Recipe Box: Peach Butter

Peach Butter:  Image by Amber Shehan

Here's what my household accomplished in an afternoon...

Peach Butter
(Small batch, makes about 12 ounces or so)


1 lb. of diced, peeled peaches (4-5 med. fruit)
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Seasonings:  Whatever you want! 

First, peel and dice your peaches.  Try not to eat them all, and leave a pound or so for the recipe.

Add the peaches to a cooking pot, add the splash of lemon juice, and let it come up to a boil on low to medium heat. 

When it's simmering nicely, you can throw it into a blender if you aren't fond of chunky bits, but that's up to personal preference. 

Return to the pot, and pour in the sugar and stir. Add your desired seasonings...we went for a dash or three of cardamom and a tiny dash of cinnamon.  Let it simmer on low for 25 minutes!

All that's left to do is store it or use it.  We filled an 8 ounce jelly jar to the brim and put it away in the freezer once it was photographed, cooled, and labeled.  The rest was also jarred, but put into the fridge for using as soon as earthly possible.

It's already appeared in a subtle but effective role as an ice cream topping, and will soon be starring as the sauce to be served on top of hot creamed corn fritters for dinner tonight!

Recipe inspired by:  Andrea'sRecipes.com

Recipe Box: Queen Anne's Lace Flower Jelly

Queen Anne's Lace by Modern Scribe

As I've discussed before, sometimes I think my neighbors must hate me for harboring a yard of unwanted pests and dingy weeds.  We encourage our yard to be an eco-system, rife with native plants and insects...which in our neighbor's world means "unmowed and disgusting!"

The truth is that we DO mow around the house to ensure that the native insects are at a decent radius from our doors and windows, but that we leave the edges of the yard a lunatic fringe of tall grasses, red clover, chicory, burdock, happy daisies, the tall, bobbing heads of Queen Annes Lace. 

I've only recently come to know Queen Annes Lace as a plant with uses other than being homes for many tiny crab spiders and aphid-farming ants.  I have read of her seeds' efficiency as an alternative birth control method, learned that her tubers are edible in early spring, and that infusions of her leaves can be taken for kidney and liver assistance, but none of these have been tried and tested in my home as of yet.

So I was terribly intrigued when I learned that you can make a delightful jelly from the flower heads of Queen Annes Lace, and I decided that I would make it as soon as I could.

I chose a lovely day, and after playing in the yard and tweaking the recipe to suit my mood and limited canning equipment, I made myself some lovely jars of pinkish flower jelly!  I have already thought of many potential adaptations for this simple, citrusy, floral jelly the next time I prepare it. Maybe a couple of pink peppercorns thrown into the mix, or perhaps grapefruit, grated carrot or ginger.

The following guide assumes you have at least some knowledge or experience of canning with a hot water bath method.

Queen Annes Lace Jelly

First, find you a good patch of flowers.  Make sure it is really Queen Annes Lace, and not her cousin, Poisonous Water Hemlock.  Queen Annes Lace has a hairy stem, and the distinct, piney scent associated with aromatics in the carrot family.  Poison Hemlock is smooth, and smells gross when you rub the leaf.

You'll likely be competing with many insect friends whilst gathering the blossoms, so be prepared!  You'll need at least 20 flower heads to make 2 packed cups of Queen Anne's Lace Flower heads.

Give the flowers a good rinse (or soak for five minutes, if you need to) to ensure all of the buggies are no longer in residence.

Boil four cups of water in a medium to large pot.  While the water is heating, trim the stems of the rinsed flowers all of the way to the base of the flower head. Breathe in deeply and enjoy...but note that the finished product is not as pungent as the fresh sap smells.

Toss in the flowers when the water is at a boil, stir, cover with a lid, and remove from heat. Allow the flowers to steep for as long as you wish.  I left mine for over an hour while I had lunch and a cold beer.

Strain the infusion.  I used a layer of cheesecloth in a standard colander to make sure the little bits of petal and bug were all out.  Toss out the spent flower heads.

Sterilize your jars! At this point, I placed my six 8 ounce jelly jars and their lids in a boiling water bath to sterilize while I prepared the lovely jelly.

Prepare the following ingredients so that all is at hand:

3 cups of the strained Queen Anne's Lace Flower infusion
3 1/2 cups of sugar

Juice of 1 lemon, or 1/4 cup of bottled lemon juice
1 packet of pectin (I used standard Sure Jell)

Pour the infusion into a medium sized cooking pot, and turn it up to a medium-high heat.

Add the lemon juice and the packet of pectin to the pot.  Stir the mixture well, and often.

Pull out your jars, lids, and rings to dry while you allow the pot to come to a full, rolling boil.

Add the sugar and stir constantly until it returns to a rolling boil.  Let it boil for one minute, and remove from heat.

Pour or ladle the very hot jelly into the jars carefully.

Wipe the rim with a clean cloth, and top each one with a sterilized lid.

Process your jars as you wish.  I use a hot water bath using the instructions given in the pectin box.  Make sure to follow instructions carefully, including adding extra time due to your altitude!  My jars were in for ten minutes instead of five.


Let the jelly rest for 24 hours before you pick them up and wiggle them around!  After that, it's open game on flower jelly.  It tastes like a light floral lemonade, or grapefruit juice!  It is excellent with a cup of tea and a toasted English muffin.

Recipe adapted from:
Foraging Foodie: http://www.foragingfoodie.net/index.html
The Wild Carrot - Queen Annes Lace: http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/queen.html

Recipe Box: Blackberry Mead - Part 2

The berries and sweet peas, image by Amber Shehan

It has been a week since my first post about my Blackberry Mead.  I'm pretty excited, and things are progressing nicely!

The bucket full of berries, spices, and honey water has been bubbling merrily for seven days.  I made sure that the bucket was picked up and swished around every now and again to keep it oxygenated, and to keep everything from settling.  Besides the swishing, the bucket got a good stir once a day.

It was a joy to stir while guests were over.  People who have never before brewed really observe the fermentation process with wonder in their eyes.  It serves to remind me that I am not only a wino with a DIY complex, but a high magician, a witch, an alchemist. Poof! Alcohol.

After seven days, the sweet, fizzy smell in that corner of the kitchen was delightful - not too yeasty or cloyingly sweet.  I declared the mash ready to strain and moved to the secondary fermenter.  I could have perhaps let the berries and must sit together longer, but I didn't want the bitter seeds and skins of the berries to penetrate too deeply into the flavors of the final product.

My housemate Sarah helped, and together we lined a strainer with a layer of cheesecloth or two to catch the smaller floaty bits.  The strainer was set into a large cook pot, and slowly and carefully, I poured the bucket out.  What a feast for the senses!  The color is magnificent, the smell - divine, and once we funneled the brew into the carboy and sampled what was left over, the taste?  Absolutely thrilling!

Isn't is gorgeous? I can't wait! (image by A.Shehan)

So, with the carboy capped off with a fermentation lock, it took only a couple of hours for the yeast to kick back into action.  The lock is bubbling about once every five full seconds.  I won't know when this mead will be ready...but I'll guess by the bubbling going more slowly, and look for other signs, like the opacity of the mead itself clearing as the yeast dies and settles to the bottom.

I will keep you all updated as the mead progresses.

Oh, and here's the dream list of brewing projects that I have not yet begun:

• Peach Mead (Melomel)
• Ginger Mead
• Apple Mead
• Spiced Apple Mead
• BEER! I want to brew Ninkasi's beer.

I would also like to direct you folks to the blog of a friend of mine, Michael Ruff of Dove and Raven Mead.  We made his first batch together a couple of months ago; he learned the basics of brewing, and he tried in vain to teach me hydrometer math.  He just started his first cherry melomel, and it sounds amazing! 

I have a real website!

Visit PixiesPocket.com by clicking my logo:

I am quite excited.  I will be keeping a shop open on Etsy, but will be premiering all new flavors and offering new specials via the official website!

I have also begun a new, store-specific Twitter account.  Add @PixiesPocket for updates, promo codes, coupons, and more!

To top off the social media blitz, I have also created a new fanpage for the Official Pixie's Pocket webpage!  Come by and become a fan here:  http://www.facebook.com/PixiesPocketHoney

Recipe Box: Blackberry Mead - Part 1

I can tell that it is truly summertime.  Over the last week or two, my housemates and I have gathered close to two pounds of blackberries from the brambles on our lower lot.  With chevre on toast, and by the handful, we've managed to consume about one pound of those, and we froze the rest for later use. We plan on using those to make a syrup, or maybe add to it and make a small batch of jam.

But I had other plans for berries...plans that involve more fruit than our yard can currently provide. 

So, I woke up early yesterday morning and went to work with my husband. While he mowed beautiful lines into the sweet-smelling, dew-covered grass, I went around the perimeter of the land and gathered the wild blackberries that pepper these hillsides.

After an hour and a half of work, I had earned arm-scratches, purple fingers, and a hell of an appetite to go along with the two pounds of fat, ripe blackberries that I had gathered!

Image by Amber Shehan

We brought them home, rinsed the berries, and then I began the process of making a one gallon batch of blackberry mead!  This is also known as a melomel, a mead made with fruit.

Blackberry Mead (1 Gallon)

2-3 lbs of wildflower honey
2-3 lbs of fresh picked wild blackberries
1 allspice
1 clove
1 bit of dried orange peel
lemon juice

I used a large stockpot and heated just under 1 gallon of water to boil.  I threw in the allspice berry, clove, and orange peel while it got going.

While the water was heating, I sanitized a bucket with a bleach and water mix, and rinsed well.  I then added the berries to the bucket along with a splash of lemon juice.

Once the water is kicking at a steady boil, turn off the stove and remove the stockpot from heat.  Add the honey, stirring to blend.  If it is unfiltered honey, you may get a foam on the surface, which can be removed if you wish.

I poured the hot honey water (also called the must) over the berries and gave a good couple of stirs.  Lacking a lid to fit this bucket, I put a towel over it and tied it down to allow the must to cool and to keep flies and ants out.

I allowed the must to cool overnight, and this morning added a sweet mead yeast to the room temperature bucket.  It was beautiful, gave a little bit of a bubble, and then settled down as I stirred everything together.   I re-covered the bucket and tied it down again, and will let this mixture do it's thing for a couple of days.

Check in again soon, and I'll let you know how it turns out, and hopefully will remember to take some pictures as I rack it over into a carboy to finish fermentation!

A quick and dirty guide to Mosaic art

Storm Sigil Mosaic by Amber Shehan

So...mosaic is an awesome, awesome medium to work with! It has everything: construction, deconstruction, fumes, sharp things, cement...what more could you want?

First, you get to experience great enjoyment from smashing your chosen glassy victim (in a safe and cautious manner, of course).Then you get to glue the resulting razor-sharp shards to your medium (in this case, MORE GLASS). Safety First! Don't forget to provide for proper ventilation - that heavy duty glue is 'super-fun happy-fume time whee' up close and personal! TRUST me. Read the label, ok? (hack cough wheeze)

Mosaic and Image by Amber Shehan

The next day, bandaged and breathing a little labored, you get to use your gloved hands to smear your chosen grout (proven to be carcinogenic in the state of California) all over the beautiful art you just made, sit there and fret for about 15 minutes, and carefully begin to wipe it away (smear it everywhere) after a couple of minutes. Soon, your art is cemented and after a little elbow grease and buffing, ta da! A completed mosaic - and it only took days and burned a couple of brain cells!

I'm prone to exaggeration, you realize. Mosaics are fun! It really isn't all that bad of an experience. I honestly do love to mosaic...but let's face it! When you prepare for the worst, your results can only go uphill from there!