Myself As Another

My Ph.D. exams are over, and now I have a desperate need to ground myself in the experience of my everyday life again. Exams, for instance, require that all attention is paid to the content of study. I have a hard time balancing that impulse while not actually studying. So yesterday, I looked in the fridge to see what I needed to get rid of. Carrots. Hmmm. Alright. I don’t yet have all the missing parts for my pressure cooker, so chicken soup was out. Jam? Yep.

I found a recipe for carrot cake jam in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. (I’ve included the recipe below.) It’s an absolutely stunning collection of canning recipes and tips-n-tricks about the process.

Taste: It actually tastes a lot like Carrot cake. So far, I’ve only tasted it on saltines, but the taste is really, really strong. Unfortunately, the carrots get a little overpowered by the pineapple, and the overall quality is a little too sweet, but maybe this will change when I spread it over a nice thick slice of homemade whole-grain bread.

Texture: I might have cooked the pectin a little too long, and I might have gone a little heavy on the pineapple, so it’s a tiny bit on the runny side for jam.

Look: Nice robust orange color. The specs of carrot remind me of the gelatins my Grandma Bjugstad used to make back in Sheyenne, North Dakota when I was growing up (late ’70s, early ’80s). This would look beautiful served in a small, white porcelain bowl with a wooden spreading spoon. For some reason, I can’t help but visualize the vinyl, yellow-checkered table cloth in my grandma’s kitchen.

Here’s the recipe. I can’t recommend any adjustments at the moment:

Carrot Cake Jam

1 1/2 cups grated, peeled carrots
1 1/2 cups cored, peeled pears
1 3/4 cups canned pineapple, including juice
3 T lemon juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsb ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 package of powdered pectin
6 1/2 cups sugar

In a large saucepan, combine carrots, pears, pineapple with juice, lemon juice, and spices. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, cover and boil gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in pectin until dissolved. Bring back to a full boil, add sugar all at once, bring back to another boil and boil hard for 1 minute.

Remove from heat, skim off foam. Ladle into prepared jars with 1/4 inch headspace. Process jars in a BWB for 5 minutes for sterilized jars, or 10 minutes for unsterilized jars.

Makes 6 half pints.

Here’s one of my comfort food recipes from my childhood. Totally representative of the cooking philosophy in our house: simple, fast, cheap, standard cookware, common ingredients, less than healthy. So, it’s perfect for a graduate student. Perfect for a bachelor. Perfect if you’re in a pinch, needing a something to contribute to that dinner invitation to a friend’s house on short notice. Here’s the recipe (thanks to my niece, Taylor Trauman, and my sister-in-law, Sheri Trauman):

Trauman’s Chocolate No-bake Cookies

Bring the following ingredients to a boil:
2 c. sugar
1 stick margarine (eight tablespoons)
½ c. Milk
3 tbls cocoa

Once you get a roiling boil, stir constantly for 90 seconds. Remove from heat. Add these ingredients immediately:
½ c. peanut butter (creamy or chunky)
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 ¼ c. Quick Oats

Spoon out dollops onto a pair of cookie sheets covered with non-stick spray or wax-paper. As far as I know, it’s a family recipe, but that doesn’t mean it’s not floating around out there somewhere else on the internet.

I’ll be spending Thanksgiving at my brother’s house (twenty miles away in Crestwood, KY) and I wanted to share with you all a recipe that I’ve been making for the last ten years: challah. Not only do I love the taste, but I also love the way I need to braid it with my hands without over-working the dough. I love the golden finish from the egg wash and poppy seeds. Hopefully, we’ll be eating it with some of the mocha cherry jam I made this past spring. I’ve included a pic of the finished loaves. Here’s the recipe (From The Silver Palate Cookbook):

INGREDIENTS:
	2 cups milk
	8 tablespoons (1 stick) sweet butter
	1/3 cup granulated sugar
	2 packages active dry yeast
	4 eggs, at room temperature
	2 teaspoons salt
	6 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
	1/3 cup cornmeal
	1 tablespoon cold water
	poppy seeds

1. Bring milk, 6 tablespoons of butter, and the sugar to a boil together in a medium-size saucepan. Remove from heat, pour into a large mixing bowl, and let cool to lukewarm (105° to 115° F).

2. Stir yeast into the milk mixture and let stand for 10 minutes.

3. Beat 3 of the eggs well in a small bowl, and stir them and the salt into the milk-and-yeast mixture.

4. Stir in 5 cups of the flour, 1 cup at a time, until you achieve a sticky dough. Flour a work surface lightly and turn the dough out onto it. Wash and dry the bowl.

5. Sprinkle additional flour over the dough and begin kneading, adding more flour as necessary, until you have smooth elastic dough.

6. Smear the reserved 2 tablespoons of butter around the inside of the bowl and add the ball of dough into the bowl, turning to coat it lightly with butter. Cover the bowl with a towel and set aside to let dough rise until tripled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.

7. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and cut into halves. Cut each half into 3 pieces. Roll the pieces out into long “snakes” about 18 inches long. Braid three of the snakes together into a loaf and tuck the ends under. Repeat with remaining snakes.

8. Sprinkle a large baking sheet with the cornmeal, and transfer the loaves to the sheet. Leave room between the loaves for them to rise. Cover loaves with the towel and let rise until nearly doubled, about 1 hour.

9. Preheat oven to 350° F.

10. Beat the remaining egg and 1 tablespoon cold water together well in a small bowl. Brush this egg wash evenly over the loaves. Sprinkle immediately with poppy seeds to taste.

11. Set baking sheet on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when their bottoms are thumped. Cool completely on racks before wrapping. Makes 2 large loaves.