Posted By Lindsay on September 10, 2012
Who doesn’t love s’mores? I mean, really.
I’ve been hit by multiple severe s’mores cravings lately, only to be thwarted by stale graham crackers.
That’s the quickest way to ruin a good s’more, I tell you.
These little tarts are addicting. When I realized how many tarts the recipe was going to give me, I thought, I’ll surely share these. We’ll give a bunch away to neighbors, because we surely can’t eat them all.
I was wrong.
Sorry, neighbors.
The (fresh! not stale!) graham cracker crusts are topped with a sweet ganache made with a mix of milk and dark chocolates. I started with solid dark chocolate in the first batch, which turned out to be a bit too bitter. Turns out there’s a reason most s’mores are made with milk chocolate. Also, too much cream made it virtually impossible to peel off the wrappers (but, needless to say, we did not let the mess factor stop us from enjoying this first test). The second batch was far better, with an improved consistency, and an added sweetness from the milk chocolate that is the ideal counterpart to the fluffy homemade marshmallow, perfectly golden brown and toasted.
If you’re feeling really wild… stir 1/2 cup of peanut butter into your melted chocolate mixture. It’ll blow your mind. I did this with the second half of my tarts and it was like playing s’more roulette… will I get a plain tart or a peanut butter one? Either way you win.
These tarts didn’t stand a chance. Their bite-sized nature didn’t help either; it was way to easy to walk by the fridge and pop one (or two) into your mouth. Whoops.
Helpful tip: a shotglass is the perfect size for pressing crusts into mini-muffin cups. It’ll make your job so much easier, just drop 1/2 tablespoon of crumb mixture into each cup, then firmly press down with the bottom of the shot glass.
Another helpful tip? Careful with that torch. Fire + paper cupcake wrappers = a combustible combination.
Continue Reading →
Posted By Lindsay on September 5, 2012
Be sure to pick up a copy of today’s Tennessean, where this recipe for Homemade Applesauce (excerpted below) is featured in my monthly blogs column. And don’t forget to click through to the end of this post where you can download some adorable labels for your newly-canned applesauce!
It’s hard to think of fall and not think of applesauce, despite the heat that still reminds us we are not through with summer just yet. But there is no ignoring the fact that apple season is upon us nonetheless. The markets are overflowing with Galas, Golden Delicious, and Pink Ladies just waiting to be peeled, processed, and pureed with sugar and spice and everything nice.
Homemade applesauce is a great introduction into canning if you haven’t done it before. There is no complicated cooking procedure and you don’t have to worry about gel-tests or pectin. Just core, cook, and process. You’ll want to give yourself a solid 2 to 3 hour block of free time with no interruptions during the process, especially if this is your first time canning. But the result will be eight gorgeous jars of homemade applesauce.
If you can bring yourself to part with them, homemade applesauce makes a wonderful hostess gift or token of appreciation during the holidays. But no one will blame you if you decide to hoard the entire batch all to yourself. It’s so good, you may never buy store bought again!
Going Local? There are multiple orchards in middle tennessee where you can purchase local apples or, better yet, pick your own. For applesauce, windfall apples (also known as “seconds” or “culls”) are the most economical option if you can find them. While they may not be the prettiest apples, but no one will know the difference but your wallet.
Continue Reading →
Posted By Lindsay on September 2, 2012
I’ll admit, I’m not a huge fan of bell peppers. If they’re chopped and the flavor dispersed in whatever I am eating, that’s fine. But if there are big chunks in my soup or stir fry, I’ll end up picking around them even if I’m not doing it consciously.
Don’t even get me started on green bell peppers.
Blech.
This dish was made out of necessity – we couldn’t think of anything else to do with the bell peppers from our CSA. And while, I admit, I ate the entire thing, if you’re not a pepper fan you can easily treat the pepper as an edible bowl and simply eat the couscous with a spoon.
Because let me tell you about this couscous. It’s incredible whether you stuff it inside of a pepper or not.
In my ongoing efforts to create pesto out of every green available, this time I turned to kale. A mix of kale and basil make for an earthy pesto that still has plenty of the classic pesto flavor. But you could use all basil if you wanted, or even swap in another green for the kale (spinach or arugula, perhaps?) The couscous then gets tossed with some diced tomato and kalamata olives for even more flavor.
It’s worth stuffing yourself for this stuffing.
Continue Reading →
Posted By Lindsay on August 28, 2012
It’s no secret I’ve been doing a lot of canning this year, and much of what I’ve done I have shared with you. Part of what I love about canning (and this is the design geek in me on full display) is creating the unique “packaging” for each batch and flavor. To me, a batch of jam isn’t complete until it’s labeled.
Preserves are meant to be shared. The majority of what I make each year ends up in the hands and cupboards of friends and family. (I mean, c’mon, you didn’t really think we ate it all by ourselves, did you?)
In continuing with that sharing spirit I’ve put together a few printables for you of the labels I’ve created this year so far. Last year I put them along with the posts themselves, which was much more logical. I should have done it this year too. Perhaps I’ll make an effort to do it next year. But for now, here are the jams of 2012, in printable form!
| Peach Lavender Jam – Labels in two sizes, one perfect for the lids of narrow mouth mason jars, the smaller size could be used as a hang tag or as a label on the side of a jar and paired with a pretty ribbon. Need plain label paper? I get mine here.
Download Labels » Recipe » |
 |
| Chocolate Raspberry Jam – Labels in two sizes, one perfect for the lids of narrow mouth mason jars, the smaller size could be used as a hang tag or as a label on the side of a jar and paired with a pretty ribbon.
Download Labels » Recipe » |
 |
| Strawberry Vanilla/Strawberry Balsamic Jam – Labels in two sizes, two varieties. Larger size is perfect for the lids of narrow mouth mason jars, the smaller size could be used as a hang tag or as a label on the side of a jar and paired with this pretty ribbon (pink/hot pink) or this one.
Download Labels » Recipe » |
 |
| Pickled Cherries – Labels in two sizes, one perfect for the lids of narrow mouth mason jars, the smaller size could be used as a hang tag tied with baking twine. Print these labels on kraft labels or recycled brown paper bags.
Download Labels » Recipe » |
 |
Disclaimer: Copyright Love & Olive Oil. For personal use only. If you post about or share these labels, please credit appropriately and do not link directly to the downloadable file but rather to this post. Please do not distribute these downloadable files. Thank you much!
Comments