About Marisa

Marisa McClellan is a food writer, canning teacher, and dedicated small batch canner who lives in Center City Philadelphia. Find more of her jams, pickles and preserves (all cooked up in her 80-square-foot kitchen) at her blog, Food in Jars. Her first book, titled Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round, is now available.

by Marisa on April 10, 2013 • 20 Comments Preserving

Preserving Spring: Spicy Pickled Asparagus

pickled asparagus Written by Marisa of Food in Jars.

When I was a brand new canner, pickled asparagus was one of my very first projects. Asparagus has long been one of my favorite vegetables and so, when it went on sale in mid-spring, I bought several bundles, consulted a multitude of cookbooks and set to work.

I quickly learned that pickling asparagus was a task well worth doing (particularly since commercial versions can cost as much as $12 a jar) and added it to my list of mandatory yearly recipes. I have since made at least 100 jars and every year, I still run out well before asparagus season arrives again.

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by Marisa on February 13, 2013 • 25 Comments Preserving

Spiced Preserved Lemons

Written by Marisa of Food in Jars.

In 1988, my family packed up our station wagon and migrated north from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon. I went from being a kid who’d never seen snow to one who was intimately familiar with mittens, scarves and moisture-wicking rain jackets.

Since then, I’ve always made the choice to live in climates that feature four distinct seasons (my younger sister went the opposite way and fled to Austin, Texas as soon as she was able). While I continue to be entirely pleased with my chosen city and its weather, I do find that come January, I need a little help dealing with the short, dark days.

Where most people might choose sun lamps or strategically timed visits to points south, I ward off the effects of the winter blahs with prodigious doses of citrus. I buy clementines by the box, fill cellophane bags with navel oranges and once a season, splurge on a ten pound shipment of Meyer lemons from the Bay Area.

I make marmalade, curd, jelly, caramel sauce, infused sea salt, flavored olive oil, dried slices and salt preserved lemons. All told, I spend nearly two full weeks celebrating the fragrance and flavor of these sweet, thin-skinned lemons.

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by Marisa on December 26, 2012 • 11 Comments Preserving

Quick Pickled Carrot Spears

Written by Marisa of Food in Jars.

In the past week, I’ve cooked and baked my way through at least five pounds of butter. There’s been toffee, cookies, biscuits, yeasted breakfast breads, apple crisps, and a turkey dinner with half a dozen sides.

Though it has been deeply satisfying to eat everything in my path, now that the holiday is over, I am ready for a palate cleanser that isn’t oozing with butter. And to my tastebuds, nothing tastes better when I’ve overdone it than a crisp, simple pickle.

Though I typically have a few varieties of pickles on my shelf from a summertime of canning, right now I’m hungry for a quick pickle. More often than not, this is when I turn to carrots.

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by Marisa on October 29, 2012 • 24 Comments Preserving

Maple Sweetened Pumpkin Butter

Written by Marisa of Food in Jars.

This time of year, it is only natural that a home cook’s fancy turns to pumpkin. Between the jack-o-lanterns standing sentinel near your front door and the knobby whole pumpkins you picked up at the farmers’ market over the weekend, your world is probably filled with all things orange and squashy right now.

Thing is, pumpkins are good for so much more than decoration. They can be steamed and pureed into pie filling. For a seasonal meatless main dish, there’s nothing better than roasted pumpkin cubes stirred into sage-spiced risotto, or pumpkin mac & cheese for the little ones.

And then there’s pumpkin butter. It’s delicious on toast, tasty stirred into oatmeal and even good simply eaten by the spoonful out of the jar. [Read more...]

by Marisa on September 5, 2012 • 17 Comments Preserving

Spiced Apple Preserves

Written by Marisa of Food in Jars.

A couple of years ago, I thought I had the apple preservation thing covered. After all, I regularly did applesauce, apple butter and apple jam. What else was there to do beyond that trio of nearly perfect preserves?

Then one day, while flipping through Eugenia Bone’s terrific book, Well-Preserved, I spotted a recipe for spiced apples. It had you shred the apples on a box grater, squeeze them to pull some of the water out, and cook them briefly with just a bit of sugar and spices before canning.

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