Knit nite was fun! It was a time for this loosely knit (hah!) group to reconnect (two people didn’t even bring knitting) and celebrate summer. Cathy is participating in the Garland KAL; her color is KnittedWit’s Madge, which is a glorious shade of raspberry. We were both using our Bead Aids and mine had a little adventure under the deck. It was found; the deck is pretty high which means you can get under it. I wish I had taken a picture of Cathy’s Garland; it’s gorgeous. Hooray for non-traditional leaf colors!
Lorajean brought me a big bowl of plums.
I used all the yellow and yellow/blush plums to make 10 jars of ginger plum jam. It looks like sunshine in a jar.
It’s setting up nicely. I tasted it and the ginger/plum ratio is
perfect. I used 1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger, 6 cups of cooked plums, 8 cups of sugar, and a pack of sure-jell. I bypassesd my traditional water bath canner, which is really too big for my electric burner, and tried something new. My 8 quart stockpot and this:
Which is actually this:
A silicone trivet that sits in the bottom of the pot to cushion the jars. I read about it here. I can only process 5 or 6 jars at a time, and I miss my jar rack/lifter, but the pot doesn’t wobble and the cooktop doesn’t get heat stained from the larger pot’s overhang. I do wish the pot were just a little deeper; it was pretty full in order to have an inch of water above the jars. But the resulting jam turned out fine.
I brought a blueberry pie to knit nite, but wanted to leave something home for DH and CollegeKiddo for dinner, so I made a caprese canellini pasta salad. This time I reduced the pasta to 8 ounces to have a more goodies to pasta ratio, and used the interesting tomato medley you see here.
I love pasta salads in the summer. A little pasta, a lot of my favorite goodies, some balsamic or lemon dressing, and there’s dinner.
What are some of your favorite summer recipes?
PDXKnitterati 
Those plums look so pretty!
My go-to in the summer is all kinds of salad. Sometimes there is grilled chicken on top, sometimes its pasta (tortellini) and sometimes it’s just salad. Summer in Florida is a time to eat cool foods and not heat up the kitchen.
So true! Although I sold DH on the idea of central air by saying that we could make lasagna in the summer. He loves lasagna.
I’d love to see the Raspberry Garland.
What a gorgeous salad!
Thanks! I’ll try to get a photo of the Raspberry Garland when it’s done.
Fingerling potato salad with fennel
1/2 pound fingerling potatoes, boiled until just tender, peeled and cooled
1 bulb fennel (finocchio), stalks removed, bulb split and cored, then sliced thinly crosswise.
Dressing is olive oil and white wine vinegar, with a shallot chopped finely into it.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Simple, different, and yummy!
That sounds delicious! I haven’t used fennel very much, but I do like it.
Forgot to say to slice the fingerling potatoes into “coins”.