Punk Domestics's blog

Ruby red, glowingly golden or candy-striped pink, beets are like jewels from mother earth. Delicious just as they are, they're also great in a variety of other applications. Here's a few of our favorites.

Pickled Beets
Red or golden, spicy or sweet, perfumed with herbs, cinnamon or cumin, beets take to pickling like a dream. (Image via My Man's Belly)

Beet Pickled Eggs
Mix your pickled beets with hard-boiled eggs for a treat that's a delight to the palate as well as the eyes. (Image via This American Bite)

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Want your game day goodies to score big? Here's a handful of DIY dips for you to tackle. They're sure to keep your guests cheering.

Chip Dip
Fresh, creamy dips are the perfect complement to salty, crunchy chips or crisp crudite. Step away from the store-bought stuff in plastic tubs and make your own. (Image via Eating Rules)

Salsa
America's favorite condiment comes in a dizzying array of colors and flavors, as diverse as the country it hails from. Whether you go for straight-up tomato, zesty green salsa verde, or salsas made with corn or fruit, your tortilla chips will thank you (and so will your guests). (Image via Cooking Channel)

Guacamole
Cool, creamy guacamole leverages the avocado's naturally rich texture. Kick it up as spicy as you like, or leave it mild as a delicious dip. (Image via Alyssa and Carla)

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Once again it's Three Things Thursday, where I highlight three things that ran on the site recently that inspired, intrigued or impressed me.

Hangikjöt: Icelandic Smoked Lamb
An Icelandic speciality, traditionally cured and then smoked in dried sheep dung. The more squeamish/modern amongst you can use wood smoke though! From Well Hung Food.

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Cabbage is your friend! Whether you're working with the Western globes in green or red, or crisp heads of napa cabbage, a little salt, time and patience can turn it into a traditional condiment with a global footprint. From tangy sauerkraut to spicy kimchi and beyond, here's a few ways to make the most of this ubiqutous veg.

Sauerkraut
Whether you start with green or red cabbage, you can whip up a batch of tangy kraut using just cabbage, salt and a mason jar, but branch out and try variations like cran-apple, jicama-apple or kicked up with Sichuan spices. (Image via Food in Jars)

Cortido
Cortido is Central America's answer to sauerkraut: Same tangy taste, but punched up with Mexican oregano and the fiery kick of chili peppers. (Image via rcakewalk)

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Huge thanks to everyone who came out to NightLife at the Academy this evening! For those of you who were not able to make it, or were and want a recap, here's what we covered. 

First of all, infusions and liqueurs are a fun and easy way to capture the essence of many ingredients. I taught a few classes on it at 18 Reasons a couple years back. For one springtime class, I nabbed some amazingly fragrant, perfectly ripe strawberries and plonked them into some vodka. A few days later, during the class, I opened the jar, and the room instantly filled with the sweet aroma of strawberries. The students audibly sighed. 

Infusion is simply the process of imparting flavor into a solvent, like alcohol, water or acid, by way of steeping ingredients. Liqueurs are basically just infusions that have been sweetened. In the case of the strawberry infusion, no further sweetening ws needed. But in the case of things like limoncello, made from lemon zest, or amaretto, with bitter almonds, sweetening can be desirable. 

Tea cocktails are becoming trendy right now, but you don't have to drop a Jackson to enjoy one. You can make your own tea liqueur at home, and use it to make your own clever cocktails. And unlike some other liqueurs, which can take days or even weeks to make, tea liqueur can be made in just a few hours. 

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In the dead of winter, no fruit brings a beam of sunshine better than the bright sweetness of oranges. Whether you're working with bitter Sevilles, sanguine blood oranges or sweet-tart cara caras, we've got a bushel of ideas on putting up everyone's favorite citrus.

Orange Marmalade
Sevilles are great, but orange marmalade can also be made with blood oranges, cara caras and others. But first, make sure you know how to slice citrus for marmalade, for the best results. (Image via Local Kitchen)

Orange Jam
If you don't like the orange's bitter rind, use the flesh for a sweeter jam. Warming spices or bourbon and vanilla kick it up a notch or two. (Image via Sunchowder)

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Seven Things to Do With Green Tomatoes
As the days shorten, those last tomatoes on the vine may stubbornly stay green. But that doesn't mean they're not good eating. Here's seven ways to preserve those green tomatoes. (Image via Garden of Eating)

Eighteen Ways to Preserve Apples
Biting into a fresh, crisp apple is the quintessential taste of autumn itself. But when you are faced with more apples than you can eat out of hand, try some of these tempting ways to put them by for later use. (Image via Southern Fried Curry)

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Happy New Year to everyone in the Punk Domestics community and family! Now is a great time to reflect, looking back on the year that was. Here are the 10 most popular topics on the site for the year.

Tomato Jam
Treat your tomatoes like the fruit they are. Tomato jam is sweet, savory, tangy and amazingly versatile. Use it like ketchup, pair it with cheese or just have a dollop on your dinner plate to spark up your meats and mains. (Image via Garden of Eating)

Pickled Radishes
Pickled radishes are unlikely to replace cornichons as the most popular pickle in France with a sandwich. But they're great alongside a fatty hunk of French pâté, or slivered and strewn over a steaming bowl of Korean Bibimbap for lunch or dinner. (Image via David Lebovitz)

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Lovely lemons bring a ray of sunshine during the cold, dark winter months. If you're lucky enough to have a neighbor with a tree, you may find yourself overwhelmed with the bounty. (If you don't, be sure to order some fragrant meyers from Lemon Ladies here in the Bay Area, trust.) Here's a bushel of ways to put the lemons by. 

Lemon Marmalade
Harness the bittersweet flavor of lemon rind and turn it into a sunny yellow marmalade, sure to brighten your morning muffin. But first, make sure you know how to slice citrus for marmalade, for the best results. (Image via Life Currents)

Lemon Jam
Lemon pairs nicely with plenty of other flavors in homemade jams: kiwi, red peppers and even onions and oregano. (Image via Autumn Makes and Does)

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