Reading

During my winter break, I've been reading like nobody's business - but for fun, not for school. The latest books that I've been reading include:

• $100 Holiday, Bill McKibben - quick read, discussion about how to make the holidays simple and meaningful. Very good, especially since we already make most of our gifts . . .
• Radical Homemakers, Shannon Hayes - reclaiming domesticity and consuming less. Funny, I think I met Shannon at the Mr.'s family Christmas celebration last year!
• Canning for a new generation, Liana Krissoff - this is such a good canning book. It is divided by season (which I love, so I can put things by when they are in season). It also includes a lot of yummy recipes to eat with your canned goods, which is always a question that I have after I've put up all those jars.
• River Cottage Preserve Handbook, Pat Corbin - another delicious cookbook that I've been reading (drooling over). I love the photos in this book. I think I'll make the below recipe for Christmas presents . . .
  

Fall into Cooking Featured Recipe from Pam Corbin's The River Cottage Preserves Handbook: Apple Lemon Curd

Fruit curds are so simple and quick to make. Quintessential and quite the doyenne of the curd clan, lemon curd is unquestionably the all time favourite of these soft, creamy concoctions but I also love this smooth velvety apple curd. It's a marvelous way to use up windfall apples and so during the autumn I like to prepare a good quantity of apple puree and freeze it in 10 ounce portions. I can then easily knock up a batch when the apple season has long gone. --Pam Corbin

Makes 4 8 ounce jars

Ingredients

1 pound Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
Finely grated zest and juice of 2 unwaxed lemons (you need 7 tablespoons strained juice)
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons beaten eggs (4 or 5 large eggs)

Put the chopped apples into a pan with 7 tablespoons of water and the lemon zest. Cook gently until soft and fluffy, then either beat to a purée with a wooden spoon or run through a food mill.

Put the lemon juice, butter, sugar, and apple purée into a double boiler or heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. As soon as the butter has melted and the mixture is hot and glossy, pour in the eggs through a sieve, then whisk with a balloon whisk. If the fruit purée is too hot when the beaten egg is added, the egg will curdle. One way to guard against this is to check the temperature of the purée with a candy thermometer – it should be no higher than 130° to 140°F when the egg is added. If your curd does curdle, take the pan off the heat and whisk vigorously until smooth.

Stir the mixture over low heat, scraping down the sides of the bowl every few minutes, until thick and creamy. This will take 9 to 10 minutes; the temperature should reach 180° to 183°F on a candy thermometer. Immediately pour into warm, sterilized jars and seal. Use within 1 month. Once opened, keep in the fridge.

Variations
To make gooseberry curd, replace the apples with gooseberries. If you’d like a traditional, pure lemon curd, leave out the apples, increase the lemon juice to 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (4 to 5 lemons) and add the grated zest of 2 or 3 more lemons.