10 plums (don’t worry if they’re unripe and tasteless, it’ll be better if they are tasty but it’s not absolutely necessary as evidenced by the swap meet fiasco)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp cinnamon
Slice plums and heat, covered, on medium-low heat with lemon juice.
Let cook undisturbed for 10 minutes, then stir in honey and cinnamon
Tilt lid up to let out some moisture and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until desired consistency is reached
This jam is great on toast, yogurt or cottage cheese as well. I think I am going to make baked brie w/ it tomorrow night. This tart was a wonderful and easy dinner/dessert. Puff pastry is a great pantry (er freezer) staple to have on hand because of its’ versatility and scrumptious-ness.
It is ridiculously hot in SLO right now. Yesterday I sat at home and studied all day but somehow still ended up feeling gritty like I had been strolling the streets of NYC on a summer day, thanks to the steady layer of sweat I kept up until well after sunset..even though I was stationed under the fan, with breaks only to make trips to the little girls room and to the freezer to remove and refill glasses of water. At one point I realized the reason my laptop was moving at the pace of an elderly snail, was probably because the poor thing was hotter than the outside temperature, meaning well over 100. I put it in the fridge. Not like I was getting much done. Heat is definitely not conductive to productivity. Anyways my friend was coming over for dinner but the thought of cooking ANYTHING sounded horrendous so I made a few cold salad-y things that required minimal effort and used up some of our surplus produce.
We got zucchini in our CSA this week, much to my chagrin. I’ve never been a fan and neither is my roommate. This was a big stress on my conscience this week…knowing that I’d have to mask those stupid zucchinis, also knowing it was going to be way too hot to cook anything this weekend unless dinner prep could wait til 8:00 when it finally starts cooling off. But we’re busy girls so this is not feasible. I decided to pickle them because as you know if you’ve seen this Portlandia clip, pickling is the solution if you’re in a pickle.
2 zucchinis
1 1/2 plums
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
cut zucchinis in halves and grate them long ways using a carrot grater
slice plums thinly
lay zucchini and plums in a small casserole kind of dish and sprinkle sugar and salt over
pour vinegar and water over
let marinate for an hour and stir a little, adding more vinegar if it looks like it needs more moisture
I also have made Pickled Carrots TWICE this week because pickled carrots are especially great. We also had 3 bunches of them.
