Holiday Food Gifts

My boyfriend and I made a variety of pickles, sauces, and chutneys to give as Christmas gifts this year. It was a ton of work but was fun, and I love giving handmade gifts. I also made the labels for the jars.

Orange You Glad You Stopped By?

I've been away from Philly Makes! for most of the summer, but if you recall my previous posts you’ll remember I love gardening. For my houseplants I’m partial to exotic flowers and succulents, outside I like to grow edibles. In my tiny yard I have an assortment of heirloom tomatoes and vegetables, over thirty herbs, figs, grapes and calamondins, a variety of miniature oranges that are similar to kumquats. The fruits are small, around the size of a ping-pong ball, and have a sweet rind with a sour inside.

I’ve had the calamondin tree shown in the photo at right for over ten years; it’s almost four feet tall and lives in the yard from April through October, then comes inside for the winter. It produces gloriously scented blossoms and fruit year-round, although every few years it takes a rest.

I made the tart in the photo above using this recipe from Epicurious.com. The top is covered with candied calamondins and the filling is made with ricotta, sour cream and toasted fennel. It was my first time making this recipe so I followed it exactly and used sugar, but next time I’ll make it my way and substitute honey or agave. I served it chilled and garnished with leaves from my tree and of course a pun: “Orange you glad you stopped by?”.

Kimchi!

Kimchi is a traditional korean food made from various pickled/fermented vegetables. The most common variety is made from cabbage, so that's what I made for my inaugural kimchi attempt. It was quite easy to make. I haven't tried it yet because it had to sit out at room temperature for 48 hours, and it is now sitting in the fridge for 4 days before it should be eaten.



There are more photos and a link to the recipe on my site!

Carrot Apple Ginger Juice!

My friend Anna just got a juicer, so I stopped by her house yesterday morning and we made this delicious (and nutritious) juice.

All About Bibs

Like Leah, my posting has fallen by the wayside in this sprint to the finish for Art Star. I am sewing everyday, but mostly more of the same. The last couple days, though, have been all about bibs. Older infant and toddler bibs good for messes of yogurt and such.

Reversible bibs with strong snaps they can't undo themselves. Lined with quilt batting to absorb the spills and drool. Yum!

Lots and Lots of Cupcakes

This week I made cupcakes. Lots and lots of them. Carrot cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, lemon with a lemon glaze, and 'black bottom' ones with chocolate chip cream cheese filling and buttercream frosting.

The green? These great little pinwheel cupcake toppers as a nod to my husband's work in wind energy.

For those of you keeping track, I also finally finished the county fair nightgowns from my post last week. Now onto some new dresses for the shop...

Week Two- Veggie Burgers

I have been doing a lot of cooking this past week, so much that I really haven’t gotten much craft time. But I am very excited to share this recipe for homemade veggie burgers. They get my 5 smear rating. Ok, that didn’t sound so good-- let me ‘splain: Basically, the better the recipe, the more messed up my recipe card gets with ingredients while I‘m preparing it (I‘m a messy cook), hence, the smear rating. Anyway, if you’re a fan of the store bought variety of veggie burgers, I think these are MUCH better, not very complicated to put together, healthy, and delicious (my 2 year old even eats them!). Plus, when you add it all up, they end up costing something like $.25 per burger, which makes them healthy for your wallet as well.

INGREDIENTS:

1 (16 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
½ green or red bell pepper, cut into wedges
½ onion, cut into wedges
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 egg
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. Thai chili sauce or hot sauce
½ cup bread crumbs *

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly oil a baking sheet.



2. 
   In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork, until thick and pasty.



3. 
   In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic, then stir into bean mash.



4. 
   In a small bowl, stir together egg, chili powder, cumin, and chili sauce.



5. 
   Stir the egg mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide into four patties.



6. 
   Place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes each side. **
   

* I used quick oats instead.
** In my oven, 13 minutes each side worked better. They might seem to stick a little at first, but once you flip them, they should firm up & be fine.


Mine seemed to need to stay in the oven longer to “set up”, but did seem a little dry- they were fine, though if served with some kind of sauce: salad dressing, ketchup, etc. Also, I felt like they could’ve used a little salt, but other than that- delicious! Bon Appetit!