Blue Cayenne

It’s plum season. How great is that? Plums are my favorite stone fruit. 

This season I was fortunate to get a large bag of home-grown plums from my friend Karen. (Karen is also the adored dog walker for Blue Cayenne’s Chief Taster and Chief Quality Officer, Sweet Juliet. Karen’s many kindnesses are legendary around here.)

Today’s featured recipe is for a wonderful Plum, Rum and Raisin Conserve.  This isn’t Blue Cayenne’s first rodeo with plums, though. Below you also will find some other wonderful plum recipes you may want to try this season while the plum supply is bountiful. (Or, you can, of course, just sit in your pajamas enjoying  slice after slice of perfect toast slathered with the Plum, Rum and Raisin Conserve. Your call.)

Here is today’s recipe for the Plum, Rum and Raisin Conserve. This recipe is from Olia Hercules’ wonderful Ukrainian cookbook Mamushka. You can buy the book on Amazon here. or through your local bookstore.  Hercules writes in her book that this conserve, beyond being delicious smeared on a piece of toast, makes a great Christmas gift or a mincemeat substitute for pies.  Can’t wait to try this wrapped in a flaky pie crust!

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen. 

But don’t stop with the conserve recipe, here are a couple of other ideas for this plum season. 

First, it doesn’t get a lot more beautiful than this delicious Almond Butter Cake With Cardamon and Baked Plums. You’ll find the recipe from Blue Cayenne’s archives here.

Here is an exceptional  (and quite stunning!) plum tart recipe: Plum Tart.

This is a recipe for Zucchini Casserole Widmer.

Who in the heck was Widmer?

I found this recipe deep in the pages of my recipe collection. I haven’t made it for years but I (rightfully!) remember it fondly. I transcribed it in my handwriting, so I’m not getting any clues from the print copy. I’m sorta kinda thinking I found it in Gourmet Magazine in the wonderful feature that showcased the recipes of readers.

(How I wish that column still existed. How I wish Gourmet Magazine was still being published. How I wish that, in a Marie Kondo moment, I hadn’t tossed my collection of old Gourmet Magazines…but I digress!)

It is zucchini season here in California. My yard is mostly shade, so I excel at growing begonias and ferns but not vegetables, although I’m giving a hot pepper plant the old college try this year. My neighbor Sarah, however, is planting a vegetable garden to be envied and she has zucchinis to harvest right now. A lot of zucchinis.

So, Ms. or Mr. Widmer, whoever you are, thank you for this recipe. It is delicious–obviously a keeper since I’ve saved it for lo these many many years.

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for a delightful salad, Neil’s Romaine.  You’ll love the garlicky salad dressing.

You don’t want to miss this great recipe…again.

Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.

And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page: Blue Cayenne..If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.