Saturdays at the Market

Just another quick little blurb...since we just had a refined sugar overload, let's get a look at some perfect fruit...and better and tastier place to get your sugar.


Look at all those beautiful melons! And the purple peppers...and the purple basil, and if you look behind all that, the tiny pumpkins and the other colored peppers. The farmer's market in Troy has some of the best vendors, who all offer something cool. This particular vendor has been offering beautiful and colorful produce and flowers all summer. If you are from the area and have never been, I highly recommend visiting. It runs Saturday mornings in Troy on the waterfront across from Franklin Square/parking garage from 9-1. There are wonderful place within easy walking distance to grab a coffee & breakfast...or browse antique and craft stores. For the record, I lived in Troy when I first moved upstate, so I am a little biased, but I think that this little city has a lot of great spots to visit!

Lollipop, lollipop!

Lollipops! Not for the faint of heart...the sugar overload in these...WOW. and my molds are HUGE.

This is a recipe I came across while looking for science experiments at Exploratorium.

What you need:

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 to 1 teaspoon flavoring
liquid food coloring

Head over to their site for instructions. I would offer my own up since I tweak it, but honestly, you are better off following theirs :)

For flavoring, I chose a lavender lemon combo. During the stage where the heat is rising to 300°F, I added the dried flowers (be sure to use culinary lavender if using this0 and also added grated lemon peel.

Once the mixture reaches 300° I turn off the heat and I VERY briefly submerge just the bottom of the pan into cool water. This will prevent the temperature from climbing about 300°. Once cooled to 275°F, I added a bit of lemon extract. Probably 1/2 tsp.

I stirred smooth and poured in my molds. After they cooled I managed to jimmy them out. This, in my opinion, is the hardest part! I also coated them in powdered sugar to prevent them from sticking to the wax paper I wrapped them in. A LOT of sugar. I recommend using MUCH smaller molds. I used cookie pop molds, they are about 3" in diameter. I recommend you make them much smaller considering the sugar content.

But they look nice, despite the lighting issues;


If anyone has a recipe for hard candies without using corn syrup I would be very interested to hear about them. I suppose it would be difficult, but I would love to try something that had less refined sugar. Or, I could just get smaller molds.

lavender sachets. REALLY homemade.

I got a sewing machine for my birthday last month from my parents. I definitely have no idea how to use it. I thought I threaded it correctly, but...no. I failed. If anyone wants to tutor me, I would be so excited...

So I have been hand sewing these sachets for about 8 months now. Usually when I get bored and have an urge to craft.

I am working with wool from a sweater that was totally shot, washed several times first. I had a really old bag of lavender my father bought me in London about...8 years ago? Maybe longer, I'm getting old. But I didn't want either to go to waste, and they were headed towards the garbage since one was old and damaged....and the other was old and not of the culinary variety. But together they make nice little sachets for your drawers. Which is a good place to hide them, because they aren't pretty. Once I figure out how to use my sewing machine I am going to make cute ones for gifts.

I still plan to use materials that are re-purposed, like old clothing and blankets that no longer serve their originally intended purpose.

Take a gander:


Yes, that's my little sewing box. My parents gave these to me and my sister for Valentine's Day one year. In fact, I think it was my dad's idea...perhaps he thought we would help him mend his clothes? Well, that did not happen. I didn't open this until college when I started losing buttons, and now I use it more regularly to mend clothing...and my lopsided sachets. Gotta get the sewing machine up and running soon!

Bread. Chocolate Bread. Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

Yea, it doesn't look that great. We have a lighting situation in my apartment. But bear with me...

So I had a zucchini, and wanted to add some cocoa, but I didn't want to wing it...so I searched on Foodgawker for a recipe. I found one at One Ordinary Day. This blogger found this recipe at the Joy of Baking, which generally has solid recipes (a lot of my Christmas cookie recipes come from this site).

I thought it was good, but instead of the cinnamon & mace combo, I added Apple Pie Spice & some ginger. If I made it again I would add a lot more spice, but honestly I like regular zucchini bread more...but others in my household enjoy the added cocoa :)

I will post actual recipes when they are more of my own, not just mild adaptions of others!

Drying Herbs

This year, I let my herbs go too long in the heat wave before collecting them for drying, so I am not working too hard to dry them. Last night I went out and took some cuttings of what survived, leaving smaller, newer leaves to grow a bit. We are cooling down a bit here upstate, so hopefully they will have a few weeks to grow a bit more before my final harvest. Anything else I need to will get at the farmer's market, or my parent's backyard (they have so much of the now-popular Apple Mint it gets mowed over regularly because of how much it has grown into their yard).

So far, the most sizable of the plants I have cut, cleaned and set out to dry are:

Lemon Verbena - this plant was really difficult to find up here, finally found a potted plant of it at the Co-Op in Albany

Lavender leaves - this plant hasn't flowered (too young perhaps), but I will dry and mix with lavender buds for sachets

Rosemary

Bee Balm

Miscellaneous mints - my mint started to wither a few weeks back...so what I have is a combination of apple mint, chocolate mint, spearmint & orange mint

Some of these herbs are going to be combined with other herbs such as lavender & chamomile for tea. These are going to be part of Christmas gifts...but let's not get too far ahead here. The way I am drying these isn't the best method, but for the small amount I have for now, it's the best method I have for now.

Welcome!

Welcome to my newest blog, Country City Cooking Gal. In an attempt to update more often than my last blog, I will be adding updates other than cooking. Crafting, gardening and other disasters, er, creative experiments will also be a big part of this blog. I will also be taking reader's requests for recipes they would like to see - if you send me an idea and I like it/am intrigued, I may post it!