in a massive effort to ensure an insanely sweet new year,

and to go beyond the old apples & honey...

mum and i spent hours in the kitchen this weekend cranking out:

crystallized ginger

pretzel caramels

apple donuts

a million kinds of jelly

apple donuts stuffed with jelly {namely, jalapeno jelly}

honey cake

sweet corn ice cream

cotton candy

...and so much more.

omg.

i think the guests at our rosh hashanah fest thought we'd lost our minds.

but having a pretty table full of homemade candies

and other noshies is oh-so-very satisfying.

see before i came home, i told mum that we wouldn't be eating anything during the weekend that we didn't make from scratch. and we almost stuck to it.

friday pizza night doesn't count. especially in chicago.

below are recipes and links that we used...

of course we still had apples & honey. but they were freshly picked fuji and honey crisp apples. and freshly whipped creamed honey

crystallized ginger

caramels {+ crunched up pretzels on top}

sweet corn ice cream

pumpkin ice cream {half of the sweet corn base, minus the corn + 1/2 a can of pumpkin + cloves + cinnamon + ginger + nutmeg}

ginger ale

apple donuts {we substituted apple butter for the cider and topped them with creamed honey}

ricotta {+ rosemary, thyme, and basil from the garden}

lentil balls

jalapeno jelly* {vinegar + jalapenos + sugar + pectin}

ginger jelly* {juice from the crystallized ginger + sugar + lemon + pectin}

hotberry jam* {strawbees + bluebees + raspbees + jalapeno + lemon + sugar + rosemary + water}

apple butter* {apples + autumny spices + pectin + water}

maple mustard* {mustard powder + white wine vinegar + sugar + maple extract + turmeric}

*i winged it with these things. just play around with those ingredients in a saucepan until it tastes good.

mum was in charge of the honey apple cake, the pumpkin challah, and the pickles... and i think they came out of real live cookbooks... so we're all out of luck on those ones.

-yeh!!