Some media and blogger love

I did an interview for The Daily Journal of Vineland awhile back, and it finally made last Wednesday's paper.  Click here to read the article.  And keep in mind, Amy is Jennifer and Jennifer is Amy :)

Also, Jennifer of the blog Down Home South Jersey featured me on her reader spotlight.  I had a great time answering Jennifer's questions, and she did a fantastic job writing.  Click here to check that out.

I'm going to start doing a Swapper Profile piece where we'll feature a new swapper each event and get to know them (and their goodies) a little better.

{Swap Sketch} - June 2012

First, let me apologize for the tardiness of this post - it's long overdue.  I'm just getting into the swing of normalcy after a rough month.  Anyway, our second swap was 15 participants strong, and was a huge success!

Thank you to the Bellview Winery for volunteering their space and time and wine tastings too!  I had originally hoped we'd be outside amongst the vines, but it was 120 degrees that night. Go figure. Maybe next time... 

I really think each swap is going to be better than the one before it.  Again, I was blown away by the level of professionalism, effort and craft that went into each item.  I'm going to attempt to list what we had, but I know I'm missing some. I actually thought I'd be able to remember everything.  I will do a better job next time and take notes!

Key lime curd, coconut banana bread, pretzel bread, soft pretzels with honey mustard, blueberry pie filling, cherry pie filling, salsa verdi, chocolate cherry sea salt cookies, cardamom slice and bake cookies, farm-fresh eggs, zucchini bread, banana bread, blueberry lemon jam, pina colada jam, mojito marmalade, basil-watermelon liqueur, granola, homegrown zucchini/cucumbers/garlic/fresh herbs/cabbage/pickling cucumbers, peach and peach pepper jam, dried oregano, homegrown mint tea, petite blueberry pies, peach mango jam, edible flowers with mache and radish 'shrooms, organic raw cinnamon flax applesauce, coleslaw, homemade wine, kale chips, coffee body scrub, peach BBQ sauce, homemade Kahlua, lemon poppy seed loaves, strawberry lemonade concentrate, wet walnuts, homemade hot fudge sauce, blueberry sauce, and MUCH MORE!

This girl knows good food :)

Start planning for the next one!

Next Swap!
Where: Bellview Winery
When: August 7th, 7-9PM

Register here -  http://southjerseyfoodswapaugust12.eventbrite.com/

{Recipe Rewind} June: One Flew Over Farm's Kale Chips and Amy's Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate

Like I've already said, I never imagined these would be so good.  These chips were addicting. Thank you, Connie for a super-cool snack I can feel good about eating. 

1.  Tear fresh, clean, spun/patted dry kale from stems and any thicker veins into small but not tiny pieces. 
2.  Drizzle good quality olive oil onto a sheet pan, then grind on (or use flaked) sea salt and/or the seasoning(s) of your choice. (Connie used Bragg's Organic Nutritional Yeast)
3.  Rub handfuls of the kale into the seasoned oil and then spread them out, flattening them a bit without overlapping, onto the pan.
4.  Set oven to 325, which should crisp the chips in about 10 minutes. Watch closely, though. If they burn, they're nasty :(
5.  Store in a brown bag and just recrisp in the oven if they soften in this humidity.

Also featured is Amy's Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate.  This was so refreshing!  Thanks for sharing!

Ingredients

6 cups strawberries, cleaned and hulled
4 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice
6 cups sugar

Directions

1. In a food processor, blender or bullet, puree strawberries in batches.
2. Transfer strawberry puree to a stainless steel saucepan over medium-high heat. DO NOT BOIL. Add lemon juice and sugar and stir to combine.
3. Using a thermometer, heat to 190 degrees F, stirring occasionally. Because this recipe has sugar it will get to temperature rather quickly so keep your eye on the thermometer. Remove from heat. 4. Ladle mixture into jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rim, add hot lids and tighten rings just finger tight. Process in water bath canner at a boil for 15 minutes.
5. To reconstitute, mix one part concentrate with one part water, tonic water or ginger ale. Adjust concentrate to suit your tastes.

Makes 6-8 pints or 3 quarts. If you do not want to process the jars, you can freeze the concentrate in 1-2 cup portions.

SJS Featured in The Press of Atlantic City

Thank you Felicia from The Press of Atlantic City for a great article!  Click here to read.

{Recipe Rewind} May: Abi's Vanilla Macarons with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream

Here's the recipe Abi used for her macaroons! Taken from Secrets of Macarons by Jose Marechal

Plain Macarons

Ingredients 

·       200g ground almonds

·       200g icing sugar

·       75ml water

·       200g caster sugar

·       2 x 80g egg whites

·       1x vanilla bean

·       white coloring (optional)

note: the vanilla bean and white coloring can be replaced depending on the flavor you wish to make them

Method

1.    Process then carefully sift the ground almonds and icing sugar (this is called the tant pour tant). Set aside.

2.   In a saucepan, bring the water and caster sugar to the boil. Without stirring, make sure the temperature of the resulting syrup doesn’t go above 115 degrees Celsius.

3.   Gently beat 80g egg whites to soft peaks, then increase the speed of the beater when the temperature of the syrup passes 105 degrees Celsius. When the syrup reaches 115 degrees Celsius, remove the saucepan from the heat and pour the syrup in a thin stream into the beaten egg whites. Continue to beat the meringue for about 10 minutes, so that it cools. 

4.   Combine the tant pour tant and the remaining unbeaten egg whites, making a smooth almond paste.

5.    Scrape the vanilla bean and incorporate a few vanilla seeds into the almond paste, then add the coloring (if desired)

6.   Using a flexible spatula, incorporate about a third of the meringue into the almond paste to loosen the mixture a little, then add the rest of the meringue, working the batter carefully. 

7.   Fill a piping bag fitted with an 8mm nozzle with batter. Attach a sheet of baking paper to each baking tray, placing small dots of batter in each corner. Pipe out small, regular and well-spaced rounds, each about the size of a walnut. Lightly tap the bottom of the trays and allow the macarons to form a crust at room temperature for 30 minutes.

8.   Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.

9.   Bake in the oven for 14 minutes. When you take them out, carefully place the baking paper on a dampened benchtop: the shells will be easier to remove.

For the filling Abi made a buttercream made of powered sugar and butter and cut fresh strawberries until the mixture was a buttercream paste. 

June Food Swap Announced

Here are the details of our second food swap:

When: Friday June 29, 2012

Where: Bellview Winery, 150 Atlantic St.,  Landisville, NJ

Time: 7-9pm

Please register if you plan to attend by clicking on the Eventbrite button. 

Remember, you can bring as much or as little as you like. It can be all the same item or a few different ones (which seems to work best).  And bring SAMPLES :) people will be more likely to swap with you if they know how tasty your item is. 

See everyone soon!

{Swap Sketch} - May 2012

First I want to thank each person who participated in our first swap.  Thank you for your time and lovely homemade treasures - each one was true art and craft.  I also appreciate your understanding and patience as we all figured out the swap thing together.  Didn't I tell you it would work itself out? Haha. Now, we're all pros!

And thank you to The Sweet Life Bakery owners Stephen and Jill and staff for hosting us.  What a perfect and appropriate place for our first swap! 

Thanks for the awesome chalkboard design, Kylee!

Here's a recap of the swap items present:  Almond Pound Cake, Lavender Rosemary Garden Scrub, Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, Canned Jersey Tomatoes, Canned Jersey Peaches, Rhubarb Boozy, Strawberry Honey Butter, Thyme Plants, Strawberry Rhubarb Mint Butter, Olive Oil Pizza Dough, Salted Caramel, Chocolate Macarons With Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ganache, Vanilla Macarons with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream, Red White & Blue Granola, Fresh Herbs, Apricot Orange Biscotti, Lemon Rosemary Biscotti, Fresh Organic Tomato Sauce,  Granola, Farm-Fresh Eggs, Salted Caramel Cookies, and Green Olive Bread!

Marlise and Terry sampling Lauren's Rhubarb Boozy

Swappables

The Sweet Life Bakery owner Jill with Terry's little guys.

Notes for next time:

• I learned that it's probably best to have more than one type of item.  For example, someone with 3 different items may only want to swap once with someone that brought only one item.  Having a variety gives you more leverage.  And options.  
• Also, maybe a week or so before the swap, people should start posting their items on the SJS Facebook page just to get a quick idea as to what else will be at the swap. 
• Another good idea would be to let everyone know exactly how many people will be at the swap so they can plan accordingly. 

Amy making an offer

Jennifer sampling Abi's Olive Oil Pizza Dough

I'll start working on planning the next one.  Everyone else: keep sharing your experience, spreading the word, posting pics, tagging, tweeting, poking, mentioning, and however else you communicate these days :)

A quick funny story: The morning of the swap, Amy and I went to Sparacio's to pick more strawberries.  The next row over I noticed these two adorable old ladies going to town picking.  They had a wagon full of containers full to the brim with berries.  I immediately had a vision of them in aprons, baking pies and canning jam.  I thought for sure they'd share a secret recipe with me if I only asked.  So I did.             

"Wow, that's a lot of berries you have there. What are you going to do with them?" 

She replies, "I sell 'em."


Check out our Facebook Page for the rest of the photos!  See everyone again soon.