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Thursday, October 31, 2002

On the way back from work this afternoon, I picked up a bag of cranberries and a tray of dried apricots. This weekend's project will be a festive conserve (a local restaurant manager told me his wait staff was like a conserve when I gave him a jar of it, telling him that meant it was two fruits and a nut). I've decided on pan-roasted pine nuts for the mandatory nut, with homemade applesauce and dried apples in there too. Those two elements were combined in another Ball Blue Book recipe, and that got the ball rolling. It is becoming a snowball rolling down a hill. Conserves are free form preserving, an opportunity to be creative. There are only 5 recipes in the Blue Book; Ambrosia, Blueberry, Cherry-Raspberry, Cranberry, and Peach Conserve with Rum. On average, they have 3-5 cups of sugar (just stay in that range for safety) and yield about a quart of conserve. Ingredients listed in these 5 conserves land all over the map: orange juice, pineapple, slivered almonds, walnuts, raisins, orange zest, peaches - you get the idea. A conserve is most attractive with a variety of colors and most pleasing with a variety of textures. They're fun to make.  5:14:55 PM    comment []

Here's a detail from the can of haggis, blown up to be certain that it says "Burn's Supper" and not "Burns' Supper". Rules of grammar say: Apostrophe's <sic> after a word ending in "s" indicate possession (I pasted that,  minus the "<sic>" verbatum from a cached Google site - everybody except your 7th grade English teacher screws up on possession rules). Common sense says: Never correct a Scotsman anyway (you might get kilt!). Listening to the BBC on NPR as much as I do, and having a proper English lady as my best friend (that's Liz), I'm aware of the differences between American English and the Queen's. I'll let it go at that. Burns Suppers, held each January 25 for over 200 years, sound like a great midwinter ritual to lighten up the dark days between the flurry of holidays ending the year and the drought of celebrations that begins January 2 and doesn't end until Mardi Gras. An invocation of the Selkirk Grace, a reading of Burns' To A Haggis, a glass of whiskey to toast the haggis after it is ceremoniously cut, then a feast. And there's more. Sounds like a good time. 3:36:42 AM    comment []