You’ve likely seen the Put ‘Em Up! Fruit blog tour steaming along through preserving and other lovely blogs; today I get to host! These sites hosted giveaways on Sherri’s blog tour:

These sites are currently hosting or slated to host this giveaway:

4/16 Tigress in a Jam Ends 4/24, head here!
4/18 Shockingly Delicious, Ends 4/25, head here!
4/22 From Scratch Club, Ends 4/26, head here!

Sherri’s site has videos and her physical book tour schedule posted.

So, this is a book review and I’m totally jazzed for this opportunity from Storey Publishing. Put ‘Em Up! Fruit is a fine resource for the newly initiated and for the old hat preserver. I love Sherri’s approach both here and in her first preserving book, Put ‘Em Up. While the main preserves recipes look great, it’s the Use ‘Em Up ideas that have my heart.

As some of you might know, I’m on a sweet preserves hiatus (except for the one jam we actually eat, strawberry). From gifted jars to my low-grade hoarding behavior of delicately-flavored jams, the pantry is certifiably stocked. Letting those jars age indefinitely isn’t really the best use of the time that went into making said preserves, so 80 recipes using homemade fruit preserves (or projects) are a blessing!

I’ve also been on a pickling tear, especially with fruit. (I find pickled fruit infinitely easier to incorporate into everyday dishes and their syrups/brines into delicious drinks called shrubs.) I leafed through the book and decided to pick a Use ‘Em Up recipe in lieu of highlighting the fruit recipe. When I stumbled upon the Sweet Pickled Plums recipe and its corresponding use, Cinnamon Rice with Pickled Plums. I had a few different pickled fruit jars to choose from, peaches, pears and, the one I opted to use, tangerines.

Cinnamon Rice with Pickled Plums

shared with permission from Sherri Brooks Vinton and Storey Publishing

halved, so it serves 4-5

1. Heat 1 Tbs olive oil in a medium saucepan, add half an onion, diced finely and 1 tsp salt. Sauté until onion is translucent.

2. Add half a can (13.5 oz) of unsweetened coconut milk, 1 cup water and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon. Bring to a boil and then add 1 cup long-grain white rice. Cover and cook until there are craters in the rice and the liquid is absorbed, about 20 min.

3. Dice (or chop) 1/4 cup pickled fruit (or more to taste) and scatter over finished rice, let rest for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve. We topped ours with sprouted pepitas, which added a nutty finish.

Here’s a super-fabulous added bonus, Ball, one of my preserving class sponsors, agreed to throw in another case of the Heritage Collection Jars (6 to a case) to the winner of this preserving-centric post.

Enter to win these two treats by making a comment below telling us what fruit you’re awaiting your seasonal chance to hoard or your funniest moment with fruit (mine being when I rolled a 5-gallon bucket full of rhubarb strapped to a luggage cart onto a Brooklyn bus during rush-hour. It was funny after-the fact, in an I’m-glad-no-one-shoved-me-out-of-the-door-I-was-smashed-up against-for-30-minutes kind of way.)

Enter by 11:59 CST on Thursday April 25. US residents only, per Storey’s shipping request. And if your email address isn’t in the box on the comment form where it’s supposed to be, you won’t win. I’m not hoarding it, I just need to reach out to you early, early on Friday morning.

Disclosures: There are Amazon affiliate links from which I may make an ever so small commission. Ball provided me a free case of Heritage Collection jars and sends a case to the winner directly. The review copy and book giveaway prize are provided courtesy of Storey Publishing. Opinions and statements are my own.

Update on 2013-05-03 13:54 by Kate

Congrats to Shannon, lucky number 62!

Thank you all for entering and sharing your fruit hopes and funnies.