First Harvest and other Jams

The other day I picked my first little harvest: heirloom beans ready to dry (or are they?) and tiny tomatoes, a few fat little peppers...maybe enough for one bowl of soup, a miniature bowl of salsa? Who cares, they look so dainty in my gleena plates and bowls.


And then, Jim came home with our favorite once-a-year treat: zucchini blossoms. We really do only do this once a year and we only ever make fritters from them but the zucchini blossoms! They seem so abundant in the market, I might try to stuff them with something...frying is just so...decadent (but insanely delicious-screw it). (Marcella Hazan's recipe here.)


Jim took some action shots. He and Maxine must have been kind of bored while I was frantically hopping back and forth from batter to hot splattering oil, (getting splattered), yelling, "CAN YOU GET SOME PAPER TOWELS PLEASE?! (ouch!) OR BROWN PAPER BAGS! (shit!) WE"VE GOT TO SOP THAT GREASE UP! (owwww!).


And then...

red currants

red currants in water

red currants cooking and covered with sugar

And then yesterday, I met an amazing old friend who I'll tell you about tomorrow and we chattered our way through the Union Square Farmer's Market in which we found some lovely red currants.

I didn't buy enough to really get down into something big but when I got them home, I told Jim he had two choices (he was napping at the time): I was either going to make one of two recipes from my most prized new addiction 66 Square Feet (come on; Marie has a badass black cat with a much better inner voice than Maxine, is an incredible and passionate cook and is a freaking garden designer: hello? it's love): would it be her Bachelor Jam (aka IT) or her red currant jam...he rolled over and said, "jam".

I looked at the paltry amount of currants I had bought and said, the stuff with the vodka next week when I get a ton more.



This morning Jim asked me when I had made the jam. It's very very good.