Sugar Plum Fairy Jam Toast Topper #51 (#SundaySupper)

Given the amount of jams and other preserves I make throughout the year, it's not surprising that I'm always on the lookout for new ways to jazz up the offerings in my annual holiday baskets. Not only do I use canning as a way to preserve the bounty of our garden (and local farms), but it's a way to be almost as creative as I want as long as a few solid base ingredients remain constant.

In early September, as our family's preparations for my stepbrother's wedding were wrapping up, my stepdad came home from Costco with a giant flat of Italian blue plums. Usually known as prunes in their dried form (although this can refer to the fresh ones too), they're small, sweet and thin-skinned - perfect for a quick canning project. I knew I wanted to make a jam with some of them, using the rather Christmasy inspiration of the Sugar Plum Fairy to build elements around. For the "magical" elements, I chose the mystical flavours in Chinese five spice and blueberry-pomegranate juice as well as the visual appeal of edible gold flakes, which I had spent most of the year searching for after seeing a black raspberry jam recipe with them included. I finally found them in a tiny specialty shop in downtown Toronto, although if you are a US shopper they are more readily available online.

This #SundaySupper our group is On the Hunt - using ingredients tracked down in the wild, like game meat and mushrooms, handpicked from local farms and gardens or finally located in an out of the way marketplace after a good long search. Some of us even traveled (physically or online) to exotic climes for that must-have spice or accent. Check out what we have for you below, and be sure to stop by Stacy of Food Lust People Love and Tara of Noshing With the Nolands, our hostesses this week, and say hi!

Spread it on Thick
Homemade Mascarpone from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
Sugar Plum Fairy Jam from What Smells So Good?
Porcini Compound Butter from Nosh My Way

Nibbles and Sides
Baked Rice with Mushrooms from Basic N Delicious
Brie Blackberry Bites from Family Foodie
Foie Gras Bites from Jane’s Adventures in Dinner
Miso Risotto from Crazy Foodie Stunts

The Main Event
Bourbon Butter Venison Bites from The Life and Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch
Fennel Frond Pappardelle with Rabbit, Muscat, and Cream from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
Korean-style Tripe from kimchi MOM
Lapin au Cidre – Cider Braised Rabbit from Food Lust People Love
Maple Bison Blueberry Burgers from Noshing With The Nolands
Rabbit Braised with Kalamata Olives and Prunes from The Texan New Yorker
Spicy Sausage Pasta Skillet from Nik Snacks
Wild Venison Sausage Gravy from A Mama, Baby & Shar-pei in the Kitchen
Turkey, Wild Rice and Mushroom Casserole from Recipes, Food and Cooking
Wild Boar Pacific Rim Sliders from Peaceful Cooking

Sweet Treats
Blueberry Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce from From the Bookshelf
German Fruit and Nut Bars from Magnolia Days
Grilled Bananas/Toast Topped with Chocolate and Cheese from Brunch with Joy
Lemon Blueberry Scones from Killer Bunnies, Inc
Raspberry Muffins from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
Pumpkin Spice Puppy Chow from Pies and Plots
Ultimate Chewy Brownies from The Perfect Brownie
Vanilla Poached Tamarillos from Manu’s Menu
Wild Blackberry Scones with Lemon Glaze from The Foodie Army Wife
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Topped Waffles from NinjaBaker.com

Join the #SundaySupper conversation on Twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7 p.m. ET.  Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. To get more great Sunday Supper Recipes, visit our website or check out our Pinterest board.

Would you like to join the Sunday Supper Movement? It’s easy. You can sign up by clicking here: Sunday Supper Movement.

Tipsy Brown Sugar Banana Jam - Toast Topper #50 #12WksXmasTreats

I love recipes that manage to finish off the last bits of something. Not just those that you can throw in the last half-cup of rice, spoonful of peanut butter or carrot stick into, but those that seem to revolve around that lonesome ingredient in your kitchen that's too piddly to stand on it's own. After all the Baked Banana Spring Rolls I rolled and baked last week, I still had a single, almost-black banana on the counter and no idea what to use it for. All I knew was that there was no way I was going to toss it if possible, and that if I froze it, it's fate would have been essentially sealed to the graveyard known as our deep freezer (seriously - I have stuff in there I seriously need to use up).

Well, I came across a recipe that not only took care of the lone banana, but helped re-stock our jam supply for the week too. Cat on Neo Homesteading had concocted a super-small batch preserve rich with butter and brown sugar that looked like bananas Foster in a jar, only better. I took that idea and tweaked it just a tad to give it an adult spin - all it takes is a dash of spiced rum! After researching a bit I discovered you could can it in a waterbath, so if I find myself with the lone banana dilemma again I may can a jar for the holidays. For now, though, this one is ours!

Shared with Gluten Free Fridays and 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats 

Baked Banana Spring Rolls #12WksXmasTreats

If your family is anything like mine, you always have a surplus of steadily blackening bananas on your counter. We mean well, for sure, but we always buy so much fruit (between our weekly shopping trips and my stepdad's Costco habit) that we just can't eat it all in time.

Thankfully, we are also a family who loves bananas in pretty much any form - and with the number of people we have visiting over the holidays it just seemed natural to take some of the "far gone" bananas and make a few nibbles for the ravenous crew that would freeze well and bake up in a flash. I was inspired by one of my Home Ec units on dumplings, where we made the previous hit Pan-Fried Vegetable Wontons. While shopping for those ingredients, I came across a pack of frozen spring roll wrappers and was instantly convinced I needed to try something sweet with those!

I settled on a sesame-kissed banana filling for these "cigars", adding Muscovado sugar for a hint of molasses and the right balance of rich flavour when combined with the wafer thin, crisp spring roll wraps. I'm loath to deep fry anything, more so out of fear than health (but hey, healthy treats over the holidays are key too!), so I opted to bake them - effectively keeping the whole recipe 99% fat free! While I served a couple with just a whisper of cinnamon sugar dusted on top, I have some chocolate-dipped plans for the rest - who could resist?

Shared with 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats at Meal Planning Magic

Fiesta Relish

Well, it's definitely not Summer any more around here. After a few weeks on morning playground duty (all the while wishing I could be in my car with the heater on full blast) I finally broke down and bought snowpants - snowpants! - as well as leggings to ward against the chill. The kids don't feel it, running around as they are, but I'm not alone in asking "is it Summer yet?".

Well, it may not be bright and balmy outdoors anymore, but inside my pantry has a plethora of canned sunshine. I took advantage of the (inexpensive) bounty of fresh, local corn available minutes from my door this year and blanched it before packing most of it up in freezer bags. A couple ears left over from the school corn roast (that didn't go into the salsa) I took immediate action on, though, roasting them to bring out even more of the natural sugars in the kernels and add a delicate smokiness to whatever they played with, especially the tomatoes and peppers I still had growing at the time. A few spices and a trip through the waterbath canner later, I had a slightly spicy, tangy-sweet relish put up for days like today - where a spoonful can really be the only source of heat at hand!

Shared with Gluten Free Fridays

Vegan Butter - Toast Topper #49

I was always a sucker for butter. Real, semi-salted, cultured pats melting into a freshly toasted bagel or hot biscuit, the rich body and texture a stick lends to shortbread cookies and brioche, the undeniable flavour it lends to scampi and the simplest pasta at dinner. These days, butter's become less and less popular in my circle of acquaintances, since whether for allergies, intolerances, health issues or ethical dilemmas dairy is more or less back to being the "bad guy". It's not like the storebought alternative margarines are excessively healthy either - they are still fat, after all, and the processing is occasionally more dubious than the ingredients themselves. I wanted to see if I could find a less processed (and more importantly, more affordable) version that I could do at home, thus making only what I need and not shelling out 2-3 times the price of a block of butter for hydrogenated (or not) oils.

I found my answer on Vegan Baking, where Mattie combined soy milk, coconut oil, lecithin and a little magic to create a great-tasting, cholesterol (and animal) free "stick" ideal for baking or softening for morning toast. I added a dash of butter flavouring for extra oomph, and was thrilled with the results - not exactly like dairy butter, but boy was it close! It even fooled the mixture of butter-holics and die-hard vegans I served it to - they thought I had snuck in the real deal! Who knows, one day, I might even serve it to this list of vegan celebrities.

Shared with Gluten Free Fridays and Gluten Free Wednesdays