Violet Syrup, by Diane

This was so fun to make, and holy moly was it delicious! Although it’s a simple recipe, I’m adding it here so I make sure not to forget it next spring! You can turn this recipe into jelly by adding pectin, or a thicker syrup for pancakes by boiling it longer, or keep the recipe as is for a simple syrup that can be added to drinks or recipes that call for a sweetener! Another cool trick is that if you add a drop or two of lemon juice the syrup changes to a deep magenta pink, but I loved the dark purple. Yay spring!

Ingredients:

2 cups wild violets (I used the dark purple ones for color)

1.5 cups water (distilled if possible as the ph level may change the color)

1 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Remove the stems of the violets, rinse, and place in a mason jar. Some people remove the green parts too but I kept them on as a few recipes said they made the syrup better (plus, less work!).

2. Cover the flowers with boiling water and let sit in a mason jar for 24 hours. You can adjust the water as needed to cover them. Make sure to close the lid tight once it cools a bit.

3. Pour the flowers and water into a saucepan with sugar, stir over medium high heat until sugar dissolves. 

4. Strain the flowers out (you can save them later as they are now candied for garnishes, the insides of cookies, or dehydrate them as candy). Transfer the syrup back to the jar and store in the fridge. Make sure the container is air tight and fill the syrup as high as it can go to keep out oxygen that might spoil it. This will keep about 6 months. 

Charcuterie Board, by Diane

I made this cheese and charcuterie board over the holidays, and while it’s not exactly a recipe we thought it would be a good thing to post as it takes some thought to select the right ingredients and arrange them. I’ll list what I got below, but you want a mix of salty/sweet/spicy/soft/hard to satisfy all your taste buds. Ideally you want meats, cheeses, nuts, fruits (fresh or dried), and pickles or olives. My board has the following:

-Meats: mild hard salami sticks, spicy salami slices, salty prosciutto slices, and peppery capicola slices.

-Cheeses: a sharp rumrunner cheese that was a bit boozy and harder in texture, and a soft cows milk cheese with garlic and herbs.

-Crackers: plainer crackers such as flatbreads, and fruit and nut crackers made with brandy

-Salty items: pickles and olives (I forgot olives but would have included a few kinds)

-Sweet items: soft things like grapes, crunchy things like spiced pecans, and a jam (I used fig jam)



To assemble, you want to start with a pretty plate or platter (I didn’t have one so I used a baking tray covered in holiday tissue paper and topped with clear plastic wrap to separate the paper from the food). Then you want to spread out things that are of the same taste (salty/sweet/crunchy/soft) as well as color to make it more visually appealing. If you don’t have enough ingredients or your plater is too big you can make multiple piles of the same items just spaced out. Finally, for things like meats that are sliced you want to display them by folding in 1/2 then 1/2 again and make a ribbon, or swirl them into flower shapes (I did both). Don’t forget a fancy knife for your cheese!

Spicy Fermented Tomatillo Salsa, by Diane

A coworker recently made us jars of this salsa for holiday presents, tied with a little bow. I hadn't tasted fermented salsa before, and I had my doubts, but let me tell you that one bite of this stuff led to me eating almost the whole jar in one sitting- until I remembered it was fermented and full of good bacteria, which made me stop and save some until the next day to be safe (nothing happened!). This is so easy to make and customize. The flavor is delicious, even though I typically don't love tomatillos. What makes it fermented is the salt, so it doesn't have a typical sour fermented taste like other items (kombucha, kimchi, etc). The recipe calls for red fresno peppers, which are smokier than the green version, but after 5 grocery stores with no red fresnos I got so desperate to have more salsa and knew I already had to wait a while for it to ferment that I just made it without (but it looks prettier with the pop of red, and festive for the holidays!). This batch makes about 9 1/2 pint jars, but trust me you'll want it all for yourself :)

Note: this tastes AMAZING with salted corn tortilla chips, but also would go really well as a topping or condiment in Mexican dishes! It would go perfect on my chicken al pastor egg bake, which is what I plan to try next!

Ingredients:

2 28 oz. cans tomatillos (keep the liquid)

6-7 jalapeno peppers, halved with seeds removed (you can reserve one pepper's worth for extra heat)

2 fresno (red) peppers, halved with seeds removed

1 large onion, rough chopped

4-6 cloves garlic

1+ bunch cilantro- discard stems, rough chop

juice of 2.5 limes

2 tablespoons salt Directions: 1. Place the peppers, onions, garlic, salt, cilantro, lime juice, and tomatillo liquid in a blender and blend at high speed until desired consistency (I made them small). 2. Add the tomatillos, blend until desired consistency (small chunks). Taste and adjust for salt and heat. 3. Pour into mason jars up to the neck, then top with a pre-measured circle of wax paper. Flatten the paper onto the salsa ensuring no air bubbles, then place the lid on tightly. 4. Store on a counter away from light for 2-14 days. Refrigerate after fermenting.

Whole30 Ketchup, by Diane

Being on Whole30 now for about a month and a half is great, but I am really starting to miss condiments. I found a recipe for Whole30 compliant ketchup, claiming to be much better than store-bought ketchup, and the directions seemed really simple. I also happened to have everything in my pantry so I gave this a shot. I was nervous because of the mayo incident that happened early on in the Whole30, and boy was I right to be. This was terrible. My takeaway is that you can't recreate condiments at home. Honestly, don't make this.


Ingredients:

1 6oz can tomato paste
10 pitted medjool dates
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
1/2 tsp salt, garlic powder and onion powder

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan over low heat until it starts to simmer, then cook five more minutes.

2. Add the mixture to a blender, and blend well until the dates have completely mixed into the rest of the ingredients. If you don't have a blender that can accommodate hot liquid, wait until the mixture cools a bit.

Homemade Mayo, by Diane

I didn't take a photo of this because too many emotions were happening, so here's one from the blog.

This is week 2 of the Whole30 lyfe, and I decided to make a trio of chicken, egg, and tuna salads (bonus points, the chicken salad was Cheryl's Curried Chicken Salad!!). However, mayo isn't Whole30 complaint because it has sugar in it, and also soybean oil which isn't super healthy for you. So after some research I found a few recipes for homemade mayo, most claiming that theirs tasted better than storebought! The vast majority of the recipes called for avocado oil as it is supposed to make the best tasting mayo, so even though it's approximately one million dollars an once I bought it for this recipe.

As it turns out, avocado oil tastes disgusting ergo does this mayo. Which is unfortunate because it's a key player in my lunches this week. I used it anyway, and seasoned the hell out of all the salads. But, I gotta say, don't make this. Yeah.


Ingredients:

1 large egg
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon dried mustard
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup neutral-tasting oil, such as light avocado, olive, or safflower

Directions:

Add everything but the oil into a wide mouth mason jar, then add 1/2 cup oil. Let the egg settle to the bottom, then use an immersion blender until thick and blended. Add in the remaining oil bit by bit until it's the texture you want.