The Craftiest Workshop

I find it funny that I spend the better part of July-September filling my pantry shelves and freezer with fruits and vegetables only to get to February and realize I need to start using more of it so there is room for next summer’s crop. I have too many berries and apples when they are picked to use them up right away. I also dislike making jam when it is +30° outside. There really is something to be said about making jam at -30°, on one of the coldest days of the winter.

That is what my last couple weeks have been about. The weather has been cloudy, cold and blustery so it was a perfect plan to stay indoors and look at things I could make to use up leftover Christmas baking ingredients, berries in the freezer and even some frozen dandelion petals.

I had a couple recipes that I just didn’t get to at Christmas this year. I had made Clodhoppers in early December but Chris ate them in a couple days. I had enough ingredients to make one more batch so I did that. I don’t think I have ever posted the recipe. I tend to leave out the dried cranberries and add another cup of cereal. These are addictively yummy!

I had planned on making Puffed Wheat squares over Christmas. I made the recipe a few times for our kids when we lived in Ontario but I never could quite match the taste of those squares I had eaten as a child. I now have my Aunt Lynda’s recipe. The only difference I see from recipes online is using margarine instead of butter and the secret ingredient..Roger’s Golden Syrup. You can’t buy that syrup in Ontario. It seems to be a Western Canada thing. This corn syrup has more of a molasses flavour than other corn syrups. Anyhow, I made the recipe twice recently as the first time I boiled it too long and the cake turned into a rock. My second try was ok, holding together and remaining chewy but could have been boiled a few seconds longer. Third time’s the charm, right?

Another recipe that has been sitting on my counter since fall, was this recipe I got from my mom. I was excited to try it because it had a pudding mix in it and my favourite banana loaf recipe also has a pudding mix in it. I have too many bags of frozen zucchini in my freezer from my bumper crop this year so I needed to start using it up. This recipe filled my Pampered Chef mini loaf pan stoneware perfectly. I used my mom’s suggested applesauce with oil instead of just oil. I had my homemade jarred applesauce in the pantry and oil is so expensive so it made sense to go that route. The 4 loaves took 60 min at 350° and tasted delicious.

I looked in the freezer to see what I had put in there to potentially can at a later date. I found two larger becel containers of Haskaps specially measured at six cups for jam. I thawed one of them overnight and made jam the next day. I decided to use Certo this time as I find that there is too much water content from frozen berries. Normally haskaps should have enough pectin to thicken without Certo. I kind of like the idea of using painter’s tape on jars and on containers going into the freezer. Not only does it stay on but it comes off so easily leaving no residue. You could even alternate colours of tape between blue and green to easily see older jars on your shelf.

The other thing I found was a baggie of 4 cups of dandelion petals. I was out of my dandelion honey so it was a perfect time to make another batch. I also found 1.5 cups of frozen dandelion juice. I should have just used the juice I made with the petals but I thought, “why not add the extra 1.5 cups of juice?” When it is boiling and nearly done, it bubbles ALOT. The extra juice in my pot made it bubble too high and I had to take it off a few minutes earlier than I wanted to. This batch was more dandelion syrup than honey but the taste is the same. I use it for tea anyhow so it doesn’t really matter. To compare, this masking tape is already starting to come off so I may just have to relabel using painter’s tape.

There are a lot of apples left in the freezer. I will probably make some more applesauce. I can always use the applesauce for fruit leather down the road. I still have plans to make a mixed berry jam of Saskatoons, wild raspberries and Haskaps. The combination of the three is really tasty. I want to try sautéed shredded zucchini with garlic butter. I imagine it won’t taste much different than shredded spaghetti squash. The rest of the zucchini will go into more baking and soups. The last thing of quantity in my freezer is shredded pumpkin. Aside from making creamy pumpkin soup, I see a lot of baking in my near future.