What’s Cooking Wednesday: Grape Jam and Cooking Classes

You’re Turning Violet, Violet!
That’s how I felt this weekend as I made a veritable vat of grape jam, my fingers, mouth, and shirt (I have at least three aprons, do I ever wear any of them? of course not) almost immediately stained various shades of purple. I didn’t make grape jam last year–I probably got too busy canning 8 million jars of tomatoes–but now that I have a food mill, it’s infinitely easier than trying to press the grapes through a strainer or pick out the seeds by hand. Hence, a vat of jam.

I made plain grape, grape-Damson plum (I had a few cups of un-canned jam in my fridge from my last jam-fest featuring my favorite plums), and a batch of the grape-plum batch flavored with a few pieces of orange zest and a sprig of rosemary from my garden. Next time I’ll let these infuse longer, the flavor is very subtle but I can tell it’s a nice combination.

I love grape jam in part because when it’s done, it looks like “real” jam–it sets and spreads like you think jam should. It doesn’t hurt that the color is gorgeous and my home still smells like grapes. This is the part of fall that I love.

Fearless Cooking at the Fearless Kitchen
I mentioned a few weeks ago that the new space for the Peterson Garden Project, the Fearless Food Kitchen, is open (and gorgeous) and last week their classes started up.  I’m really excited to see the offerings so far–canning, pickling, seasonal salads, South Indian cuisine–but the series I’m most interested in is the Taste Test series. These are classes taught by anyone in the community on a cooking topic of their choice, no teaching experience required, and they’re only $25.

There’s a class on making Vietnamese spring rolls, one of my favorite dishes ever (and not just because I end up eating the dipping sauce with a spoon), plus classes on cooking with kids, how to eat healthy, delicious meals when dealing with food restrictions–I expect the variety of these classes to be really interesting. If you’re looking for an inexpensive cooking class, check them out, they’re doing a “Buy one, bring a friend for free” discount right now on Facebook too; they’re also looking for volunteers to help with the classes (bonus–you get to take the class for free).

I’m hoping to figure out a topic and propose a class soon (maybe pie crust-making? too ambitious for my first time teaching anything food-related?). What kind of cooking class would you be interested in taking?

Mulled wine ice cream, take one

I bought an ice cream maker on clearance at the beginning of the summer, and have spent the past few months experimenting with ice cream bases and flavors (observe, the challenges of my life). After a total bust with the standard cooked-egg-custard base, I discovered a process that has yet to fail me. And for that, I have to credit Jeni Briton of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream (Ohio family, she has a shop in Chagrin Falls, please tell me someone has been there! Chicago folks, you can buy some of her ice creams at a few gourmet shops around the city) and her recent cookbook.

So far I’ve made pistachio (hard to go wrong with adding nuts to anything, in my opinion); lemon with raspberry swirl; chocolate with almond, caramel, and marshmallows; and my latest, a mulled-wine-spiced base with roasted grapes.