Jam
Using up preserves, part 1
This month, I am giving thought to all the annoying half-filled jars ofpreserves that haunt my fridge door (and maybe yours, too). Orphaned jarsof jams, relishes, pickles… what’s a cook to do with them? Let’s start with jam! I am guilty of opening several flavours of jam at once because MOODS… Thismeans an unruly crowd…
Read MoreCooking with wood
“I pity the fool who doesn’t have a woodstove,” reads the Facebook status update of a smug friend sitting in front of a roaring fire in the middle of a blizzard last winter.
I’ve often told not-so-lucky friends that they are welcome to come enjoy the warmth of our own woodstove any time there’s a cold snap or power outage; the offer comes along with an invitation to bring over whatever papers they want to see go up in flames–ancient Visa statements and bad teenage poetry come to mind–and to be ready to split kindling!
The beauty of a woodstove is many-fold: that ancient feeling of comfort and security that our ancestors must have felt when they gathered around their fires, the chance to use a (theoretically) renewable local resource, and of course, that warm and fuzzy multitasking feeling of cooking on the same surface that’s heating your house!
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Food tips for Armageddon, part 2
A few more tips for eating well in an age of uncertainty:
1. Don’t keep your whole house at the same temperature.
In an ultra-insulated age, it may be hard to find a cold spot in your house or garage, but keeping a cold storage area is a really good idea for storing your root vegetables and long-keeping fruit like apples and pears in case of extended power outages and service disruptions. Many of those who weathered the aftermath of Hurricane Juan in the fall of 2003 remember how heartbreaking it was to have to throw away the entire contents of our fridges …
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