A BOOK, A RECIPE & RASPBERRY JAM

This morning I finished reading a very interesting book:

Published in 2013 Deep South tells the story of Paul Theroux's year of travel in the U.S. South.  Travelling alone by car he explored the back roads and small towns of the south, meeting locals and learning how they lived, most of them in dire poverty.  

Many of the small towns had been prosperous in the first half of the 1900's.  Then came the violent times of civil rights unrest and the devastation wrought by the departure of most industries to countries with cheaper labour and fewer taxes.  He also discovered, to his surprise and chagrin that although the U.S. sends millions and millions of aid dollars overseas, the poor in the south struggle without that kind of aid.  Most of the people he spoke with, many of whom became his friends, were poor blacks.  What shines through his writing is his empathy with all sorts of people.  What a good book!  I highly recommend it.

Sunday suppers here are not like the main meal on weekdays.  They are much "lighter."  Quite often we just have a bun with salmon salad.  Another frequent meal is homemade pizza.  This week I used an old recipe from way back when, Salmon Biscuit Ring.  I don't know where this recipe came from, but haven't made this for years.  I'm thinking of making this when DD #2 and her two kids are here in August so thought it would be a good thing to have a run through now.  It turned out terrific:

                        

It calls for biscuit mix (Bisquick, I guess) which I didn't have so I made some.  That recipe came from the net and was simple to make.

SALMON BISCUIT RING
Combine:
1 large or 2 small cans of salmon, drained
1 egg
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped parsley.
 
With a fork, stir together:
2 1/2 cups buttermilk baking mix
2/3 cup milk  (I used Kefir, very much like buttermilk)
Form a soft dough.
On a floured board knead 12 to 15 times.
Roll into a 10" x 15" rectangle.

Spread the salmon mixture on the dough.
Roll the dough up (like cinnamon rolls).
Moisten the edge with water.  Seal the ends together.
Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Make 12 cuts, 2/3 of the way through the ring.
Turn each piece on its side.
Brush the dough with a beaten egg.
Bake at 375º for 25 to 30 minutes.

I halved this recipe and still got a big enough ring that we ate only half.  The other half is in the freezer for some other meal.

This morning S. picked raspberries and got this mounded gallon pail.  I made 4 four cup freezer containers of raspberry freezer jam.  Last year we put 16 of these containers in the freezer and just this morning I took the last one out to thaw.  The date on the top of that container was 31/7/17.  So--just enough raspberry freezer jam to last one year.  We also used the cherry jelly I made last summer, and for most of our time in Arizona I bought jam at the supermarket.  Only Smucker's raspberry or strawberry jam seemed good enough.

How to make raspberry freezer jam:

Start with four cups of mashed fresh raspberries.  Mix 1 1/2 cups of sugar with one package of Bernardin Freezer Jam Gelling Powder.  Mix the sugar/jelling powder into the crushed fruit and stir for three minutes.  Pack into freezer containers.  I use plastic four cup square containers, as they stack very nicely in the freezer.  

Do try this, even if you have to buy some raspberries -- or strawberries.  It works equally well with either fruit.  I tried it once with some pitted, crushed cherries, but for some obscure reason, that did not turn out well.