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In Pursuit of | A Weck Resource Guide

i like them. i REALLY like them.

Whether you decide to use the amazing Weck jars for canning or storage, finding them seems to be a question that keeps popping up.  These are the few sites and shops I’ve found, heard of or used to purchase Weck.

Weck Canning – The online home with Weck specific canning info.  In the point/click/buy online shopping sphere, the process seems a little complicated, but this is where you can get it all.

Heath Ceramics – I♥Heath Ceramics, hardcore.  I bought my Weck from Heath.  Selection is limited, but they tend to have good shipping deals.

Lehman’s – Carries “European Glass Canning Jars” made in Germany.  They aren’t called Weck on the site, but it looks like them in the product images.  Has anyone gotten them from Lehman’s recently?  Are they Weck? Update: Kaela confirms Weck on her recent Lehman’s order.  Comment below.

terrain – As well as the  individual jars, they even carry bath salts, bath teas and candles poured into Weck.

New* Canoe – The Portland, Oregon home of wonderfully curated objects carries .25L, .2L, .5L (tall) and the .75L jars individually.

Where did you buy your Weck?  Is there a site or store that you go back to to covet the loveliness that is Weck? Let me know where to find more and I’ll update.

Nikki♥

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tigress’ can jam | sweet pickled baby carrots

i heed warnings. i really do.

I’m cutting it close I know, but I’ve been feeling my special brand of melancholy that comes with following the rules.  I want to not, but alas, I must.  I’ve got to live to see another month of canning.  Blasted low acid carrots!  They are the Feb Produce star of the Tigress’ Can Jam.

I just had to bring home lots of carrots.  What’s a girl to do without options?  I couldn’t decide.  For a minute there, it was so going to be a 3 way.  Carrots, 3 ways.  I was going to get fancy.  I guess I’ll have to leave that to Tigress.

This month in particular,  I wanted to use my inexperience as a tool to really learn.  I went looking for recipes.  The ones in books.  They felt a little more vetted and I wanted to be safe.  I’m may not be sure if I’m going to want to inject botulism in my face, but I am sure I don’t want to ingest it.

Because I need to stick as close to the letter as possible,  I went back to what is becoming my favorite little book, The New Preserves.  I decided the Sweet Pickled Baby Carrots below were the easiest for me to do without having to take too many risks.

Sweet Pickled Baby Carrots
adapted from Anne V. Nelson’s The New Preserves: Pickles, Jams and Jellies

1 – 1 1/4 pound baby carrots
3/4 c water
3/4 c cider vinegar
1/2 c sugar
1 tablespoon kosher/pickling salt
3/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
3/4 teaspoon celery seeds
6 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
3 dried red peppers
1 sm knob of ginger

The Nikki Bits: I had to do something.  I brought the heat.  I added a little spicy with the red pepper and a little depth with the ginger.

The Making: Super simple.  Wash and sterilize 3 half pint/3 quarter liter Weck jars in the water bath.  Divide the carrots and spices between the jars, breaking the cinnamon lengthwise.  Bring vinegar, salt, sugar and water to a boil.  Cover the carrots with the liquid, leaving 1/2 in head space.  Wipe rim.  Place seal and top.  Screw closed or add clamps.  Using jar lifter, place jars into water bath.  Return the water to a boil.  Process for 30minutes.

What’s Next: While I happily will wait the two weeks needed for time to bring the sweet pickled heat, I’m going to get to those other carrots.  Sans water bath processing, this could get interesting.

Savoring India did just come in from the library.  I could make a pickle to go with the Aloo Gobhi that’s been on my mind since the cauliflower called my name at the Farmers’ Market today.  And I’ve got to do something fresh tarragon in the fridge.  Options, gotta love ’em.

This is fun.

Nikki♥

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The Walk | In Color, Vibrant

it’s become habit, routine and ritual.

It started out as a walk I took a few days a week.  It was mapped and marked down to the tenth.  Thankfully, it’s turned into something I, just, do.  I go hunting for hills, delightfully out of breath.  Every day is a neighborhood adventure.  Miles are involved, just not counted.

I’ve thought it might be fun to bring the old point and shoot and record some of the things I see along the way.

So, this is just a study in color.

N♥

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Question | Inspiration Overload?

looking for answers to the question shouting over everything else in my head.

So, I’m going through my daily blogroll adventure and realized that time was just laughing at me as it walked away.  I wondered if I spent too much of it taking it all in.  Looking for inspiration in someone else’s reality and not enough time creating my own.

Is there such a thing as Inspiration Overload?

I look at these images, these ideas and the questions just ask themselves.  Am I at a saturation point for a particular curated aesthetic? Am I coveting more than appreciating?  Am I bored?  I know I get something from everything I take in, but could I spend more time away and not feel like I’m missing something?

Maybe I’m inspirationally congested.  Stuck at the point where I should be using some of it, instead I’m creating a bottleneck checking out what everyone else is doing.

Information overload is a given with everything coming so fast from so many places.  Can you feel that way by things that are meant to get you going? Things at are supposed to motivate  you in some way?

I don’t know.

What inspires you and how do you keep moving?

Nikki♥

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So Loving You | Reda

we haven’t talked about my skate thing, yet, have we? okay, maybe later…

So, I kinda love Reda.  It started a couple of years ago.  He makes me laugh.  I’m easy like that.

I could seriously watch him all day.  He kills me.  He’s adorable and stupid, in the best way possible.  He reminds me of one of reasons why I always wanted to live in New York.

It, also, doesn’t hurt that he’s being absolutely foolish with guys who are HOT.  Yes, I said it.  I’m honest with my ogling.  Nothing is more fascinating than watching menfolk do what they love to do.  Well, watching MKoH* guys doing what the love to do is.

Wednesdays With Reda at The Berrics.

the clip is crazy old, but it’s got Marc in it.  My Word.

Nikki♥

*MKoH – My Kind of HOT!

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brings it all back | gil scott-heron’s i’m new here

there’s a gsh story. it’s from the 70s. it only really matters to me, though.

The sound of Gil’s voice is like a window opening on my childhood that makes me want to scream from the rafters that MyMomRocks.  She exposed me to art in its many forms.  It wasn’t what I might’ve liked at the time, but it has stayed with me for life.

I saw her enjoying herself.  I watched her in dance class.  It may have been an African dance class, but they got down to the original Lady Marmalade, too.  She took me to plays I couldn’t quite understand about apartheid.  I sat in her lap at poetry readings.  Paintings, framed prints and maps lined the walls at home.  We read to each other, too.

The sound of his voice reminds me of how fortunate I was, am and will always be.  Thank you, Gil.

And, I’ll Take Care Of You is on repeat.

Nikki♥

(♥:You are thanking her, too, right?) But, of course!