Love to Cook and Eat with Friends

It’s good to be back. While away from my blog these past many days, my attentions focused on lots of writing for my job and preparing presentations around building relationships in multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic populations. My “lessons” and publications target educators who work with multicultural populations. So, I have not sat down to write in this blog, but I still have to eat, and I still have many friends who stop by for a meal.

My featured photo today is my jammy fruit compote that I call CAOS (sounds like chaos!) I created this one Thanksgiving as my answer to cranberry sauce that we serve with turkey. Making more than one jar at a time also assured that I will have fruit to serve during times of our Native ceremonies where we have some fruit of the bounty.

So, what is CAOS? Cranberry, apple, orange, spice. I love the taste of Chinese 5-Spice, so I used it as my spice. Here’s my recipe:

24 ounces (680.39 g) fresh cranberries

6 red (any kind) apples – cored and chopped (do not peel)

3 oranges – chopped (do not peel and remove seeds if applicable)

2 cups (453.59 g) apple cider

1/2 cup (113.40 g) honey

1 Tablespoon (140.18 g) Chinese 5 Spice (my version is a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg). Sometimes I use fennel or anise seeds in place of cardamom.

Combine all ingredients, and bring slowly to a boil stirring to a simmer. Simmer until nice and thick until to a gelling point. You can test for gelling by checking your stirring spoon. I like to put a small pat of butter in my jams to reduce foaming. When the jam is thickened, ladle into hot canning jars leaving 1/4 inch head space, seal with new lids and rings. Process in a boiling water bath “canner” for 15 minutes. Remove from boiling water and place on a towel on the counter out of a breeze. The jammy fruit is ready to store when you hear the little “pop” that tells you it’s sealed. Let the jars cool completely before you store on the shelf in your pantry.

Now, dinner with friends, Mark and Kathy, which was sort of a potluck since Kathy brought one of her famous appetizers (“appies”), Vidalia Onion Dip. Rather than serve with the, usual crackers, we ate the dip with pork rinds to make it a low “carb” snack. I can’t remember Kathy’s recipe for the dip other than 1 or 2 whole onions, Swiss cheese, and mayonnaise. Then you bake it. Kathy says it freezes well, too. I think I prefer it with crackers over the pork rinds.

For the main course, I served ground lamb kabobs, which are really ground lamb with a handful of chopped cilantro, garlic, and salt/pepper. Form a log or a patty. Grill the lamb and serve with tzaziki (yogurt, cucumber, and garlic powder). Lately, we’ve been sauteing red cabbage in butter with a little pepper. It’s delicious when you allow the butter to caramelize the cabbage a bit. We served the ground lamb with a dollop of my cilantro pesto (made with walnuts, Parmesan, garlic,and olive oil) and grilled Halloumi cheese.