Apple Cake in Jar

Wouldn't it be fun to send someone a quart of cake -- especially a far-away loved one. Happy news: you don't have to submit these jars to boiling water processing. They emerge from the oven sterile and you put the sterilized lids on right away to keep them that way. The contributor, Amy Gingerich of Hudson, Ohio, says her grandmother used to send these to her at college.

• 2/3 cup shortening
• 2 2/3 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 cups flour
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups grated apples
• 2/3 cup raisins
• 2/3 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and beat well. In separate bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients alternately with water and mix until smooth. Fold in apples, raisins and nuts.

Spray wide-mouth canning jars well with non-stick spray. (Be sure to use wide-mouth jars.) Fill no more than half full with batter, being careful to keep rims clean. Place jars on baking sheet in preheated 325-degree oven. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Meanwhile, sterilize lids and metal rings in boiling water.

As soon as cake is done, remove jars from oven, one at a time. Wipe rim of jar; put on lid and ring. Jars will seal as cakes cool. Cakes will keep for up to a year. Makes 7 to 9 pint jars or 3 to 5 quart jars.

-- "Saving the Seasons, How to Can, Freeze or Dry Almost Anything" by Susanna Meyer and Mary Clemens Meyer (Herald, 2010, $24.99)

Herb Salt

• 1 part dried, crushed herbs to 3 parts coarse salt.

Try lavender, basil, mint, rosemary, tarragon or thyme. A few grains of dry rice can be added to the salt to absorb moisture.

Store in a cool, dark place in a container with a tight-fitting lid. The salt will develop increased flavor over several weeks.

Try a rosemary/ lavender mixture on baked salmon. Thyme salt is a good rub for chicken.

-- "Saving the Seasons, How to Can, Freeze or Dry Almost Anything" by Susanna Meyer and Mary Clemens Meyer (Herald, 2010, $24.99)

Trevett Hooper's Dried Sun Gold Tomato Mayonnaise

Nice with cold sliced turkey or pork sandwiches, Chef Hooper suggests.

If you are not accustomed to making mayonnaise this time-consuming hand-whisked way, any favorite food-processor method would work well. Tasty and colorful in a pinch: stir the flavorings -- mustard, tomatoes, chili powder -- into Hellmann's mayonnaise.

• 1/2 cup loosely packed dried Sun Gold tomatoes (If you don't have a dehydrator spread 1 1/2 cups Sun Golds, halved, lightly salted and tossed in a teaspoon of oil, on a rack over a baking sheet and bake at 225 degrees for 4 or 5 hours, to concentrate flavor and sweetness.)
• 1 egg yolk
• 4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon pimenton (Spanish smoked chili powder), optional

Cover tomatoes with boiling water and allow to sit until they soften a bit. (Soaking is not necessary if you used the oven-dried alternate.) In a bowl whisk egg yolk, vinegar, mustard and sea salt. Very gradually whisk in vegetable oil in a slow, steady thin stream. Drain tomatoes and chop with a knife until they form a paste. Add tomato mixture to the mayonnaise. Add pimenton to taste.

-- "Saving the Seasons, How to Can, Freeze or Dry Almost Anything" by Susanna Meyer and Mary Clemens Meyer (Herald, 2010, $24.99)

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