Mrs. Picky's Biskits

WOW what a summer..so busy and completely forgot to blog about my adventures. Well i must tell ya i had a wonderful time in Knoxville at the International Biscuit Festival and not to boast but the prizes made me so happy and the prizes kept coming even after i got home. So this adventure has led to another idea which i have had in the back of the mind pantry for awhile. I have worked so hard in pairings and coming up with a true southern Biscuit. The ideal purpose is to put a nice jar of Marmalade or as we have them labeled MmmMarmalade in a sweet bakery box with a half dozen biscuits, thus and, tada.."Biskits". So i have now ordered the labels and the bakery boxes, took a load of pictures and perfected a few great recipes. I am now looking for about a dozen recipients that i can mail the boxes to and receive feedback on them. Please email me at jodycurrin@aol.com with an address and let the " biskit" business begin.

Zesty Orange Marmalade

What a wonderful day we had at the County Cooperative extension office. A few months back when i had the pleasure of taking the ServSafe course with the Cooperative extension office i also met the instructor Megan Ray. Well, let me tell ya she is a wonderful instructor and a joy to work with. The CoOperative extension office offers lots of wonderful classes and ties in the Farmers, Consumers and Agriculture folks to enrich our community.
  I love to can and so Megan and i set up a date to get together and cook and can. Megan is preparing to offer a series of classes on canning and the proper usage of either a hot water bath or pressure canner for proper application.
  Well, I took all my tools and we worked on a great batch of Orange Marmalade. My good friend Susie Davis came over and helped with the cutting and constant stirring of the pot. We first started with peeling, dicing the peel and cooking to make a wonderful Zest. Megan filled the jars with a little water and put them in the oven to sterilize them, she also put all of the rings and lids in boiling water to sterilize them as well. We all cut oranges while the Zest was cooking and talked about future plans for our county and built one great wish list.
  The Zest was drained and the water saved, we call it the reserve water, to put back into the Marmalade as it was cooking since it is full of natural Pectin. Well we ended up with about 16 cups of beautiful cut up oranges in the large cooking pot. We then added the Zest, reserve liquid plus a little more to make up about 10 cups of total liquid. I personally like to add a little French Vanilla to make the Marmalade taste a little Dreamy, also i like to put in a few maraschino cherries to add more color. The jars remain in the oven while the cooking process is being completed and just prior to filling removed from the oven. The Marmalade takes about thirty minutes of a rolling boil to cook and when this is at the last stages you have to skim off some of the foam.
  While the Marmalade is cooking i like to set a little bit of marmalade on a plate and place in the freezer to check the set of the gel. Alright i'll admit i also like to taste it along the way and eat any of the leftover oranges.
  As everything was cooking and the sweet aroma filled the air we also got the bonus of all of the ladies that work in the building to stop by. I love this part of cooking, the conversation and aroma leads to great ideas and future plans.

  Well it was ready, we started to fill the jars and uh oh...ran out of jars..Well Megan made a mad dash to the store and saved the day. We ended up with 28 jars of beautiful Orange Marmalade and future plans to meet next week to put together a four week course on canning. So i will leave for now on this note..Remember..What " Can" you do..

Momma Cora's Seafood Sauce

Eased on out of the kitchen to my big ole chair after a wonderful day of cooking in the kitchen. I must say the Seafood Sauce turned out to be a lovely addition to my condiments in the frigidaire.
  Growing up in florida, running thru the orange groves, pickin oranges and spitting seeds was just another day to us. When i was very young we would always go fishing at the coast and take our pan and a few oranges for supplies. Cooking on the beach was either done with the fish wrapped in foil with a few orange slices for flavor, or sometimes we would fry fish and have orange infused hushpuppies on the side.
  We did do a lot of camping and back when it was legal to harvest clams we would boil up a big pot and eat them clams with a nice orange and butter dipping sauce. Long gone are the days of fires on the beach or throwing orange peels into the fire to repel the mosquitos. The memories are still kept alive by the canning process and sharing of traditional recipes with all natural products.

  I do miss the days of Elvis stopping by Momma Cora's house when he was in town, you see he dearly loved her Marmalade on his peanut butter sandwiches. In keeping a tradition alive here's a photo of him visiting up here in North Carolina.
   Well until tomorrow..Remember..What " Can " you do..

Marmalades and Sauces

Yesterday was a wonderful day, to that matter any day spent in the kitchen is a wonderful day. Canning was heavily on my mind and the oranges were piled high in the sink.

  One of my favorite parts of making any Marmalade is making the " Zest". Zest is the peel of the citrus, finely chopped and then cooked, drained, and placed back into the Marmalade. I always try to drain my cooked " Zest" and save the reserve liquid to put back into the Marmalade as I'm cooking because it is loaded with natural pectin. The best method i have found is to use a food processor for the chopping as it makes nice uniform pieces that cook very evenly. Here's a picture of my " Zest".
  Well as things happen in the kitchen more things seem to develop and next thing i know time is flying by. As i was working on my Marmalade, thumbing thru the cookbook a piece of paper fell out. Now this is my grandmothers cookbook, Momma Cora...well as i was reading this it was lingering in my mind, my goodness i can't remember her making this..Momma Cora's Seafood Sauce. Well it called for a nice citrus base and what the heck i'm up to my elbows with oranges, might as well make this too.
  WOW is one of the words that sort of fell out of my mouth as i tasted this wonderful new product, now not only have i recreated her famous " Sunshine in a jar" Marmalade, I have made a wonderful Seafood sauce. Another day's topic will be the uses of citrus based Seafood Sauce.
  A little more about " Zest", i have noticed a lot of folks saying..well why do you call that peach MmmMarmalade , Zesty Peach Cocktail MmmMarmalade, because it has lots of " Zest ", not only in the wonderful blend of peaches, pineapples,and maraschino cherries but also the much needed requirement for Marmalade which is " Zest".
  When i'm finishing up in the kitchen and if i have a little " Zest " left over , I like to put it into a saucepan, add a cup of brown sugar, a little of the reserve liquid and boil it. Next i lay it out evenly on a shallow pan, let the liquid drain, and then bake it for about 30 minutes at 250, it makes wonderful " Zesty Candy" which is great to spoon on buttered toast or eat right out of the pan.
  Until tomorrow, remember What " Can" you do..

New MmmMarmalade recipes..Marmalade with MmmM..

I should of never looked at that boiling water canner sitting in my pantry. We have been snowed in and i either cook, or clean, well organizing the pantry is a whole day job. First off i have to get the floor picked up in order to place the ladder step stool into place as you see i am vertically challenged. And there it was..looking at me with those lovely gadgets inside awaiting to be picked up. Well, so much for cleaning the pantry..the boiling water canner is now on the stove.
  A short journey to the store and i was back into the kitchen with Marmalade on the brain. As i was writing the other day about Momma Cora it hit me..Sunshine.. on the face that is thru the window as i typed away at the computer.
  Reminiscing about growing up and always running thru the orange grove, down the beaten path, to her trailer house to see what she had cooked that day. I always picked oranges along the way and took her a few to share.

  Sunshine in a jar...
  Well I'm back in the kitchen now and making a little more Marmalade..until tomorrow..Remember..What " Can " you do..

Why you should Share..

My food business journey started years ago, with visiting my grandma Cora or Momma Cora as she liked to be called. Let me give you a little background history on momma Cora.
  Momma Cora was raised in a convent by nuns, as soon as she turned thirteen which was a woman's passage and being that she was alone with her father, she was placed in the home to apprentice as a cook. I remember her telling me how they had two pair of stockings and one pair of shoes for the entire year, and taking care of things was part of the strict regime. She found a passion in cooking and it led her thru a wonderful life.
  Momma Cora was raised in the town of Sanford and later moved to Forest city, working at a restaurant in downtown Orlando. As time went by she gained employment with a gentleman named Mr. Fosgate, who came to Florida from Boston to revitalize a packing house for fruit that had gone into bankrupcy during the big freeze.
  Hi- Acres was the orange packing house and with over two thousand employees, a lunch house was needed. Momma Cora started cooking and my grandfather would pass out the blue plate specials to everyone at lunch time. Times were good, packing fruit was in full force, then another huge freeze hit. Everyone showed up to work thru the night picking oranges, packing fruit and getting the trucks loaded, but it was not enough, they ran out of crates, folks got frostbite on their toes including my other grandma, Nana, who was the fastest packer in the plant.
  Momma Cora was in the kitchen cooking her blue plate specials and asked if she could use a few of the oranges to make a Marmalade to serve at lunch. The nun's ways were still in her cooking soul and waste was not a thing that was taken kindly. As she prepared the Marmalade, Mr. Fosgate came in as he always did to eat lunch, he was taken with delight as he ate the orange marmalade, the following day he made the announcement.
  Hi- Acres will start to use any oranges that we cannot pack to make Marmalade, it turned out to be a multi million dollar idea, as time went by Mr. Fosgate sold the company to Deep South which is a subsidiary of Winn-Dixie. Grandma Cora went on during retirement to Mr. Fosgate's estate to cook and help them raise their children, living a quiet life, never receiving monetary compensation.
  As the years went on and the children grew up she quietly retired to Conway and grew plants and had a spectacular plant nursery, forever loving the interaction of folks coming to her place and walking the grounds and admiring and purchasing her plants. We visited often and later moved her to our property in Plymouth were i spent many a day cooking with her and talking about recipes.
  Well time flies and when she passed away i received her cookbook, the gift of gab, and the greatest of all the act of sharing..which is what i want to do now as i continue to write about canning, making Marmalades and pickling..always remember..What " Can " you do..

Canning and preserving

I often wonder how many great batches of products are ruined by someone not knowing the proper technique of canning. This has been very heavy on my mind ever since I witnessed first hand ( where I shall not mention) the great efforts of a facility that tried to make Jam but ended up with syrup. There is no trick or secret methods but it does help to have a few batches made correctly. Trust me in the beginning of my Marmalade making a few things were very dissapointing. In the next few days i will try and lay out a few proven methods and resources for key ingredients as well as tools for the trade. Remember the old saying if life gives you lemons make lemonade, well here's one for you, if life gives you Fresh Fruit what "Can" you do..

holiday MmmMarmalade

What a wonderful time of the year, i was so fortunate that at the last Food Festival my great friends from Shamrock honey had a booth and we exchanged products, well i could not wait to get back home and make a beautiful batch of marmalade using their honey, and apples, a little bit of Raspberries, orange peel, spices and a touch of mint..WOW not only is it beautiful but delicious as well..