It’s the end of peach season here in New England. I think I got the last of the crop at Brooksby Farm in Peabody, Mass over Labor Day weekend? They are super easy to pick off trees just like apples. Photos of the field above and below. I brought them home, sliced them up, soaked them in sugar for about fours hours, and then cooked them down with some lemon. Viola jam! That’s it! I sampled the jam with a little ice cream and it was delicious. Have you been canning too? I would love to hear your stories.

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Did you miss me? I was outside enjoying summer and trying to slowly break myself of my internet habit. I promise to keep blogging but I need a summer break. Expect informal pop-ins from me every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Hopefully less about the internet world and more about my everyday life in New England.

Last night, I started pulling together my canning supplies. If you remember last summer canning season was a bust. We had that horrible rainstorm that lasted till August? Strawberries were horrible and tomatoes were mostly ruined by the blight.

This season I am taking full advantage of the great weather. I would like to get some canning jars in different sizes and maybe try out Weck’s jars too! In years past I’ve used a lobster pot for boiling the jars which was sufficient but difficult to use because it was so narrow and I got burnt about a zillion times. I ordered a Canning pot on Amazon which comes with a jar rack. Could be useful?

I’m hoping to do a lot more preserving this season. Till now strawberry and blueberry jam are the only recipes I have conquered. I picked up Ashley English’s new book, Homemade Living: Canning & Preserving. Hopefully some good pickle recipes? Check out her blog too: small measure. I found this blog all about preserving on Ashley’s blog: tigress in a jam. She has great round up of recipes using rhubarb, yum!

Stay tuned for more. I’m hoping to go strawberry picking this weekend or early next week depending on the weather. Do you have a favorite fruit you love to jam?

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Strawberry Picking In Maine 2009

It’s been snowing here off and on for two days. Monday afternoon I made up a big pot of homemade Vermont Baked Beans from my new book, The New England Yankee Cookbook. At first the whole idea of making beans on a snowy winter day seemed quite idealitic.

The process to make homemade beans is a long one. You have to soak the beans overnight and then bake them in the oven for 3-4 hours. Traditionally, you bake your beans in a ceramic bean pot. I got my bean pot from my mom. Newer versions can be found online. Scour antique shops in New England for the real thing. After an afternoon of tending to my beans I was anticipating the most glorious bean flavor ever. I served them in bowls over warmed brown bread. Greg wasn’t nearly excited about my bean feast. He thought it was bit strange that we would be eating just beans and bread for dinner. I consoled him, “If they are bad we can get takeout.”

My first reaction, “Wow they taste just like B&M canned beans.” Smoky, maple syrupy, and tangy. B&M based in Portland, Maine prides themselves on cooking their beans the New England way—using bean pots, salt pork and baked them in brick ovens. I’m not one to recommend canned products but in this scenario canned baked beans are just as good and a lot less work. B&M has really mastered the art of making homemade beans in a can. Next time, I probably just buy a can and focus my time on making a more substantial dinner like ribs rather then tending beans. Below the recipe adapted from The New England Yankee Cookbook.

Baked Beans With Vermont Maple Syrup

1 quart pea beans
1/2 pound fat salt pork
1 onion
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons salt
boiling water

Soak beans overnight. In the morning drain and rinse beans. Put a chopped onion in the bottom of bean pot; add beans. Mix syrup, mustard and salt and sprinkle over beans. Put pork down into beans so only the rind shows. I used diced canadian bacon in place of fat salt pork. Pour boiling water to cover.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 3-4 hours, adding water to cover. Beans will cook down to a thick sauce.

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A foodie friend sent me a link to The New England Yankee Cookbook and The Salt Book: Lobstering, Sea Moss Pudding, Stone Walls, Rum Running, Maple Syrup, Snowshoes, and Other Yankee Doings last week. He figured they would be up right up my alley. The New England Yankee came yesterday in the mail. Originally printed in 1939 the cookbook is a collection of recipes and stories from New England. The recipes were compiled from the files of Yankee magazine and “time-worn recipe books”. Notes below many of recipes include names, addresses, and origins of the recipe recalling a time when we didn’t associate each other by our blog or twitter names. Desire’s Baked Plum Pudding ["My great grandmother's Thanksgiving pudding"—Edith W. Webber, 16 Thorndyke St., Beverly, Mass.]

Many variations on a single recipe appear in the cookbook giving the reader the option to dispute who’s baked beans really are the best? Boston Baked Beans, Vermont Baked Beans with Maple Syrup, New Hampshire Baked Yellow Eye Pork and Maine Baked Beans Lumberjack Style. Explanations to why New Englanders eat Baked Beans (Puritan influence) on Saturday nights and how that tradition still continues in thousand of homes to this day. I understand this book was written in 1939 but I can tell you for a fact, New Englanders still enjoy a good Bean Supper on a Saturday night.

Flipping through the pages I recall recipes from my own childhood like New England Pot Roast, Brown Bread, Parker House Rolls, Maine Molasses doughnuts, and Fish Chowder. Every Sunday for pretty much my entire childhood my father made Pot Roast. I have memories of loving it when I was kid, hating it when I was teenager and now today wanting to make it again to remind me of those Sundays with my dad. Recipes tell the stories of our pasts and our families. Buy now through amazon.com

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Above tomatoes I picked this morning from my garden. The tomatoes seem to be moving along and slowly turning red. Thanks to everyone who e-mailed and commented on my post about my tomato hatred.

It’s really started to feel like fall here in New England. The sun is setting earlier and the nights are getting cooler. I made my first fall stew from the A Tale of 12 Kitchens: Family Cooking in Four Countries cookbook. Super yum—an indian veggie kinda spice. I’m in love with my new Atlantide salt I scored at Treats in Wiscasset, Maine this summer. It’s a salty/savory/herby spice from France that pretty darn delicious on roast meats. I covered my chicken for the stew with the salt. I can’t find it anywhere online, bummer, because everyone should have a bag of this for fall. I purchased the salt on a whim because the label was so cool. Below a few photos of the leaves changing around Marblehead.

Backstreet Couscous

veggies
5 carrots, sliced
5 zucchini, sliced
1 large onion
1 eggplant ( I added because I had it in the fridge)
A bunch of green beans (I added)
3 cups canned chickpeas
3 cloves garlic
can of crush tomatoes in liquid

spices
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cumin
10 saffron threads
15 sprig of cilantro, tied in a bunch
15 sprig of parsley, tied in a bunch

Quick Method:
Roast chicken breast, sausages, or fish in an olive oil herby spice rub. Put all the ingredients above in a large pan. Cover with water or chicken stock for 30 minutes. Serve in a bowl of cooked medium grained couscous, pour stew over the pasta, add meat or fish, and top with some fresh cilantro.

The longer method has you cook the onion/garlic with the herbs first and then add the veggies. The recipe suggests adding golden raisins to the couscous. We had a guest the hates raisins so I had to omit…otherwise, I think they would be delicious in the dish.

Last night, I made Fried Green Tomatoes as everyone suggest from yesterday’s tomato hating post. I don’t want to offend any serious fried tomato lovers but I thought they were kinda, blah. Maybe I need a different recipe? I dipped the sliced green tomatoes into a egg/salt mixture and then into a corn meal/paprika/flour batter. I paired them with some spicy arugula and cherry tomatoes from my garden. The arugula had more kick then the tomatoes. I’m not into anything fried expect potato pancakes…I love those. Maybe something spicier? Or maybe a relish? I’ll take a stab at the BLT suggestion tonight.

Can a girl be in love with canning jars? Curvy lines and simple shapes have certainly seduced me. I’m on a canning mission this summer. I plan to can strawberry jam, blueberry jam, maybe raspberry, and definetly some tomato sauce. I planted 9 tomato plants in my very small garden including 2 San Marzanos (makes the best sauce). For as many years I can remember I’ve canned with the good old Ball jars. True american classics but I am looking to switch things up around here. You can order Weck jars through Weck’s website or purchase a limited selection from Heath Ceramics. Which shapes will I choose?

(discovered via bliss)

I’ve been on a cooking and baking binge the last few days. Above my buttermilk biscuits I made last night to go with some leftover chicken soup. For the whole month of March I hardly made any sweets and tried to limit my naughty food intake. I thought I would have lost at least a few pounds. Yeah nothing. So my new plan? Bake and cook whatever I want (which honestly is not bad at all) and work out 5 days a week. Not baking and cooking fun new recipes made my life so boring. Next up? I am dying to make the Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie I spotted in the new issue of Bon Appetit.

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We are all fans of cupcakes. Dress up our favorite treat with decorative paper liners that would be perfect for a kid’s birthday parties or even weddings. Seriously…so freakin cute! Available in full and mini sizes. I might just order a few to have on hand. I can’t resist.

(via please sir)

This afternoon I made a cake for my boyfriend’s birthday. The cake turned out perfectly. Usually I have a hard time with the buttercream frosting. The frosting sometimes isn’t thick enough and slides off the cake. Not this time! I had a perfectly baked even cakes and a nice stiff chocolaty frosting. I can’t wait to try it. I bought a few flowers at the grocery store to entertain myself while the cake baked. To view more photos just visit my flickr photostream.

p.s. I will do my weekly round up of posts later tonight.