The 10! Show and Radio Times

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Marisa

iced coffee

I hope all you in the US have had a safe, relaxing and fun Independence Day! I spent my holiday Wednesday taking a long walk with Joy, floating in the pool with friends, eating pizza and watching the various July 4th celebrations on TV. Not an entirely traditional way to celebrate, but perfectly lovely.

I just wanted to drop in and let you all know about a couple of my upcoming media appearances, should you be inclined to tune in. On July 5 (that’s tomorrow), I’ll be doing a pickling demo on The 10! Show. It’s one of Philly’s local morning shows and can be found on NBC10 at 11 am.

Then, on Friday, July 6, I’ll be a guest on Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane during the 11 am hour. Radio Times airs on WHYY, Philly’s local NPR station. The show streams live online, so you can tune in even if you’re not in the broadcast area. They take calls, so if you want to call in to ask canning questions or say hi, please do. I’d really love to hear from a blog reader or two!

Finally, did you hear the big news? Cuppow released a lid that fits regular mouth jars on Tuesday! I’ve already got mine (thanks Cuppow!) and am entirely enamored of it. I’ll have a review and giveaway up on the blog tomorrow.

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Wüsthof Chai Dao Knife Giveaway Winner

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Marisa

I realized earlier today that in all the book tour frenzy, I never posted the winner to the Wüsthof knife giveaway I ran a couple weeks ago. My apologies to all of you who have been waiting with bated breath.

The winner is commenter #546, Harvitron. She says, “Hunger? Kidding; my favorite motivation is a good playlist. I even have a post-cooking clean-up playlist!” And I agree, music can be such good kitchen inspiration!

Thanks so much to all of you who took the time to enter!

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Canning Chat with Punk Domestics

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Marisa
blooming artichokes

Gorgeous blooming artichokes at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market.

In the last two and half weeks, I’ve been to Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles. I’ve led 11 classes and canning demonstrations. I’ve signed hundreds of books and met so many of you. And every moment of it has been magical. Thank you all for coming out, showing up, buying books and being so, so kind.

On my last morning in San Francisco, I met up with Sean Timberlake at Punk Domestics World HQ to do a live canning chat (which you can watch via the embedded video player after the jump). I answered a bunch of canning questions, told a few stories and gesticulated wildly (I really must learn to control my hands while talking). Afterwards, Sean and DPaul fed me chicken salad, cheese and pickles and sent me on my way.

Right now, I’m still in Los Angeles. I’m spending the day at my friend Andrea’s apartment, catching up on work and enjoying her breezy covered patio. I return to Philadelphia tomorrow and then I’m off to Connecticut this weekend. There are still spots available in both my class on Saturday at the Greenwich Historical Society and Sunday at the Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry, CT. I’ll also be selling and signing books on Sunday morning at the Coventry Regional Farmers’ Market starting at 10 am.

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Livestream at 2 pm EDT/11 am PDT

Posted on June 23, 2012 by Marisa

dilly beans

Friends! In just a couple of hours, I’m going to Livestreaming with Sean Timberlake (he of Punk Domestics fame). We’ve gotten a ton of really great canning questions to answer, so please tune in (we’ll talk for 30-45 minutes).

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Strawberry Rhubarb Jam with The Daily and More

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Marisa

The second video I shot back at the beginning of May with the crew from The Daily is now live! This one is how to make strawberry rhubarb jam in about a minute and a half.

If you’re looking for other delicious things, here are some recipes I’ve written elsewhere recently. Over on The Kitchn, I’ve got a honey-sweetened Strawberry Thyme Jam and an Adaptable Chutney. I wrote about Ginger Honey Almond Butter for Food52. Finally, I wrote about how to get yourself ready for canning and pickling at Serious Eats.

In other news, I head to San Francisco tomorrow (June 20). From 4 – 5 pm, I’ll be signing books and answering canning questions at a lovely store called the HMS Beekeeper. There are also still spots available in my class from  7 – 9 pm at Cookhouse SF. We’ll make apricot jam and talk boiling water bath canning. It costs $65 + 4.57 in fees and will be an awfully good time. Click here to sign up.

On Thursday, June 21, I’ll be at Purcell Murray from 11 am – 1 pm, demoing how to make jam and pickles. Later, I’ll be at Omnivore Books from 6 – 7 pm, signing books and leading a hands-on homemade quick pickle workshop. That one costs $10.

Friday, June 22 is my class at Cheryl Sternman Rule’s house. While that class is sold out, do contact me if you’d like to be placed on the waiting list.

On Saturday, June 23, I’m doing a Livestream event with Sean Timberlake from Punk Domestics. I’ll answer canning questions at 11 am west coast time. Click here for more information.

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Today at Powell’s/Pastaworks on Hawthorne Blvd.

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Marisa

I'm a big dork.

Yesterday afternoon, my mom, sister, nephew and I ran a few errands and eventually found ourselves on Hawthorne Blvd. Throughout my life, Hawthorne has always had a handful of vintage shops, music stores and restaurants and during my high school years, we thought it was so cool to wander aimlessly up and down it in girl-packs of three or four.

Later today, I’ll be at Pastaworks, a gourmet market attached to the Hawthorne Home & Garden Powell’s, talking about canning, signing books and fulfilling my childhood dream of having an event that’s associated with Powell’s Books. It’s from 2-4 pm and if you’re in Portland, I’d love to see you there!

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Food in Jars on AM Northwest

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Marisa

Earlier today, I did a brief pickling segment on AM Northwest. I grew up watching this local Portland morning show, so it was definitely something of a thrill to find myself on that set. Take a peek, if you’re so inclined!

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Wüsthof Defining Edge and Chai Dao Knife Giveaway

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Marisa

Life has been something of a whirlwind lately. I made it through the Seattle leg of my book tour and now I’m now in Portland, hanging out with the family, teaching canning and getting ready to be on TV in the morning (I’ll be doing a pickle demo on AM Northwest at 9 am tomorrow morning).

Soon, I hope to do a bit more of a Seattle round-up, as well as post a recipe (this is still a food blog, after all) and remind you Portlanders that I’ll be at the Hawthorne Powell’s on Saturday at 2 pm. However, there’s a giveaway that I’ve been promising for weeks and I have to get it up before another day goes by.

Back in April, the folks from Wüsthof got in touch to tell me about their Defining the Edge campaign and asked if I’d be interested in helping spread the word about the campaign and also do a giveaway of their new 7-inch Chai Dao knife. After losing a good half-hour watching the chef-focused videos and how-to segments they’d produced for the campaign, I said yes.

I love good, creative video that features people doing interesting stuff in food and think that the segments they produced were worth sharing. They managed to select three people who deserve the spotlight, including San Francisco’s Richie Nakano (I knew him originally from his blog Line Cook and he wrote a really interesting and honest essay about participating in the campaign).

I’m also always willing to check out a new knife. I love cutlery and I’m constantly on the look-out for a new favorite tool. Before I left Philly for this tour, I was really enjoying having this curved-blade, easy to rock knife as part of my kitchen workforce. I think it will come in very handy this summer as I head into the season of chopping, mincing and breaking down massive piles of produce (the wide blade is awesome for smashing garlic).

If you’re interested in winning yourself 7-inch Chai Dao, here’s what you need to do.

  1. Leave a comment on this post and share what motivates you in the kitchen. Good produce? Music? Delicious chocolate?
  2. Comments will close at 11:59 pm eastern time on Wednesday, June 20, 2012. Winner will be chosen at random (using random.org) and will be posted to the blog on Thursday, June 21, 2012
  3. Giveaway is open to U.S. readers only. My apologies to those in Canada and beyond.
  4. One entry/comment per person, please.

If you’re interested in watching some of the videos that Wüsthof produced, I’ve included them after the jump.

Disclosure: Wüsthof sent me a Chai Bao knife so that I could try it out and take pictures of it for this post. I received no other compensation for this post. My opinions are all my own and have not been influenced by the receipt of the knife. 

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The West Coast Book Tour is Officially Under Way

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Marisa

This last week passed in a blur of deadlines, laundry and packing.  I managed to do everything on my list save for posting to this blog and making a batch of bread and butter pickles (I find that there’s always one last canning project that I just can’t get to before a trip. That was the one this time).

I flew to Seattle yesterday and I checked a suitcase filled entirely with cookbooks and bubble-wrapped jars. The TSA definitely unpacked and repacked that bag, but it survived essentially unscathed (thank goodness).

I’ll be hanging out at BlogHer Food for the next couple of days. If you’re in the Seattle area, please come and see me at The Book Larder on Sunday at 10:30 am. Portland folks, there are still a couple of spots in my canning class and everyone is welcome to come to the event at Powell’s on June 16 (the official listing is here).

If you’re based in San Francisco, you have four opportunities to say hi. All the events for that stop can be found here. There are still a ton of spots in the Cookhouse class on Wednesday, June 20 and I need at least four more people to actually make the class financially viable, so please sign up!

Consider this just a breathless wave, not a real post. I hope to have some genuine, real, recipe-like content up soon. Until then, this will just have to do.

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Homesweet Homegrown Winners + Recent Recipes Elsewhere

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Marisa

Thanks to all of you who took the time to enter the Homesweet Homegrown giveaway last week! Winners of the books and seed kits are commenters #153 (llp) and #544 (Sarah). I’ll have another giveaway up tomorrow, so check back for that!

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but recipe posting has been a little around these parts lately. I hope to remedy that soon. However, in the meantime, I thought I’d point out some the recipes I’ve written for other websites, in the hopes that it will satisfy your hunger for new preserving recipes.

Pickled Garlic Scapes - These are one of my favorite pickles. Garlic scapes are in right now (at least in my area) and their season doesn’t last long, so put some in jars today!

Pickled Spring Onions – I love these on burgers. A jar made now will be wonderfully pickle-y in time for July 4th cookouts.

Pickled Harukei Turnips – A quick pickle made from those white, creamy Japanese turnips.

Raspberry Jalapeno Jam – Sweet, spicy and so good with creamy goat cheese.

Honey Sweetened Strawberry Jam – If you’re trying to avoid refined sugar, this is a great one.

Pickled Blueberries – These are so good tossed on top of salads.

Seasonal Flatbreads – My June piece in Grid Philly was all about flatbreads. They are delicious! The piece is on pages 18-19.

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