Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts

Friday, July 03, 2009

Happy Independence Day !

Wishing everyone a very safe and happy weekend.


And....let's hope the weather cooperates. It's been VERY cool the past few days. The weatherman says it's been some of the coolest July days in history. Yeah. That's not good.

PUPPY UPDATE: His official name is Riley. We had a very tough time coming up with a good name for him. But I like the name Riley...and it seems to fit. (Whatever that means!)

Oh, and have you seen the latest issue of Country Living magazine? It's good. You should get it.

Take care,

Monday, July 28, 2008

Strawberry Jam Forever

Alicia inspired me to make strawberry freezer jam. My mother-in-law used to make it and I remember how much I liked it so, I thought I'd give it a try.

After my trip to the grocery store to get strawberries (on sale for $9.99 for TWELVE pints), a five pound bag of sugar, two boxes of Sure-Jell pectin, and some new plastic containers, I set out on my adventure.

My first thought was: what in the hell am I going to do with TWELVE pints of strawberries? But...then I collected my senses and moved ahead.

One of the twelve pints of berries.

The recipe is simple to follow. But...may I suggest that you use a large mixing bowl [larger than you think you might need, okay]. Because I doubled the recipe that Alicia pointed me to and, lets just say the bowl was VERY full of berries and sugar and pectin syrup when I was done.

Fourteen cups of strawberry freezer jam.

The jam has to "sit" for twenty-four hours. Then it's ready to be refrigerated, frozen or ... eaten. I will be doing some of each. Guess what I'll be having for breakfast tomorrow? Yep: toast with strawberry jam. Yum.

Oh, and the rest of the berries? They are being used as (1) toppings for ice cream, (2) quartered and put in a bowl with lots of sugar on top. [And will later be put on top of short-cakes or biscuits.] And (3) some are just being washed and eaten, sort of like this:

Fresh berries and whipped cream.


UPDATE: Here's the link for the Strawberry Freezer Jam recipe from Kraft Foods.