August brings a new month of new opportunities – my tomatoes are starting to ripen, the bell peppers are starting to grow, and new produce is introduced to the farmers market.
I’ve recently been grabbing up all the awesome cookbooks that our public library has to offer (don’t worry, I’ll list them out in another post), and I’ve found a few non-canning kitchen projects that will test my patience.
Soft Pretzel inspiration from the Farmer’s Market
Check out these two books by Karen Soloman: Can It, Bottle It, Smoke It and Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It. These projects were found in these books and will be my guidance through them:
- Salt bagels – this pretty much wraps it up
- Soft pretzels – because anything that is a vehicle for melted cheese is a good thing
- Beef jerky – my family used to by this from Wisconsin, along with string cheese
Beef jerky seems to be the easiest – cut meat and lay it on a rack, cook in the oven for hours and hours. I don’t have a dehydrator – my mom does, but I don’t know if it’s right for me just yet.
Salt bagels and soft pretzels are more time consuming – so much so that all I did was copy the recipe but I haven’t really read it all the way through yet. So…. we’ll see what happens!
Pinterest has been booming lately with the announcement from Ree Drummond, aka The Pioner Woman, that she finally “saw the light” of the website. Within minutes she had over 48K followers. I have to say that she does pin things besides her own recipes and she adds her own commentary to her pins. Go get em, girl. Here’s a quick list of my new pins:
- Creamy Taco Mac – another one-pot meal, which we know I love
- Chicken and Swiss Chard Pasta Bake
- Zucchini Relish – I found this recipe, but I’d rather make one that isn’t sweet
- Crunchy Honey Soy Pork Chops
- Peach Cardamon Butter – a recipe from Eating My Words, a former Hoosier who won a State Fair ribbon for this!
- These Red, White and Blue Firecracker Popsicles would be great in my new popsicle molds, and a blast from the past
- Spicy Sriracha Butter – looks weird, but probably tastes amazing
- Homemade Curry Ketchup, because now you know I love ketchup
Andddddddd….. I’ll soon be announcing a music-related project that will occur once John get’s it going. All I can say is it involves good disco tunes!
My name is Sara - welcome to my small blue kitchen and all of its creations. Here you'll find one-pot meals, my adventures in baking, canning and preserving methods, and a photo or two of my two pups and my loving boyfriend John. These recipes are about my life, and I can't wait to share it all with you!
