Fig Preserves

Fig preserves sell for $5 to $25 per jar online! Why pay retail, my pretties??? Make this easy fig preserves recipe instead. Figs are in season here in sunny Callie, so if you live near me, expect a special delivery soon.

Fig Preserves

2 lbs figs (24 figs in the Costco pack I bought)
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
4 lemon slices, seeds removed

1. Boil 4-6 cups of water. Cut them stems off the figs. Rinse figs and put them in a big bowl. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of baking soda over the figs. Pour the boiling water over the figs and baking soda and shake the bowl gently to make sure all figs get rinsed. Let figs sit for 15 minutes and then drain and rinse. This step is very important to remove any little fuzzies that may be on the outside of the figs.

2. Halve or quarter the figs depending on how chunky you like your preserves. Yes, I said "chunky."

3. Pour the 2 cups of sugar, 1 cup of water, and lemon slices into a big pot over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, about 2-3 minutes. Add fig quarters and stir in. Bring to boil, and then lower a heat to a simmer. You will cook the fig mixture for 2-3 hours, stirring about every 20 minutes. Do not leave your pot completely unattended as this is a sugary mix and can burn easily. About an hour into the simmer, I like to use my potato masher to really smash up the figs into small pieces.

4. When the preserves are the consistency you like, ladle it into Ball Mason jars. You can process your jars by sealing them and placing them in a boiling water bath for 5 to 15 minutes. This should keep the preserves for 6 months. If you don't process the jars, they are still safe to eat, but only for a month and should be kept refrigerated.

Makes 6 half pint jars. If you want to increase the yield, just increase your figs, sugar, and water proportionally. That's math for "double your recipe, if you wanna."

Chebe Gluten Free Cinnamon Roll Ups Mix

Let's face facts. All gluten free processed food products are created to satisfy cravings. Gluten free pizza, donuts, cupcakes, baguettes, pumpkin pie, lasagna, cheesecake, and mongolian beef are not gonna make themselves. These products spring out of the raw, visceral need to get our sweet, salty, fatty cravings met.

Thank gawsh for companies like Glutino, GF Pantry, Bob's Red Mill, Authentic Foods, PF Chang's, Whole Foods, Amy's, Chebe, and countless others, who have developed good-tasting gluten free products and mixes so that we can eat hormonally in peace without having a total-body auto-immune response. I salute you, makers of gluten free junk food! May you develop gluten free begnets and french dips in my lifetime!!

There are only so many years I can go without eating a cinnamon roll (are you listening, Cinnabon???). After 9 years had passed, I pounced on this mix from Chebe when I saw it. I like Chebe. They brand themselves as "unusual," which resonates with me. This mix is certainly unusual, especially in texture, but it was satisfying in every way. In fact, the two giant cinnamon buns that the bag yielded completely ruined my latest schmactressy diet attempt. My only complaint was that they had so many recipe variations on the back of the bag, but no clear instructions on how to make traditional cinnamon buns. I just figured it out for myself, since I'm scrappy.


Here's a recipe for some icing to drizzle on top, should you finally give in to your 9-year long cinnamon bun craving.

Cinnamon Roll Icing

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon Karo's corn syrup (light or dark)
2 tablespoons milk
1/8 tsp vanilla
1 tsp of butter

Melt all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Drizzle hot icing on hot cinnamon bun fresh out of the oven. Gain five pounds.

Babycakes LA

It is a blessing and a half that Los Angeles got its very own Babycakes bakery...plus it's half a blessing that they opened the LA location downtown, which requires some tricky traffic planning for me to make the trek. Close, but not dangerously close.

Babycakes is a vegan bakery. Most items they sell are gluten free, but some items are made with spelt. The staff are very knowledgeable and clear which items have spelt (in the above pic, the spelt items are sitting on the red-lettered shelf). Everything I brought home was delicious. So were the 2 doughnuts that I ate before I left.

I usually only trust Karina Allrich's recipes for at-home vegan baking, but I bought the Babycakes cookbook and tried a red velvet cupcake recipe. the results were beyond disastrous. I made little red Mars rocks that tasted like sand.

I'll revisit my Babycakes cookbook eventually, but until then, I'm planning a field trip to the bakery. Isss'wunderful.