In a bit of a jam

I was honest.
I admitted I'd never done this before.
So, it should come as no surprise that I asked for some advice along the way.
But first, let me tell you how my jam experience went.

With all my ingredients at hand, I began hulling and quartering my first flat of strawberries. It took longer than I expected, but no matter. Then, into the food processor they went. Once finely pureed I paused to read my instructions.

Did I mention I'm not very good at following instructions?

Let me rephrase that - I'm very good at following instructions when I want to, but usually I modify them intentionally. This was one of those times.

I don't have a canning set so I knew from the start I would be making freezer jam. The instructions said I didn't need to cook the strawberries.

Really?

I've never heard of such a thing. So, because I MUST be smarter than the instructions, I decided to follow the "cooked jam" recipe instead of the "freezer jam" recipe, and then follow that up with freezing my jars instead of canning them. I had another motivation also: the strawberries, while beautiful, were not totally ripe, so they weren't as soft as they needed to be for jam. I figured the only way to soften them was to cook them. So, cook them I did.

On I went, adding the required juice, whisking in my pectin, and heating to a rolling boil. So far, so good. Now to add the sugar. Did I mention I used the largest pot we had? Did I also mention it was 3/4 full before I added the sugar? Oh dear, I had no idea jam had a foaming problem. Before long I was frantically reading instructions about how to deal with the foam which was nearly overflowing all over my stove top. To my pleasant surprise there was an asterisk noting that a bit of butter would deal with all that foam nicely - an asterisk I'd ignored thinking "surely I would never add butter to my jam recipe, that would be silly"

"GET ME SOME BUTTER!" Jonathan heard me yell from across the room, followed by a "QUICKLY PLEASE!" as I burned my finger yet again with boiling-fruity-sugar-foam.

Butter added. Jam explosion averted.

After three minutes of a hard boil I began ladling my jam into what I thought would be plenty of clean containers. In all I had four large glass jars, and ten smaller plastic freezer jam containers. So back to the very beginning of my post: While I was at the grocery store perusing berries I was careful to ask the more experienced women around me, how much jam will a flat of strawberries make? "one flat will make oh, about 6-8 small jars" I was told.

Well, let me tell you, after filling ALL of my containers I was RUSHING to find, empty, and wash other miscellaneous jars. In the end, with over 200 ounces of fresh, hot jam, (which, I'm happy to report, all set-up beautifully ) I would consider this project a success. That said, I still have a SECOND FLAT of strawberries to make jam from (you all know what you're getting for Christmas now) and I was left with a kitchen FULL of sticky pink dishes...

...Which somebody washed for me - each and every one.

Jammin'

...literally

Today, I will make Jam. Lots of Jam. Probably more jam than we'll be able to eat. But hey, with strawberries this cheap (under $9/12lb flat) I'm goin' for it.

"have you ever done this before?" you ask. Admittedly, no.
But how hard can it be, right? Clean glass jars, freezer jam pectin, strawberries, sugar, and a large pot... I can't imagine it's all that difficult. Besides, we have a HUGE chest freezer begging to be filled with money-saving goodies to be used throughout the year.

Any advice?

Toys and non-toys

So, with Levi's first birthday quickly approaching (May 28th) I'm looking around the internet trying to figure out what he'll be "into" next. Toy-wise that is. Throughout the next year he'll pass so many milestones that it's difficult to decide how best to stimulate his quickly growing little mind. At first I thought stand-and-play toys would be great, but now that he's nearly walking, I wonder if those would be bypassed.

So, that leaves me wondering about things like flash cards, books, letters, shapes, and colors - you know, "learning toys". Do kids even like those? Levi doesn't seem to pay attention to anything for longer than a half a second - even food, which he LOVES - so I'm unsure.

Anyhow, I created this list of what I *think* he may be interested in/need over the next year, but (especially you moms out there) I need some advice. Will he move beyond sit & play toys soon? If so, is it still to early for him to enjoy playing with one of those kitchen or workbench sets? He sure seems to like the one at the play group we go to.
Of course, we could forgo toys and leave him to play with non-toys (which he seems to LOVE). You know, things like laundry baskets, salad spinners, shoes, and clothespins.

No green thumb, and yet...

I sill managed to get a visit from these beauties:


Of course, they're bulbs, so they bloom every spring without me lifting a finger. I know I shouldn't take the credit when quite obviously it was some hard-working homeowner before me who did all the work.

I will, however, take credit for this:

Her name is violet - fittingly enough. I've managed to keep her alive for 2 years. Yes, two. And then this past fall something peculiar happened. She spawned 4 more separate plants right there in that tiny pot. I was flabbergasted.

Ok, I lie.

I didn't even know there was more than one plant in that pot until a visiting neighbor pointed it out. With now five African Violets taking up residence in a pot that was certainly too small, she and I delicately pulled them apart and re-planted them into five larger pots. I kept three, she took two.


And now I have not one, not five, but three thriving African Violets sitting in my bay window. Lovely. The center one and also the one to the right (She's the mother plant) already have tiny buds sprouting up. I'm so proud.

After such a success I decided to be bold. I planted these:

The pot on the top step holds a beautiful pot of basil - two separate plants. The pot on the bottom step is growing dill and cilantro. Last years basil thrived - but alas, it thrived the week we had Levi and then the grand majority of it went to waste as I neglected it in the hot summer sun, trading that gorgeous basil for hours upon hours of caring for a new babe. Here's hoping this year will be different.

Any suggestions?

NOT me Monday

"Not Me Monday" is a blog carnival started by a blogger named McMama. Because I'm a fan of self-deprecating humor, I've decided to join in unabashedly.
This weekend I certainly did NOT hear my 11 month old fully awaken at 5:30am and then ask my dear husband to bring him into our bed so I could try (somewhat successfully) to nurse him back to sleep and get a few more minutes of shut-eye for myself. That would be silly because I know too well that I can't really rest when he's in bed with us.

Last week I did NOT find a ladybug, nay a ladybug and a spider, mixed in with the clean diapers I pulled off the line in the back yard. I also did NOT lose track of said insects while putting diapers together.

After making bread dough yesterday, I did NOT leave my stand-mixer looking like this
I always take good care of my kitchenaid and would not say to my husband that "a good flour dusting makes it look well loved". That would simply be an excuse for my overall laziness

Lastly, I did NOT borrow a good mama diaper from a friend to see how I liked it on Levi, then (almost immediately) proceed to watch him poop in said borrowed cloth diaper. Thank you, Levi. That wasn't ours.

It's been a good week, all told. What about you? What have you NOT done this week?

Locks are for more than front doors

When Levi learned to crawl, Jonathan installed these locks on the cabinets under the sink.
I thought, as a matter of safety, we'd better hide all the gross nasty chemicals behind locked doors. Right? Well, turns out there are more things in the kitchen that need hiding these days


Levi has learned how to not only open, but also enter all my other lower kitchen cabinets. His favorite is the cabinet I keep my wok and stockpot in. Now why would that be a problem? well, glass lids aside, these pots are HEAVY, and when clumsily (I think I just made that word up) lifted by one shaky little baby hand they are prone to land on one chubby little baby foot and cause one giant tearful wailing experience.

Yes. We will be locking up the rest of the cabinets tomorrow. Sad, but true.

pinching my pennies

We pinch pennies around here. BIG TIME.
Especially when it comes to the grocery budget. Why you ask? well, quite honestly, this is where I tend to overspend the most. So, a little over a year ago we instituted a new plan

Each week, on Friday morning typically, I withdraw $100 in cash from our checking account. That cash has to cover all the food and consumables we need to purchase (consumables = toilet paper, dish soap, furnace filters, trash bags, etc.) sounds easy right? Wrong. You'd be amazed to see how fast that $100 gets spent. It's tough but, if I want to continue staying home with Levi we have to hit a zero balance or better each month so, here are my tricks of the trade (aside from cloth diapering, breastfeeding, and babyfood making of course - although those three are HUGE penny savers).

Ad Matching: Our local discount-grocer will honor other grocery stores' advertised prices IF (and that's a big if) you bring the paper ad with you. So each Wednesday I go through those ads, find the super low prices, and circle them so I can see if the ad gives me a better deal than our grocery store does.

Coupons: I don't use many coupons. We don't get the newspaper anymore (I get the grocery ads from our neighbor when she's done with them) but every once in a while I'll get some coupons in the mail.

Buying in large quantities: When something is on sale for a STEAL, I buy a TON of it. Of course, only if it's something I use a lot of. Examples: we have currently 16 boxes of cereal, 20lb of jasmine rice, and a whole lot of cans of tomatoes. Why? because they were the cheapest I'd ever seen them. I keep a record of these "cheapest prices" and when they go lower, I snag the deal. We never buy a box of cereal for more than $1.99, and I won't buy tomatoes that are over $.48 a can.

Paying attention to "price per unit": Not all cereal boxes or cans or bags of shredded cheese were created equal. I bring a calculator with me to the store and divide the item price by the number of ounces in the package to determine whether it would be cheaper to buy the small container or the larger one on a per-unit basis. You may be surprised to know that it's cheaper for us to buy small yogurts than it is to buy the large container (which is easier for Jonathan's lunch making anyhow) and occasionally this is true for applesauce cups/applesauce jugs also.

Serving sizes/Left overs management: So basically, I tend put too much on our plates. Typically we don't finish everything and something gets wasted. Bad form, I know. So I started dishing us up smaller portion sizes. THEN, before bed, I divy the rest up into one quart freezer ziplocks (genius invention). These bags fit enough in them for two servings of just about anything. Lentil soup, pasta sauce, enchiladas, meatloaf, you name it. Into the freezer they go for another night and now I don't have to wonder if we'll ever get around to actually finishing that left-over before it goes bad. Oh, and our fridge doesn't become a mess. Double bonus!

Last but not least, I read THIS blog written by friends of Jonathan and I from Washington. They have twelve children, eight of which are still at home. They are doing an experiment called 10-for-10-for-10. You should really check it out. (in case you need a hint, they're trying to feed 10 family members, for 10 dollars perday, for 10 weeks. Fascinating!)

So, what are your penny pinching strategies?
- Melissa