Strawberry jam

What do you do when quarts of strawberries are $1.17 at HEB?  Make jam, of course!

All that jam...just waiting for some peanut butter and bread, or biscuits, or just a spoon...

here's how I make mine:

I boil up a pot of water, with the lids and rims, then pour the water into the clean jars and set them and the lids aside.  My jars go through the dishwasher, so they just need the boiling water to help them stay hot.

I trim and cut into tiny chunks most of 2 qts. of strawberries, until I have 5 cups.  I measure out  7 cups white sugar and have a box of of pectin handy, too.

I mash and stir the strawberries and pectin in a big pot over medium high heat, adding in a teaspoon of butter to keep the foaming action down while I mash the chunks.

Once it comes to a boil, I dump in the sugar all at once and boil it hard for one minute. 

(sugar not shown here)

A hard boil cannot be stirred down.

Take the jam off the heat and dump the water out of the jars.  Then fill them with hot jam using a ladle. Wipe spilled jam off the tops of the jars and the threads.  Place the lids on and screw on the rims.  Then I turn the jars upside down for about 5 minutes while I clean up my mess.

My kitchen smells so good!

 You can see I left just about a quarter inch of room in the jar - you want them pretty full.

Then set them upright and listen for the POP as they cool and seal.    

It's called the Inversion Method and it's easy peasy!

 I estimate this batch was about $3.50 since I already had the jars.  I am saving one for my mom and a friend.  The rest will be devoured by my jam-loving peeps...

the taste of Spring in a jar and so easy - try it!

Shared with:

and
Cookin' for my Captain
Strawberry Linky

Good Friday Thrifting 2011

It never occurred to me that St. Vinny's would not be open on Good Friday.  But the boys and I were determined to get out of the house and "bop around" as they love to say!

Stop #1 was a huge Sally Ann we had never seen before - HUGE.  I picked up a little over $2 worth of stuff that the woman rang up for $1.34, including a terra cotta sun face and some vintage fabric trims.  13 cents each  - no idea how old they are, but I would guess the early sixties - they were two for a quarter.

 Next was Thrift Town, a favorite of ours.  The boys had such a good time looking at all the "weird" stuff - they weren't even bothering to look for things they might actually want.  Creepy Stuff.  Like this cat.

Please tell me its not covered with real cat fur...

I, however, find a large bag of fabric lace and trims for $2 to add to my stash, and a box of 15 Japanese art print cards with envelopes for $1.  They are blank so they can be used for many occasions.

My total thrift purchases were less than $5!  

The blue sun got a coat of ORB this afternoon and is hanging over the mantel, and the laces and such are in my sewing box.  Check out the wide lace, perfect for making sachets.  After that, we had a great lunch at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant, Vallarta.

 

A fun way to spend a day off with my peeps!

Gina

Happy Easter 2011

 We had an awesome Easter - just the six of us.  Everyone got to sleep in late.  Everyone had a great breakfast. We all were ready on time and out the door for church services.  We had a delicious "Spring Thanksgiving"  luncheon.  There were plastic eggs to be found.  Easter Sussie jars discovered.  Dominoes and cards on the back patio.  And we posed for these family pics at the local park:

 

 

 

The Girl went off to work in the afternoon, and the mom got a nap, while Hubby and the boys did their own thing.  Now we are having a quiet evening and mulling over what we want for dinner.  A lovely day with much-needed family time together.  Hope yours was happy, too!

Gina

Easter table and menu plan 2011

 

 Here is the menu for this year's Easter Lunch/dinner:

Smoked Pork Roasts

3 marinated flavors of beer can chicken

Deviled Eggs

Rolls

3 Bean Greek salad

Corn Casserole

Heavenly Hash

Lemon Cheesecake

Pinot Grigio and tea

I bought the chickens and marinated each one a little differently, then sealed and froze them.  Hubby will come up a rub for the pork roasts.  He will fire up the smoker on Saturday night late, and keep it going 'til Sunday after church.  Deviled Eggs are the standard recipe, but I may add a little minced ham to them this year for interest.  We are having frozen rolls you just warm up.  The 3 Bean Salad I totally cheated on - 1 can each of green beans, light red kidney beans, and wax beans with a little chopped green onion and bottle Greek salad dressing to marinate in.  The corn casserole is a classic from my sister in law.  Find the recipe here.  Heavenly Hash is also called 6 Cup Salad - 1 cup each of: mandarin orange segments (drained), fruit cocktail (drained), sour cream, coconut, and cool whip, and mini marshmallows.  The Lemon Cheesecake I will make Saturday night is from Kraft - find the recipe here.  I also made some cute candles for my table by mod podging some cutouts from the napkins onto those jarred religious candles you see at the grocery store. And I couldn't resist a bouquet of fresh flowers.

We will say and grace as they are softly lit and give thanks for a great  meal. 

Have a beautifully blessed Easter with those you love,

Gina

Sharon's snack mix

 My sis in law makes this peanut/raisin/ M&M combo to set out at Christmastime and Bubbie and I had a hankering for it last week, so we made an Easter version.

I guess the only thing that makes it Easter-y is the pastel M&M's.  It was his idea to use chopped dried pineapple instead of raisins.   Salty sweet and delish!  

I put it in a pretty dish and set it out for my snack lovers.

Mostly they love the sweet bits so there were a lot of nuts left at the end.....

Shared with:

Easter sussie jars 2011

My kiddos are a little old for baskets at 21, 19, 15, and 12 and I wanted to do a little something different this year.  In fact, the past few years we haven't used baskets for Easter treats - one year it was colorful bowls from IKEA (that went directly to my kitchen afterwards), the next year was a large plastic egg with Swedish candy (again, from IKEA). 

I started with the rest of my collection of mason jars and some smallish Easter candy - jellybeans, peeps, Cadbury eggs - even pina colada tics tacs!

I filled each jar, jumbling it all together.  

I'm not a huge fan of peeps, but they look cute squished in here

I made some bunny head tags and cut around each one with my fancy craft scissors. Then tied them onto the jars with curling ribbon.  This will be a sweet little treat waiting for them when we get home from church.  And the jars will eventually return to the kitchen!

E. Bunny is a tradition my mother started and in fact, she still sends me Easter treats. You're never too old for candy!

Gina

Shared with:

and

Easy Spring topiary

A friend of mine at work took pity on me - I had a rotten week - and she bought me the cutest pot and filled it with candy.  She said she found the pot at Hobby Lobby.

After I shared the candy, and ate entirely too much of it myself,  I got the idea to make a cute spring-y decoration for the dining table.

I bought some moss and a couple sprigs of greenery at Hob Lob for about $6 total..  I already had some natural colored ribbon and  florist foam, and gathered branches from my backyard.  I wrapped the branches close to the stems of the greenery with the ribbon and  poked them into the foam that I placed in the bottom of the container.  Tied a bow around the top of the topiary and spread some moss down below.  

Pretty little birdy pot topiary to sweeten the dining table.  Now that the wainscoting is done, it's fun to decorate again.  Thanks, Dani, for my cute birdy pot and for helping me to feel better - here's to a Happy Spring!

Gina

Shared with:

and:

and

and

How we spent Monday

Bubbie got hurt on Monday after school.  Riding his bike over to a friend's house, he lost control of it when he turned a corner of the street covered in loose gravel.

Slippery gravel + bike going fast = wipeout  He landed on the handlebar,  and a good sized hernia resulted, with a loop of bowel poking up.  Surgery was needed to close the gap.  It wasn't exactly a fun experience, but everyone was so nice to him at the hospital - it really made me proud to say I work there.  The surgeon fixed him up, and we are back at home.

And a couple of parents I know have a few more gray hairs.

Gina

Wainscoting in the dining room

I love my "new" dining room!  Hooray for a hubby who indulged my wish for wainscoting!  And thank you to Decor Chick for inspiring me.

Against the wood floor it looks so impressive.  The fact that it is faux makes me love it more.  I like the texture on the wall, too.  I have plans to hang curtains, eventually.

This is how the wall looked last Sunday night after Hubby and Bubbie built the boxes.

It involved math, so I guess I'm glad I let him do this part!

On Tuesday, I painted with Behr Paint plus Primer in a satin finish in "Decorator White" - a soft, but true white.  And I caulked around the boxes first.

I painted all the way down the wall to the floor - and I may go back and touch up the very tip top of the chair rail - when I can stomach the smell of paint again.  I think I have painted every room in this house since last August.

Mid-morning I was all done with outlet covers and night lights replaced.  

Its really not this dark in here, but whatcha think?

Gina