Bygone Kitchen

Lilac Tarts - Oh these are so sweet!

Escamillo Peppers starting to grow! One of six varieties of peppers this year. (The others being Giant Marconi, super Chili, Habanero Red, Jalapeño, and California Wonder) Will be making pepper jam, hot sauce and drying a lot of them to have fresh pepper for cooking!

Honeysuckle and Lemon Balm drying off after washing. Once they’re dry, they’ll go on the dehydrator overnight, then stored in jars to be used in tea. Honeysuckle is fantastic for headaches and lemon balm is an antiviral and is also good for indigestion, anxiety and stress.

Lilac Jelly……delicious.

Vanilla Lilac Cake….. Happy Mother’s Day! This cake has some major cottagecore vibes. I made a simple syrup infused with lilacs which I spread over the still warm cake. This soaks in as the cake cools. Then frosted and decorated with more lilac flowers. Can’t wait for dessert!

Lemon Balm - It finally feels like Spring! Working in the garden and collecting the first harvests of the year. Replenishing my much depleted stock of lemon balm which I use for most of my herbal tea bases. Not only is it tasty, it’s a proven anti-viral as well as helping with stress, anxiety, insomnia, and indigestion. I dry almost all of my herbs on a dehydrator to keep them safe from my cat!

Pavlova - the most delicious of desserts! Never would have known about this without Bluey!

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie - made from my canned chicken stew and a savory hot water crust. Yum!

Banana Honey Oat muffins…… no sugars other than the bananas but you’d never know!

Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl Bread - so delicious it’s all gone already!

Clementines and Strawberries - today I processed 5 pounds of clementines and 4 pounds of strawberries into:
4 trays of candied citrus peel These taste like orange sour patch kids!
14 ounces of citrus syrup which is delicious in tea!
7 trays of fruit leather for sweet but healthy snacking!
1 tray of fruit fiber which will be powdered and can be added to baking for extra fiber! Cost was less than $20.
leather

Tourtiere for New Year’s Day!

Christmas Cookiecuterie Board 2023!
Includes: funfetti donut train, chocolate chips cookies, fudge, peanut butter balls, snowball cookies and sugar cookies. Yum yum!

Family favorite- No-knead Crunchy White bread

Tomorrow’s breakfast is ready! Just have to warm them up and add icing in the morning!

Chocolate Pavlova Cake - THIS IS DECADENCE - my son couldn’t decide between a chocolate cake or Pavlova for his birthday so we did both! Made with chocolate meringue, chocolate whipped cream and topped with raspberries. This cake absolutely exceeded expectations and has become the new family favorite dessert!

Herbal Tea - I’m feeling under the weather so it’s time for tea! Today’s blend is:
Lemon Balm - antiviral
Chamomile - hay fever
Rose Hips - joint pain & vitamin C
Elderberries - antiviral & immune support
Echinacea - immune support
Apple Mint - headache & fever
Not pictured:
Lemon Zest - vitamin C
Honey - antimucolytic
This is a typical blend I make for cold/flu symptoms and many of these herbs have additional properties other than what I listed. (If you zoom in you can read the labels) The apple mint, lemon zest and honey make a nice flavor profile and you can always add juice too. Can drink it hot or iced.

Everyone hail to the pumpkin song….

PSA
If you’re going to be a “rebel canner” please make sure you have your batches tested, otherwise stick to the tested and approved methods.

Dehydrated Carrots - I had a great harvest of carrots this Fall! Can you believe there are 15 pounds of carrots in this quart jar? Dehydrating makes storage easy and then we use as needed for soups, stews, pot roasts, etc. All the smaller carrots (as well as carrots I thinned in late summer) were canned.

Pavlova - now we know why Bluey and Bingo go crazy for Pavlova! Merengue shell filled with whipped cream and fruit on top - absolutely delicious!

Blueberry Cheong/Blueberry Syrup -
Cheong is a Korean method of making fruit syrup by mixing equal parts fruit and sugar and letting it infuse for 100 days - I did mine in the door of the refrigerator. Once infused, strain and refrigerate the syrup - it should be good for a year or more - if it lasts that long! It is absolutely delicious and can be used in tea or as a condiment (think ice cream topping). The blueberry cheong came out so well and was so easy to do, I’m definitely going to make more varieties! The fruit is also preserved in the process and can be dried either on a dehydrator or in the oven on the lowest heat then eaten like candy!!
If anyone else knows more about making Korean cheong, I would love to hear about it. Out of all the foods I have researched and made, this one was the hardest to find information on in English. I was only able to find a Reddit thread and a few YouTube videos. If anyone knows of a book or website, and especially if it can be made shelf stable; I would really appreciate the info!

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Dutch Apple Pie with ice cream and homemade caramel sauce - After a tiring weekend filled with sewing and canning I am treating myself to this absolutely decadent dessert.

Halloween Deviled Eggs! I had fun surprising my son for breakfast!

Raspberry and white chocolate chip muffins - fresh out of the oven! What’s better than a muffin on a rainy day? Skull shaped muffins! Yum!

With all the homemade foods and baking that I love doing, I really don’t care for making birthday cakes. And because of all the work that goes into making/decorating a birthday cake, I also don’t make them from scratch. I know you’re all clutching your pearls and gasping at THE HORROR!! It really is OK and NORMAL to take shortcuts sometimes. Life is not Instagram perfect, nor should it be. This package cake mix, frosting and decorations cake is for my own birthday and I am going to enjoy the heck out of it!

I thrifted some copper, heart-shaped pans. Brownies look extra delicious!

Blueberry Lilac Jam! It’s such a dark purple it looks black! So sweet and so delicious!

Chocolate Tarts for breakfast!

Sweet Pickled Radish