You may recall that in the spring I acquired several envelopes of vintage postage stamps once belonging to my great grandfather and I was casting about, trying to figure out what to do with them. In the interim, my dad found some more of them in a filing cabinet, and now I have lots. It […]
I still had a huge amount of old beeswax sitting around, leftover from way back when we made teacup candles. Just blue, though. Three shades of blue. I also had a 24″ x 24″ piece of hardboard that I bought back when I had a different sort of idea for the tree branch coat racks. […]
I saw this recipe on Freshly Pressed this past summer and was inspired by Krista and Jess to make this recipe from the New York Times (thanks ladies!). My brother Ando has always been a fan of carbonated beverages. Specifically the cola variety. The more caffeine the better (he used to be a bit of a […]
I made a wedding cake this weekend. And it is AWESOME. Unfortunately, I’m too tired to post about it right now so you’ll have to wait until Wednesday. And actually, at this very second I am preparing to hurtle at 650km/h across the North Atlantic to return home to the Pie and Gren. So some […]
This is a cute waste-not idea from Martha Stewart, but it’s been done by many others as well. Teacups are ideal for this particular trick as they are already designed to withstand high temperatures, but you can use canning jars and other heat-safe containers as well.For my DIY Christmas I spent a lot of time […]
My grandmother came over for coffee yesterday (which for you is about ten days ago) and brought with her about two dozen canning jars she didn’t use anymore. As well, she brought me an early Christmas present: Catherine Atkinson and Maggie Mayhew’s Complete Book of Preserves & Pickles. Today the book is already covered in […]
Mincemeat is to the winter holidays what chocolate and beer are to the Stanley Cup Playoffs (I’m serious. Cadbury Mini Eggs and a microbrew during the finals is to die for). Originally a combination of dried fruits, spirits, fat, and meat, over the centuries the meat part has all but disappeared from the recipe, and […]
This recipe has been adapted with thanks from PickYourOwn.org, who set out all the steps for this delicious tangy tomato goo, including the entire canning process. For other tips on canning, check out some previous posts here. I doubled the batch laid out below (of course) and ended up with about 8L of sauce. In […]
I told you I was going to attempt Vicious Sweet Tooth’s Vanilla and Nectarine preserves, and so here we go. She has some good tips on canning, and of course my mother and I recently made some grape jam with a canner, so just follow those instructions and you should be fine. Pit and chop […]
One summer when I was young, our kitchen was filled with cucumbers. We made them into dill pickles and bread and butter pickles and there wasn’t a single counter that wasn’t packed with shiny, hot jars of the stuff. The whole house smelled of vinegar. It was great. We made two batches of bread and […]
