20 Comments

Last year we had a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes (harvesting more than 2 lbs a day at the peak of the season) - making tomato jam as well as dehydrating them saved me.

Marisa McClellan (Food In Jars) is my go-to for jams/jellies/pickles/tomatoes and her Smoky Spicy Tomato Jam is fabulous! (https://foodinjars.com/recipe/csa-cooking-smoky-spicy-skillet-tomato-jam/) It's my new favorite topping for meat loaf and I also use it (along with our dried cherry tomatoes) to make her savory jammy granola (in her book - Food In Jars Kitchen).

Expand full comment

Thank you for the recommendation! I made a tomato jam one year from the Ball canning book and it was disappointing. I’m going to look for that book too!

Expand full comment

Marisa has written four books in addition to blogging for over ten years - my favorite is Food In Jars Kitchen because it's full of ideas of how to use all those pickles and jams.

Expand full comment

These all look so good! And if anyone has a healthy hot chocolate recipe, please share. I am looking for one that is rich and wondrous and not too sweet.

Expand full comment

Me too! Maybe I’ll run my own experiment this fall or winter and report back.

Expand full comment

That sounds like a fun experiment. We may end up with a couple of varieties if several of us try it!

Expand full comment

I love this post Sarai!!!! I have made the commitment to change how I shop and eat. So this was so timely. Thank you!!😘

Expand full comment

I’m glad it was timely! Maybe some roundups of favorite cookbooks are in order soon. I have quite the collection going.

Expand full comment

I’ve been making the Smitten Kitchen easy fridge dill pickles for the last few weeks, so good!

Expand full comment

Oooh, must try those! I love pickles. I must plant more dill next year, I’ve been going through it like crazy.

Expand full comment

THANK YOU!!! These all sound so delicious and healthy. I am now so impressed by your culinary skills in addition to everything else you do😊

Expand full comment

I just really love to cook and bake, especially for other people. It’s my love language, being of both Jewish and Italian extraction. 😂

Expand full comment

thank you, Sara for sharing these recipes!

Expand full comment

You’re welcome! I’ll do more in the future. I love talking about food.

Expand full comment

I love, love these newsletters! I like to have homemade chutney on the pantry shelf for Indian meals, sparking up many brown winter foods, and adding something fancy to meat and cheese boards. Just made a batch of eggplant chutney but I’ve done tomato and black currant with equal success. Lots of things “chutney” well.

Expand full comment

I actually made a batch of my beloved Eleven Madison Park granola yesterday!! 😂 I’m also making a batch of Heidi Swanson’s dark chocolate granola later today, too. Gotta stock that pizzazz bar! 🥰 I think you should definitely make cashew butter for the holidays and I hope I make it on that list 👀 I’m going to try the seed crunch recipe soon. Looks SO GOOD.

Expand full comment

It really is! Have you made that chocolate granola before? I made her rose petal granola a while back and loved it. I’ve also made the chocolate buckwheat granola from My New Roots. I really like it, but Kenn is anti- chocolate in his granola for some crazy reason.

Expand full comment

Rose. Petal. Granola!?!?! What is this and where do I find out how to make it?!

Expand full comment

It’s in Heidi Swanson’s book Super Natural Simple (which is a great cookbook). It’s called California Masala Cluster Granola, and it has Indian spices, rosewater, and rose petals in it.

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
August 17, 2023
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

Ooh, thanks for the recommendation!

Expand full comment