Quince Slices in Light Syrup with Cardamom and Clementine

Let the quincing begin! Today I worked with 7 pounds of quinces, slicing them down into twelfths in order to can them in a light syrup. I do believe quinces, though heavenly, are a difficult fruit. They do not yield, and they're tough as a winter squash sometimes. After I peeled them all--with an apple peeler that worked quite nicely, see above--I cored and sliced them all. My hands were trembling with exhaustion afterwards. I'm usually not that delicate, but my arms were a little tired from chopping some wood the other day. Now there's some really tough work.

First I poached them in a gallon of water with a tablespoon of lemon juice, letting them simmer lightly with the lid on. When they were just tender I let them sit while I readied the water boiler and brought the syrup to a simmer. Into the syrup went the zest and juice of two clementines and about twenty cardamom pods, half of them whole and half opened so the little seeds swam could swim about. When the syrup was at a good simmer, I skimmed the slices of quince from the water bath and dropped them in. When they were all in, I let them simmer for about 5-10 minutes. Into pint jars they went, to be processed for twenty minutes.

Quinces

These beauties came in my life the other day, and I must attend to them. I will be coming back to post about how I've prepared them! Do you get quinces in your parts? If you are local, there is a wonderful small orchard overlooking the Hudson river in Milton that has an orchard of old quince trees, among many others things. They are called Locust Grove Fruit Farm. They also sell at Union Square Market, and have been for 35 years! I hope you get some of their gorgeous quinces before they are all gone.

On Writing

A funny thing happens when you do NaBloPoMo. As you rack up ten or so days, you start to realize the absurdity of it all. It's like a marathon or contest, and one wonders, why do it? Or at least I do. For me it's not to prove my writing prowess (ha!), or certainly not to compete with other bloggers (again- ha!). It's more for the practice of it. So, what do you take away from that practice, that staring at the page, that reaching within and maybe coming up with something sadly imperfect?

I've been thinking about writing a lot, well, actually I've been thinking about writing all my life. Lately, I'm fascinated by novel writing. How the hell do people do it? It's such a huge amount of work, it seems to me. How do novel writers keep going? Why don't they quit? My biggest qualm is with a question that often plagues me when I start a piece of fiction: is this worth it? Is this the right story to be spending my time on? That's why writing a food blog is (somewhat) easy for me. It's comforting. Here's a topic, write about it, there's a picture here for you to focus on if you stray. There are clear steps, tidy beginnings and, best of all, endings. The question I have when I write fiction is the same question that starts to bubble up now that I'm writing here every day and that is: why am I doing this? That question is really a lesson in faith.

Those words make me pause and stare out the window at a school bus driving by. At the smoke trailing from my neighbor's chimney. At the russet oak leaves still hanging on at the top of the trees, waving in the sky. I begin to feel as if I may be biting off more than I can chew with this post. I like order, and when things start to veer off into chaos I get a little nervous. This is when I choose to close the laptop and head out into the chill wintry day. Thankfully, it was time to pick up my son from school. Now, I'm back, it's after dinner, the table is clean, the sink full of dirty dishes, and I'm here at the computer again. Staring at the "page." What was that about faith? I want to go read by the fire!

Right now I want to push this post to the middle of my queue of posts, and drum up something else, like a post I have sitting around for such emergencies on home made gifts for the holidays. It's making me feel a little wiggly. Do I have faith in my writing? I must, seeing as how I'm still writing. But to be honest, it doesn't feel like how I think faith should feel. I still question the writing. I still question the page. Maybe that's what faith is. Maybe I've had it wrong all these years thinking faith makes you impervious to questions. Maybe faith helps you ignore the whys, so you can keep on moving forward.

Yogurt

After a couple of years of making yogurt, I finally feel the groove. I tried all sorts of ways to find that sweet temperature that yogurt cultures need to thrive, finicky little things that they are. I've evolved from mason jars sitting in a little Playmate cooler filled with warm water to using a yogurt warmer that you plug in.

My yogurt "maker" is a Cosmopolitan Yogurt Maker by Salton. I bought it in a thrift shop for $4. I see on eBay it's vintage! What's funny is that for years I was collecting these little white glasses that I thought were antique milk glass, but when I bought the yogurt maker, I found that all along I had been collecting yogurt warmer jars. I still love them, and actually they are more useful to me now. If I ever break one, I have back up. For the record, the Cosmopolitan is a champ, although I do start plug it in when I start heating the milk. It needs some time to warm up, like most things born in the seventies.

I've found that my favorite yogurt is thick and tangy. The texture I like is achieved by whisking a little milk powder in the milk before heating it. The tangy part comes from a long sitting period: 24 hours. I used to always pull the yogurt at 8 hours, until a friend, who makes excellent yogurt, tipped me off. It also firms up a little more, and I hear tell is necessary if you use yogurt as a starter and you don't buy cultures, which is what I do.

Yogurt was on my mind today because, like buttermilk, I start making it again when the temperatures plunge, and I'm back inside. It seems silly, because yogurt seems like such a summertime thing, right? But summer is so busy, I find I have to let go of some things to make room for others. I'm glad to have these things back in my life!

Yogurt with Cray-pas. Don't you love Cray-pas?

Pumpkin Purée

Now that local sugar pumpkins are on sale, I've been trying to store them up in the freezer. Of course, I cook it first! Just cut one in half, scoop out the seeds, and roast it cut side down until it's tender. After taking it out of the oven, let it sit and cool for a while. Then the skin peels right off. Basically, it's a such a little bit of work for so much return. I ended up with 6 cups of purée from this medium-sized pumpkin. And it freezes beautifully. I put it in ziploc bags in 2 cup amounts.

But what to make with all this lovely pumpkin purée?

Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts: I made these today, and because I don't have a doughnut pan they didn't really come out looking like doughnuts. But everyone ate them up fast. They were light and moist, and I didn't feel so bad about letting my son eat two. I'm not sure if they really count as doughnuts though…

Pumpkin Ice Cream: I've been craving this lately and who to turn to but David Lebovitz?

Pumpkin Ricotta Gnocchi: I love gnocchi, and each winter I make a squash variety with a sage browned butter. I usually use the Joy of Cooking's recipe as a guide. But this one featured on Simply Recipes by Hank Shaw looks like a winner.

Pumpkin Granola: When I made Quinoa-Nut Granola, Kaela from Local Kitchen said she was going to try it with pumpkin instead. I like that idea! (I think she made pumpkin beignets the other day…hmm) And then that makes me think of these Pumpkin Butter Oats from Food In Jars.

There's pumpkin bread, pumpkin custard, pumpkin pie, of course. Pumpkin purée (or squash purée) is always good in mac and cheese. Pumpkin soup. What are you making with your pumpkin (or squash)?