Strawberry jam

On Wednesday I traveled up to Spokane to pick some strawberries with my sister. They were free which made it well worth the drive up there. My goal was to make some delicious strawberry jam with them. Strawberry jam is my ABSOLUTE favorite kind of jam...that is if it is homemade. If it's not homemade it is really hardly worth eating as far as I'm concerned. :) Yes, I admit it, I am a jam snob! There, now you know. So back to making jam. Yesterday I had a friend over and she helped me to make this yummy concoction. I've never made freezer jam without my mom before so I was nervous that it wouldn't set up.

The first step is to measure 2 cups mashed strawberries into a bowl. Then add 4 cups...yes 4 cups...of sugar! Yum! This is mixed together and allowed to sit for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Doesn't it look yummy?

The next step is to boil one package pectin (I used Sure-jell) with 3/4 Cup water for one minute, stirring constantly. (I tried to get these pictures next to eachother but can't figure out how...anyone know?)

Then the pectin is mixed into the strawberry mixture and stirred for 3 minutes or until all the sugar is dissolved. (No picture of that..whoops!) Then pour the jam into plastic containers.

Now, we have strawberry jam! Unfortunately, you have to wait a few hours to determine whether it set up or not, but I got lucky! A few short hours later my jam was already setting up, and this morning it was done! YEAH!

Doesn't it look delicious?? Anybody want to come have some with me?? :) Thanks mom for teaching me how to make jam!

Yummy!

Today I decided I wanted to make bread. Homemade bread is one of the most delicious things to eat and I wanted something yummy. So, I decided on Potato bread. I have a bread machine, but I really dislike the way that it makes the crust of the bread turn out. It's very hard and thick and not very yummy.

This is where the adventure begins. I've never made bread without the bread machine so I was a little nervous that I would totally ruin it, as bread can be kind of finniky (sp?). I finally decided to have the bread machine do the dough and rising part and I would finish on my own. But, I wasn't really sure what to do with it after taking it out of the machine. After looking up several articles online and even watching a video of how to do it, I felt semi-confident that I could do it without ruining it too badly. :) Long story short, It actually worked! The bread turned out amazing! Granted, it may not win any awards for being pretty, but it tastes delicious and the crust is good too!! It was light and airy too! Mmmm!!

It went perfectly with the flavorful Lemon Garlic Chicken and grilled Asparagus that I made (well Eric grilled the asparagus) for dinner! Overall, it was well worth the extra effort to cook it in the oven rather than the bread machine. Here's a picture of the whole dinner...just to make your mouth water. :)

New!

As Eric and I went to bed a few nights ago, I got a faint whiff of....cat urine....YUCK! I was very annoyed at our "lovely" kitty as we threw off the comforter and slept with some extra blankets. The comforter is now at the dry cleaners, and will hopefully come back smelling better, but in the meantime we found a new set at Bed Bath and Beyond for a good price. We've considered moving our bedroom upstairs anyway, in which case our current comforter would not have matched well, so we got one that would :) Anyway, here's a picture of our new set...thanks to the cat. :(