Raw-Honey.org Lets Talk About Raw Honey

Down the winding gravel road that leads to my home there?s a large spray of wild blackberry bushes. They are brambly things, completely overgrown, not taken care of by anyone in particular, free for the taking.

Each year we do lots of blackberry picking. Sometimes it?s all of us, a family affair, other times not. This time around it was my sister & I, and two of our sweet dogs. They followed us there and sniffed around a bit before seeing a deer and running off after it. Sarah & I walked to the patch around dusk, as it?s far too hot in the middle of the day, even with the fading light we were sweating up a storm, but despite that and getting all scratched up from the briars, it?s totally worth it! Fresh berries! For free!

I wanted to try something new with them this year, I was originally going to make a plain blackberry sorbet, but then I thought of this. We?re combining two of my favorite things, berries and sweet tea! It?s oh so good, super refreshing and so perfect for summer. I can already see this becoming a staple for these hot months.

The vodka used here is to keep the sorbet from freezing into a solid mass. It keeps is scoopable! Also, sometimes tea gets bitter if it?s steeped too long. taste yours, if it is, add a pinch of baking soda!

Black Tea-Blackberry Sorbet

2 cups water
2 regular tea bags
1 cup sugar
3 cups fresh or frozen blackberries, if frozen, let thaw completely
1 tbs vodka
2 tbs lemon juice

Bring water to a rolling boil. Remove from heat, add tea bags and allow to steep for 5 minutes. Remove tea bags, add sugar and heat until the sugar dissolves. Allow to cool completely.

Puree blackberries in a food processor, then push through mesh sieve to remove seeds. Add vodka and lemon juice. Add to tea, then pour back through sieve.

Process the mixture in an ice cream maker, according to manufacturers instructions.

I?m snowed in today. I?ve always loved snow days. The world slows down a bit, gets quiet.  Snow days always mean baking for me.

A few days ago, I mentioned on twitter I wasn?t sure what to bake next. If you?re ever out of ideas, turn to twitter, seriously, crowd-sourcing is the way to go. I got lots of suggestions, but sweet potato biscuits grabbed my attention (thanks, tim!).

I love sweet potatoes - probably more than your average person. I have them several times a week, in every different form, baked, roasted, as fries, I should have probably turned orange by now, but I?d never tried sweet potato biscuits before.

The biscuits are very mellow in flavor, and just a touch sweet. They go really well with the savory & flavorful caramelized shallot and sage butter I threw together.

What also would go great with these biscuits are the goodies in Eat Boutique's breakfast box. A couple of months ago, Maggie, the owner, asked me if I?d like to host a giveaway and I jumped at the opportunity to share this business with you. I?ve been a huge fan of Eat Boutique since it?s creation and I?ve loved watching it grow.

Eat Boutique is an online marketplace for handmade, artisanal foods. They create well thought-out seasonal gift boxes, full of handpicked goods. The one you can win today is the breakfast box, which will contain coffee, maple syrup (so good on biscuits!), and lots of other delicious things. (Yours may vary just a little from the one listed on the site.)

How to enter:

It?s simple. Just leave a comment here saying you'd like to be entered (I'll only count the ones that mention they'd like to be entered, since this is a US only giveaway. If you're not from the US but you'd like to comment anyway, feel free. .

Enter a second time by becoming a fan of Eat Boutique on Facebook, come back here and leave another comment saying you?ve done so.

?Enter a third time by tweeting about this giveaway (be sure to include @honeyandjam and @eatboutique) and leave another comment saying you?ve done so.

No entries after 11 pm EST this Sunday, January 8th. US residents only. Winner will be picked at random and announced the 9th.

Sweet Potato Biscuits
From Martha Stewart
Makes 8

Ingredients
    1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading and shaping
    2 tablespoons light-brown sugar
    2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
    1 teaspoon salt
    1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus 1/2 tablespoon melted butter and more for pan
    3/4 cup Sweet-Potato Puree, chilled
    1/3 cup buttermilk

Directions
Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some pea-sized lumps of butter remaining. In a small bowl, whisk together sweet potato puree and buttermilk; stir quickly into flour mixture until combined (do not overmix).

Shape the biscuits: Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead very gently until dough comes together but is still slightly lumpy, five or six times. (If dough is too sticky, work in up to 1/4 cup additional flour.) Shape into a disk, and pat to an even 1-inch thickness. With a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather together scraps, and repeat to cut out more biscuits (do not reuse scraps more than once).

     Bake the biscuits: Preheat oven to 425 degrees, with rack on lower shelf. Butter an 8-inch cake pan. Arrange biscuits snugly in pan (to help them stay upright). Brush with melted butter. Bake until golden, rotating once, 20 to 24 minutes.

Caramelized Shallot & Sage Butter

1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, room tempature
1 shallot, finely minced
2 tablespoons sage, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small saucepan, over low heat. Add the shallot and cook until brown & soft. Let it cool completely.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, beat the butter, shallot, sage and salt until combined.

You can place this mixture in a bowl, or scrape the butter onto a piece of plastic wrap, mold into a log shape and refrigerate.

The giveaway is now closed. Jacqui has won! Congrats Jacqui, your package is on its way!

New York, NY – Crooked Brook Chef Coat Giveaway 5 is under way at Master Sugar Artist Ruth Rickey’s blog SugarZen.
This one is a women’s chef coat:

BSW101
Size 10
Blue, 100% Organic Cotton Twill fabric
Left shoulder sleeve tailored welt pocket
Pink Troca buttons
Pink Sham piping; collar, cuffs and both fronts
Irregularities; None
Value: $178.00 including shipping

Terms & Conditions:

You must be 18 years or older to win.
Contest ends midnight (Eastern Standard Time) 05/23/12.
Winner will be chosen by sugarzen.wordpress.com and contacted by email.
Winner will have 48 hours to reply or a new winner will be chosen.
Crooked Brook will ship the prize to the winner within 30 days of contest end.
Physical address required for shipping; no PO boxes, US recipients only residing in one of the 48 contiguous states.

Go to Crooked Brook Chef Coat Giveaway 5 at SugarZen to find out how to enter.

About Ruth Rickey

Ruth Rickey is a Certified Master Sugar Artist, former lawyer, administrative law judge and bakery owner. Ruth was named the top Bakery Manager in the world for the IGA stores (3200 stores in 31 countries) in 1999, and then opened Ruth’s Sweete Justice Bakery in 2000. Ruth closed the bakery at the end of 2011, so that she could focus strictly on teaching and judging. Ruth began a custom product line of cutters, veneers and dusting powders and has started an educational blog called SugarZen where she gives advice and information to people in the sugar art field on subjects ranging from owning a cake business, attending cake shows, products and so much more.

Ruth has been seen on all 3 networks that have cake programming. She won WE TV’s Wedding Cake Wars, she assisted Pat Jacoby’s team twice in their victories on TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off and she has been featured in 3 different Food Network specials about the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show. Her cakes have graced the pages of national and international publications for years.

Ruth was given The Sweet Life Hall of Fame award at the National Capital Area Cake Show in Virginia. She is also one of only a few dozen ICES Certified Master Sugar Artists in the world! Ruth is a member of the Advisory Board for American Cake Decorating Magazine.

Ruth regularly teaches and conducts demonstrations internationally.

About SugarZen Coat Giveaways

All Crooked Brook chef jackets are made to order in the USA, however, they have various styles and sizes that were not made according to the customer’s specifications, or have slight imperfections. These are the men’s and women’s chef coats Ruth is giving away.

Crooked Brook chef jacket prices start at $85 and go up to well over $200, and with some of the ones that Ruth is giving away, there is absolutely nothing wrong other than it is not what the customer ordered. For example: a size 16 chef jacket was made instead of a size 6, pocket placement on the left chest instead of the left shoulder sleeve or a red jacket with black piping was made instead of a black jacket with red piping.

By sponsoring giveaways; Crooked Brook moves inventory that would otherwise sit on a shelf while increasing brand awareness, Ruth’s followers get a chance to win high quality chef coats, and SugarZen gets increased traffic as the word spreads and more people enter the contest.

About Crooked Brook

Crooked Brook is part of the atelier division of an art studio that offers full service apparel design, pattern making, sample making, private-label small lot production and embroidery. Since 1989, they’ve built a strong reputation of providing top-notch apparel designs, patterns, fit and production samples for many brand name catalogs and retailers, as well as wardrobe and costumes for movies, television and theater.

All Crooked Brook branded garments and accessories are proudly made to order in the U.S.A.

Because of their unparalleled attention to detail in tailoring, they were awarded a Supima® licensing agreement. These contracts are not awarded lightly. The applicants must meet requirements insuring the highest level of quality and integrity for any products bearing the Supima® brand.

In addition, Crooked Brook designs and manufactures:

Uniforms, men’s and women’s chef coats for the world’s most recognized chefs, hotels, casinos, spas and resorts as well as alumni chef jackets for the Culinary Institute of America. Each garment can be personalized with the customer’s choice of fabric, pockets, buttons, piping and embroidery. With a design studio in New York City, (the fashion and gastronomic capital of the world) and a production facility in Utica, New York, they’ve garnered international brand name recognition as the maker of the “World’s Highest Quality Chef Jackets™”.

Promotional products, items, decorated apparel and accessories, such as jackets, hats, sweatshirts, hoodies, polo shirts, fleece blankets, sweatshirt blankets, button down shirts, fleece jackets, golf shirts, t-shirts, tote bags, and aprons that can be customized with the following apparel decorating methods:

• Embroidery
• Tackle Twill
• Appliqué
• Direct to Garment Printing (DTG)
• Sublimation

Custom lab coats, uniforms and scrubs for nursing, medical, dental, scientific, engineering, technology & healthcare professionals.

Custom made apparel and accessories for men and women, including but not limited to: suits, shirts, Hawaiian shirts, pants, vests, dresses, skirts, gowns, jeans, boxer shorts, martial arts and yoga outfits.

Crooked Brook ships worldwide. Hours of operations are 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST, seven days a week. Reach them at (315) 733-1992 or visit http://www.crookedbrook.com/ to learn more.

About a month ago, I was sent the cookbook Home Made by Yvette Van Boven  and I?m kinda in love with it. It?s a tome dedicated to all things homemade, and when I say tome, I?m not kidding - it?s over 400 pages, full recipes and instructions for everything from preserving fruits, to cheese making and even homemade liqueurs.

Not only is it full of great information, it?s also gorgeous. The photos feel so homey, and they?re accented by adorable drawings (Van Boven is also an illustrator), hand written recipes & paper cut outs. It even has a section dedicated to dog treats - it?s downright charming.

When I opened the book for the first time, this recipe was on the page I happened to open to - and the first one I wanted to make. These are crunchy, chewy bars filled with lots of my favorite things, almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, and dried fruit. The recipe calls for dried figs, but I couldn?t find any, so I used dried cherries instead.  They?re tasty, pretty simple, and I think they?d make a great gift for a friend.

Go get yourself a copy of Home Made! You won?t regret it. (And be on the look out for a recipe for sweet potato soup from the book on honey & jam soon!

Nut-Caramel Bars with Dried Figs
From Home Made by Yvette Van Boven

1 1/3 cups blanched almonds
1 1/3 cups walnuts or pecans
1 1/3 cups sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts or a mixture of them all
7 oz dried figs (I used dried cherries)
juice & zest of 1/2 orange
sunflower oil for greasing purposes
1 1/3 cups superfine sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 stick butter
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 340F/Gas 4. Arrange the nuts over a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake for approx. 15 minutes until golden brown and crisp, turning halfway through. Transfer the nuts to a bowl and stir in the figs and orange zest. Line a shallow rectangular baking sheet with wax paper. Brush the wax paper with a thin layer of oil. Heat the sugar, syrup and orange juice in a heavy bottomed saucepan until the sugar has dissolved. Stir gently with a wooden spoon, but beware of splatters, since it will get very hot. Lastly, stir in the butter and salt. The sauce will become thicker. Fold in the nuts and stir well. Pour the mixture onto the greased paper and spread evenly. After approx. 15 minutes, score into bars with the back of a knife when it is nearly cool.
Leave to fully cool.
Break the slab along the score lines.
You can keep the bars for some time in a sealed box separated by sheets of wax paper.

ps, While I was sent a review copy of this book - I wasn?t asked or payed to write about it. All opinions are my own -  this is a fantastic book, I wouldn?t lie to you guys!