one track mind
Last night our house and the house next door co-hosted a zombie lurch followed by a Halloween party. Video will be posted later, I expect. I can't think of a better way to spend Halloween (as an adult).
I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise, but Halloween parties are messy. I was the first one up this morning, and it looked like a scarecrow got in a food fight with a drag queen. Obviously I went to bed too early. Also, someone took my eggs. There weren't even any drinks in the big fridge, so there was no reason to be rooting around in there, but my whole carton of beautiful blue and brown eggs is gone. Who goes to a party and takes eggs?
Tomorrow is market day, which means today is a good day to use up everything that I still have from last week. So I started by making more candied ginger. Since I'm moving in December, I won't be able to freeze ginger this year, and the idea of being on the farm this spring, surrounded by strawberries and no ginger to mix with them, is unbearable. So I'm hoping that I can use candied ginger for berries and cooking for the next several months. I've settled on a recipe that takes a long time, but produces much better results than the first recipe I tried (which only called for boiling the ginger for 40 minutes).
Wash ginger and cut into 1/8" slices, placing the slices in a bowl of citrus soda and water (I didn't have soda, so I'm using lemon juice and water).
Make stacks of the slices and lay the stacks on their sides in a steamer. Steam for 30-40 minutes, or until tender (although they're going to get boiled for several hours, so they don't need to be all that tender at this point).
Mix half sugar, half water in a pan (enough to cover the ginger). Bring it to a boil and add the ginger. Reduce to a simmer and let it go for 6-8 hours, until the ginger is tender and delicious. If the water gets low, add more simple syrup.
Remove pan from heat and let it sit for 30-40 minutes. Fish out the ginger and let it drain/cool on a wire rack until it's tacky. Toss with sugar and put it on wax paper for several hours to finish drying. Store in a jar.
Once I got the ginger boiling, I made an apple crisp. As I was cutting the slices, I put them into the lemon water left over from the ginger. In addition to the usual sugar and cinnamon, I also chopped up a bunch of the first (mediocre) batch of candied ginger and added that.
Having covered all of the dessert bases, I put together a soup with roasted acorn squash and an unidentified winter squash, curry, onions, garlic, apples, a little bit of cayenne, and yes, ginger.
I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise, but Halloween parties are messy. I was the first one up this morning, and it looked like a scarecrow got in a food fight with a drag queen. Obviously I went to bed too early. Also, someone took my eggs. There weren't even any drinks in the big fridge, so there was no reason to be rooting around in there, but my whole carton of beautiful blue and brown eggs is gone. Who goes to a party and takes eggs?
Tomorrow is market day, which means today is a good day to use up everything that I still have from last week. So I started by making more candied ginger. Since I'm moving in December, I won't be able to freeze ginger this year, and the idea of being on the farm this spring, surrounded by strawberries and no ginger to mix with them, is unbearable. So I'm hoping that I can use candied ginger for berries and cooking for the next several months. I've settled on a recipe that takes a long time, but produces much better results than the first recipe I tried (which only called for boiling the ginger for 40 minutes).
Wash ginger and cut into 1/8" slices, placing the slices in a bowl of citrus soda and water (I didn't have soda, so I'm using lemon juice and water).
Make stacks of the slices and lay the stacks on their sides in a steamer. Steam for 30-40 minutes, or until tender (although they're going to get boiled for several hours, so they don't need to be all that tender at this point).
Mix half sugar, half water in a pan (enough to cover the ginger). Bring it to a boil and add the ginger. Reduce to a simmer and let it go for 6-8 hours, until the ginger is tender and delicious. If the water gets low, add more simple syrup.
Remove pan from heat and let it sit for 30-40 minutes. Fish out the ginger and let it drain/cool on a wire rack until it's tacky. Toss with sugar and put it on wax paper for several hours to finish drying. Store in a jar.
Once I got the ginger boiling, I made an apple crisp. As I was cutting the slices, I put them into the lemon water left over from the ginger. In addition to the usual sugar and cinnamon, I also chopped up a bunch of the first (mediocre) batch of candied ginger and added that.
Having covered all of the dessert bases, I put together a soup with roasted acorn squash and an unidentified winter squash, curry, onions, garlic, apples, a little bit of cayenne, and yes, ginger.
Comments
But the ginger looks lovely!