The Olympics Are Over

I am half way thru knitting my coat...should get alot done today watching an entire day of 'the last day' of the Olympics. GO CANADA GO for the hockey game! Can only imagne how amazing the closing ceremony will be.

Making Jam In February

Doesn't everyone make strawberry jam in February?

Recently, I noticed that I had a lot of fruit purees in the freezer leftover from last summer. I pureed and froze local strawberries and peaches when they were in season so I could add them to the applesauce I made in the fall. I still had several bags of strawberry, cherry (not local), and peach.



I use Ball Fruit Jell Freezer Jam pectin. I find it in Walmart near the sugar. Read the instructions in the box if you're making anything but strawberry jam since different fruits require different techniques or recipes.

In a large bowl, I measured out 1 cup of sugar and 1 package of pectin.
(I use 1 1/2 cups of sugar if I'm making plain strawberry jam but with the addition of cherries in this jam, I didn't need as much sugar since the cherries were really sweet)

Have your 2 year old rest his nose on the bowl while he mixes the two ingredients together.

In a separate bowl, I had strawberry and cherry puree (4 cups total). Pour the pectin/sugar mix into the fruit.

Stir for 3 minutes. Then pour it into freezer safe containers. Let it sit on the counter for a while until it sets up. You can then put it right into the fridge to use soon or freeze it for up to a year. I froze my jam in larger containers this time around since we love it so much. Charlotte said that Evan makes the best jam. Be warned that when you cook with a toddler, they'll take all the credit.

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My favorite thing about this recipe is that it doesn't have much sugar. It tastes like fruit not like sugar. I make sure to use fully ripe, in season fruit so it's as naturally sweet as possible.

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Since last year's peach freezer jam never fully set up, I'm trying a different pectin/method for a smaller batch of peach/strawberry jam.

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This time around I'm using Ball Natural Gel "No Sugar Needed" pectin. You can use this to make freezer jam. Again, you need to read the instruction sheet inside the pectin for specific instructions but here is what I did.

I put 1 3/4 cups of apple juice and 1 packet of pectin in a sauce pan and boiled it for 2 minutes.

Then I added my fruit (3 cups peach puree and 1 cup strawberry puree) and 1 Tbsp of lemon juice. I also added 1/2 cup of sugar (I wish I had added a full cup). I boiled this for a while and then put it into freezer safe containers. I let the containers sit on the counter to cool and set. It set very firmly but still spreadable. The jam is pretty tart so next time I may skip the juice and just add a bit more sugar. I'll definitely use this pectin next time I make peach jam since it set firmer then the regular freezer jam pectin. The reason I used No Sugar Needed pectin is because I wanted the flexibility of using much less sugar then most jam recipes call for.

At the rate that we're eating this jam, I may need to make jam in April too!

My goal for this upcoming fruit season is to make enough jam so that we never buy store-bought. I think I'll need to make about twice as much as I did this past year to make that happen. We eat a lot of PB&J around here.

Blue All Over

Remember the 'Pink All Over'? Well, this is the same thing, but in blue.

I cut up 4.5" squares of various lite & dark blue fabrics and put a 2" white sashing in between them. Made 70 such blocks altogether.

Finished it off with a 4" flowery blue fabric.

Binding was a dark blue marbled fabric and backing fabric was white with blue lines. All went perfect together.

Lovely! and pretty big too.

Measurement : 45" W X 60" L

Made up off 50% Japanese + 50% American cotton

Price : RM180

Status : Reserved for Anisaqilah

Ease his workload

Here is another idea from Alysia:

"Try to look for stuff you can do to ease his workload-even if he doesn't ask. My hubby used to do groceries all the time for me, and still does not mind doing it. But I thought, I am able to do this with the children, and then he won't have to use that time on week-ends to do it anymore-so now we all go Friday afternoons, and it's great!=)"

This is something I have done some (scooping snow, mowing the lawn and various things like that) but not as often as I would like. I want to do this more. I think it is a great way to show my love.

Don't Throw Out Those Orange Peels

The week before last, we were responsible for bringing a healthy snack to Charlotte's preschool class. I sliced up a whole bag of navel oranges to go with the graham crackers I made. I had a huge pile of discards from the ends of the oranges. I put the ends into a pan of water, added a cinnamon stick, and let it simmer on low most of the morning. It smelled fantastic. I think I may try freezing our orange peels from now on so I can pop some in a pan whenever the house needs some freshening up.