloom cultures.

So why? Heirloom cultures can be used over and over again as long as you keep them happy and fed. They last indefinitely and have all sorts of interesting flavor and texture profiles. Why mesophilic? The cultures I've used before are all thermophilic- which means they needed steady heat to work. Mesophilic cultures work at room temperature. No more messing with a cooler and hot tap water, or filling one side of my sink with hot tap water and keeping track of the temperature over the course of the day. No thinking "It's time to break down and buy a yogurt maker". None of that. For mesophilic cultures- all I need are clean jars, coffee filters, rubber bands and lids.

I got a set of 4 mesophilic yogurt cultures and a live buttermilk culture from Wells of Health on Etsy - no affiliation, just a happy customer. You can also get them from Cultures for Health. I chose the seller I did based on a combination of factors- they had a ropey viili was one, another was shipping cost.

The cultures arrived- about a tablespoon of each one to mix with a cup of plain milk to make a mother culture from. So I set them all up and out by putting them in mason jars with a coffee filter rubber banded over the top. I placed them all over the house so the cultures wouldn't cross each other and would stay pure. Several feet apart is sufficient, but it also gave me a chance to figure out where the best place to culture was going to be. (turned out not to be the kitchen but in my laundry room!)

The next day, my daughter and I tried teaspoons of each culture. The flavors were fantastic and different. We put the lids on them, and put them on the fridge. To make yogurt- you mix 1 part yogurt culture with 8 parts milk or milk and cream mixed, then cover with something permeable like fabric or coffee filters and set out for 8-16 hours until set. You can tell it's set by tipping the jar and seeing if the yogurt moves like a liquid, or if it moves as a mass. If it moves as a mass, it's set and ready to be properly capped and put in the fridge. Reserve some of that batch to make your next, and flavor and eat the rest!

The viili is wonderful. The consistency is about like that of thinned glue or honey. It forms gorgeous long ropes off the spoon and it's entirely too much fun to play with- the flavor is pretty mild.
My personal favorite for flavor is the matsoni- it's a tart flavor that is going to be just grand frozen or with sweet berries and honey or dates added for sweetness
The piima is the perfect smoothie yogurt, and I think with the viili will be good as a frozen yogurt with a more ice cream type flavor profile. It's a bit like a drinkable cream cheese and another possible use is cheesecake flavored smoothies adding a bit of the matsoni. Will try later.
Fil mjolk seems to be the best bet for ice cream type froyo and it's the yogurt I'd suggest for people who don't much like yogurt. It's extremely mild and it's my personal choice for trying whipped first. I think it would be a good topping.

I use a little bit of cream when culturing, and also thicken the milk a bit with powdered milk for everything but the piima. The viili was William's favorite just because it's fun. My second culture of that turned out very ropey and reminded me of hot cheese on a pizza except that it was cold and yogurt-y! The Amazing Turnip Girl loved the Matsoni/Caspian Sea yogurt. But thinks the viili is good mixed with a bit of her homemade jam. She also agreed the texture made it a really fun yogurt. I plan to try that one with matcha to make a green Nickelodeon-like slime yogurt! But just a bit of vanilla and raw sugar tastes good mixed into the finished yogurts too.

I'm sold. I love these yogurts so much. It's so easy to make and share. I'm giving some of it with instructions for making to a friend of my mom's- so if anything does happen to my cultures, she'll have a backup for me!

I also talked to my favorite local potter about making yogurt cups. She's going to make me a set of 4 10-12 oz cups with lids that I can keep in the fridge, so my morning yogurt will be in something pretty. It deserves to be. Hopefully it's going to be a family heirloom.

As promised- another sneak preview of what I'm working on for the coloring book.

National Can-It-Forward Day!

It's National Can-It-Forward Day! A great day to learn how to can and talk to other people about canning.

Ball®'s  FreshPreserving.com  is having all day webcasts, there is a Twitter event going on (#CanItForward) and other ways to participate.

Can-It-Forward TV

Here's the webcast schedule- there will be chances to win giveaways as well as all the great things you'll learn!

Broadcast Schedule:

10:00am-10:45am: Jam making and water bath canning demo by Jessica Piper
10:45am-11:00am: Craft Corner with Jordan DeFrank
11:00am-11:45am: Pickles Demo by Rick Fields 
11:45am-12:00pm: Craft Corner with Jordan DeFrank
12:00pm-1:00pm: Special Guest Host Ted Allen canning and cooking demo
1:00pm-1:15pm: Cocktails in Ball Jars hosted by Mason Jar NYC Restaurant
1:15pm-2:00pm: Jam making and water bath canning demo by Jessica Piper (repeated)

3rd National Can It Forward Day- Super Easy Jelly Making

Tomorrow is National Can-It-Forward Day! YAY! A lot of my readers are enthusiastic canners, and a lot have never canned before. Tomorrow I'll be posting video links AND a giveaway! Be sure to come back for that.

My daughter, before this year, had never canned before. She enjoys homemade jellies and jams made by me, and by some of our family friends. But it was kind of intimidating for her. Part of National Can-It-Forward is encouraging people to try it.

Ball® sent me a current Ball® Blue Book, a Ball® Home Canning Discovery Kit, a case of the gorgeous Heritage blue jars, labels, pectin and a  Ball® FreshTech Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker free for review purposes. The Ball Blue Book and Canning Discovery Kit are reviewed here.

So why can your own jelly and jams? Well, the most obvious answer is that if you grow berries and other things, you may want to preserve your harvest to enjoy through the winter. But even if you don't, there are still good reasons to can. You have absolute control over the ingredients. You can pick the flavors and types of things you want to can, your home canned goods won't contain high fructose corn syrup or other ingredients that are used to cut costs commercially. You can save money by canning too. The jars and bands are reusable. The only thing you need to replace every time is the lids themselves. That's because the compound on them to seal your jars is one use only.

All of those were made by The Amazing Turnip Girl. From left to right are stewed rhubarb (rhubarb from our garden), raspberries (also from our garden, and jelly made from store bought juice.

Yes. Store bought juice. Because jelly making can be ridiculously easy. So easy you'll wonder why you ever bought jelly. She used the FreshTech Jam and Jelly Maker to make everything but the rhubarb. 

Go to FreshPreserving.com for a bunch of great recipes!

Using the FreshTech Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker, you can go from fruit juice, pectin and sugar to jelly in a half hour in only a few steps. You add your juice and pectin, then when it beeps, add in sugar. It will make 4 cups of jelly at a time. So you can make 1 pint jars, 4 half pints, or 8 little 4 ounce jars to give as gifts. It has a non-stick surface and cleans easily. It got TG's seal of approval, she's just thrilled with it. Use your favorite 100% juice, it can be made from concentrate, or canned juice. She chose Juicy Juice Fruit Punch for her first jelly. 

You can freeze or can the jelly to preserve it. For my family, we go through about a pint a month.  Because this is so easy, with no standing and stirring time, I asked her if she wanted to make jelly regularly that way. She said "Oh yes!" and started considering other juice flavors. 

So I broke out my pencil and paper and worked out the cost. Remember, Alaska is a little more expensive than that lower 48 states, so chances are good you can make your own jelly even more thriftily.

The recipe in the included booklet calls for 3 cups of juice, 4 tablespoons of pectin, 3 1/3 cups of sugar and a 1/2 tsp of butter. 

Costs are rounded up.

Bottle juice at 4 dollars a bottle- 64 ounces= .0625 per ounce, a cup is 8 ozs, 3 cups is 24 oz= 1.50

Sugar- 4 lb bag is 3.49, 8 cups per bag- .44 cents per cup = 1.45

Jar of Flex-batch Real Fruit Classic Pectin is 4.49 regular price (it's on sale this week at my local Fred Meyer for 3.69)- One jar will make 4 batches-  1.13 per batch

Butter= .20 per tablespoon

So at premium prices for the sugar and juice instead of buying frozen concentrates or canned juice, and getting a name brand juice- it's 4.28 to make 32 oz of jelly! Can't beat that for something you know is the flavor you want and made without high fructose corn syrup or any of the other things that might be hiding in a jar of store bought jelly. You can make savory jellies to use as glazes. 

If you've ever made jelly the old-fashioned way, with the mashing, milling, straining, standing, cooking, etc, you can appreciate that it's a wonderful way to make jelly, but it's time consuming. Using fruit juice will cut a lot of time from it. 

When I mentioned it on Facebook, how much fun she was having making jelly- my friends came up with a whole bunch of suggestions including seasoned cider jellies to use on pork, pom/cran for poultry, and cranberry to use with cream cheese for the best ever turkey sandwiches. 

So did we like the FreshTech Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker? Absolutely. We are planning to put up a lot more batches of jelly, and she's looking forward to giving some of her friends jelly. Now, mine turned out super easy because I didn't have to do even open a bottle of juice. But that's because TG took over very enthusiastically. Your experience probably won't be quite that easy, but it will still be easy. 

I recommend it to people who haven't made jams or jellies before because it's so easy for small batches, but I also really recommend it for people like me who just can't stand to stir anymore. It takes a lot of the standing time out of the process. 

Book Review- Star Wars Ice Sabers Cookbook

When you buy this cookbook, you get the really cool ice saber molds and that's probably enough for a lot of you. Because the ice pop molds are really just that cool.

The book has 30 recipes for frozen treats. There are only 3 recipes for ice pops in Darth Vader Red, Obi-Wan Blue and Luke Green. The rest of the book is easy to make recipes inspired by the movies.

My daughter, who has strong cooking skills, really likes Chewie Chocolate Cheesecake Pops. This is one of the recipes that doesn't look like something from the movies, but each step is explained well and they are easy to make. A basic chocolate cheesecake without a crust is baked, frozen, cut into pieces and dipped in chocolate.

Sometimes the tie between the movie and the dessert is a catchy, rhyming or punning name such as Bananakin Splits or Tauntun Bon Bons. Other desserts like Ice Cream Clones look like something from the movies. The Twin Suns Sherbet Bombe is my favorite visually, it's simple to make and stunning. The name that had me laughing out loud is the incredibly refreshing citrus Mos Icely granita which is also my favorite recipe in the book.

So a fan, especially a younger fan who is learning to cook, would enjoy the cookbook. The recipes are simple and really nice for a hot summer day. The recipes are clearly written by author Lara Starr, and the photographs by Matthew Carden are just delightful, featuring lots of action figures with the various desserts. It's a soft cover book in full color.

The molds! One cup of liquid is enough to fill all 4 molds with a couple tsps left over. The molds stand easily in a fridge and the pops release easily after running a bit of warm water over the mold. They are fantastic, and I think even adult fans won't be able to resist crossing ice pops at least once.

 The recipes use American volume measurements.

Published by Chronicle Books- check out their Facebook page for contests and more information about their books.

The green pops above are not a recipe from the book. The Luke sabers from the book are a lot brighter green. The pops shown above are my own recipe- Mint Matcha Tea Ice Pops

You can get the set using my Amazon.com affiliate link. I'll make a small commission if you use the links below which helps pay for this site.

U.S.A. U.K.
I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

Frozen Malted Hot Chocolate and about malt

The Amazing Turnip Girl and I were going through a couple cookbooks that I'll be reviewing soon and there were two recipes that caught her chocolate loving eye immediately. One was for a malted hot chocolate, the other was for a frozen hot chocolate. We discussed making our own malted frozen hot chocolate which was an idea she was very enthused about.

First, I had to learn about malt. Because I know I'm not really a fan of Carnation malted milk which is the kind most easily available at our super market. So after a bit of research, I learned that malted milk is made with non-diastatic malt and dry milk. So then off to find out more about diastatic and non-diastatic malts. Diastatic malts have active enzymes in them that work well in baking in small amounts with yeast for a great rise and brown. Non-diastatic malts are generally used as a sweetener and flavor and don't have active enzymes. A bit more research pointed up that a lot of home beer brewing is done using non-diastatic malt extracts. Since I knew my recipe would have milk in it, I just wanted a good malt flavor.

So off to the local brewing supply, Arctic Brewing Supply where they had a ton of options for malt. We had decided powder already, malts are available as both liquid and dried powder. Then we picked out 3 different malt powder extracts to bring home and try. Light, amber and dark. The very helpful person working that day specifically recommended against dark for baking and recipes because she had fielded complaints from people about the flavor.

We got home, and mixed the malts in chocolate milk. Just a chocolate milk powder, milk and a small amount of malt, and we tried each one. We actually liked the dark malt best. It has a toastier, warmer flavor.

After all that time looking into malts, we also decided to use a better chocolate.

Frozen Malted Hot Chocolate- makes 4 tall servings (12 oz)

You will need:

• 6 cups of milk
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 3.5 oz dark chocolate bar- we used Lindt
• 4 Tablespoons dry malt extract

Cut up the candy bar into small pieces.

Put 4 cups of milk, pinch of salt and sugar into a sauce pan and heat while whisking in the sugar until small bubbles are forming around the edge of the pan. After it's hot, add the chocolate and malt and keep whisking until the chocolate melts completely and you have no clumps of malt extract powder. Take off heat and whisk in the vanilla. 

If you have silicone ice cube trays, just pour it into the ice cube trays and put them in the freezer. If you have regular ice cube trays, let it cool a bit so it doesn't warp the plastic. Freeze into cubes.

After it's frozen, put half the ice cubes and a cup of milk into a blender, and blend until all the cubes are completely crushed and mixed in. At this point it looks a lot like a milk shake. Fill 2 cups with that, then repeat with the other half of the cubes. Serve with whipped cream or marshmallows!

Because of how it's made, you could make 2 servings, then save the rest of the cubes for another 2 servings later, or even make just one serving at time by using 1/4 of the cubes and a 1/2 cup of milk!

It turned out really delicious. Even my husband who is hit or miss with malt really likes the flavor. 

Book Review- Crackers and Dips

Crackers and Dips- More Than 50 Handmade Snacks is one of those specialty books that will appeal to a lot of home bakers. Homemade crackers give you complete control over the flavors and ingredients and taste wonderful.

The author starts by introducing herself, and explaining "snack tooth" which is like a sweet tooth but for savory more than sweet. Then she explains a lot of the tips to make cracker making a lot easier. How to roll out the dough perfectly, and how you can also do pressed crackers or use a pasta machine. She explains how to get a perfectly crisp cracker, how to cut and pierce them, and other tricks for perfect crackers. It also covers some of the most used ingredients and why she chooses them.

Then into the recipes. The focus is on great ingredients and flavors. The first chapter has a lot of traditional favorites like cheddar crackers, goldfish shaped mini-crackers and soda crackers. She uses yeast frequently as leavening agent instead of baking powder, and gourmet touches like alder-smoked salt make even a soda cracker very special.

The next chapter is inspired by recipes from the around the world. Japanese rice crackers, my favorite rye crisps, Norwegian crackers made with oatmeal and other savories. These crackers, like the ones in the other chapters also come with dip, spread and topping suggestions.

Healthful Snacks and Wheat-free crackers has several gluten-free crackers. Nut lovers will also love this chapter with things like Brown Butter-Hazelnut Crackers (my new favorite!).

Quick and Crunchy uses mostly pre-made items to create crackers with flavor and snap. This is the "instant gratification" chapter, and has my daughter's favorite recipe, the Frico with Basil- made with cheese with basil from our herb garden they are fast, amazing and gluten free.

Up next is a dessert chapter, which straddles the line between cookies and crackers, but still more on the cracker side. It starts with the classic animal cracker, but made for adult tastes with a lemon glaze and good ingredients. There are also recipes for a chocolate/mint cracker and some recipes that are globally inspired.

Then the dips! I made the Smoked Salmon Creme Fraiche because it combines two of my favorite things with other flavors for an amazing dip. Everyone will find a good dip in here, some use seafood, there is a vegan pate, bean dips and cheese dips. There are enough dip varieties that you could make a dinner of them serving various dips with crackers and crudites.

This is a wonderful book for people who love to bake and entertain. The recipes are well explained. There are not photos of every single cracker or dip, the focus of the book is the recipes. The photos shown are charming, carrying the cover theme with the crackers on a chalkboard background. Measurements are in American style volume and metric.

You can get the book from Amazon.com using the links below and help support this site.

U.S.A. U.K.

Amazon.com affiliate links don't affect your cost, and provide extra income to me personally, which helps support this site.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

My new favorite way to eat asparagus!

This was going to be a post about fish. It was supposed to be about fish when I plated dinner last night and grabbed my camera. But then I started eating. The fish, Alaskan cod, was very good. The asparagus? OH MY STARS! The only way I'd like it better is if we had done it outside over a birch wood fire.

It was just that good. It's not that I did much different, so it has to be the salt.

I love good salts. If you think salt is salt, then you might be missing out. A lot of the gourmet salts have minerals in them. Just like water from a mineral spring tastes a lot better than flat, completely pure water, salt that has minerals in it tastes better than regular salt, or even then standard sea salt. Some of them are smoked for even more flavors.

San Francisco Salt Company sent me some of their gourmet salts to review. I'm a nut for gourmet salts, and my husband enjoys them too. This 3 pack is available on Amazon, or you can order salt directly from their site. These are the 4 ounce shaker style bottles. The bottles are attractive, glass with what looks like brushed aluminum tops which cover the plastic shaker top, which means they are great bottles for reusing if you buy bulk salt to refill them.

The salts themselves are a good range for a beginner into the world of gourmet salts. Himalayan Pink is the one with the strongest flavor, it's a bit lower in sodium than most salts, and has a great mineral taste. It's my personal favorite for chicken and salmon. It's also wonderful on vegetables. French Grey Sea Salt is my husband's favorite. The flavor is more delicate, and should be paired with mild flavors to really enjoy the depth it offers. It has a moist appearance because it is a bit moister than other salts. It's not wet, and it doesn't cake. It does pour freely from the shaker top. Pacific sea salt is the closest to normal table salt, it still has some flavor, but it's very subtle. These shakers are fine ground and work for all the applications regular table salt works well for. Except it really makes things taste better.
They also have coarse salt, and included a sample of the French Grey Salt in the coarse texture. Coarse salt is the kind you want to use as both a flavor enhancer and as a gorgeous finishing accent. It's great for chocolates and all that kind of stuff too. Just a few pieces on top of a truffle to bring out the flavors? Divine.

Oh.. sorry. This was about asparagus. I really, really like salt.

So a lot of Alaskan fisherman and women have a standard recipe for Alaskan fish. It generally starts out
Ingredients:
1/2 cup or 1 cube of butter

After that, various recipes change. Some call for seasoning salt, some for garlic or a whole onion or all three of the above. Some call for lemon juice. End result is that if you have a mild fish like Alaskan cod or halibut, you stop tasting the fish and taste mostly the seasoning and butter. It does taste good, but it seems a waste to mask the flavor of good, fresh fish.

So what I did was simplify it a bit.
1 lb Alaskan cod fillets (pat dry with a paper towel)
2 Tbs. butter
2 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, chopped fine
zest of one lemon
French Grey Salt (to taste)
black pepper (to taste)
Pepper sauce or hot sauce if you're a fan

Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until the butter is melted, add the onions and cook until just soft. Move the onions to one side. Put in the cod fillets and season with salt, pepper and the lemon zest, cook until brown on one side, flip over and cover with onions. Cook until done. Which is when the fish is opaque and flaky. When you serve it, you'll slide a spatula under the fish and flip it on to the plate so it's served on top of the onions, then use 1/2 of the lemon to add lemon juice over the top of the fillets.

So, that's that, and that was good.

Then I did the asparagus.
Starting with frozen asparagus - Why frozen? Frozen asparagus is really fresh, and unless you have it in your garden, the stuff from the grocery store has been aging and dropping in flavor and tenderness since it was picked. Frozen asparagus is blanched and then frozen fast at the peak of it's season. It doesn't have "woody" bits, and it's got great flavor.

1 bag frozen asparagus spears
2 Tbs butter
the other half of the lemon
French Grey Salt - coarse

Melt the butter, and add the asparagus. Cook until it's heated through, then squeeze the lemon juice on top of it. Plate, and top with a sprinkle of the salt.

It's really that simple, and tasted so good that my DAUGHTER ate some, and she generally hates cooked vegetables and really detests asparagus. The rest of my family enjoyed it very much. This is my favorite way to eat asparagus now. At least until my husband can do roughly the same thing on the grill adding in that wood smoke flavor for absolute perfection.

Check out the San Francisco Salt Company on Facebook, they are currently running a giveaway and the winner gets 100 dollars worth of salt.

Cookie and Milk Chocolate Candies

Aren't those pretty with their strata of cookie crumbs? The Amazing Turnip Girl made them for her grandfather keeping in mind his tastes the entire time. Dad's a chocolate with more chocolate sort of person, so these were perfect. He also prefers milk chocolate to dark chocolate, so these instructions use that. You can absolutely use dark chocolate.

You will need:

• 7-8 ounces of good quality chocolate*
• 8-10 Oreos- crushed
• Coconut oil

You will also need:

• Double boiler or a heat-proof bowl (I use a glass mixing bowl) and a sauce pan
• spoons!
• knife
• silicone candy mold
• cookie sheet
• wax paper

*I've said this before- but good chocolate is one that's only a few ingredients. If you see a bunch of kinds of oils, or see any chemical names other than lecithin- put it down and pick a different chocolate. I don't know how those types of chocolate, or chocolate candy will work in my recipes. We used Godiva because it was on sale and I know my Dad likes Godiva chocolate. 

You can crush the Oreos in a food processor, in a heavy duty zipper type freezer bag or just using a spoon and some muscle in a good mixing bowl. The second 2 methods are fun for kids. 

Put 2 inches of water in the bottom pan of the double boiler or your improvised version of one, and then set the top or bowl on top of it. Cut chocolate bars into small chunks using a sharp knife. Bring water to a simmer over low heat, and add chocolate and 1 tsp. of coconut oil to the top bowl. Melt chocolate. As it starts to melt, stir it to incorporate unmelted pieces and just keep stirring, it melts pretty quickly. Using the coconut oil makes for shiny chocolates without having to temper the chocolate (which is another skill set and a bit more work with more tools) but the chocolate WILL have to be kept chilled because it hasn't been properly tempered and milk chocolate likes to melt.

Get your clean and completely dry mold set on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. This helps keep any accidents off your counter tops! 

Spoon a small amount of chocolate into each mold, and then a small amount of cookie crumbs using separate spoons, after you've done that in the mold cavities, fill each cavity with more chocolate.  

Then you just set it in the freezer or fridge to chill until hardened, and unmold the chocolates. The reason I like silicone molds is that you can pop them out from the bottom by pushing up on the bottom of the mold and they come unmolded beautifully. If you want to, you can put them in candy papers or mini-cupcake papers, and chill until you're ready to serve them or give them as a gift.

The flavor is wonderful, since they used a good chocolate as a base and the cookies add a nice crunch. Her Grandpa will probably love them since they combine 2 of his favorite things. Chocolate candy and chocolate cookies. You can use different cookies in them if you prefer. Ginger, vanilla, even graham crackers.

T

Potassium-rich foods and meal ideas

Potassium is an essential nutrient you don't think about until you feel the effects of not having enough. That can be through diet or in my case, because of medication. For me, it shows in an awful pins and needles feeling in my feet, hands and face. Supplements aren't the best choice in my case so in the last few months, my family has been planning meals around my need for extra potassium. When we eat out, I make choices that will have more potassium.

Fortunately, that doesn't mean that I have to eat a ton of bananas. It does mean that I had to do a bit of research.
High Potassium Choices-
Bananas
These are the go-to, quick snack with potassium. One banana has nearly 25% of the US recommended daily allowance. But if you're like me, bananas are good but not all the time.

Lentils
One of my family's favorite meals is lentils*. That one is just perfect. It can be made in large quantity, freezes and reheats well, and everyone likes how it tastes. 1 cup of cooked (boiled) lentils has as almost as much potassium as a banana. They can also be used in a lot of chilis and soups easily just to up the potassium a bit.

Tomatoes
Tomatoes vary by how they are served of course, but a cup of tomato sauce has as much potassium as a banana as well. Knowing that about tomatoes is handy when we are going out to dinner. Spaghetti is a great choice!


Spinach
Yay for spinach on the list of high potassium foods. I actually strongly dislike most cooked spinach just as a side dish, but love spinach salads and like spinach as an ingredient. It can also be chopped fine and mixed into things like meatloaf easily. Popeye had the right of it.

Yogurt
I love yogurt, and I like yogurt with bananas sliced into it, or bananas dipped in low-fat yogurt.


Less potassium but still good sources:
Potatoes
Only just under half as much potassium as tomatoes, lentils or bananas, but also very widely available and easy to incorporate into meals. They are high carb and a starchy food but they are also a good source of Vitamin C. Potato chips, high fat and high carb are better for you than corn chips. I mentioned how much potassium they had to my optometry specialist, and he told me about a friend of his that went on a month long trek using chips as his primary source of energy and nutrition!

Cantaloupe 
Cantaloupe has more potassium than potatoes, but less than bananas. It's a nice, sweet treat and a favorite in my family.

Alaskan Fish!
Almost all fish is a good choice, but some specific types come in a bit higher, including salmon, halibut and cod which are 3 of my favorite locally sourced fish. Yum.

It's easy to remember those foods because they are some of my favorites.

*Lentils are great because they cook up so fast and can be used in place of beans in a lot of recipes. Sometimes I do season them for a turkey and lentil chili, but my family's favorite is when I cook them with sausage and a ton of cumin. This is TG's favorite lentil meal-


TG's Cumin and Reindeer Lentils

2 cups of dry lentils
4 cups of water
2 Tablespoons of cumin
1 onion minced
- Rinse  and pick over lentils and put all in large pan- bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for 20 minutes

Dice 1 reindeer summer sausage (optional- skip if you're a vegan)
Add 1 can of stewed tomatoes
1 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 tsp. cayenne
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. salt
2 cups of rinsed long grain rice
3 cups of water
summer sausage

Bring back to a boil, turn down heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Take off heat and fluff with a fork.

Serve with hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

She does occasionally add in other things because she likes lots of color. Peppers and other high acid foods should be added in halfway through the rice part after the lentils are cooked through. You may well prefer less cumin and spices, if you prefer things not as strongly spiced, start with half of the amounts.

Eggnog! With printable recipe cards

I was a bad blogger last night and didn't take any photos of the eggnog. Instead, I enjoyed eggnog with my family.

The recipe from my childhood? Turned out to be just as good as I remembered. Just as creamy impossibly thick. Of course, I probably got the seasonings all wrong, but it worked!

Um.. this? Not for the faint of heart. If you're on a diet, I recommend half cups, or giving yours to someone else. Or realizing that dieting can be a resolution for 2013, or even that the world might end tomorrow. (written 12-20-2012)

My Favorite Eggnog (and now Michael's and my kids favorite too!)
What makes the difference is whipping the cream. A lot of eggnog is made with just straight cream and milk, using very cold cream and whipping it makes a frothy, foamy, thick eggnog. When you're 10, it's impressively good. When you're *coughcough* tyone, it's still very good, and you can add rum!

This recipe is made to serve 4 if you pour full cups. If you do half cup servings, it will serve 8. Why so small? Because one of my friends was very sad there were no small batch recipes for eggnog she could find, and I tested the recipe just for my family of 4.

So first, the cooked part:

4 eggs- separated, you'll use the yolks, refrigerate or freeze the whites to use in meringues or something else later
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla - or 2 if you love vanilla like I do!

Combine milk, spices and sugar in saucepan, bring to a light boil, and whisk constantly. Let simmer for about 10 minutes while whisking. Turn off heat, and stir in vanilla.

Pour 1/4 cup of milk mixture SLOWLY into the egg yolks while whisking to temper the yolks. This keeps them from cooking on contact with the rest of the hot liquid. Pour that mixture into the pan and whisk it to mix in the egg yolks completely. Chill milk mixture.

While the milk and egg mixture is chilling, whip
1 c. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. sugar
in a chilled bowl. Whip it to soft peaks (when you lift the mixer, whisk or egg beater, peaks will form and slump). Fold in the chilled milk mixture.

If you want to add rum, decide first if you're going to be serving some to kids. If so, just add the rum into individual cups, and stir it in well. Otherwise, you'll put the rum into the milk mixture before folding it into the whipped cream. If you just want a bit of rum flavor, use 2 Tbs, for a lightly alcoholic drink (about 1 ounce per serving) use a half cup of rum, for a stronger drink, use a full cup of rum. If you're doing individual drinks, I leave it up to you. A shot is 1.5 ounces. If you are going to use rum, please, please use a good one*. Because this is a bit of time to make and you're worth it! (Always drink responsibly!!)

So here's the printable recipe card- click on the images for larger versions.

Cherry Pork Chops with CherryMan Cherries

Now this recipe needs a little explanation and back story.

It starts simply enough. I hate pork chops. My husband on the other hand likes them. So every so often, I'd cook them for him, using shake and coat methods and other people's recipes and generally winding up with a nice little pork hockey puck for him. It never worked out well.

One day, I was considering, and had this flash! Cherry soda! That might work. So I grabbed a bottle of Cheerwine which is a sugar sweetened cherry soda (look for the glass bottles) and started experimenting.
When the pork chops were served that night, they were moist, not noticeably sweet, a gorgeous reddish-pink color on the outside and an absolute hit with my whole family. Except me. I appreciated that they weren't dried out tough chewy pucks but still coated them in apple sauce to eat them.

So this is one of those rare recipes where it's not one of my favorites because I still hate pork chops. But the rest of my family thinks they are the best pork chops ever. They are certainly made with love.

Cherry Pork Chops
You will need:

• 1 jar of CherryMan maraschino cherries- I used Jumbo Cherries with Stems, but the rest of the varieties will work too
• olive oil
• 1/2 yellow onion- chopped fine
• 3 cloves of garlic- minced or 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 4-6 pork chops- I use top loin boneless chops
• salt
• pepper
• 12 ounce bottle or can cherry soda- cherry cola will work in a pinch

Put a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet and add the onion, garlic and saute until golden and the onions are translucent. Salt and pepper the pork chops, and add them to the pan. Brown the pork chops on both sides. 

After they are brown, put 2 cherries on each pork chop, and then pour 1 cup of soda around the chops, bring to a boil, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes, 40 minutes for thicker cuts. While doing this, pour the remaining 4 ounces of soda in a glass and add a cherry. Yum. You deserve a treat.

Serve with 2 cherries for each chop, the cherries aren't as sweet after cooking, but the tart and sweet flavor tastes lovely with them. My husband likes the liquid with the soda and pork juices over potatoes or to dip bread. 

CherryMan provided the cherries to me for review purposes. CherryMan cherries don't use high fructose corn syrup, and have the classic maraschino flavor that is the perfect topping for desserts or to use in baking. The Jumbo Cherries with Stems are large and delicious and um.. I just had one. Because darnit, I'm a grown up, if I want a maraschino cherry first thing in the morning I can have one. (Michael had a leftover pork chop. Did I mention he really loves that recipe?)

Check out CherryMan on FB and follow them on Twitter here.

You can also like my page on FB - Shala's Beadwork and Printables

Baked With Love Mandala to color

It's that time of the year. The time for baking lots of cookies! I hope you enjoy this baking themed mandala to color. Click on the images for larger versions, print, color!

Small JPG version:

Large transparent PNG version:

Vegan, natural Roy Rogers and Shirley Temple jellies

Did you know CherryMan has a new natural maraschino cherry? They don't use high fructose corn syrup in any of their cherries, what makes the natural cherries different is they use natural coloring and all natural ingredients, you can find out more about them here. The flavor is very close to a standard maraschino cherry, a little less sweet, and they taste very fresh and good.

So it made sense to make Roy Rogers and Shirley Temple* jellies out of them. Shirley Temples are lemon-lime soda and grenadine with a maraschino cherry, and Roy Rogers are cola and grenadine with a cherry. Grenadine, the brands you see most in the supermarkets or liquor stores use a lot of high fructose corn syrup. In fact, it's the first ingredient mentioned. So.. to start my jellies, I needed to settle on ingredients.

Grenadine is a pomegranate flavored syrup. To highlight the cherries, I used a Pomegranate/cherry juice. I picked natural sodas for the jellies which can be found in the health food section of any good supermarket. To gel, I used vegan friendly agar.

Agar is a lot of fun, it gels a bit differently than gelatin. That little packet holds enough to gel several cups of liquid and generally it's cheaper at an Asian grocery than it is at a health food store. Generally a packet that size is under 1.50. In fact, I got that packet for 25¢ and use agar a lot as a stabilizer.

Shirley Temple or Roy Rogers Jellies:


You will need:
small saucepan
glass measuring cup with a pouring lip
measuring spoons
stirring spoon
a mold or 8x8 pan- I used the Wilton Brownie Squares Silicone Pan


Ingredients:
1/2 cup 100% cherry/pomegranate juice
1 cup soda- lemon lime for Shirley Temples, cola for Roy Rogers
1.5 tsp. agar powder
CherryMan Farm to Market Maraschinos

Mix the soda and juice in a pan and bring to a simmer, sprinkle in the agar powder, and bring to a boil. Turn it down and let it simmer for 5 minutes. After it's simmered, pour it into the measuring up and pour it into your UNGREASED pan or silicone mold. Place in the cherries, then cover and put it in the fridge for an hour until cool. Unmolding. For a firmer set, more like Jell-o jiggles, use 2 tsps of agar powder. For an 8x8 pan, cut into squares using a ruler to make them very even.

Usually 1 tsp of agar will set 2 cups of liquid, but the reason you use more than that with this recipe is because of how acidic the soda and juice are. Agar needs boiling to activate it then sets firmer and is stable in greater range of temperatures than gelatin. It's also vegan friendly which gelatin is not. Originally I tried to make this a sparkling jelly, but it didn't work out quite the way I envisioned.

They taste really good! The flavors are more complex, fresher and more interesting than just a regular Shirley Temple or Roy Rogers.

Check out CherryMan on Facebook for more recipes and ideas.

*Quick personal story- when I was a kid, I LOVED Shirley Temples, and ordered them every chance I got. One day my Uncle took the family out to dinner, and the restaurant didn't have Shirley Temples! Oh the tragedy of it all. Then my mom told my Uncle "She really just likes the cherries." So he tipped the waitress 10 dollars and she brought me a bowl full of maraschino cherries. I didn't eat them all. Mom made me share with her.


CherryMan provided the Farm to Market Marascinos to me in exchange for a review. The opinions expressed are my own. The jellies are my own too, but I've decided to be nice and share them with my family.