Experimental Wine Making
Vegetable wine, fruit wine, flower wine - there are hundreds of recipes, all different yet all basically the same; and if you like to experiment there is a vast field in which to do so. If you consider the sherry recipes as examples of fruit and vegetable mixtures for the purpose of making delicious wines, you will see at once that experiment is worth while. During the last war, when sugar for wine-making was unobtainable, tinned syrup and 'sugar' obtained by boiling packet dates with the ...› Continue reading
Hints for Making Candy
Candy making is generally so simple that any school girl or boy may concoct for themselves or friends the finest of candies at very little expense. Below are hints on tools needed and other generalities to make candy making even easier. Candy Maker's Tools Unless one intends to make candy to sell, or on an unusually large scale, no large assortment of tools is necessary. In these days most kitchens contain everything in the line of tools that are absolutely indispensable, but a few suggestions ...› Continue reading
Gratitude and Great Time Savers for Thanksgiving
Time To Be Grateful I have been thinking a lot about being grateful, lately. And not just because of the season, but for the many little things in my life. I think it is because we have seen so many images of people who have lost everything in the floods and hurricanes this year that it has made me slow down and think about all of the goodness in my life. From my family and great friends, to biting into a fresh, crisp apple, I am trying to focus on the abundance that is around us in this ...› Continue reading
Summer’s Here, So Get Your Garden Furniture Sorted
There's nothing better during summer than sitting in one's own garden under glorious blue skies and enjoying the company of your family and friends. With the men from the Met Office predicting that this summer will be sweltering, it's time to either buy new garden furniture or get the existing set out of winter storage for the forthcoming nights of open air enjoyment. Over the past decade the types of garden furniture readily available at affordable prices has grown hugely. So, if your current ...› Continue reading
General Directions for Candy Making
Candy tastes good and is good. And it tastes much better and is much better if you make it yourself. Whatever your favorite candy, whether butter crunch or fudge, nougat or molasses taffy, peanut brittle or chocolate mint patties, you can make it better than the best candy you ever bought. You can even learn to make fancy-dipped chocolates and bonbons that look as tempting as the ones you gazed at longingly as a child with your nose pressed against the confectioner's plate-glass window. And ...› Continue reading
Recipe
B>Recipe: Warming Autumn Soup 1/2 pumpkin, cubed 1 carrot, sliced 2 sticks celery (celeriac), sliced 1 onion, chopped 1 potato, chopped 4 cloves garlic (minced) salt freshly ground black pepper 2 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp fresh coriander or chives, chopped 1 litre vegetable stock (2 pints) Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and fry the pumpkin, carrot, celery, onion and potato for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and fry for another 2 minutes. Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 ...› Continue reading
Risky Fish
There's a certain weird appeal to the Japanese delicacy known as fugu. After all, it's not every day that the food on your plate could bring about almost instant death. Fugu is the Japanese name for the blowfish, also known as the pufferfish, which has the ability to puff up to twice its size and project poisonous spikes to defend itself from predators. The spikes of a blowfish contain tetradotoxin, a poison considered to be at least one thousand times deadlier than cyanide. Theoretically, the ...› Continue reading
Wine is in the moment
As a winemaker I spend more time than most people sniffing and peering at wine, holding it to the light, making notes. Eventually I take some in my mouth and roll it around over my tongue with great slurping noises as I mix it with air to test every edge of the wine for the flavors I find there. Then I spend even more time talking about what I have discovered with other wine tasters, some experienced, some not. I have realized, in the years since I started making wine in 1975, that this ...› Continue reading
30 Ways To Save The World While Making Dinner
From the Fall 2007 issue of Girlistic Magazine: Feminism & Food From purchasing food to cooking to clean up, there are hundreds of ways to reduce your impact on the environment and still make a fantastic meal. Gathered here are 30 of the easiest ways to do just that. Preparing For The Meal It is great to make food from scratch. It is often healthier, uses less packaging, and fewer resources from the earth during processing and packing. Here are ways to make the least impact on the earth when ...› Continue reading
Preparation Hints For Making Candies (Part 2)
HOW TO MAKE STOCK SYRUP Put one pound of granulated sugar into a saucepan; add one pint of water and bring slowly to boiling-point; then remove the scum from the surface. Put on the 3 lid, and boil for four minutes to allow the condensing steam to clear any crystals of sugar from the sides of the pan. Boil gently for twenty-five minutes. Remove from the fire, allow it to cool, and bottle for use. HOW TO CLARIFY STOCK SYRUP After making the syrup in the usual way pour it in a steady stream over ...› Continue reading