Fitful Friday, canning seminar registration

Bad news first: Poor Jack just feels awful. He asked me to sleep with him last night, so we tucked ourselves into our basement guest room where it's cold, dark and comfy. He was up on and off all night, and I felt like I was in bed with a squirmy, boiling hot water bottle. In total, I think we got no more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep, and so we all took it slowly this morning! Good news: He is such a sweet little boy and has been so good despite feeling so lousy. I just hope he's all better for his last day of school on Monday.

More good news: The rhubarb cherry crumble I made last night is awesome. It's equally good cold, and I've been snacking on it all day. Recipe is posted!

Tonight I'm going to make a grilled radicchio dish with anchovy breadcrumbs that I've been having a serious yen for. It's a Molly Wizenberg recipe and is scrumptious. That will not totally satiate Tom, so I'll think of something else too. Tomorrow night we're having pals over for dinner but will be getting 2Amy's take-out. I can never get over how much I love that joint. Some friends and I took our graduating little ones (Ol) there for a celebratory lunch on Wednesday, and I swear we were positively orgasmic. Oh, mon dieu.

Registration is now open for my canning seminar at Strosniders which will be on July 14, from 9-10am. Click here if you're interested in attending! I can't wait!

Garlic scape pickles, vanilla sugar, rhubarb crumble

The pickled garlic scapes are beautiful and are in the water bath now. I used a recipe by foodinjars' Marisa McClellan but, in addition, added a clove of garlic to each jar. After their week of rest and pickling, I will let you know how they are. With the amount of scapes I had, I made two pints plus a bit for the fridge, so I might taste along the way as well. I also wanted to let you know about a marvelous tip I learned last weekend during the canning demo I attended: you can re-purpose seeded vanilla bean pods! As Marisa was making strawberry-vanilla jam, the cost of vanilla beans came up. Not only can you buy them in bulk (she recommended vanillaproductsusa.com) which is much less expensive than one-off purchases at the store, you can rinse and dry them for reuse. After making my batch of strawberry-vanilla jam, I rinsed, dried and then immersed mine in a jar of sugar. You can also submerge vanilla beans in vodka to make homemade vanilla extract.

Lastly, as if I were blind but then could see, I've just realized that I still have an enormous amount of rhubarb in my fridge. Yo! I think I'll chop and freeze some and with the rest make a rhubarb crumble for dessert tonight/breakfast tomorrow. Sounds so darn good, yes?

Off to fetch the pickled scapes from their bath.