Leena Eats, Gourmet Communication ... Food, Travel, Gastronomy

LeenaEats
LeenaEats

Leena Cans: Giardiniera for Ella’s Birthday!

Leena Cans: Giardiniera for Ellas Birthday!

My first big canning of the season: giardiniera for my daughter's 2nd birthday party.

Life has been a blur, friends. I have hardly had time to document, let alone blog about my culinary adventures! I have been canning up pickles galore for my daughter’s second birthday party picnic (garlic dill asparagus and pickled carrots to name a few). And having a two year old is trying wonderful and impossible a joy to can around.

“What you doin, Mommy?” is both adorable and just an innocent question…the first two times it is asked. The next 37 time sort of make me want to stuff her adorableness into a mason jar, water bath can her and not open until her 18th birthday.

Leena Cans: Giardiniera for Ellas Birthday!

The adorable persistence in action. In this photo, it clearly won.

Read the rest of this entry »

May 15th, 2013
Tags: , ,
Posted in Canning, Leena Cooks, Pickles, Recipes, vegetable | No Comments »

Leena Cooks: Pickled Onions for tacos and other goodies

Leena Cooks: Pickled Onions for tacos and other goodies
Spicy pork taco with salsa verde and tangy, spiced pickled onions. Hell yeah.

Pregnant or not, I’m a lady who likes her pickles. And when I’m not feeling all Martha Stewert-y and wanting to can, I like to rock out some good old fashioned refrigerator pickles*. These pickled onions were for a batch of spicy pork tacos, but they go great with any grilled, smoked or roasted meat, on cheese platters, and my favorite, in sandwiches (like grilled cheese!).

(*Technically, any recipes for canned pickle fruits and vegetables can be made in the fridge instead of hot water bath canning, so be sure to check out my recipe section for other pickle ideas.)

A super simple recipe and food porn after the click.

Read the rest of this entry »

February 28th, 2011
Tags: , ,
Posted in Leena Cooks, Pickles, vegetable | Comments Off

Leena Cooks n Cans: Spicy Bourbon White Peach Pickles

Leena Cooks n Cans: Spicy Bourbon White Peach Pickles

My Spicy Bourbon White Peach Pickles for the September Tigress Can Jam!

Leena Cooks n Cans: Spicy Bourbon White Peach Pickles

For this month’s can jam topic, stone fruit, I decided to get a little crazy. The recipe I was looking for, essentially a drunken stone fruit pickle, was difficult to come by. But here’s the thing–I sort of got addicted to eating peaches and bourbon together this summer, in crisps, in pies, and in cobblers…oh the cobblers. I got addicted to the flavor combo in a crack addict sort of way, and I can’t let it go, not even for this challenge. The pairing is so damn tasty, I just can’t leave my precious bourbon out.

I was totally planning on adding some bourbon to my white peach butter, which I also canned, but I forgot to add it until the jars were in the canner, and then sheer laziness kicked in. There was no way I was going to unearth the molten hot cans, dump their contents back into a  pot, add bourbon, adjust flavor and consistency, all while cleaning and re-sterilizing the cans so I could re-can the stuff. HELL NO.

More after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

September 13th, 2010
Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Canning, Fruit, Leena Cooks, Pickles | 10 Comments »

Leena Cooks n Cans: Cucumber and Zucchini Pickles/Relishes for July’s Tigress Can Jam!

Leena Cooks n Cans: Cucumber and Zucchini Pickles/Relishes for Julys Tigress Can Jam!

From cucumbers and zucchinis to two pickles and three relishes: bread and butter pickles, garlic dill pickles, Indian-style relish, Spicy Garlic Dill Relish, and in front, Zucchini BBQ Relish, all for July's Tigress Can Jam!

Wow. When Gloria over at Laundry, ETC. named this month’s can jam project to be cucurbits, to be honest, I wasn’t excited. WTF are cucurbits, you might ask? According to Gloria, “it refers to Cucurbitaceae, a plant family commonly known as melons and gourds, including crops like cucumbers, squashes (including pumpkins), loofahs, melons and watermelons…” To me, there is nothing special about cucumbers and zucchini. At all. I was the opposite of excited.

And then a bitch canned five different products. FIVE! And then a bitch remembered, oh yeah! I’m a pickle whore! and a bitch was able to stock her larder for the entire winter with pickles and relishes and experiment with a few new recipes. The bitch felt a bit like, well, a bitch.

Cucurbits, you have humbled me. I am not worthy.

Five recipes and food porn after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

July 19th, 2010
Posted in Canning, Condiments, Leena Cooks, Pickles, Relishes | 9 Comments »

About | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Contact | 2010 LeenaEats.com

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.