A very dear family is moving away. The children have been such a joy to be with and do art projects with the past year. Since I had some leftover yarn from last year’s Christmas knitting, I decided to use it for these sweet angels.
Thus these results:
When Heavenly Father wakes you up before your alarm and says it is time to get rolling because there are things to do, places to go, and people to see, well, you just better get up and get rolling. This was one of those mornings. I am very glad I heeded His prompting.
It would be unwise of me to share all the things I did this morning because I am such a bad example of so many things, but suffice it to say that the kitchen, which was a disaster area, was rearranged in such a way that I could work on the strawberry jam project.
This is how it went:
On Monday I picked up strawberries that had water damage in a weekend storm from a local farm. They needed to be hulled, sliced, and used immediately. In this case I put them in the refrigerator after hulling and slicing to wait until Tuesday for processing. Which turned out to be Thursday...but they still looked happy early this morning so I went ahead with strawberry jam.
Since I was going to can the jam so I could share it with our family later this year (hopefully there is some left...) I got out a sheet pan and placed the glass canning jars on the pan without lids and rings. I placed them in the oven at 250 degrees F so the jars would be hot and sterilized when I was ready to fill them.
Next step I got out the 8-quart Instant Pot and placed the trivet inside the stainless steel liner bowl and filled it with water to the trivet level. I also got out a cooling rack where I would put the hot jars when they were removed from the Instant Pot.
At this point I put the Instant Pot going on the Sauté mode so it would begin to heat up. I did NOT want the pot to be cold when the hot jars were put inside. I had visions of exploding hot jam completely ruined...
Now it was time to make the jam. The recipe I was following includes pectin because it takes less time and the jam will potentially be a little more firm.
The sliced berries went into our large stainless steel pot and were mashed soundly with the potato masher. Just prior to doing that I had put 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup (most of a packet of Sure Jell regular pectin) into a bowl and stirred well. At that point I stirred in 1 cup plain water and made a slurry. Now that the slurry was prepared I mixed it into the mashed strawberries.
The burner was turned to medium high heat and I used a long-handed wooden spoon and started stirring CONSTANTLY until the pot came to a full boil. Now it was time to put in the remaining (3 3/4 cups) sugar carefully into the berries, stirring continuously. It occurred to me to very slowly pour in the sugar so as not to create any splashing...
Stirring until the mixture came to a FULL ROLLING BOIL, then kept stirring for one full minute then shut off the burner and let the pot rest for 5 minutes. Pulling out a bowl from the cupboard I used a perforated flat scoop to skim off the probably-delicious foam from the jam pot. It did not really need to be done but it does make the jam in the jars prettier. PLUS I thought of making some fresh baking powder biscuits for breakfast, whatever time that turned out to be...The strawberry scum would (and did!!) taste good on hot biscuits. (Breakfast was at 10:45 today...)
Removing the hot jars from the oven I put them on the cooling rack still on the pan then carefully ladled the very hot jam into the jars using a stainless steel canning funnel so the sides of the jars did not get sticky. Once the jars were full I wiped the rims and threads with a wet paper towel then put on the lids and rings and set them carefully into the Instant Pot on the trivet which was happily waiting for the jars, the pot steaming with hot water!
To steam can in an Instant Pot you need to press down the "steam" button on the cover top so that steam can escape out of the pot then set the Steam mode to 20 minutes which was how long I wanted the jam to can...overkill because we are so close to sea level but...overkill is almost always a good idea, I think.
You don't really want to walk away from the Instant Pot until the timer starts going down. (I waited until the display showed 19 minutes left then went upstairs for a nap...) This will not happen until AFTER the plug (or whatever it is called)in the cover has risen. Only then will the steam be hot enough to do the correct job. This is something I learned today.
Here is the result, minus the bowl of foam that was skimmed off. THAT is now happily greasing our inwards! The biscuits were light and fluffy and there was only a small batch so we could not over-indulge.
You will note the "interesting" appearance of the jam. I believe the solids part of the jam rose to the top of the jar and the bottom part appears to be strawberry jelly. I think it will still be good but then, we will not know for a while...! I think when you make freezer jam or refrigerator jam this will not happen.
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Easy Homemade Strawberry Jam (with Pectin)
Instructions
Find it online: https://
As we were driving home from the temple today (after picking up a gallon of fresh strawberries as the farm by the temple!!!) we passed the credit union. There was a magnificent white flowered bush along the road.
This bush is full of magnificent white blossoms. I have no idea what it is. If anyone knows, please let me know.
Many thanks.
Frequently when I knit small creatures, I give them googoo eyes. The bunny baskets were not going to adults so that seemed like a bad idea. After the former post on the baskets, and just before delivery, I gave faces a try. Faces are about the least attractive part of any knit.
Something I need to learn: if a recipe calls for letting the cooked food rest for ten minutes after cooking, do it! There is a good reason. I did not take the required time yesterday with a Chickpea Meatloaf. Too bad.
Of course the appearance did not affect the good flavor BUT it really was less appealing. Even so Dear One and I did enjoy a nice slice,
We like quesadillas in our house. We do no eat them often but when we do they bring a smile to our faces.
Here is a plate of naked quesadillas made two ways. The left-hand quesadillas were made in the microwave.
On a microwave safe plate place a small flour tortilla. Sprinkle on a little grated cheese. Top with a second flour tortilla. Put into microwave and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and cut into pieces. Done.
The nicely browned quesadillas on the right side of the plate were made in a skillet. This particular batch did not burn,. Burning is the bane of my existence. In our house there is a difference of opinion of what constitutes "nicely browned" and "burned". Being the cook, I am the one who is right, of course, but "the other" objects to what is considered "burned".
To skillet cook quesadillas put one flour tortilla in a hot/medium hot skillet. Sprinkle on some cheese. Add a second flour tortilla. Stand over the pan and watch it like a hawk. In about one minute carefully flip over the tortilla sandwich, trying very hard not to spill any unmelted cheese. Cook watching carefully the second side then flip again. Flipping multiple times is often necessary to get the cheese melted and stuck to the inside of the tortillas...
The microwave treat is easier and never burns. If you want the nice crisp tortilla of the regulation skillet quesadilla, add the microwaved tortilla to the skillet and let it crisp up on both sides but watching every second to make sure it does not "burn"!
We like them both ways.
PS A naked quesadilla is two flour tortillas and grated cheese. Really great quesadillas include salsa and whatever else you like inside and greatly increase the risk of "burned"...but so tasty when done right.
It is the time of year when bunny baskets are in order. Last year I made a few and maybe sent them out, though mostly it was just bunnies with big googoo eyes to be toppers for Cadbury eggs without the eggs due to concern over melting chocolate in the mail. This year I just made bunny baskets to stay local.
Because I am on a healthy eating kick, which will hopefully last long enough for our family to improve our health, I decided NOT to give these with candy in them, though it is hard to give no candy this season....The carrots are something that the recipients like so...it is probably just fine.
Here are the filled bunny baskets. The mini carrots are in little plastic bowls that I searched for up and down Food Lion aisles for quite a while to find. My thought had been to find some baby food container, feed the contents to Dear One, and use the empty clean baby food container for the basket liner. Well! The only baby food plastic bowls I found were rectangular. Maybe that would have been a good idea, now that I think about it after looking at the empty bowls in the basket.
These plastic bowls came from Strawberry Jello Cheesecake. I did give the containers to Dear One to consume the contents. He liked the Jello just fine. I was slightly sad not to taste any but I am on a 40-day sugar fast and so far am on day thirteen. Not the easiest thing. Blood sugar was pretty happy this morning, though. At least for me!
A little friend wants a knitted dog. Here it is:
Here is the book where I found the pattern:
This was a fun project and took less than 8 hours.
Progress is being made, but still think the deadline will come and go before it is finished!
At Roots Tech every year (the biggest genealogy conference in the world every year, and one I have yet to have attended in person! Fortunately they have the option to attend virtually so I do!) new things come out.
This year the My Heritage company had the option to sign in to your account, upload 10 or more photos of yourself, then receive some photos that have been doctored up in a timeline. Here are a couple of the ones that came back for me.
Here is the Biblical Woman photo:
This one is the Saxon woman:
Kind of fun...More in the future.
One thing I never saw until we arrived in the south: wisteria! It is beautiful.
It literally drips off the trees.
Last week I stopped in a park beside several trees dripping wisteria vines. I avoided getting run over and crossed the road for a close up picture. I did not know this either: wisteria has a lovely light fragrance!
Also, I think it may kill the trees it grows on. Bummer.
Lately I have knitted up several pairs of socks as test knits for a couple of different knit designers. Since I have been thinking about knitting a sweater, but knowing I do not need a wool sweater here, when I saw a colorwork yoke pattern I decided to do it but do it in lightweight cotton.
One of the things I like about Spring is the beautiful flowering trees and bushes and other plants. We have taken a few pictures of them!
The trees have been fabulous this spring BUT the weather has been extra warm and the blossoms quickly turned to leaves.
Here is a tree halfway between blossoms and leaves...
One thing I DO NOT like about the glorious blossoms is POLLEN! Until five or six years ago it was not a problem. Now it is. Driving all over the sapworks for church and other business makes my eyes itch and weep. Even my skin is itchy.
GOOD NEWS! When I was at the Dorr Farms store purchasing some fresh vegetables we were chatting. I was complaining a little about the itchy eyes. The Mrs. said I need to eat a spoonful of honey at bedtime to help things. IT DOES! Local raw honey so it is the same honey that has that particular pollen. It also helps with sleep. Win-win!
Because red sauce is giving me fits lately I decided to try some Alfredo sauce with pasta a little while ago. I knew our daughter has made Alfredo sauce so I asked for her recipe. It is easy!
It is basically the same recipe as homemade macaroni and cheese with a few little changes.
Start with a white sauce, add cheese, pour onto cooked pasta. Done!
For the white sauce:
In a large saucepan melt 4 Tablespoons of butter with several chopped or sliced garlic cloves. When the garlic is ready add 6 Tablespoons flour and stir until it is cooked. Add 4 cups milk and stir well until sauce starts to cook. Add 2 cups heavy cream then add 4-6 ounces freshly grated parmesan cheese. Add 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Stir well. Taste to see if you need to add anything else. There is probably enough salt from the cheese, but maybe you want more.
In the meantime, cook your favorite pasta. We used Tri-Color Rotini so the sauce would stick to it.
It turned out to taste pretty good.
This was good enough that we ate it (we had company that day) before it was photographed. Oh well. Next time...
