Homemade Strawberry Jam

I posted a snippet about this amazing stuff last year but I thought this year I would give you the full recipe (which is found in the Sure Jell box). As soon as you finish skimming through this post, run out to your local farmers market and get to work! You will not regret it!



I bought 8 quarts of freshly picked strawberries from Bullards. Some of the most beautiful strawberries I've ever seen or tasted!

Here's what you'll need:

1. Strawberries (2 pt. make 5 cups)
2. Sugar (4 cups for one batch)
3. Sure Jell (1 box a batch)
4. Jars

Here is what I got for 36 (miscellaneously sized) jars:

1. That huge box of berries above - $28
2. 15 lbs sugar (I used about 13) - $10.08
3. 8 boxes Sure Jell - $20
4. Miscellaneous jars saved over the years - free
Total = $58.08

If you have any kind of coupon savvy-ness, this could easily be much cheaper! I made enough jars for 3 a month for the next year. Most people don't go through jam quite that fast, but if most people made this jam they probably would!!

Here's what you'll do:

1. Gather supplies.

Obviously you will need different amounts than what is pictured!

 2. Cut the tops and any bruises off strawberries.

Watch Biggest Loser on Netflix while you do this.

3. Rinse strawberries.

I just rinsed a couple of cups then moved right into the next step.

4. Mash strawberries.

A potato masher works great unless you are doing a million batches like me. In that case, a small food processor is your savior. If you use a food processor, just do a handful or two at a time so you have control of how fine you make your berries. Don't puree, tho!

5. Measure strawberries.

You need 2 cups of mashed strawberries. Pour them into a large bowl.

6. Add 4 cups sugar. Stir and let sit for 10 minutes.

Sorry no pic for this one. I knew I'd forget a picture somewhere.


7. Prepare Sure Jell.

When you have 2-3 minutes left of your 10 minutes, pour the packet of Sure Jell and 3/4 c water into a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil. Once it is boiling, stir constantly for 1 minute.

8. Add Sure Jell mixture to strawberry mixture.

Stir for about 3 minutes or until it is no longer grainy.

9. Pour jam into jars.

Make sure to leave about a half inch of space at the top for freezing.

10. Done!!

Let the jam sit at room temperature for 24 hours then freeze for up to a year! (Well, the year thing is what the box says, but it totally lasts longer than that).

What else I have to say:

-This is a messy (and delicious!) process. Be prepared.

This doesn't include the jar filling station!

-A lot can be accomplished during that ten minutes of letting your berries sit. I rinsed and chopped more berries, wiped down counter space, wiped down already filled jars and put lids on, put my feet up, etc.

-It took me between 4 and 5 hours total. I wouldn't recommend starting at 9pm. But I do recommend doing this while you are kid free!

-Once you eat this jam, you will never go back!!



Linking up! -
 

My Highest Calling

I have no doubt that God has called me to be a wife to Derek and a mom to Marie, Jack, and the future kids He blesses us with. But sometimes figuring out what that looks like day to day is complicated.

When do I leave the mess and spend time with my babies?

When do I leave the babies to play by themselves and tackle the mess?

How long should Marie have to wait for Derek and me to catch up on our day?

The past couple weeks have been rough as mentioned in the last post. Rough days/weeks always translate into a messy house. Always. I keep putting off the cleaning, justifying it with the need to spend time with my kids and my husband. I kept wrestling with whether or not it's really all that important to spend time cleaning. God would rather me invest in the lives of my kids, spend time in His Word, provide for my family.

Then I came across this 3x5 card Derek had tucked away in his Bible that had three reasons why he appreciated me. I only remember the 1st - that I keep the house clean and together for him.

So I finally caught up with the dishes.

Keeping up with the house chores is an important part of my calling.

Another important part is obviously my Baby Girl. I love that kid. so. much.

She's having a little more patience with crafting so I've been trying to be all over that. I love the look on her face when I ask her if she wants to make something with mommy. I wish I could capture a picture of it. She loves hanging out with mommy.

I. Love. That. Kid. So. Much.

We made this for her Sunday evening Sunday School teacher. She's Marie's favorite teacher.

 
She's colored several more that are hanging in the kitchen. These and the snowflakes Derek cut out of paper and hung from the livingroom celiing are our only Christmas decor this year. Makes me sad. But my Mother-in-law always has beautiful decor so I should get my fill while we're there!

I've also got chocolate covered pretzels in Marie and my before-Christmas agenda. I love being a mom.

I love being a wife.

I love my calling.

Chicken Salad Recipe

Yesterday a very rare thing happened... I was cooking in the middle of the day. This chicken salad made me do it.

I LOVE chicken salad. My MIL made this one for Father's Day using The Pioneer Woman's recipe. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. Several months later I've finally made its deliciousness. The greatest part: it's so easy even I can do it! :)

You'll need:

1 whole cut up fryer chicken (or about 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts)
2-3 stalks celery, chopped
2-3 whole green onions, chopped
2-3 cups green and red grapes, halved
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
Small handful of fresh dill, minched
1-2 T Lemon juice
1-2 T Brown sugar
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
Bacon bits (optional)

I went the boneless skinless chicken route because I hate bones (and chicken was on sale at Meijer!). Place your chicken in a large pot covered in water and bring to rolling boil for about 45 minutes (or whenever you get back to it. I love no-rush recipes!)

Take 2-3 stalks of rinsed celery and slice right down the middle.

Chop as fine or as chunky as you'd like.

Take your green onions, chop off the hairy end and discard. Chop up all the rest of your onions. (Don't forget to be wearing your contact lenses at this point or your children will wonder what the onions did to make you cry).

Halve or quarter your grapes. Eat a couple. You're probably hungry.

Put your fruit and veggies in a bowl big enough for the complete salad. Get out a separate bowl and mix your mayo, sour cream/plain yogurt, lemon juice, brown sugar, salt and pepper.

Next time I'm going to go lighter on the brown sugar and use real mayonnaise instead of Miracle Whip.

Add fresh dill and a dash of cayenne pepper.

I was too lazy to mince my dill.

Mix together.
Taste test.

Oh, the chicken. This can be done at any point but would probably be wise to do it earlier so it can cool a little before mixing with the fruits and veggies.
Remove the chicken from the pot, pull apart with your fingers or a fork.

Add chicken to the fruits and veggies, pour dressing over top and gently mix together. Add bacon bits of your choosing, find a place for your delicious salad in your fridge and let chill for several hours (or for as long as you can stand waiting... It does taste best fully chilled. I tell you this from experience).

See, so easy! And scrumptious! I know this is a summery recipe, but my excuse is we've been having an Indian Summer around here. (But really it's because I love chicken salad summer, winter, fall, and spring!)

Now I'm going to go enjoy myself some before I get my wisdom teeth pulled and don't get to eat for awhile.

Getting in touch with my creative side...

It's curious, this desire to be crafty and creative. I mean, I've always liked crafts, but was never real motivated to pursue them much. Maybe it's being around my project-oriented momma, or my organized crafty sis-in-law, or likely both. I'm sure my new obsession with reading crafty blogs has definitely contributed.

I have been collecting craft supplies over the years. It's not too shabby of a collection. The last time I spent much time with those supplies was when I made thank-you cards for our wedding... 4.5 years ago.

But I have been spending quite a bit of time with them since we've moved here. Sometimes I think, "maybe it's because they aren't up in the attic anymore." But that can't be it because this is where they are now...

(I'm unwilling to post a picture of the entire "storage" room. It's just not something I like to show off).

Anyway.

The point of this blog is to show you how I've added a little fall decor to this rental. Instead of sifting through the many boxes we've left packed until we buy a home, I decided to go crafty. I've also tried to involve Marie... she's 2 still. Maybe next year.

I found a tutorial on these little guys on a blog somewhere...

My sis-in-law gave me the idea for this wreath on her blog. I had every intention of making mine very similar to hers... it just didn't turn out that way. But isn't that how crafts are supposed to work? It's my own version.

Well, that's it so far.

A few weeks back I committed to the Lord to become a better wife and mom. Maybe this is one of the ways? It definitely falls under "Superwoman." I also have some serious de-cluttering planned. I know that will be better for my family. We'll see how it goes!

I LOVE FALL! :)

To-Do Lists

On facebook I'm a fan of Chalene Johnson, the creator of Turbo Jam and several other workouts. She's constantly posting status' about making and referring to your to-do list.

Back in Scranton I tried a to-do list countless times and always ended the day frustrated and disappointed in myself. I never seemed to be able to finish the list. Sometimes I wouldn't even get to anything on it! So I finally decided to-do lists were not for me and started ignoring Chalene's posts.

When we moved to Indiana life got, well, hectic. I am a very new mother of two, I suddenly have lots of family around, and we've jumped right into attending church as often as possible and spending time with Derek's students. It's a wonderful life! But a hectic one.

I kept forgetting things. The need for a daily to-do list was becoming imperative. I kept putting it off, trying to decide how best to go about this without ending each day feeling I failed. Finally I formulated a plan.

First, I pulled out a small sticky-note pad and told myself that my to-do list had to fit on a single sticky-note (4-5 things). This would combat the problem I had with making a to-do list 27 items long.

Second, I told myself to stick with broad to-do's. Instead of listing every separate room of the house and how it needed to be cleaned (1. dishes; 2. sweep kitchen floor; 3. swiffer kitchen floor; etc), I need to just write "clean kitchen." In fact, I've been going even more broad than that and on my list for today I simply wrote "clean." Since I don't need to clean to prepare for visitors, I can mark this off my list at the end of the day if I just did any cleaning at all!

Third, while there's a million things I could put on this list because at least a million things need to be done, I told myself to think through and decide what was most important to get done that day. Like today I am beginning a facebook contest for DandLs DangLs. That's important to get to. That's on the list.

Lastly, I gave myself permission to do things that are not on my to-do list. Like today, I did not have "blog" on my list. My previous attempts at to-do listing I would get frustrated because my list was so long that I felt I could only do what was on the list. Now that it's short, I don't feel guilty about doing non-list things. And also I've given myself permission to change what's on the list. You can't predict how a day is going to go. Sometimes priorities just have to change.

If you've been considering to-do lists or have been frustrated with to-do listing, I hope these ideas are helpful. Here's my list for today...

Now it's time to get to my to-do's!

Superwoman

It's only natural. When you become pregnant, you are becoming a superwoman. Or more specifically, supermom. Just giving birth is incredible enough! (Praying for that opportunity someday...) Then you have a child and simply raising that child causes you to pull tricks that only a superwoman could possibly do. I think I'd go so far to say that the only way to be a superwoman is to be a mom. But I would not go so far to say that every mom is a superwoman. There is definitely ways around that.

But it does seem common, if you want to be a good mom, that being a supermom is not only something you have to be, but something you strive to be. When Derek tells me that he's impressed with something I handled related to the kids (ie spending all day with a screaming JackJack and a sick Meesters and still having a smile on my face when he gets home), I feel like my supermom status rose a little. And I like that.

So I'm striving to become more of a supermom. Of course every supermom gets ideas and tips from other supermoms and in this day in age, blogs are the easiest way to go about getting those. The problem is, I come across so many amazing blogs by supermoms that makes me feel suddenly like an almost-mediocre mom.

These women have multiple children, homeschool all of them, keep their own gardens, feed their huge families on $50 or less a week, make elaborate completely from scratch dinners every night, and still have time to blog daily and take fantastic pictures. And that's all just from a quick browse of their blogs. By that point, my supermom goal is almost completely out of sight.

The silly thing is, I'm always trying to find that blog by that woman who is like me... hates to cook, doesn't know what's for dinner til 6pm, doesn't wash all the dishes until the next day, kills everything edible that is supposed to grow, feels overwhelmed and stresses out about printing out all the coupons and finding all the deals, always needs at least 10 minutes to stash things away before someone comes to the house, and has no idea how long her hair is because it's been that long since she wore it down!

So, the other day, as I washed the dishes just before making dinner, it suddenly occurred to me why I haven't found that blog by that woman like me... duh! Women like me are unorganized and not good at managing time. So we're not going to blog every day! And even if we did, what on earth would we blog about?? The Little Ceasar's pizza we ordered for dinner, and how the buttery garlic sauce adds just the right touch to the cheesy breadsticks? Everyone knows that already!

I know you are out there - supermom's in your own right, but not quite the Pioneer Woman. Know that you are not alone. I'm here, not cooking up fancy recipes or writing out the 5 best ways to stay organized. I'm here as a fellow supermom who has to work just a little harder than some to impress outsiders, but am the greatest mom in the world  to two sweet babies who know no better :)

All that being said, maybe I'll throw in a bit here and there about things I've learned about becoming more of a supermom... you know, when I think to do it and have the patience to type it out :)

Here's a picture because most supermom blogs have pictures! 

Living like a Homemaker

I am a homemaker, but I'm working on living more like one. Maybe it's just the renewed energy from finally being way out of 1st trimester... but lately I've been in the mood to stay on top of cleaning, spend more time teaching Marie, and try new recipes.

I got a great cook book from my mom-in-law for Christmas. It's perfect for me. Simple recipes for every day life. The best part is I've heard of most of the ingredients! (That's saying something!) The first recipe I tried was a success!

Fried Onion Rings...

At least as delicious as they look! It was a little messy to make but very easy and pretty quick.

The second recipe I tried was Egg-in-the-hole. I've wanted to learn how to make this since I saw it on "V for Vendetta" (a very fascinating movie that has strangely played many rolls in our lives!) I guess this recipe was a success... in a backwards sort of way. Derek likes his eggs well done. I like mine a little runny. Somehow I managed to not cook his long enough and cook mine too long... The very buttery, fatningly delicious bread made up for the less than stellar egg.

 

(Me and chocolate milk... we go way back.)

Today I have "Perfect Pot Roast" in the crockpot and I'm planning to make homemade Buttermilk biscuits to go with dinner tonight. My mother-in-law is coming over for dinner so she can reap the benefits of buying me a great cook book!

Here's the must-have cook book -

  

The Pioneer Woman - the website that will have you browsing for hours. It's like online education for moms like me. She'll have you cooking, taking pictures, homeschooling your kids, laughing, crying and blogging long before you realize you are officially hooked.