All that and this is the stuff of a thrifty cook. No tossing these lovely peels to the compost. Making use of them to add oodles of flavor to your holiday cakes. Who knows, it could even lead to drying our peels to add them to tea come winter. Constant Comment did it to very good advantage way back when…and now they’re rich kids–chuckle.

This year I candied one of each critter: lemon, orange, grapefruit, citron, and lime. Lemon and orange were quite good as was the grapefruit. Citron was hard to find but it rewarded with an extra thick pith. Lime with its thin peel was not as plump and enticing, although still brought an intrigue all its own.

You can see how large the citron is and how little fruit it has, making it a shoe-in for candying with its thick rind. This is the etrog variety as opposed to the more readily available fingered citron, also known as Buddha’s hand. The advantage of the fingered citron is that its all rind and thus gives up a goodly amount of candied peel.

Just ask friend, Michael Mock, who experimented with that this year. He ended up with a couple of cups of diced peel, plenty for not only fruitcakes but also Christmas Stollen and my latest use of candied peel: in a beet salad with fresh oranges, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and a healthy spike of country mustard.

Back to the matter at hand, though. The gist on candied peel is really just the same as on everything else that’s commercially prepared today. Making it is easy, but it is yet another chore. That said, as people who do their own chores know, there’s nothing like home made for both satisfaction and end product.

How easy? How about 1, 2, 3.

1. Take the peel off the fruit (or in the case of etrog citron, cut the fruit out of the peel) and dice it–or at least get a bite-size cut. No need to fret over removing the pith as you want that for meaty dices and the bitterness goes mostly gonzo during the blanching. (Besides, like Old Fashion drinkers know, a little bitter makes the sweet rock & roll.)

2. Blanch in boiling water a couple times. Draining and rinsing each time to remove the bitterness. (Some recipes call for three and four times of blanching. I did it twice, letting the peels bubble about for a minute or two each time before rinsing.)

3. Simmer with sugar and water (one part sugar to two parts water) until things get syrupy. Use enough water to barely cover your fruits nets about the right amount of syrup.

If you’ll notice in the last image here, some of my jars have less syrup than others–point being there’s no hard and fast rule, just you experimenting.

Just you, the measure free hippie cook, in charge. (How was it that we ever turned into technicians anyhow? Following orders from headquarters in the privacy of our own kitchens? Aren’t our lives ruled and regulated enough already? More chuckle…)

Our cover girl, Celeste, is never far from the kitchen action of course. She is even in the holiday spirit enough to let the latest member of the family–Blue Bird–to share the frame with her.

If you want to see me on camera whipping these lovelies up, just scroll on down.

The recipe for Rolled Ups is on page 38 of Cooking Beyond Measure, and you can find Thai Slaw on page 139.

As my mother used to say, “These are so good you could peddle it!”

Really, truly–I could live on these babies…

Here’s hopin’ you give them a whirl. Even picky husbands and pb&j kids like Thai Slaw Rolls.

We’re expecting it to get scooped by all the society pages–and for book sales to be brisk.

Just remember, you saw it here first!

PS–If you’re wondering why the frog stuff on a cooking blog, it’s about lightening up and having fun. About leaving our measuring cups behind and taking back our kitchens for our health and our wealth. So you decide. Are you up for a subversive hurrah?!?

A moment of silence. My brows arched.

“Is he a boy?”

That’s where it started and since then it’s been a few of us old biddies hatching plans and match-making in the best of traditions.

Why? Just a goof really. But also more about lightening up and not taking the kitchen so friggin’ (or froggin’) seriously.

That’s why even though Celeste insisted on the back cover of Hippie Kitchen as her exclusive preserve, she did allow HH to appear within its pages. Also, why after a year, she finally said yes to HH’s overtures.

We had their engagement party on Valentines Day and even made a video. Sort of a first try, but it was a good time–and many ideas generated on how to make the upcoming wedding more of a blow out. So stay tuned. Wedding’s scheduled for apple blossom time.

In the mean time, here are some photos from the engagement party in case you didn’t watch the vid.

The happy couple.

Celeste sporting HH’s engagement gift of a diamond heart necklace. You can see that Celeste is not a spring chicken–and even has a bad eye. Also that she makes no bones about her commodious belly. We think that’s partly what attracted HH–Celeste’s quiet dignity in the face of what life has brought.

Lastly, the “cross my heart and hope to love” polenta waffles we made for the engagement party. A play-play adaptation of Bob’s Polenta Waffles and Cashew Cilantro Pesto from Cooking Beyond Measure, pages 42 and 75. There are also vids of me making these posted here on the blog.

The recent Cross My Heart & Hope to Love Waffles and Chocolate Goodies videos were merely a prelude to the big Valentine’s Day engagement party. It’s been two years now since Mr. HH spotted Celeste on the back cover of Cooking Beyond Measure.

Although Celeste turned her back on him at first, she’s finally said yes!

After my comments on pesticides and apples in The Measure Free Weekly last time, I was especially pleased to have a box of apples in the basement from friend and gardener, Laura Berg.

Laura is also, if you’ll remember from her comment on last week’s blogpost, the care taker of HH. Clearly more will be revealed on that subject as time goes by.

In any event, on the apples. This kind isn’t especially a good keeper, so I quartered them and put them in a slow oven with some water. Now they’re ready for the freezer–and then, of course, to pull out come winter for warming with cinnamon and nutmeg and spooning onto cereal, stirring into quick breads, and brewing down into sauces and syrups.

Fabulous. Fall apples. This year’s crop. Not a chemical in their genes. Or those that consume them. No wonder Celeste has given HH’s overture more than passing notice. She apparently understands that he’s part of a family that is clear on its priorities.

Celeste has turned into a camera hound since she heard HH, a male frog in our town, spotted her on the back cover of Beyond Measure. She sniffs that she’s not too interested, but the truth is, she invited him over once harvest is on the wane.

So you can see, she has me hard at it. Trays full of whatever bounty comes through the door, roasting in the oven. Then it’s just a matter of bagging them up in ziplocks. Or even freezing first on the trays and then bagging so come winter we can pull out just what we need.

Plums, peppers, and tomatoes roast beautifully–and it’s so much easier that stirring a pot on the stove and worrying about burning. I also did some peaches and oh, the smells in the kitchen. Even Celeste was distracted from her romantic interest momentarily. Then there are apples. Roasted apples. Talk about having your kitchen smell homey and good. And getting harvest’s bounty put up easily and quickly.

Yes, basking in the aroma of roasted food. Earthy. Elemental. Something that strikes a chord in creatures of all kinds.

Those who have a copy of Beyond Measure will recognize Celeste from the back cover. Indeed, she’s become a bit of a mascot and will most likely ensconce her lovely self on Hippie Kitchen’s (forthcoming 2009) back cover as well. While we’re not sure if this shot will make the final cut, she did want to pose her green, froggy self with the salsa doings.

As well she should, since she bellies up so nicely to the gypsy, Serrano, Anaheim, and jalapeño peppers I used for this salsa. Beyond that, the salsa is just onion, garlic, lime, and lotsa red plumpers. Cilantro is always called for in the formal recipes, but I didn’t have any around. Also, between me and thee, I didn’t even have limes on my first go round (we go through a batch every few days right now with harvest bringing on the peppers and tomatoes) and used a few shakes of regular old cider vinegar. Celeste thought it was cool–and it was close enough for the guys I go with.

This shot was at breakfast per the cup of black coffee and bowl of cereal. Then there’s a tray of winter squash ready for the oven and a basket of kale from the garden waiting for all manner of magic along with a beautiful lemon.

Clearly my stove is nothing extra, but it does yeoman service making tea in my grandmother’s copper kettle and firing up my cast iron wok that has found a home on the large back burner and is hidden here by the basket.

Taking the doors off the cupboards above was helpful for me. Now I can see my spices and herbs at a glance, and it’s a breeze to simply pour a bit out in a jar lid before adding to whatever I’m conjuring up. Having things at the ready really helps when you’re pulling food together quickly.

Apparently I’d been on a roll with polenta as well when I took this as I see the large jar of polenta off to the side, complete with the red-handled ice cream scoop that I spoon it out with. After all, life is art, so it’s got to be fun. At least that’s what the spotted dog, Abbey, sitting on the back of the stove tells me beside the frog Celeste.