Homemade Mayonnaise

I am often thankful that I have a very do-it-myself kind of mindset. When I wanted my kitchen remodeled, I gathered as many details and tutorials as possible, the dug in and did it myself. I also have a I'll-finish-it-later mindset at times, which is why my kitchen still isn't finished, after a year and a half, but that's beside the point...

Sometimes this do-it-myself-ness applies to food, which is always fun. Making my own bread has become second-nature. I recently started making my own pasta. Occasionally I do homemade tortillas. There are lots of things that are typically purchased at the store that can actually be made pretty easily and inexpensively at home.

Today, I wanted to make sandwiches for lunch. I got out the (deliciously homemade) bread, lunchmeat, cheese, pickles, and lettuce. Then I looked for the mayo, only to find that there wasn't any! What to do?! We never run out of mayo! Well, I was too lazy to put away all the sandwich fixings and come up with something else for lunch. But not too lazy to look up a recipe and make my own mayonnaise.

It was super easy. Mayonnaise basically just needs egg, acid, flavor, and oil. For the oil, I used mostly extra-virgin olive oil (store brand, of course) combined with some vegetable oil. It made for a very strongly olive oil-flavored mayo. I thought that might be a problem, as I have been raised on store bought mayo with its mild flavor, but on the sandwiches the flavor was diluted enough to be quite pleasant. Still, if the flavor is too strong, light olive oil could be used, or just less olive and more vegetable or canola. All in all, my homemade mayo was a successful venture.

Super yummy with some ground black pepper

Homemade Mayonnaise
(from What's That Smell?)
1 egg
2 tbsp. vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dry mustard (or whatever seasoning you'd like)
3/4 cup oil (I used 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil and 1/4 cup vegetable oil)

Place all the ingredients except the oil in the blender and blend on high for 10 seconds. Reduce speed then slowly pour olive oil in through the top and blend until thick. Store in refrigerator. Mayo will last 2-4 weeks.

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Green Tomato ... Jam?

Hello, autumn weather! We had a stormy, windy, frosty night last night, which means it's time to bring in the green tomatoes. Do you have any idea how many green tomatoes you get from 19 tomato plants? A lot more than I currently know what to do with! So far we've brought in three large bowls brimming over with green tomatoes - at least 16 quarts. And that's just from three or four plants.

Anticipating a large green tomato crop, I've been looking up recipes for green tomatoes. This is one I found particularly interesting. Mixing green tomatoes, sugar, and jello to make jam definitely isn't something I would have thought to do, but the recipe had pretty good reviews, so I decided to give it a go.


Green Tomato Jam
4 cups shredded green tomatoes (I just tossed the tomatoes in the food processor)
4 cups white sugar
1 6-oz. box flavored gelatin mix (original recipe calls for raspberry)

Combine tomatoes and sugar in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir and cook about 10 minutes. Add the gelatin, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Spoon into hot, sterilized jars and seal; or, pour into freezer containers and freeze.

This turned out similar to the orange pear jam I made last year, which is also made using jello. And it was easy to make; the hardest part was standing there stirring it. I made three batches, using lime jello, strawberry jello, and then orange jello. I ended up with about 8 1/2 pints.


I'm sure I'll be posting a few more green tomato recipes in the near future, I still have a lot of tomatoes to use!

And another picture, just because I think this jam is so pretty!

Pumpkin Butter

Another deliciously spiced autumn fruit spread. I've made pumpkin butter once before, but this time I used an actual recipe. It turned out so delicious, just as wonderful as the apple butter I made recently. I made pumpkin pancakes this morning specifically to serve with the pumpkin butter. I won't post the pancake recipe - they were dense and heavy, and not as good as I had hoped. Edible, just not post-worthy. Anyway, the pumpkin butter was the star of the meal, and it shone brightly.


Pumpkin Butter
1 (29 oz) can pumpkin puree (3 1/2 cups if you're using fresh puree)
3/4 cup apple juice
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups sugar

Combine pumpkin, apple juice, spices, and sugar in a large saucepan; stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. Stir frequently.

Pack into small, freezer-safe containers leaving 3/4 inch space at the top. Store in the freezer. Makes 2 1/2 pints.


This would be good over regular pancakes, biscuits, bagels, toast, whatever! And it's also good over the pancakes when you add some maple syrup, yum...

Apple Butter

I'm loving all this fall baking and cooking. This is totally my favorite time of year! We got lots of apples and pears for really cheap ($.33/lb) this week, so I was excited to use them to make delicious treats. I'm planning on using the pears to make pear honey, but first I wanted to use up some apples by making delicious apple butter! This was my first time making apple butter, but it won't be the last - this stuff is fantastic. It tastes like autumn itself.


Apple Butter
8 apples - peeled, cored, and chopped
4 cups sugar (my apples were already pretty sweet, so I used three cups, one of which was brown sugar)
4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. salt

Fill a slow cooker with diced apples, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt (I also added a bit of allspice - that stuff goes great with apple dishes). Cover, and cook on high for 1 hour. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 12 hours, or until thick and dark golden in color.

Pack into small, freezer-safe containers leaving 3/4 inch space at the top. Store in the freezer. Makes 2 1/2 - 3 pints.


So that's what the recipe says to do. But my slow cooker is apparently incredibly slow. After cooking several hours longer than the recipe says, my apples still hadn't thickened into an apple butter texture - they were just pieces of very soft chopped apple floating in a fragrantly spiced syrup. So I whirled the mixture in the blender in batches, leaving a few larger chunks, and was able to get the right texture that way.

This really is so delicious. We served it over homemade biscuits for breakfast this morning - doesn't that look so good?

Orange Pear Jam

This is one of the prettiest jams I've ever made! It gets its bright color and sunshiny flavor by using orange jello instead of pectin. The jam was easy to make and has a soft texture common in fridge/freezer jam recipes. I got the recipe from the Taste of Home Cookbook.


Orange Pear Jam
7 cups sugar
5 cups chopped peeled fresh pears
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 packages (3 oz. each) orange gelatin

In a Dutch oven or large kettle, combine sugar, pears, pineapple, and lemon juice. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly.

Reduce heat; simmer for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; stir in gelatin until dissolved.

Pour into jars or containers; cool to room temperature, about 1 hour. Cover and let stand overnight or until set, but no longer than 24 hours. Refrigerate for up to 3 weeks, or store in freezer until ready to use. Yields about 7 cups.


So bright and colorful! It would be fun to experiment with other flavors of jello as well.

Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

I've made this sauce with and without cloves. The cloves added a really great flavor, and this tasted fantastic with turkey!

Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 12-oz package fresh cranberries
Dash ground cloves (optional)

Heat water and sugar to boiling in medium saucepan. Add berries. Return to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Berries will pop and release their juices, making some fun little noises! Remove from heat and add cloves if desired. Cool completely at room temperature, and chill in refrigerator.

The berried contain natural pectins that jellify the sauce, making it almost like a jam. It's so pretty!

Cranberry Butter

There weren't a lot of people on my poll who voted for unique cranberry sauces, but there were a few, and I wanted to post at least one special cranberry accompaniment anyway. This is a delicious flavored butter to spread on your Thanksgiving rolls, such as Freezer Crescent Rolls. It is sweet and rich, thanks to the brown sugar and honey, and it is tart and pink, thanks to the cranberries. It's very pretty, and is sure to be a hit.

Cranberry Butter
3/4 cup butter, softened (margarine is okay too)
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. honey
1 cup chopped fresh cranberries
2 tbsp. chopped walnuts, optional

In a small mixing bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and honey until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add cranberries and walnuts if desired; beat 5 minutes longer or until butter turns nice and pink.

Transfer to a sheet of plastic wrap; roll into a log.


Refrigerate until chilled. Unwrap and slice or place on a butter dish. Yields 1 1/3 cup.

This would be perfect on those crescent rolls I posted this morning, but since I didn't have any baked right now, I threw together some hoe cake and we ate it with that. Delicious!