moving!

The blog and houses! Moving but not too far - Willa and I have decided to combine blogs- so come find us here: http://bradshawgirls.blogspot.com/

And Patrick and I have bought a house! Still in Whitehorse but now I'll have a short walk through the woods to work. It is a half of a duplex and will be ready for us by the end of April. Hooray!

cute mitts

Mitered Mittens (May) by Elizabeth Zimmermann
wool: Noro Silk Garden
weekend knit (started Friday after work and finished on Monday)

ez at perfection! i think this might be the perfect car knitting pattern ever … small/portable, ideal mix of mindless stockinette but miters keep it interesting… feeling inspired to make a bunch on the upcoming road trip into BC
love love love!
used the gusset thumb thanks to grace ivy

i have narrow hands so adjusted the stitch count
CO 48st and reduced to 36st (so a flared long cuff)
gusset thumb: 12 st

ps crazy how these ending lining up! it is like i planned it (not at all)

spruce tip jelly

yes, you read the title correctly .... spruce tip




it is spruce tip collecting time in the Yukon ... or really the end of it. For a couple weeks in May you can go collect the new 'buds' just before the brown papery covering has fallen off .... before they get too mature. You can eat them right off the tree - they taste almost lemony. So Christine and I inspired by our new Miche Genest cookbooks went out into the woods to gather them up. Many bug bites later we emerged with a bag each!

The jelly is quite delicate tasting - I can see why many people say they use it like honey - a teaspoon in their tea. Apparently spruce tips are very rich in Vitamin C (and are brewed into a tea for sore throats/colds).

Recipe:

Pick roundabout four cups of spruce tips. Rinse in cold water and give a light chopping. Cover the tips with water and simmer for 10 minutes. Let stand overnight, strain with jelly bag or cheesecloth.

3 1/2 cups spruce tip juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 package (dry) fruit pectin
5 cups sugar

Mix juice with lemon juice and pectin, stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil - add sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil for 1 minute. Ladle into jars.

More about spruce tips here and thank you to Miche - do check out her great cookbook: The Boreal Gourmet (review here)

raspberry lemon jam

raspberry-lemon jam (with kiwi and grapefruit marmalade behind)

last night i made this jam - i had frozen raspberries and a bunch of lemons in the house - it is pretty tasty! i love raspberry jam - it has always been a favourite and I have to say the addition of lemon is a great sweet/tart combo.

Raspberry Lemon Jam

• 4 medium lemons
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda (to adjust acidity)
  
• one package (600 grams) frozen raspberries
  
• 6 cups sugar
• 1 (3 ounce) pouch liquid fruit pectin

1. Slice the lemons in half (along equator) and remove any seeds . Place in a deep pot and bring to boil, simmer, covered, for about 30 min. or until rind is soft. * I thinly sliced half of the lemons into rounds (these didn't go into the food processor) I don't think I'd bother again - the rounds are pretty but kind of a pain to spread on toast

2. Toss the boiled lemons in the food processor until its a nice even pulp

3. Meanwhile defrost raspberries

4. Place lemon pulp and defrosted raspberries into pot - i use my le creuset (dutch oven), bring to a boil, slowly add sugar, stir over heat, until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil, boil uncovered for 2 minutes. Quickly stir in pectin; return to a full rolling boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; skim off any foam.

5. Pour into hot sterilized jars; leaving 1/4-in. headspace, seal.

Yields: about 8 cups

kiwi lime marmalade

based on this meyer lemon kiwi marmalade recipe this is the tastiest marmalade ever ... well it is a hardly marmalade but a tangy beautiful spread

kiwi lime marmalade

6-8 Limes (or lemons if you like - i didn't have enough limes so did 4 limes and 3 lemons)
6 Kiwi (firm/ripe)
5 C Sugar

1. Slice the limes in half (along equator) and remove any seeds . Place in a deep pot and bring to boil, simmer, covered, for about 30 min. or until rind is soft.

2. Toss the boiled limes in the food processor until its a nice even pulp

3. Halve and scoop out kiwi - chop or crush into smaller pieces - it doesn't need to be pretty

3. Place lime pulp and kiwi into pot - i use my le creuset (dutch oven), add sugar, stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil, boil, uncovered for about 15 min. or until marmalade jells when tested.

5. Pour into hot sterilized jars; seal.

Yields: about 5 cups

ps - i love this stuff! it is great with cream cheese and bagels

sigh a bunch didn't seal

i love listening to the lovely little pops as the jars seals. it is seriously so satisfying ... ok i profess my geekdom there but then i guess that is already out there with all this canning

but .. sigh 7 jars of the grapefruit didn't take - that is pretty much half of the batch! I think my jars were not hot enough - so have looked up other ways to heat up the jars. the simplest is filling the jars with water and tossing them in the microwave worked like a charm for the kiwi marmalade i made tonight

easy organic grapefruit marmalade

so the first marmalade i made was blood orange based on this recipe from design sponge. it came out a lovely deep red .... it was a lot of work and i think i over cooked it. so much prep work! ... segmenting the oranges, making sure none of the white pith remained in ....

but then i read about boiling the fruit - it removes the bitterness - and the beauty is once they have been boiled - toss the orange etc in the food processor - yep the whole (mushy) thing!

OK on to the recipe!

easy grapefruit marmalade

5-6 Medium grapefruit (i used organic ruby red)
1 Medium lemon
10 Cups sugar, approximately

1. Slice the grapefruit and lemon in half (along equator) and remove any seeds - you won't get them all but no worries you can scoop out any stray seeds later. place in a deep pot and bring to boil, simmer, covered, for about 45 min. or until rind is soft. many suggest leaving them overnight - i have done this as well using them right away - i can't tell the difference

2. Toss the boiled citrus in the food processor until its a nice even pulp

3. Measure fruit mixture; allow 1-cup sugar to each cup of fruit mixture.

4. Return fruit mixture to your pot - i use my le creuset (dutch oven), add sugar, stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil, boil, uncovered for about 15 min. or until marmalade jells when tested.

5. Pour into hot sterilized jars; seal.

Yields: About 10 cups