1 cup onion(sliced)

2 TBSP salt

Cover bowl with plate.  Refrigerate overnight. Drain.

2 cups sugar

1 cup vinegar

1 tsp celery seed

Heat just until sugar melts.  Pour over cukes and onions.

Put in jars and leave in refrigerator.

I added a few slices of fresh ginger to my great aunt’s recipe.

Amy at the Spoleto finale, where she enjoyed, inter alia, my sweet pickles.

We had 12 cups of beautiful local strawberries so we used the below  x 1.5, all while listening to a surprising number of strawberry themed songs.   Don’t forget the balsamic vinegar!

Strawberry Balsamic Jam and Syrup

8 cups washed and hulled strawberries

5 cups sugar

5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

½ teaspoon unsalted butter

Pour strawberries into large heavy pot and bring to boil over high heat.  Once strawberries are boiling, add sugar and stir until it is dissolved.  Bring to boil and add butter.  Turn heat to medium low and boil gently for 40 minutes, until thickened to a loose soft jam.  Stir in balsamic vinegar.

Bring 6 half pint jars and their bands to a boil in a large pot fitted with a rack ( I have this in my car for you to borrow). Remove the jars with tongs.  Simmer new lids in small pan of hot water.  When the jars are dry but still hot, use a slotted spoon to fill jars with strawberries leaving ½ to ¾ inch of headspace.  Wipe the rims, set on lids and screw on bands fingertip tight.  You will have leftover juice – can it as syrup. 

Place the jars on rack in large pot and add enough water to cover by 3 inches.  Cover and bring to a boil over high heat.  Boil for ten minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes and remove jars to dry towel.  Listen for pop.  Check seals. 

From Well Preserved by Eugenia Bone

STRAWBERRY JAM by Michelle Shocked

Saturday morning found me itching
To get on over to my grandma’s kitchen
[And what you gonna do, honey]
The sweetest little berries was cooking up right
And then we’d put them in a canning jar and seal them up tight
We were making jam
[What kind?]
Strawberry jam, that’s what kind
[Aw, the good kind
] Yeah, if you want the best jam
You gotta make your own

We have Smucker’s, Welches, Knotts Berry Farm
But a little homemade jam never did a body no harm
A little local motion is all we need
To close down these corporate jam factories
We’ll be making jam
Strawberry jam, mmmm-mm
If you want the best jam
You gotta make your own
(Make that jam Doc, show ‘em how it’s done)

Yeah, we have a little revolution sweeping the land
Now once more everybody’s making homemade jam
So won’t you call your friends up on the telephone
You invite ‘em on over, you make some jam of your own
You’ll be making jam
Strawberry jam
If you want the best jam
You gotta make your own
(Go on Jerry, let the jelly roll)

mount pleasant local season rule

Found this recipe in the New york Times today to try this weekend!

Pickled Strawberry Jam

Every year for the Oscars, I make homemade pizzas.  This year, following in my aunt Marsha’s footsteps, I made my new favorite- spicy sausage, caramelized onions, and fresh sage.  You can find the recipe here.  So delicious, but it definitely needed to be balanced out by something light and fresh and zesty.  Luckily for me, I recently spent a weekend in NYC and my new and fellow foodophile friend, Ari Douthit, bragged on his delicious citrus salad.  I don’t even like salads, especially my own, and I’m not lying when I say I could eat only this salad three meals a day for the next month.  And, at the party, it was The King’s Speech to my pizza’s Social Network- truly a prizewinner!

-Grapefruit
-Tangerines or Tangelos or whatever small Orange-y thing you can find
-Pistachio nut meat
-Green olives, pitted
-Cilantro, coarsely chopped
-1/4 Red onion, very finely chopped
-1 hot chili pepper
-white wine vinegar
-extra virgin olive oil
-pepper

Chop the chili and mix it up with the oil and vinegar.  Let the chili marinate in the dressing while you prepare the salad so the dressing absorbs the heat.

Slice the citrus crosswise and cutaway the peel, leaving flat discs of fruit.
Put the slices in a bowl.

Add dressing to the fruit.

Top with cilantro, onion, olives and pistachio (chop the pistachio nut meats in half)

Toss gently to get the fruit evenly coated with the dressing and garnish.

Pepper to taste

Note:  Ari pointed out, correctly, that I disobeyed instructions and sliced the red onion rather than finely dicing it.  It’s true- I forgot.  But it was still pretty delicious!

We always like getting mad props from our good friend and Charleston Home Editor Ellen McGauley.  I was in dire need of comfort food the other night so had her over for this heart-healthy (cough!) version………. her blog post about it is here.   Thanks, Ellen, for the shout-out but not so much for the picture of my five-head………….!

Asian Refrigerator Pickles

 large seedless or English cucumber, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)

1 medium red bell pepper, cut into thin strips (about 2 cups)

1 cup thinly sliced radishes or daikon (Asian white radish)

1/2 cup julienne-cut carrots

2 tablespoons McCormick® Mixed Pickling Spice

2 cups sugar

2 cups rice vinegar

2 tablespoons kosher salt

Thanks Stevenson for the heads up that the Canning Comeback is the #1 food trend for 2011!!!

We have always known that our good friend Hamlin O’Kelley is a gourmand and Epicurean and try to finagle an invitation for dinner at his house whenever we can.  Dinner at Hamlin’s always presents a quandary- do we keep stuffing our faces with delicious hors d’oeuvre or try, try to save some room for the main course?  If Hamlin has made a batch of his divine cheese straws, all bets are off and the face-stuffing is on.   They are the perfect – and perfectly addictive-  combination of cheesy, salty, buttery, spicy, and delicious!  And, enterprising young lawyer that he is, Hamlin has finally succumbed to the ardent pleas of his adoring fans and is selling his cheese straws to the public. 

If you’re like we are, you have people stop by for a glass (or bottle) of wine and remember suddenly that you only have one 7- month old moldy piece of Brie and half a pint of Cherries Garcia to offer.  The beautiful thing about Hammy’s Cheese Straws is that they freeze beautifully and take, literally, the time it takes to open and pour a bottle of wine, to thaw.  They also ship well.  So, how ’bout it?  Don’t just take our word for it- try them yourselves.  If you take them as a hostess gift, you’re sure to be invited back.  If you serve them to your guests, you can lie and say you made them, and they will be super impressed.  If you have poor self-control, as we do, best to keep one batch on hand for guests and one for yourself. 

Hammy’s Lowcountry Cheese Straws

(843) 722-6682

They’re on Facebook, too-  just go to Hammy’s Lowcountry Cheese Straws in the “search” block.  They can get you what you need with just a little advanced notice!

Satisfied customers............

After certain, extremely brave, members of this crew went swimming not once, but twice in the Atlantic Ocean on New Year’s Day, we needed to fortify ourselves with some lycopene and Vitamin C.  And Vitamin vodka.  Let me recommend strongly our brilliant new concoction of ……………well, why don’t we call it a Martha’s Mary?!

Martha’s Mary

1-1.5 ounces vodka

equal parts Zing Zang and juice of summer tomatoes or San Marzano tomatoes

Pickled okra for garnish

Freshly ground black pepper

Squeeze of lime juice

Goes well with six wonderful friends, a cozy fire, hoppin’ john, collards, and pecan pie.