Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I believe you can ship alcohol via UPS, but not through USPS….else how could wine clubs ship wine?!

Thanks for the recipes, Lisa!
Re: sending alcohol, I wonder if the rules are similar to open containers in cars. If the bottles aren't securely sealed (like unopened wine bottles are) then I figure it would be taking a chance. My limoncello is usually stored in bottles that clip shut. I don't think that they are sealed securely enough...
Nancy

All,

So generally you can't legally ship alcohol interstate without a booze importer's permit. Shipping within your own state is usually fine, but across state lines requires registration (at the least) with the state authorities in the target state, and many states don't allow individuals to ship alcohol at all (Pennsylvania, for example, as I have cause to know).

However, state authorities aren't really interested in confiscating boxes with two small bottles of cordial in them; they want to get the volume shippers. So unless you make it blatantly obvious that you've got booze in your box (like if it's a 6-bottle wine shipping box), it'll be ignored. By most states, but not by a few (Pennsylvania again).

Working on this year's Christmas gifts. So far I am doing:

Lemoncello
Mulling spices (in huge tea bags)
Vanilla sugar (already mixed and mellowing)
Raspberry Habenero Jam
Clementine / Citrus bitters

Is anyone else planning anything homemade this year?

--Lisa

Lisa,

Probably some pottery.

I'm sure Kris will make pumpkin bread too. Not sure what else, if anything.

5 different types of Mustards.

My preserved lemons are awaiting taste and recipe testing before I decide whether they are of gifting quality. I am not sure how many F&F would be interested in them, but I am going to test them this weekend in a chick, pea, fennel, and preserved lemon salad for dinner group A little voice is telling me that PC beets also be an interesting addition, but I have not yet found a recipe to support that.

Tomato jam was a victim of its own success. Passed the taste test with flying colors but we decided to be selfish and keep the whole batch for personal use unless we stumble upon a another half bushel of tomatoes this late in the season. Takes a lot of tomatoes.

Apple pie jam may still be a possibility. The Northern Spies, and Golden Delicious will be ripe soon and a test run of 6-8 half pints is planned. My own boiled cider is done and waiting to work its magic on apple desserts but there does not seem to be much interest outside of my own kitchen.

The freezer has enough Concord grape skins to make 9 more medium loaves of grape bread. Have not tried freezing the raw materials before, but we picked about 25 pounds of grapes last weekend and had to test a way to avoid processing and baking all of them at once.

I am thinking seasoned salts. I would like to do a pepper blend but haven't found any of interest. Any ideas? I might also do mustard again. Which are you doing, Nancy?

Mary

Mary,
I'm making Pesto, Sun-Dried Tomato, Cranberry Honey (those were the favs last year), German Whole Grain and not sure about the 5th.
They each take 48 hours to absorb the liquid, then process in FP with remaining flavors, and 2 weeks to cure in the fridge.

I also made Pine Nut Butter last year but the cost is prohibitive this year to make a large batch. But damn, that PNB was might tasty!!

Nance

Mary,
I'm going to make the Tarragon Mustard next weekend and if it's as good as I hope I'll make that my 5th.
Thank again Josh!
Nancy