On Hollywood’s big night, watching the parade of glammed-up, jewel-bedecked ladies and monkey-suited men while munching unadorned popcorn will not do…think what Joan and Melissa would say!

Cacao nibs add yummy culinary bling to my air-popped corn. The lightly sweetened organic ones from Navitas are particularly nice. I toss in dried blueberries, toasted almonds, and oat cereal rings as well, creating a munch mix with the perfect film-star blend of glitz and obsession with power food.

If your Oscar-night ritual includes dinner, serve spinach salad with air-popped kernels tossed in as croutons, or float them on winter squash or creamy tomato soup.  Popcorn in this supporting role will excite as much comment as seeing a scruffy hipster play against type.

Popcorn Meatloaf, which I created years ago while exploring popcorn’s savory possibilities, is a tradition at my viewing party. The popcorn, whirled in a food processor,  replaces breadcrumbs as the binder. While keeping the meatloaf moist and adding appealing flavor, and it also makes it gluten-free.

For caramel corn lovers, try a Nutty Popcorn Bundt Ring. An original from my Essential Best Foods Cookbook it combines popcorn with melted marshmallows, toasted nuts and dried fruit. Packed into a ring mold, then turned out of the pan, it looks like an angel food cake. Served in slices, it provides the same guilty pleasure as popcorn balls and rice crisp squares.

Popcorn Meatloaf

Serves 4

Turkey produces a lighter meatloaf perfect served with broccoli or green beans while ground beef makes a denser loaf ideal with mashed potatoes. Use any kind of milk, including non-dairy. Using mini-loaf pans produces meatloaf that slices into squares perfect served as finger food on whole-grain toast spread with ketchup.

4 cups air-popped popcorn

One (1 1/3 pound) package 93% lean ground turkey, or lean ground beef

3/4 cup finely chopped celery

3/4 cup finely chopped green bell pepper

3/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon brown mustard

1/4 cup milk or soymilk

1 large egg

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

1/3 cup chili sauce or ketchup

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Coat an 8-inch x 4-inch loaf pan, or two 5 1/2-inch x 3 1/2-inch loaf pans, with cooking spray.

In a food processor, pulse the popcorn in 5 second bursts until it is fine bits. Reserving 2 tablespoons for garnish, transfer the popcorn to a large mixing bowl.

Add all the other ingredients except the chili sauce to the popcorn and mix until well combined. Pack the mixture firmly into the prepared one or two pans. Spread the chili sauce evenly over the top of the meatloaf and sprinkle on the reserved popcorn bits.

Bake until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 F., 35 to 40 minutes for two small loaves, 60 minutes for one large meatloaf. Cool for 15 minutes before serving, or cool completely and serve at room temperature. Covered in the refrigerator, this meatloaf keeps for 3 days.

Sampling from the more than 150 recipes in The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, a charmingly designed compendium of magical recipes, most dishes I have tried are spellbindingly good. Those rock cakes, light, buttery, and touched with a flick of spice, contradict the stodgy image of this and other British classics .

For Pumpkin Juice, a Hogwart’s staple that appears in a glass pitcher in Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, Bucholz had to make up its actual ingredients. Combining pumpkin puree, apple, pineapple, and white grape juices, the sweetness of this orange potion seems more suited to the taste of youthful Potter fans than more mature ones.

Food plays an important part throughout the Harry Potter books and it features in spectacular feasting scenes and beguiling smaller movie moments, as when Dumbldore, contemplating the taste of the Bertie Bott’s Everyflavor Jelly Beans he has selected, declares “earwax” with chagrin.

Bucholz, Muggle, i.e. not a wizard, is a self-taught American mother of four who here uses her passion for cooking to produce pleasing results. Her recipes cover classic English cooking, from brewing a proper cup of tea and making bangers and mash, and shepherd’s pie, to Treacle Tarts. Whether they are nursery favorites, like Spotted Dick, or food for adults with a grown-up palate, they please. (To make the book family friendly, she gives booze-free versions, then shares boozy authentic versions at www.unofficialharrypottercookbook.com.

Potter fans will appreciate that dishes are cited by actual book and chapter, showing their place in the Harry Potter canon. Also larding her pages with culinary history and facts about British cooking and culture, Bucholz gives us a book fit for broader interests, too. As a parent, she excels at showing how to involve children.

If there’s an Anglophile bone in your body, regardless of whether Harry Potter and his wizard’s world captivates you, this is an enjoyable book to read and a solid, delicious cookbook to use.

Hagrid’s Rock  Cakes

Makes 12

Light and tender, rather between a scone and a cookie, these generous, buttery cakes are flavored by the perfect touch of cinnamon. I would perhaps increase the raisins to 1 1/2 cups. Using coconut milk gives excellent  dairy-free results.

See Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Chapter 8; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 3; Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 11.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/3 cup whole milk (see note)

1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350°F, and grease and flour a large cookie sheet. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter or your fingertips, work the butter with the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles moist sand.

Beat the egg with the milk and add the liquids to the flour-butter mixture, using a rubber spatula to stiff but supple dough. Fold in the raisins. Dividing the dough into 12 parts, mound it on the prepared cookie sheet, spacing the cakes 2 inches apart.

Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. When the bottoms are golden, the tops just lightly colored outside, and the Rocks are evenly cake-like in the center inside, cool them on the baking sheet. Serve warm or cooled, the day they are made.

I particularly like the way the strong yellow, soft blue and purple, and elegantly marbled brown of these eggs harmonizes.

I also tried using some other foods, from spinach and beets to paprika and cumin. The results were too pale or unpleasantly dingy.

• Start with raw eggs at room temperature. Wash them in mildly soapy water and dry them. If desired, make a pinhole to help reduce cracking.
• Always add 2 tablespoons white vinegar for up to 4 cups water.
• To help get even color, spin the eggs, using a metal spoon to turn them.
• Rinse the dyed eggs in warm water and pat dry with paper toweling right after removing them from the coloring solution.

Turmeric: Dissolve 2 Tbsp. ground turmeric in 2 Tbsp. warm water and add to a saucepan filled with 4 cups cold water plus vinegar. Add 4 eggs and boil gently for 30 minutes. Eggs will the sharp yellow, some with darker mottling.

Wild Blueberries: Combine 4 cups frozen blueberries with 4 cups cold water, plus vinegar.  Boil, partially covered, for 20 minutes. Strain, pressing on the berries. Put liquid in deep container and add 3 eggs. For 10 minutes, keep spinning the eggs.Remove eggs with spoon and do not touch until eggs are rinsed. Eggs will be pale blue with darker marbling.

Grape: Combine 11.5 oz. can frozen grape juice concentrate with 1 can water, plus vinegar. Add 3 eggs and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Remove eggs with spoon and do not touch until rinsed. The eggs may be sticky, with a stippled effect.

Chili Powder and Onions: Place 1 tablespoon chili powder and the brown, papery outer skin of  8 yellow onions in a deep saucepan. Add 4 cups water, plus vinegar. Add 4 eggs and boil gently for 10 minutes. Remove the eggs and enough onion skins to wrap each egg, scrunching the skins around them. Return eggs to pot and simmer 20 minutes. Cool the eggs in the pot. Remove, uncover, and rinse. Eggs will be marbled and flecked.

Because they cook during dying, eggs can sit out for days. DO NOT EAT DYED EGGS.

“ When the first huge, terrifying quake hit on Friday afternoon, March 11, I was in Tokyo preparing for a class the following day. Having lived through several large quakes before, I knew what to do. Trembling (me, and the earth together), I went into automatic mode, shutting off anything that could cause a fire, propping open the front door and one other escape route in the kitchen (door frames can shift causing them to jam shut), donned my emergency kit-knapsack (containing flashlight, extra batteries, water, essential medications, money, identification papers, gloves, face mask, first aid supplies, extra sweater with hood). The initial quake lasted for several minutes — it seemed as though it would never stop.

Gigantic tsunami came… and keep coming. As do tremors of varying degrees (as I type this, my desk sways slightly in a minor aftershock).

Transportation and communication services are widely disrupted — frustrating and frightening. Limited and rotating power shut-downs are taking place throughout the Kanto Plains area.”

Thank you.

KANSHA shimasu (in appreciation)

If you wonder how you might offer assistance, consider a contribution to one of many organizations providing disaster relief here. You may wish to consider one of these:

Japanese Red Cross

Doctors without Borders

International Medical Corps

CARE

NetHope

Sharing a recipe from Kansha feels appropriate. While the tragedy in Japan continues, she cannot conduct classes or culinary tours, making interest in her cookbooks increasingly meaningful. I particularly like this easy stir-fry that is served at room temperature.

Kimpira

Spicy Stir-Fry

The heat in this dish comes from a pinch of shichimi togarashi, a 7-spice blend made with red-hot chiles and other flavorful seasonings found at Japanese food stores.  Many American supermarkets carry it in their ethnic food section.

Serves 2 to 4

1/2 teaspoon roasted sesame oil

2/3 cup matchstick-cut daikon

1/3 cup matchstick-cut carrots

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon sake

2 tablespoons vegetable stock or water, if needed

1 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce

1/4 cup matchstick-cut, peeled  broccoli stems

1 tablespoon finely shredded lemon or orange zest, optional

Pinch of shichimi togarashi (hot pepper blend), or cayenne pepper

Heat the sesame oil in a wok or skillet over high heat. Add the daikon and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the carrot and stir-fry 1 minute more. The vegetables may brown slightly. The oil should not be smoking.

Sprinkle on the sugar and toss well. Add the sake and deglaze the pan of any crusty bits, then stir-fry 1 1/2 minutes longer. Add the liquid if the vegetables look like they may scorch.

Drizzle in the soy sauce, starting at the rim and working toward the center. Stir-fry until the vegetables are are just tender and well-glazed, the liquid almost gone, about 30 seconds.

Add the broccoli and toss to meld the flavors. If using, add the citrus peel and toss. Sprinkle on the shichimi and toss well.

Cool the stir-fry to room temperature before serving. Add more shichimi, if desired.

Adapted from Kansha, by Elizabeth Andoh

Thinking this is heresy, I decided to investigate. Here’s why it can be true.

Hot tea with honey, like chicken soup, helps relieve a stuffy nose. In tea or from a spoon, it also coats a sore throat, plus it has antibiotic and anti-inflammatory benefits for sinuses under siege.

Using honey when you are sick has roots even more primal than chicken soup. The first sweetener known to man and his sweet tooth, long before cooking with fire, we enjoyed eating honey. By 5,000 BC, doctors in Egypt used it to treat respiratory ailments and sore throats, says C.  Marina Marchese in Honeybee, Lessons  From An Accidental Bee Keeper.

If you catch cold on a trip, or the flu strikes suddenly, add another plus for honey. Unlike with chicken soup, just reach for the jar, with no chopping, simmering or pot-cleaning required.

Every honey has its own taste. This is not just interesting for cooking, since the bold flavors of varietal honeys are bold enough to enjoy right through a stuffed-up cold. This provides blessed relief for the boredom of drinking hot tea in copious quantities for days.

Varietal honeys blossom with as many flavors and nuances as wine, as you can see at Red Bee, Marchese’s honey company. Personal favorites include tupelo and buckwheat.

Where you do not want a “honey” flavor, skip clover honey, ubiquitious at supermarkets. Instead, use wildflower, which has the most neutral taste.

Farmers market usually have local honey. For a unique taste of New York City, I love New York Rooftop Honey sold at the Union Square Greenmarket. The Honey Locator lets you find your local honey

How do you cook with honey?

Applechino With Honey

Chai spices, tangy cider, and honey make this hot drink adapted from Covered In Honey by Mani Niall perfect on a brisk day and anytime to comfort a cold. Good honey choices are rich Tasmanian leatherwood sold at natural food stores, faintly piney mesquite from Trader Joe’s, or exquisite, caramel-tasting Italian Sulla from Manicaretti, or mild-tasting wildflower honey.

Makes 4 servings

4 cups apple cider or unfiltered juice

2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks

6 whole cloves

8 allspice berries or black peppercorns

1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, halved

2-4 tablespoons honey

Combine the cider or juice, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and ginger in a medium, stainless or other non-reactive pot. Set over medium-high heat until bubbles appear, reduce the heat, and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Cover and steep for 15 minutes. Strain into mugs and stir in honey to taste. Strained Applechino can be stored, tightly covered in the refrigerator, for up to 24 hours and reheated before serving.

Building on her earlier book, Small-Batch Baking, here Maugans helps you make three generous, very fudgy brownies, eight chocolate chip cookies, or two wicked-rich cheesecakes (consider freezing one). Presented in chocolate type, her recipes are simple to follow even from a book propped up in the corner of a cramped kitchen.

Working with amounts like three tablespoons of butter, one egg, and three ounces of chocolate makes putting these just-right size indulgences together remarkably quick. You can then clean up even before what you are making comes out of the oven.

I value books that teach, and Small-Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers is more than a recipe collection. Maugans explains what needs to be different and considers every detail important for success when producing one cup of cake batter or the crust for two 4-inch pies. Besides telling what shape bowl works best, Maugans’ solution for round cake pans, using empty 8- or 15-ounce cans, is brilliant. I like this book, too, because it can help in figuring out how to reduce my own favorite recipes to one or two servings.

To hold a child’s attention, making a small batch of cookies is ideal. When you want to de-stress and play in the kitchen, more complicated projects are here, too, including Bittersweet Truffle Tarts With Salted Pistachio Brittle, and Red Velvet Cake with Strawberry White Chocolate Icing.

In all, this book is handy for parents and grandparents, for sharing with a roommate, for whipping up little gifts, and for using solo. It is a perfect way to sin today and, without leftovers to over-do it, get back to the real world…tomorrow.

Chocoholic’s Truffle Tart

Makes 2 cakes

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon brandy

2 ounces premium-quality unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

1 ounce premium-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

Pinch of salt

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 300° F. Lightly coat the insides of two 8-ounce cans (3 1/4 inch in diameter and 2 inches tall) with cooking spray. For each, place the cans on a piece of parchment paper and trace around the outside. Cut out the circles and them to line the bottom of each can. Cut a 2-inch wide strip of parchment paper for each can and press it against the inside edge. Place the cans in an 8- or 9-inch baking pan and set the pan aside.

2. Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan; bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and cool. Stir in the brandy and set aside.

3. Place the chocolate in a small, microwave-safe bowl; microwave on medium power until soft, about 2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Stir in the butter until smooth. Stir in the sugar syrup. Add the egg, egg yolk, and salt; stir gently with a whisk until blended, but do not beat in air bubbles.

4. Scrape the batter into the cans in the baking pan, dividing it evenly. Pour hot water into the baking pan to come halfway up the sides of the cans. Bake until just set, 35 minutes; the tortes will be shiny and feel firm when lightly touched. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

5. Remove the cooled cakes from the cans and remove the parchment paper. Serve on plates dusted with confectioners’ sugar. Garnish with strawberries, raspberries, or 1/2 cup heavy cream whipped with 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar and 2-3 teaspoons brandy (optional).

Adapted from Small-Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers by Debby Maugans

Uniquely sweet and lavishly juicy, cocktail grapefruit have all the taste of other grapefruit without their bitterness. Botanically, they are actually not grapefruit, although they are related. Developed at University of California Riverside in the 1950s, cocktail grapefruit are a cross between a mandarin orange and pommelo, the thick-skinned, soccer ball-size citrus fruit popular in Asian communities.

I first tasted cocktail grapefruit, when my friend Kitty Morse, the Moroccan cook and fellow writer, took me to visit a grower near Vista in southern California. Supermarkets would not want cocktail grapefruit, the grower explained, because it was too seedy to be popular and too perishable for commercial handling. So only locals shopping at farmers’ markets around ccc could enjoy these flavor bombs the size of a large orange.

Last year, though, Melissa’s Produce shipped them to supermarkets and sold cocktail grapefruit direct . Discovering them at Trader Joes, I did a shimmying dance of joy that helped sell a few dozen to startled fellow customers. Happily, TJ’s and Melissa’s are selling them again now, so for a few blissful weeks, probably into March, everyone can enjoy them. Since they are still rare and can flourish in a container or the ground, maybe you would even like to grown your own thanks to Garden Guides, which is also a nursery.

Peel a cocktail grapefruit to eat in sections and you will enjoy their sunny color and tropical flavor. They are also good in a spinach salad, along with radicchio and endive, dressed with nothing more than salt, pepper, and a drizzle of fruit olive oil, or in Grapefruit with Mixed Greens, Fennel and Parmesan.

Returning to fruit cocktail, I love sectioning out the flesh and combining it with other fruit, plus a light syrup made with white tea, and raw sugar. Including a red chile pepper, as I do in the Tropical Fruit Salad in The Essential Best Foods Cookbook, adds an optional, appealing hit of heat.

Cocktail Grapefruit Fruit Cocktail

Makes 4 servings

1 large or 2 small cocktail grapefruit, peeled and sectioned

1 cup blackberries

1/2 cup Asian pear, in thin slices halved crosswise

1/2 cup diced mango

1 small kiwi, peeled and thinly sliced

White Tea Syrup (optional)

In a bowl combine the grapefruit, berries, Asian pear, mango, and kiwi, using a fork to gently toss them together. Cover and let the fruit cocktail sit at room temperature 20 minutes before serving to let the flavors meld. Spoon the fruit and juices in the bowl into glass dessert dishes and serve immediately.

If using White Tea Syrup, make it before cutting up the fruit and it will be cool enough to use when the fruit is ready.

White Tea Syrup

Makes 1/2 cup

1/2 cup water

1 white tea bag

2 tablespoons raw or tubinado sugar

1 long red chile pepper, thinly sliced crosswise, if desired

1. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil.  Off the heat, add the tea bag, cover, and steep for 3 minutes. Remove the tea bag.

2. Add the sugar and chile pepper, if using. Return the pot to low heat and cook until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally, 1-2 minutes.  Set the syrup aside to cool.

Known for meals-of-a-lifetime and equally memorable service, waiting for a reservation at its restaurant, helmed by Chef Dan Barber, can take until you qualify for Medicare. Dining at Stone Barns also costs dearly, though you get every penny’s-worth in pleasure. So my friend and I jumped at signing up for a Winter Greens program given as part of the Center’s commitment to educate and serve the community.

For $20, we got two hours of enchantment and enlightenment, including satisfying portions of three dishes made using spinach we picked, eggs we collected, and other ingredients from the Center’s half-acre greenhouse and livestock.

First, Megan Ryan took our group of twelve, including an infant and a toddler to the greenhouse, an immense shed heated just enough to keep plants from freezing. Bundled in layers of down and fleece, picking Red Cardinal spinach we were none too warm. Plants respond to the cold, Megan explained, by producing more sugar. Even the smallest leaves we harvested were, for spinach, lightly sweet in a delicious way.

Next came the chickens. Usually foraging outdoors to help fertilize the Center’s 64 acres, they ranged freely in a large, minimally heated shed. Feathers fluffed, they rushed to greet us, pecking at the snow on our boots. A rust-and-white Rhode Island Red-Plymouth Rock cross, they lay lavishly and are the friendliest farmyard birds ever, a good thing since they meet a lot of children, from infants to teens.

Then we looked in on the pigs in their three-walled quarters. Black Berkshires tinged with pink, they were padded yet petite as porkers go, and, well, two of them were going at it, providing an uncensored view of barnyard life.

Finally, back at the Visitors Center, Nena Johnson, the public program director, guided us through chopping vegetables, bacon and kielbasa and used them to make satisfying portions of  kale and white bean soup with kielbasa, cous cous salad with root vegs, and beyond the best spinach salad, topped with hard-cooked egg and bacon vinaigrette.

Stone Barns Center offers programs year-round for farmers, chefs and just folks, hosts family-oriented free activities, and holds a weekly farmers’ market.  For what’s on the calendar, check www.stonebarnscenter.org.

Bacon Vinaigrette

Use this warm dressing on a raw spinach salad, garnished with thin red onion rings and coarsely chopped hard-cooked egg. It is good spooned over steamed curly green kale, too.

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil

5 thick bacon slices, cut vertically into 1/2-inch strips

5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Heat the 1 tablespoon oil in a medium skillet over high heat. Add the bacon and cook until crisp. Remove from the pan using a slotted spoon and drain well on paper towels. Set aside.

2. Return the pan to medium-high heat. Add the vinegar and remaining olive oil. When the liquid boils, add the onions. Cook until the dressing is reduced by one-third, about 3 minutes.

Makes 1/2 cup

Krissoff sensibly admits that canning takes time. The cost of ingredients and jars for home preserving adds up, as well, unless you garden. Just do the math when seven pounds of tomatoes makes four half-pints of ketchup. To help cut costs and respect precious kitchen space, she tells how pots and all the equipment you already use for making stews, soup, and pasta can also be used for preserving and canning.

The first chapter, comprehensive, clear and concise in a friendly way, is a primer on everything you need to know to successfully make preserves and to protect them by canning. Or, in some cases, by freezing. It includes instructions for hot water bath canning and the equipment required, including the ad hoc set-up a casual cook can put together. You even learn why NOT to use empty mayonnaise jars.

Krissoff, as a kitchen geek, offers smart ways to speed and improve preserving. A key one is cooking fruit briefly, draining it, and then boiling down the resulting syrup and returning the fruit to the pot. This produces preserves with less cooking yet more fruit taste more than when the fruit and sugar are cooked together from start to finish. She also uses less sugar than many cooks are used to, green apples for their natural pectin, and lemon juice to add acidity that aids gelling.

The 200 recipes are presented by season, with separate chapters for those featuring fruit and vegetables. Fifty make complete dishes such as Smoky Corn Chowder, chili made with Charred Tomato Chile Salsa, and southern cream biscuits to serve your preserves on. Kim chi, Escabeche Vegetables (a Mexican pickle), and an irresistible Chinese plum sauce seasoned with cinnamon, star anise and ginger fit today’s taste for ethnic condiments.

Seven recipes using strawberries show how recipes range from basic to creatively captivating: a simple jam using fruit, sugar and lemon juice, a quick version made using commercial pectin, an old-fashioned one where macerating in sugar keeps the fruit more plump and whole, Strawberry Lemon Jam, Rhubarb Strawberry Jam, Spiced Strawberry Butter, and Strawberry Jam with Thai Basil, Cilantro and Mint.

As a final reward, Canning For A New Generation includes cardboard pages that provide 30 decorative, hole-punched labels you can pop out and hang on your homemade jewels.

Simple Dried Fruit Conserve

Makes About 4 half-pint jars

2 cups pomegranate or cranberry juice

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 pound mixed dried fruit, diced if large (about 3 cups)

1 small, whole navel orange, diced

1/2 cup walnut halved, toasted and coarsely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Prepare jars and lids for water bath canning.

Put the pomegranate juice, sugar, dried fruit, and orange in a wide 6- to 8-quart preserving pan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes, until the fruit is very soft, the orange rind is translucent, and the liquid is syrupy. Stir in the nuts, and cinnamon, if using, and boil 5 minutes more. Remove from the heat.

Ladle the hot conserves into the prepared, hot jars, leaving 1 /4-inch headspace. Use a chopstick to remove air bubbles. Use a damp paper towel to wipe the rims of the jars, then put a flat lid and ring on each jar, adjusting the ring so it is finger tight. Return the jars to the canning pot, making sure the water covers them by at least 1 inch. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes to process. Remove the jars to a folded towel and do not disturb for 12 hours. After 1 hour, check that the lids have sealed by pressing down on the center; if it can be pushed down, it has not sealed, and the jar should be refrigerated immediately. Label the sealed jars and store.

Adapted from Canning For A New Generation, by Liana Krissoff

Today, though, you can make pickled zuccini or a batch luscious preserves like these in a couple of hours.

Pickled Zucchini Slices and dilled Brussels sprouts were two signature dishes of Dana’s Delices, my catering business during the 1980s. Inevitably, people said, “You should sell these.” Since this meant being able to keep them on a shelf, I taught myself how to can.

This does not mean I am a genius. Truly, canning is that easy. To prove it, look at the videos and FAQs at www.homecanning.com. If seeing directions in print works better, the BallCompleteBook of Home Preserving is all you need. It is how I learned to can.

For me, this led to selling cases of homemade pear butter and spiced cranberry apple relish to Dean & DeLuca and a string of gourmet shops. In today’s economy and challenging times, when people want to save money and many are also considering changing careers and alternative businesses, let that inspire you!

To can efficiently, I focus on making small batches. Preparing to fill a few half-pints goes quickly and is easy even in a small kitchen. Sometimes I also skip the canning part and store what I make in the refrigerator or freezer.  Simply making freezer jam or a chutney, I still feel as accomplished as a kitchen goddess and nurturing as an earth mother.

Preserving Today, by Jeanne Lesem features great small batch recipes, including my favorites, Ginger Pear Preserves, Orange Blueberry Spread, and Chili Corn Relish that will send you right to the market, then the kitchen.

I like using Pomona’s Universal Pectin made from citrus because it lets you make recipes using less sugar, as little as one cup to produce four cups of preserves. I get it Whole Foods and other natural food stores, or on the Internet.

Also, from Ball, manufacturers of the classic canning jars, I recommend the wonderful plastic containers made just for freezer canning. They make pectin, too, but it contains potassium sorbate, so I have not tried it.

To share the work, www.canningacrossamerica.com has suggestions on how to organize friends or a community group to make it a sociable event where everyone learns together and goes home with canned goods and good memories.

Pickled Zucchini Slices

4 cups white vinegar

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup kosher salt

1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed

1 1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric

1 1/2 teaspoons  dill seed, optional

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon whole peppercorns

2 zucchini, thinly sliced

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

In a large, stainless steel or other non-reactive pot, combine the vinegar, sugar, salt, celery seed, turmeric, dill seed, if using, the mustard and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, then cool to room temperature.

Add the zucchini and onions and set aside to marinate for 1 hour in the picking liquid.

Return the pot containing the vegetables and marinade to medium-high heat and bring to a boil.  Cook for 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, following directions from a canning guide, sterilize 4 half-pint for 2 pint glass jars and canning lids.

Fill the sterilized jars, cap, and process in a hot water bath for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool completely.

If you choose not to vacuum seal these pickles, and for jars that do not pull a vacuum, these pickles keep, refrigerated, for up to 2 weeks.