Sugar plums are small sweets (candies) made with sugar and oval-shaped like a plum.
Substitutes for sugar, usually natural. Chemcial substitutes are generally referred to as "artifical sweeteners".
A sugar or candy thermometer is used to measure the temperature and therefore the stage of a cooking sugar solution. The final texture of candy depends on the sugar concentration. As the syrup is heated, it boils, water evaporates, the sugar concentration increases, and the boiling point rises. A given temperature corresponds to a particular sugar concentration. In general, higher temperatures and greater sugar concentrations result in hard, brittle candies, and lower temperatures result in softer candies. The stages of sugar cooking are as follows. Wikipedia has excellent information about the temperatures of the different stages.
The sultana is the dried white, seedless grape of Turkish, Greek or Iranian origin, from a grape variety of the same name. These are typically larger than the currants made from Zante grapes, but smaller than "normal" raisins Sultanas. In the US sultanas are almost all made from Thompson Seedless white grapes, and result in a sweet, concentrated dried fruit. They may also be made from Muscatel grapes.
Summer cep or bolete mushroom. A round, brown-capped mushroom with nutty flavour.
Summer cabbage is simply cabbage which is planted around February for harvesting throughout the summer, rather than in winter.
The summer cep is a round, brown capped boletus mushroom with nutty flavour. Also known as the reticulated bolete. These mushrooms grow at higher elevations around 1800 ft and can be found from the first days of August. (If gathering mushrooms you must be absolutely certain what you have before you eat them as many are very poisonous.)
Summer coriander (US: summer cilantro). A pugent herb used in Mexican cooking and with a flavour like a heavy coriander (US: cilantro) and used raw to flavour fillings. of tacos.
