I just posted about raspberry freezer jam, then remembered that I froze some strawberries earlier, and took pictures so I could blog about it.
It was basic. I just stemmed the strawberries, washed them, set them out on cookie sheets and put them in the freezer. After a while (when I remembered) I put them in freezer bags. One bag full, I cut up into small pieces so I could use them for things like jello salad and such. The others, we’ll use mostly for smoothies.
I LOVE raspberries! Seriously! I love them! We planted some- and then, we transplanted them! So, sadly, they didn’t get any berries this year… just new growth! But, I was elated to hear that my friend, who recently moved in with her mom for a while, was not going to be picking their raspberries and that I was welcome to them!
Sweet and Delicious! Heavenly! That’s what I kept thinking while I was picking them- even stepping in the mud, and getting red stains on my shirt and shorts! Heavenly!
I decided to make some freezer jam with the first batch. Freezer jam is sooo easy! I just bought some fruit pectin, and followed the very basic recipe within the packet. Crush the fruit, add sugar, boil water and pectin, stir together! That’s it! I LOVE freezer jam. I’m not much of a jam person, but freezer jam will make me want to have toast with jam, just so I can have some freezer jam.
It didn’t make a ton, but we’re not a large family (at least not in eating, not yet anyway.) It will be just right. I went out and picked some more today, we’ll see what I’ll do with them. Maybe just freeze them for smoothies? Or I think you can CAN raspberries to use for things like topping cheesecake and such… or maybe I’ll just enjoy the deliciousness of the fresh berries!
We have choke cherry bushes in our yard! With A LOT of choke cherries growing on them. Still tons more, even after I made a small dent in them for this experiment!
Here’s the recipe I followed:
http://www.food.com/recipe/chokecherry-syrup-134061
I thought it seemed like a TON of sugar, so I used a tiny bit less than that. But, still almost as much because I was worried that it wouldn’t thicken if I didn’t use enough.
First, we picked the cherries. I paid Aaron $1 to fill a bucket. Plus, the boys went and picked some every time they were bored. There are seriously still soooo many out there!
Then, I washed them, then put them in a pot and barely covered them with water, and set them to boil. Here’s where I made the mistake of leaving it on HIGH boiling, while we went out to pick more cherries.
I came back inside to this (all over the floor too.) and Derek screaming because he had woken up from his nap. Oops. Oh well, he was ok, and the mess cleaned right up.
So, then, I made a make-shift juicer out of pink tulle taped across my big bowl.
It worked like a charm. I only had to empty the juice once or twice out of the bowl and clean off the tulle with water. I got 5 cups of juice out of one bucket of chokecherries. It made 2 small jars and 1 1/2 big jars of syrup.
I canned the smaller jars in my pot as a boiling water bath for 12 minutes or so. The big one sealed on it’s own, and wouldn’t fit in my small pot, so I figured it was alright. The syrup is pretty yummy, especially with whipped cream on top. I liked it on brownies too- made it like chocolate covered cherry flavor.
Not too bad for my first canning experiment. AND, I am excited that I got a pressure canner at a yard sale for $1! It’s only a small one, but just big enough to do six or seven jars. I’ll try green beans this year, and peaches. Maybe with my tomatoes I’ll make spaghetti sauce and can that? Any suggestions and hints would be greatly appreciated!
I like to make these! They are yummy. They fill your tummy. And they are way cheaper than store bought ones that are filled with nasty preservatives!
Here’s the basic recipe I use:
I’m lazy, I know… but it’s easier than typing it all out right now. Anyway, I start with these basics and add a bunch of stuff.
I add: craisins (more specifically, raspberry craisins because they are cheaper at WinCo.)
mixed nuts
sunflower seeds
flax seed (I accidentally bought the whole seeds the first time. You can get it all ground up and I guess that’s better, but for the granola bars, I think the whole seeds are ok… I still use them anyway.)
wheat germ (sounds nasty, I know, but it’s really healthy for you, and you can’t even taste it at all, all mixed in with everything.)
So, you mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. When I do this, I usually see that I have a lot more than the original recipe calls for, so I double the peanut butter, karo syrup and brown sugar. It just makes really big, a bit more gooey granola bars!
After you push everything down into a greased pan, let it set for a while, then cut it into bars! You can save it in plastic bags, like I do, or just leave it in the pan and cut one when you want it.
They’re pretty easy, quick and delicious! Plus, a healthy snack too!
For Relief Society tonight we had a Pie and Hi get together. It was a lot of fun. They said we could bring our favorite pie to share. Peach is not my favorite, but we had a lot of frozen peaches, and the ingredients for the crust, so I decided to try it out.
I don’t know that I have ever made pie before- really. Sure I’ve tried banana cream, or cheesecake flavored pudding pie, but actually baking a pie? This was a first!
Of course, I had some help…
Please disregard the fact that Caleb is still in his pajamas. We made this pie right after breakfast, um, lunch.
Cool trick for transferring the crust to the pie pan…
Probably could’ve used more filling- but I didn’t want to thaw out and deal with anymore peaches. It kind of all turned to peach mush anyway….
I wanted the cute little heart for the middle- Christopher decided we needed another heart too.
It didn’t bubble over, but the pan was ready, just in case.
It was a big hit tonight. One lady asked the whole group, “Who made the peach pie?” I said, “Which one?” since there were two. She said the one with the heart and that it was “soooo good!” I said, “Good, I was afraid to try it.” Everyone got a good laugh. It was sort of true, but also, I just wanted to try all the other kinds that were there. Pumpkin and Lemon meringue were my favorite! Yummy!
And here’s how my little helper ended up, shortly after we finished:
A spontaneous treat turned into a fun activity:
Animal crackers, frosting and sprinkles; plus two hungry little boys:
I microwaved the frosting for a few seconds first, and it was way easy to dip the crackers. Christopher thought this was the coolest thing ever- and it’s definitely cheaper than buying animal cookies.
My mom talks about how delicious the sweet potato french fries are that she gets at Costco. I decided to make some from scratch.
They were easy.
Cut up the sweet potato into fries.
In a bowl mix: vegetable oil, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper. (just a little of each… turns out I couldn’t taste them all that much anyway.)
Cover the fries in the sauce.
Lay the fries out on a sprayed cookie sheet, then sprinkle sugar on top.
Bake at 400 for about 25 minutes, rotating once.
They turned out delicious!
My baby turned 1 yesterday! I wanted to try to decorate his cake using fondant- and it was easy with the new Make it and Love it, Make a cake series!
I started with two frozen round cakes that I made the day before.
I frosted one of them. (Most say to use homemade butter cream, but I just used store bought cream cheese frosting… I figured I can only be sooo domestic at a time right?)
I made a blueberry filling using sugar, flour and milk… and blueberries. (I’ll let you know how this tastes after we eat it tonight.)
Then… I made the fondant. (Actually, I think I made the fondant that morning- and let me tell you, it was invigorating! I thought I was going to fail miserably once my hands were stuck with melted marshmallows and goo- but it all came together and I was so proud!)
(Note that I had 2 helpers for this part… later I had 4 helpers, oy!)
I colored some of the fondant, rolled it out and covered the cake.
It took me a few tries to decide how to decorate it. (remember, I had 4 helpers… we figured out that fondant is basically like yummy, edible play dough.) I finally decided on this:
I still need to get a big 1 candle for behind the bow. But I was pretty happy with the finished product. I think it’ll taste good too.
This is what the fondant looked like when the kids were done playing with it:
We all had fun. And learned a lot!
Another new one… turned out yummy!
This was definitely a “new” recipe and idea for all of us. I’ve always been told that fish tacos were good, but never actually tried them. (yes, I do like seafood, we both love it.) So, I decided to go for it.
I used tilapia, because it was cheapest. I got a bag of frozen filets and it was surprisingly inexpensive. Cut into 1 inch pieces. Dip them in beaten egg (with 1 tsp of water beaten in), then into a mixture of bread crumbs and lemon pepper seasoning. Fry them on a skillet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
Before all of this (I did it hours before) make a sauce to put on top: 1/2 cup mayo, 1 tbl lime juice, 2 tsp milk. Mix and refrigerate for later.
Then, it’s easy: place fish on warmed up corn tortillas, top with coleslaw mix, tomatoes, cheese and cilantro. Drizzle with mayonnaise mixture. Yum! I ended up adding some spicy taquera salsa on my second and third taco, because it needed a little more pick me up. I really, really liked the effect of the coleslaw mix, and the mayo mixture. The crunch added a lot. And, I am now officially sold on the fish taco idea.
Brant said the tilapia strips tasted like fish sticks. So, I guess I could have just used fish sticks huh?
I’ve been trying all sorts of yummy recipes lately. I got this one from the Taste of Home cooking school magazine. I got to go with my friend Tallene to this cooking school. It was fun to go out and I got a ton of new ideas from it.
So, I tried one!
Basically, you take a pizza crust from the store, pre-cook it, and make an open faced taco on top. I changed the recipe up a bit and layered it like this:
1-refried beans
2- taco meat
3-ranch
4-salsa
5-lettuce
6-tomatoes
7-avocado
8-cheese
9-broken tortilla chips
It was a pretty big hit with my hungry boys who had been outside working playing in the dirt.
We had a Ward party on Saturday. Whenever we are invited to something that we have to bring a dish, I get excited. It means I can make something that maybe Brant doesn’t like- and I won’t have to be the only one to eat it. It means I can try something new, and if it’s gross, oh well.
So, instead of taking a nap on Saturday (which I really did need,) I made cupcakes. And decorated them. (I used my electric mixer in the garage so I wouldn’t wake up my sleeping boys… silly huh?)
Start with plain chocolate cake mix- made into cupcakes.
Add a little bit of homemade frosting- recipe at the end if you want it.
And some food coloring. (Do you like my organization of the colors? I think I’m so clever!)
I used my Pampered Chef frosting tool that I got for my wedding. It’s fun. I don’t really know how to do it right and I suppose I should LEARN, but for now, I like to play around with it.
The cupcakes with the tooth picks sticking out had little paper flowers with chocolate chips on them, but I did that after I took pictures. And the green “grass” is coconut that I put in a ziploc with some green food coloring.
I’m not going to lie, I don’t LOVE cupcakes. In fact, I don’t even really like them. But- they were a big hit at the ward party. They were gone pretty quick and I think a lot of little kids enjoyed them!
I do LOVE ward parties though. It’s so fun to go and talk with people and eat a good dinner. I always overeat and regret it later. This time, I had just the right amount!
Frosting recipe I used: (maybe not my favorite, but it does decorate fairly well.)
Thick Vanilla Frosting
1 cup shortening
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
4 tablespoons milk
Beat together shortening and vanilla for 30 seconds medium speed with an electric mixer. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar a bit at a time while beating. Then add 2 tablespoons milk. Slowly add in the rest of the powdered sugar and the rest of the milk until you get the right thickness for your frosting.
