jam it

Wow! New pics from Tenatious Lens Photography.. Thanks!!! :)

 

(Check out the 'heart' punch for the tag on my jammin utes.. this is beautiful work...)

I just have to show some of these off!!  Tenatious Lens photographer, Mark Benson photographed my jams at the Downtown Salt Lake Market on the last day of market and WOW, did he do an awesome job.. It was insanely busy, and I have no idea how he got the shots he did, but you have to check out his work..  He has promised to do more "foodie" shots for me and I cannot wait! 

A brilliant Van Gogh!  :)

Look at the pepper seeds in the JC Schmokin Cherry!  OMGosh!

 
One of my favorite SLC customers..I miss all of you guys!!!  :)

 
Look at the flower.. what market is all about.... :)
What started it all.. my produce... the first of my tomatoes this year.. IN SEPTEMBER!!!

"Fallin" into Jammin...

So Far this year....
We have made Jammin Utes for fall...

A wonderful layered jam that consists of (white) apples simmered in rum, cognac and hot damn, with a bunch of sordid (that's what Kenneth says for Assorted!) spices-I really wish I could write that on my label, darn UDAF!)  and is oh so tasty!  To top it off is the already in demand Cherry Amaretto Sour jam with tart cherries, amaretto, a bit of fresh nutmeg and a pinch of sea salt.. YUM.

This week I am introducing Carrot Cake Jam.. A delicious blend of sweet multi colored carrots (LOCALLY GROWN-as always) just dropped into a bit of Rum infused Simple Syrup and with my own addition of cranberries tossed in for taste, color and fun.  Of course we have our Sordid spices in there as well.. :)

Out of the closet from last year have come Roasted Plum Pudding and Sloshed Cran Raspberry.. Two old Faves but goodies...

Roasted Italian Plums poached in Sherry, with our fun sordid spices added.. This jam actually has some sparkle to its rich flavor and beautiful color.. Only here for the holiday season..

and...

Sloshed Cran Raspberry.....

Cranberries and Raspberries so drunk on Grand Marnier, Rum, Amaretto and everything else that I could find in my liquor locker (I made this on election day-does anyone get that???)  with more of our sordid spices this is a more firmly set jam, but you can eat it any way you want, or use it with your turkey sammiches, on a wedge salad, on cheese cake, the possibilities are absolutely endless!!

Have a wonderful winter season friends, I love to jam and I hope that I hear from you and will be seeing you soon!!!

Lizurd the Jammin Butcher!

Win a Dozen jars of Butcher's Bunches Gourmet Jam!

As soon as they take the Halloween Gear down, we all know what goes up next!!!  CHRISTMAS!! And the holidays come upon us so quickly that our heads do in fact, spin (at least mine does!)This year why not make it easy on yourself and take a few steps now to win some fabulous gourmet jams and preserves to give as gifts to your friends, hosts, and family members?? It is easy, peasy...

1.  Become a fan of this blog or susbcribe to it's feed.

2.  Become a fan of Butcher's Bunches on Facebook.

3.  Invite your friends to become fans of Butcher's Bunches on Facebook.

4.  Tweet about Butcher's Bunches!

The person who has a combination of the most referrals, and who follows all the steps above by the 5th of November will win 12 jars of jam from me to use as gifts, or give away to whomever you choose!  :)

Can you imagine the load off of your back??  Fun, tasty and Local!! YUMMY!

Pictures & Produce & more Pictures... What could be more beautiful...

I do not have to type a lot with this.. I just want you to take a look at what is available to you at the local markets.. Some of this is my own produce ( I do heirloom tomatoes, heirloom peppers, squash and some other fun stuff) but some of this beautiful stuff is from a great guy named Alex, whose multiple micro farms comprise "Sadee's Pride."  I think Alex has about 40 green THUMBs, no fingers and toes!!  Check out these photos... AND, REMEMBER HOW LUCKY YOU ARE TO HAVE STUFF LIKE THIS AVAILABLE TO YOU!!  Hit up a Farmers Market near you before they are over!  :)

 


 
 


 

What is not to love........... 

Upside Down Apple Caramel Cake

via seddy5.typepad.com

Funny Stuff

When I was a kid, I was NOT allowed in the kitchen. My mom did not let me near the stove, oven or any kind of cooking implement (shall we say!)  I was allowed to make cookies a dozen times throughout my life (under VERY close supervision), but that was the extent of my "cooking" knowledge when I got married.

We did travel extensively however and dine out in many excellent (exquisite) restaurants throughout my childhood and I learned to appreciate good food and flavor pairings...

I do remember the first meal I prepared when I got married... Spaghetti....

Ingredients:  Campbell's Tomato Soup, Hamburger, Pasta.

No Spices, NOTHING Else,  just cooked the meat and soup together in a pan, boiled the pasta and was so proud of myself.  My husband almost puked...but he ate it, then we sat down afterwards, and asked me where the heck I had gotten that recipe.. I was so proud I told him I had gotten it out of my head!  That was when he laughed his butt off at me....

The next little bit he cooked for me.  I started watching Yan Can Cook and Jacques Pepin and it was amazing to me!

I did have one other incident where I decided we were going to have boiled eggs... so I put them on the stove (in cold water) turned it on...then went out shopping to South Coast Plaza for the afternoon.  When I got home I had nothing but a melted silver mess and one half of a black egg shell on my stove.  I did not know they would cook so quickly!  :) lol

I think everyone has to learn and grow, and not everyone has the chance to be taught how to cook.  It is so much fun that I am glad my husband had patience with me while I learned!  I made sure to teach all my kids the basics and how to enjoy healthy, quality food....

Have a great day!

Women and Voting- I hope we have evolved...but I think not.

I got an email from a friend the other day and thinking back to a conversation with my daughter about voting when she turned eighteen; getting the answer "I live in Utah, my vote won't count." brought an entire new meaning to the words below.  No matter where you live, how the votes typically swing (for or against your views) you have the right to express your beliefs.  If we all took the opportunity and TIME to vote, perhaps more of the public voice would be heard in politics, not at Tea Parties.

 Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.HBO has recently put out a movie about the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. The womens only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
 The women depicted in this movie were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.
 

 And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of  'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'

(Lucy Burns) They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.  

 (Dora Lewis) They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

 (Alice Paul)
 When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
 
 So, refresh MY memory. Some women won't vote this year because-Why, exactly? We have carpool duties?  We have to get to work?  Our vote doesn't matter?  It's raining?  We don't have a car to drive three blocks???
 
 It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.
 

 The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'  (Sound familiar to anyone out there???!!!)

I had a great discussion about voting, clear cutting, politics, (picking out the right dog-lol) and many, many things with my husband and a good friend this weekend.  It is so good to feel that vibrant sense of self worth that a person has who knows their rights and abilities when it comes to voting in an elected authority, helping to pass a law or city ordinance or just volunteering on a committee that helps to better a community.   I know that I am proud of the people that worked hard to earn what rights I have and I hope that I can keep those rights available for future generations.  

Temper, Temper... CAN IT!! :)

Ok, I admit I have a quick fuse on occasion...  and I tend to brew and stew, release, then forget all about things... I have to stop this!!!  I have been told a lot lately that this is not good for my health!!  (especially at my ripe (new) old age!!  lol

Last week I was sitting at a market in Salt Lake City with a small assortment of produce as well as my jams.. Six or seven varieties of tomatoes, tomatillos, five varities of fresh picked grapes, and a couple of other things.  Two ladies dressed to the "NINES" walked up and looked around, sighed and said....." oh, there is no one here selling produce or vegetables......."   hmmmmmmm...

I have never really equated great wealth (or the appearance of) with an extensive amount of intelligence, but these two took the cake.  I was not in the best of moods  to begin with (hubby had hurt his back, I was tired, yada, yada, yada) and did not want smart off to these 65 year old icons to  tanning beds, skinny jeans and fourteen foot high platform shoes, so I simply said, "you are right; what I have displayed here is all fruit!" 

Too bad, they didn't understand what I was saying.

GO LOCAL, BUT PLEASE GET SMART!

A Store Front???? My knees are clacking...

Ok.. I am taking a HUGE STEP....

Today we are signing a notice of intent....

Yep... Butcher's Bunches' "Jam It" will hopefully be born by December....

A Jam Bar, serving Jam by the scoop (so you can have as many flavors of jam as you want-small amounts too, or large) as well as a fine pastry shop, utilizing primarily Local ingredients.

We may do an 'Underground" special of the day from Local Products Only and serve it for Lunch..based on donation only because I want you to learn how much you can do with LOCAL fresh ingredients!

I have the perfect place, great area, beautiful store.....More later.......

Butcher's Bunches is having a 'jammin' class in Logan October 5th!

If you are interested in participating in a Jamming/Preserving class on October 5th in Logan (evening), let me know!  We are almost full, but there is still some room.

Cost $20, bring a jar, I am providing all the fruit and will be showing you how...  If you bring more than one jar... we can work something out!

You need to learn how to "jam," it's so easy!  We may do zucchini relish if there is time!  :)

Either Facebook me, email me, or Tweet me and let me know if you are interested!! 

Liz

Slo Foods Class Recipe for Zucchini Relish

Ok.. I am not some fancy pastry chef from New York or a writer for a Magazine who knows a ton about food and eats so much they can write a food fantasy on a page.  BUT, I can cook and make things taste pretty good...

Here is the recipe for the "FFT" Zuchini Relish that I taught people how to make at the Slo Foods Utah "Preserving the Harvest" Pickling class...People enjoyed it so I am posting it.. :)

3 C Water

2 C Cider Vinegar

1 C Sugar

1/2 C Pickling Mix

6-8 large (not HUGE, just large) Yellow Zucchini, Crookneck or other squash

3 large Green Zucchini

1-2 Red Bell ( or other sweet peppers)

One Onion (your choice)

One section - habanero or jalopeno pepper

three or four cloves of garlic

Chop the zucchini into 1 1/2 inch sections and put into food processor, pulse into small, relish size pieces.  You need about 8 quarts.

Do the same with the onions, peppers, and garlic.  Add to zuccini mixture.

Salt the mixture and let sit in colander for about 30 minutes to drain excess water from squash.

Bring to boil sugar, water, vinegar and pickling spice, then turn off.

Rinse Zucchini.  Put in large bowl and mix with hands to mix all ingredients (to blend the colors.)

Add to pot of Vinegar mixture.

Ladle into jars and process according to directions for your altitude and canning processor...

Utah-15-20 min for 1/2 pints, 20-25 min for pints is more than enough!  :)