Grilling condiment of choice: Cherry chutney

It’s mid-June, but given the weather in the last few days, you wouldn’t know it.  The temperature has fluctuated wildly in the span of only a week – we’ve had 80 degree days and 50 degree days (yesterday was a 50 degree day and I DO NOT APPROVE.)  

We’ve had sunny, clear days.  We’ve had overcast and windy days.  We’ve had thunderstorms.  We’ve had brutal cold winds.  

It’s been a whole lot of crazy unpredictable weather around here.

On Sunday, I was outside gardening all morning and worked up quite the appetite (and sweat), so when I went inside to get my lunch ready, I ran around and opened all my windows for the first time this year.  A monumental occasion, to be sure.

Not 15 minutes later, the winds started whipping and the rain started falling and I heard thunder.  So, while my food was cooking, I scrambled around outside moving all my gardening stuff into my shed and bringing in the delicate young plants.  

Then I remembered the windows were all open.

 

As soon as I walked into my living room, I saw it and groaned audibly.  The wind had blown over a plant that sits next to my window and there was soil all over my living room floor.

The floor that I had just swept and mopped the day before.  Why does this kind of thing always have to happen when you are starving and your food is minutes from being done?

I had started grilling my lunch before it started raining, and in my mad dash to put everything away and clean everything, I didn’t have time to move it inside.  Which is perfect because if there was one thing that saved my mood and my afternoon, it is the fact that it was grilled.

Because everything is better grilled.  

And nothing compliments a grilled meal better than a good condiment/sauce/dip.  

I mentioned that I made Cherry Chutney last week, and that jar has gotten some serious mileage and I don’t skimp on sauce and condiments.  I have eaten it with everything from raw veggies to eggs.  I’ve eaten it thinned with vinegar and oil as salad dressing and braised veggies in it.  It’s a perfect savory/sweet sauce that just….works.

Food goes from ‘meh’ to WOWZA with this sauce; it goes from WOWZA to….whatever comes after WOWZA.  This sauce makes food better is what I am trying to say.  All food.

As if that fact weren’t enough, it’s about the easiest thing to make there is.  The list looks long, but most are spices and pantry staples, so just a few ingredients, very little chopping, and 30 minutes are all you need.

Cherry Chutney

• 150 grams cherries, pitted (about 2 cups)
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1/2 small sweet onion, diced
• 1/2 T coconut oil (or other mild cooking oil)
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest (or extract)
• 1/4 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/4 tsp ginger powder
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1 T rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 tp salt
• 1/8 tsp black peppercorns
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 ounce chopped candied ginger (optional, but highly recommended)

Coat pitted cherries in lemon juice and let sit to release juices for about 10 minutes.  

 

Saute the onions in coconut oil until just translucent, about 2-3 minutes.  Add the spices and vinegar and stir to combine.  Add in the cherries and lemon juice and bring to a boil.  It should be pretty watery and you may need to add a couple splashes of water.  Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until sauce thickens; about 15-20 minutes.

 

Add in chopped candied ginger and mix to combine.  You can leave it chunky or puree with an immersion blender to your desired consistency.  I left mine slightly chunky, but not chunky enough that you could discern the onions from the ginger.  Just enough to leave some texture.

Store in a glass jar in the fridge and serve chilled with raw veggies or. however your little heart desires.

My lunch that day was perfect – grilled mixed veggies with a couple hot dogs and some Cherry Chutney for dipping.  

And just as I was licking my plate clean (figuratively….or maybe not?), the sun came out again and the clouds cleared.  I opened a couple windows again, moved the plants back outside and resumed my gardening.  With a happy, full belly.

Do you have any non-conventional recipes with fruit?   Have you ever made chutney?

I went through a really big mint chutney phase several years ago in grad school when mint was growing like mad in my yard.  I have some in my garden again, so I think I see a comeback in the future….

For the love of pickles (And a Today I Made update)

When I was in college, my roommate used to say “It isn’t a drinking problem, it’s a drinking solution.”  Now, I realize that this saying is now incredibly cliched and old news, but back in the Cretaceous period when I was in college, it was new and very funny.

[I've never had a drinking problem, nor known anyone who does, so I mean no disrespect.  No offense intended.]

Now that I’m older and I don’t drink much (to say I’m a lightweight is an understatement), I have developed a new “problem.”

That is NINE pounds of extra fine gherkins.  I put a regular sized can next to it for comparison’s sake, so you can see what NINE POUNDS of gherkins looks like.

Fun fact: gherkins are not cucumbers!  I always thought they were just small cukes and they are the same species, but they are different cultivars.  Who knew?  

The cheap gherkins, by the way, are probably just small cukes, but true gherkins are a different species.  Man, I love wikipedia.

Here is the jar, all divided up into, ironically enough, old pickle jars.  

So, how about a Today I Made update?  It’s been a while, no?  You can get all the updates on this page, whenever you want.  Or whenever I update it, I guess.

We left off on…my birthday, but I didn’t make anything on my birthday.  I spent a large portion of it in the car, after chilling at the lake with family that morning.

 So that brings us to Tuesday: I started another batch of kimchi carrots and I made the Best Cookies Of All Time.  Or….the Best Cookies That I’ve Made In Recent Memory, but that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Vanilla-Ginger Cookies.  You’ll get the recipe soon, I promise.  These were so good that I ate the whole batch (in my defense, a batch of my cookies is only a dozen, usually bite-sized, cookies.  Also?  I didn’t have a birthday cake, so these were my cake.) that I made another batch two days later.  

On Wednesday, I made the pulled pork that I told you about.  

I also did a crapload of gardening which really should count as something I made.  I’m making my yard pretty.  I’m making food for birds.  I’m making a relaxing restful space to hang out in all summer.

On Thursday, I made a clothespin hanger.

I still sew even in the summer months, just not nearly as often.  I’d much rather be outside riding my bike or playing the dirt or even just sitting on my lounge chair reading.  But, I’ve still got a few inside house projects to finish up, so I’ll still be sewing.  

Expect less of the sewing blahblahblah, and more garden blahblahblah is what I’m saying.

I also made, that same day, some AWFUL looking bird feeders. A total craft fail that will never see the light of day.  Just trust me, the internet does not need to see this, and my ego doesn’t need to be reminded.   If I were to hang these feeders, I think they would drive all the birds away from my yard.  Trust me.

On Friday,  I made lots of hanging baskets full of flowers for my front porch, which we have already covered.  I also made a batch of cashew butter, including a new flavor.  Maple Cinnamon.  

The flavor is great, but note to those of you who reuse jars for storage – clean them well and, here’s the key, allow them to air out the smells.  The Maple Cinnamon Cashew Butter is great, but the slight pickled garlic aftertaste…..?  Not so much.

On Saturday, I made a couple raised bed gardens.  

No biggie.  Ho hum.  

Yeah, I cleaned up the fence line there.  It looks much more presentable now.  Not so white trash.  I also finished laying the landscape cloth and…did other stuff, which shall be discussed in another garden post that will come…soon.  Ish.  Soonish.

On Sunday, I made Cherry Vanilla cookies, which I didn’t take a picture of.  Whoops.

On Monday,  I started a new crochet project.  I’m making a rug for my bathroom, but it will probably be a year before I finish it.  (I’m also still working on the blanket, if by working on you mean looking at the unfinished project sitting on my glider chair every day and thinking I should work on that which is obviously what I mean.) 

On Tuesday,  I made more cookie dough bites – Hazelnut this time.  They all look the same, so you’ll have to forgive the re-used photo.  

I also made a veggie sauce for massaged kale salad using roasted red peppers and avocado with garlic.  Again, no picture, but imagine a bright orangeish redish sauce and then imagine that covering a big bowl of kale and that’s what it looks like.  

I’ll probably eat some again today, and maybe I’ll take a photo.  Maybe.

 What have you made lately?

 Any guesses as to how long it will take me to eat all those pickles?  Hint: I opened this on June 2nd, and I’ve already eaten one small jar.