Seasonal Canning Disorder + Refrigerator Dill Pickles

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...It's time for me to fess up. I've fallen victim to an incurable summer disease. Despite smaller quarters and the surrender of equipment, farm stands continue to lure me much as the Sirens attempted to lure the Argonauts to their destruction. As a child, my mother would liken my odd behaviors to "stages" - temporary fixations that would pass in time. Most of them did. However, this urge to put food by has dogged my adult years, and it shows no sign of abating. The Silver Fox refers to my affliction as Seasonal Canning Disorder and while he doesn't look forward to it, he puts up with my need to put by (food). While thumbing through my condiment recipe collection, I kept coming back to the one for refrigerator dill pickles. It's a personal favorite of mine, but more importantly, it is one of my most popular recipes and has never received negative feedback. No collection of my favorite recipes would be complete without it. I prefer refrigerated pickles to the conventionally processed variety. They are less salty, have better color and retain a crispness that can't be found in the preserved variety. They are also much easier to make and can be prepared at any time of year. These are really great pickles. No special equipment is needed to prepare them and they are ready to eat the day after they are made. They can be safely kept in the refrigerator for two weeks, but I doubt you'll ever be able to put that to a test. The pickles will disappear long before a time trial can be completed. If you like pickles, or want to wow your family and friends with your cooking prowess, I hope you'll give this recipe a try. Here is how the pickles are made.

Candied Ginger and Homemade Ginger Ale

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I'm usually careful with my purchases, but ginger root got the better of me and I ended up far more of it than could normally be used. I can't bear waste. My search to avoid the compost pile led to a few interesting alternatives and I decided to make candied ginger and use the syrup in which it steeped for ginger ale. I've made candied ginger in the past, but never saved the syrup for other uses, so this was a bit of an experiment for me. There are three types of simple syrup and each is identified by the ratio of water to sugar in the mix. Thin simple syrup is used to glaze cakes and cookies and has a ratio of 3 parts water to 1 part sugar. Medium simple syrup is used to make beverages and sweeten ice tea and has a ratio 2 parts water to 1 part sugar. Thick simple syrup has a ratio of 1 part water to 1 part sugar and it's used as a base for cold drinks and to glaze candied fruits. I'm not fond of overly sweet drinks, so I decided to go with a medium simple syrup. This process requires a lot of ginger and a bit of straight forward knife work or a mandoline. All told, you'll need 1-1/2 cups of peeled, thinly sliced ginger. Quick work can be made of this if you use the edge of a spoon to scrape the ginger clean. Try to keep the slices of ginger uniform in size for even cooking. A thickness of an eighth to a quarter of an inch is ideal. Time takes care of the rest. I was really pleased with how well the ginger ale turned out. It has a really fresh sharp taste that's missing from its commercial counterpart. I added slices of fresh lime to ours and can happily report this would make a wonderful warm weather beverage. Here are the recipes. 

A Simple Microwave Lemon Curd

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...While I am not completely dependent on them, there are times I use shortcuts to make work in the kitchen easier. I love lemon curd and usually prepare it the traditional way, but I had just made scones today and wanted to serve them with lemon curd. This recipe, which I found on the King Arthur website, is one that I've used in the past when I need the curd quickly. Curd made in this manner is an acceptable substitute for the real thing. It is quite tart, not as sweet as other homemade or commercial varieties, and while it is thinner in consistency, it is tasty nonetheless. I'm using a variation of the photo that is shown on the King Arthur site because I ran into with a strange problem with the batch I made this morning. I've been using organic eggs that have intensely orange yolks of late, and it was a mistake to use them here because my curd was off color and decidedly not lemon colored. The flavor was fine, but the color was off-putting and in a range that was neither orange nor yellow. I lightened my batch with a bit of cream to make it presentable, but it lost that come-hither translucence that makes curd so appealing, and because this is so tasty I wanted you to see it at its best. This is a real time saver and I hope curiosity will tempt you to give the recipe a try. It's great on scones or muffins, and it takes gingerbread to a whole nother level. Here is how this quick and simple curd is made.

Never Fail Caramel Sauce

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This is a fast, easy and delicious recipe that just can't fail. The making of caramel sauce can be fraught with drama, but this simple recipe, developed by The Slow Roasted Italian will end all of that. Her recipe and gorgeous photographs can be found here. I can add nothing to it, but I did want to talk to you about cooking the sauce. I let it begin to steam before I set the timer for 5 minutes. My sauce also required an extra 3 minutes to thicken in the last step of the recipe. At that point it lightly napped a spoon. The sauce will not truly thicken until it is refrigerated and the butter sets it up, so don't be alarmed if your sauce looks runny at this point. Once made and brought to room temperature the sauce can be refrigerated and will keep for there for a week. You will love it. Here it is how it is made.

Elderberry Sauce for Pork, Turkey or Duck

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From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...If you don't hear from me tomorrow, we'll all know that uncooked elderberries are poisonous. I've only recently become interested in the berries which grow on the shoulder along the road the Silver Fox and I use for our morning walk. We've watched the shrub progress from flower to fruit, and, after doing a bit of research and talking with our local extension agent, I decided to harvest some of the berries for limited kitchen testing. Elderberries are tart members of the honeysuckle family. There are three varieties that grow in North America, two are blue and one is red. Their color is important. The red berries are poisonous if eaten raw. Fortunately, I'd been sampling the blue variety and lived to tell the tale. Interestingly, the berries, which are smaller than blueberries or raspberries, don't attract birds. They are bitter, almost astringent, and don't develop real flavor until they are processed. They are mostly used in jams and jellies, but they can add complexity and tannins to wine. They also mix well with other fruits and are used to add color and tart-sweet flavor to compatible fruit desserts. The elderberry is small in the extreme, and separating the berries from their stems is no easy task, but it can be made easier by freezing them prior to stem removal. I decided to pair the berries I'd picked with blueberries and made a pie and muffins that were OK, but nothing to raise the flag about. I had better luck with the sauce which I want to share with you tonight. While I used it as a sauce for pork cutlets, it would be wonderful with any assertive protein. I think those of you who try the sauce will really enjoy it. The trick, of course, will be finding elderberries you need to make it. The recipe falls into the stupid-simple category, so no elaboration is necessary. If you are intrigued, pucker up and follow the instructions below. Here is how the sauce is made.

Bread and Butter Zucchini Pickles

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I wish you all could experience an early summer morning in Eugene. When there is no haze, the sky is a brilliant azure and the temperature, which will rise as surely as the sun, still hovers in a range the rest of the country would find invigorating. It is perfect walking weather, and every Tuesday morning I begin the first of my 10,000 daily steps on a bike path that parallels the river. A local inn has found room for my writer's group to meet and we talk craft and chat over coffee as the river meanders by. We are occasionally interrupted by excited squeals coming from the water. The river is low at this time of year and local day camps bring young campers to ride the "rapids". There is a lot of white water, and while the kids don't know it, it would be difficult to drown in waters as shallow as these. They are having an adventure, and years from now, a handful of them will ride the rapids of the Snake and those few will remember with great fondness, their first experience with white water here on the Willamette in the center of Eugene. Summer seems to pack more memories than other times of year. There are, of course, visual triggers that churn memory, but mine are stirred by sound and smell as well as sight. I found this recipe for bread and butter pickles in Food and Wine magazine and it seemed so simple that I had to give it a try. The aroma of the brine used to pickle the zucchini took me back to the kitchens of my childhood where a mustard based chow-chow, we called it hot-dog relish, was made every summer in almost every kitchen on the block. Lest you think I am not too tightly wrapped, the Silver Fox came through the door sniffing. "Are you making chow-chow?" I wasn't but it sure smelled that way. Not everybody loves chow-chow, so it is reasonable to assume, that despite the ease with which they can be made, not everyone will enjoy these mustard based zucchini pickles. If, however, you like chow-chow or hot-dog relish, I think you'll enjoy snacking on these crisp puppies, and will find that they are quite good served alongside grilled sausage or burgers. They are easy and inexpensive to make, but do remember they will need to be chilled a full 24 hours before they are ready to eat. Once made, they will keep about a week in the refrigerator. I hope a few of you will give these pickles a try. They really are quite good. Here is how they are made.

Slow Cooker Blueberry Butter

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I don't mean to dump on weather men. I know they're good to their mothers and love their wives and children, but they are the only group of people I know, who can be consistently wrong and still receive regular raises and promotions. Last week they spread the word that temperatures would be the the low 80's for the foreseeable future. It was just a rumor. Thermometers here hit 100 degrees today and while we don't have humidity, 100 degrees is still too darn hot for an outdoor adventure. Relegated to the house for the duration I had two choices: housework or cooking. Guess which I decided to do? I bought a flat of blueberries yesterday and they kept me the kitchen for most of the day. I wanted to test some new recipes for cakes and pies, but my real goal was to walk through a recipe for blueberry butter that I had first seen in the book Food in Jars, by Marisa McClellan. I was attracted to the recipe because it appeared to be effortless, was cooked in a slow cooker and made a small batch of preservable fruit that was perfect for two people. It was also my token canning adventure for the summer. It turned out well, and I thought those of you who enjoy blueberries, might want to give it a try. It is not as sweet as a jam or jelly and while it is spreadable, it has an entirely different texture. You can control how thick or thin you want the spread to be by regulating the amount of time it cooks and if you process it in a boiling water bath it will keep for 6 months in your pantry. I hope some of you will give the recipe a try. Here is how it's made.