Foodie Friday -- July 26th

 Welcome to the July 26th Foodie Friday,

where good food is always on the menu.

 

I've been playing with The Novel Bakers every day, celebrating Lavender Week.

 

 

 

 

 

We read The Lavender Cookbook by Sharon Shipley,
looking up enticing recipes, dreaming of festivals and gardens, 
inventing a few dishes along the way.

 

You can catch up with all of the Novel Bakers' lavender marvelous, magical posts
by clicking on the links. Everything is in one place for your convenience.

 

home is where the boat is
once upon a plate
rattlebridge farm
sidewalk shoes
a quiet life

Look for more NB lavender posts on Saturday and Sunday!

 

Here's a quick recap of Lavender Week at Rattlebridge. Just click on the links for the recipes.

 

Day 1: Baby Spinach-Peach-Blueberry-Walnut Salad with Lavender-Ginger-Lemon Vinaigrette

Day 2: Lavender Granola

 

 

Day 3: Lavender Honey Crab Cakes

 

Day 4: Tablescape and Dessert



 

 

Day 5 (Foodie Friday) : Pickled Lavender Carrots and Lavender Vinegar
 

Pickled Lavender Carrots are sweet and savory. They are perfect for

appetizers--even more perfect as "nibbles" with a salty margarita.

 

 Also, they were quite easy. I parboiled the carrots so I

didn't have to dust off my pressure cooker!

I love easy!

 

These carrots are swoon-worthy, if you like that sort of thing.

Pickled Lavender Carrots

                   

Carrots

fresh lavender sprigs or dry culinary buds

2 cups white wine vinegar

1 cup white sugar

 

Prepare your Ball jars, lids, and seals. Boil lids/seals.

Run the jars through the dishwasher.

 

Cut carrots to fit Ball jars. Then place carrots in a

deep pan and fill with salted water. Cook until tender, about 15 minutes.

Drain and set aside.

 

In a separate saucepan, boil vinegar and sugar, adding a pinch of sea salt.

 

Lay jar on its side and add carrots, one at a time. Tuck in lavender sprigs.

Pour hot vinegar/sugar mixture into each jar, leaving 1" headroom.

Seal jars. Chill. Discard after 14 days.

(Adapted from a recipe in Discover Cooking with Lavender by Kathy Gehrt.)

 

 

The next recipe, lavender vinegar, has many uses, from culinary (vinaigrette; marinades) to

homekeeping (cleaning floors).  It makes a beautiful gift for your favorite cook, too.

 

Note: test a sample on your flooring before

applying diluted vinegar water.



Lavender Vinegar

 

White wine vinegar

lavender sprigs

decorative jar

 

This isn't a recipe, just a hand-me-down procedure. I used white wine/lemon vinegar. My lavender sprigs were past their prime, so I steeped culinary buds in the vinegar, then strained it before adding

the liquid to the sterilized jar.

 

Click HERE for a simple guide to making herbal vinegars.

Would you like to see a luscious, profusion of lavender?

You'll have fun visiting Mary (Home Is Where the Boat Is), Mari (Once Upon a Plate), Jain (A Quiet Life), and special guest baker Pam (Sidewalk Shoes). 

home is where the boat is

once upon a plate

rattlebridge farm

sidewalk shoes

a quiet life

Lavender Week
July 22 - July 28 

 Several Bakers will have posts for you on Saturday and Sunday.

 

Thanks for sharing in our joy this week!

 

 

If you are participating in Foodie Friday,

please take a moment to read the guidelines.

To participate in Foodie Friday, locate the blue Inlinkz icon and follow the directions. The red "x"
will allow you to delete your link if you made an error; the "x" is visible to you only.

For a complete guide to this linky party, click HERE. If you have still have questions, click HERE
for a detailed Foodie Friday tutorial.

** By adding your link to Foodie Friday, you are granting us permission to include a photo of your FF recipe in a feature story.

** Would you like to add your recipes to the "Consuming Passions" group board at Pinterest?
It can be found HERE. We're a small, sociable group; Foodie Friday folks are always welcome to "pin" with us and chat about food. Just leave a comment on one of my recent"pins," so I'll be sure to see it, and I will send you an invitation. Or you can email me.

**I would like to ask pretty please if Pinners will visit the host blogs to pin photographs.

 

Social Bookmarking

Bacon Chutney with Apples, Blueberries, and Tomatoes.

 

 

 

Sometimes a day can begin with a headache and end with chutney--bacon-apple-tomato-blueberry chutney, to be precise.

 

 

  

It was one of those I-Need-Comfort-Food moments, but I just didn't want to grocery shop. 

I gathered  leftover vine tomatoes from last week's savory jam and set them on the counter. Next, I found an apple and fragrant, applewood smoked bacon. What could be more soothing than a chutney?

Something fruity, yet tart, shot through with smoke and spices. Something that would work on a ham or BLT biscuit (which is a foodie version of a hug).

 

Bacon Chutney with  Apples, Blueberries and Tomatoes

 

20 vine ripe tomatoes, chopped (they are larger than cherry tomatoes, rounder than Romas,

and a bit larger than golf balls). I didn't remove the skins.

12 slices applewood smoked bacon, cooked and crumbled

3/4 cup mixture of chopped Vidalia onion, green onions, and celery

3/4 cup apple jelly

5 Tablespoons bacon drippings

1 cup chopped apples

3/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/8 teaspoon minced garlic

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

5 Tablespoons condensed tomato soup

1/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1 pinch ground cloves

1 pinch ground cinnamon

Tabasco, to taste

salt and pepper, to taste

1 Tablespoon homemade Worcestershire Sauce 

1/2 cup Sunsweet dried blueberries (or fresh)

 

Prepare bacon. Chop apple and vegetables. Into a heavy saucepan, pour 5 tablespoons

bacon drippings and add chopped vegetables. Saute until tender. Add rest of ingredients. Simmer over a

low flame (use a flame tamer if your burners are fiesty) and reduce the liquid. This will take 40 minutes to 1 hour. Stir now and then to make sure the chutney doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Aim for a jam-like consistency. Cool. Transfer chutney into a sterilized jar and seal.

 

Yield: 16 oz

 

Printable Recipes

 

I was telling Chef Trey about this, and he said it had a lot of ingredients but sounded good. If I'd

had raisins, I would have added them. I was a little afraid to add dried blueberries, but they added

the right flavor and texture.

The chutney is deep red, almost too red, not the sort of thing you'd want to see after a headache. But the sublime taste makes up for the hue.

 

 

I'm thinking about making buttermilk biscuits, just so we will have an excuse to eat more bacon chutney.

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting!