Jam

A couple of weeks ago, Betsy and I drove south for an hour, and found some "local" blackberries.  The climate in the Lewiston valley is very different, so while blackberries won't grow here, they thrive down there.  So we picked lots and lots of berries.  I got eight pounds.  I saved some for pies, but some was destined for the jam jars.  I'd been freezing my raspberries all summer, too, so I was finally ready to unload my freezer.  The girls went to Betsy's house for the morning, and I made jam!

Six batches of Raspberry Blackberry, Raspberry Cherry, and plain ol' Raspberry jam.

Each batch was a little different, so I wanted to do a controlled study and see which batch I liked best.

I thought the second batch was the tastiest.

Then of course I had to make some labels. 

I've only ever made low-sugar jam before.  The pectin is made to set with half the sugar as regular pectin.  I love the full flavor of the fruit; slightly tart, not drowned out by too much sugar. 

My pantry is happy right now.

We've Been Domestic

We really have. 

Well technically, I suppose I'm domestic every day.  But changing diapers, reading books, and cooking dinner doesn't usually make it into the glamorous side of domesticity.  It's the extra stuff that gets the attention. 

Last month I bottled up some delicious vanilla vodka.  I was hoping it would be strong enough to use for baking, but it mixes well for sipping too.  The vanilla beans had been marinading in vodka for 14 months.

Then last week I made a cake.  A Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Salted Caramel Coconut Mocha Cake for our church dinner last week.  (Recipe found here.) This was, perhaps, one of the most frustrating culinary experiences of my life.  The cake actually turned out great.  As long as you didn't notice the little clumps of baking powder that didn't mix well.  But the frosting... oh, the miserable frosting.  After almost two hours in the kitchen, I had completely ruined two attempts at making frosting.  The spatula turned out not to be made of silicone, and didn't hold up very well to the heat of the first batch of caramel.  Oops.  And with the second batch, the meringue buttercream ended up more like caramely scrambled eggs.  Double oops.

So I just made the salted coconut caramel and used that.  Not the prettiest cake I've ever made, but it turned out alright in the end.

I've been doing various artsy crafty stuff, too.  I saw a cute idea on Pinterest to make some pretend miniature tea bags out of cloth, but I figured I'd make them a little more realistic.  So a couple of days ago I used a coffee filter, some brown paper, a threaded needle, and a little glue.  Voila.

They fit perfectly into Chloë's tiny porcelain tea cups.

Aaand I made lots of jam. Five batches of it, actually.  I unloaded the bags of frozen berries from my freezer, and got to jammin'.  I know it doesn't look like much, but those pint jars hold a lot of jam! One batch of raspberry, and four batches of cherry raspberry mix. Chloë and Elaina eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Thus concludes my domestic post for this month. I'll spare you pictures of the dirty diapers. But don't worry. I really don't have any pictures of dirty diapers. From this month, anyway.

This Week

Saturday, I helped throw a Baby Shower for Ali's adorably handsome Samuel David Tong III.

Told ya he was adorable and handsome.

Our friend Hope helped me throw the shower, and she made a great banner, and some amazing bacon parsley quiches. I made fresh apple pear cider (I picked the fruit from the trees in my backyard, but decided it was a little ridiculous to spend three hours making a gallon of cider), apple cinnamon craisin muffins, fruit platters, and, of course, I wanted to get crafty so I made some fun garland and decorative toothpicks.

The garland was a lot of fun to make: shimmery cardpaper punched into circles and fed through my sewing machine. I stole the idea from my friend Betsy.

Sunday was my birthday. I am now 28. Most of my family was here, and we had a fun birthday lunch and little party out at my in-laws' house with friends and family. Everyone did such a great job spoiling me. Especially my husband.

The only picture of me, on my birthday. With my sister Katie and our friend Lydia. I just wish the lighting had been a little better.

Monday and Tuesday, Chloë and I were sick. We slept lots, and cuddled on the couch together the rest of the time.

And then yesterday I made jam. I had 25 cups of mashed raspberries in my and my mother's freezers, and decided it was time to jam. So I spent the entire afternoon making five batches of yummy low-sugar raspberry jam.

40 jars of jam. Won't need any jam for a while.

It has been cool this week. I've been wearing sweaters, turned on the furnace, and the leaves are starting to change colors. And now suddenly it is time to think about a Halloween costume for the girl, Thanksgiving plans (which have been mostly sorted out), and start planning for Christmas.

20 Pounds

...of cherries!

Last week I heard about a U-Pick cherry place about 20 minutes away. So I talked with some friends, and Wednesday we drove out past Troy to Nelson's Orchard. The last time I went to a cherry picking place was probably 12 years ago. I always secretly competed with how many pounds of cherries my sister could pick. She might have read more books than I did, but by golly, I picked more cherries than she did.

They had loads of Bing cherries, and it didn't take long to fill my two big buckets. Chloë enjoyed crawling around in the dirt and eating cherries that I pit for her. I brought home just over 20 pounds, and managed to get most of them taken care of yesterday. My dear friend Abby lent me her spring action cherry pitter. I had done a few by means of the paper clip method, but boy, that it one tedious way to pit cherries. The fancy contraption is sooo much faster. Hurray for great inventions.

That's what 20 pounds of cherries looks like. And 36 half-pint jars, and 10 pounds of sugar.


There was cherry juice splattered everywhere by the time I was done pitting.


It even got all over my walls.

I had a lot of cherry pits. Too bad there isn't some great use for them.

My kitchen, mid-madness. I finally bought a canner last week, so now I get to be all domestic.

Two gallon bags, pitted and frozen, 13 half-pint jars and 2 pint jars of low sugar jam, 4 pint jars of pitted canned cherries, and a big tuperware for the fridge. I would have made more jam, but that's all the pectin I had, and our local grocery store has been out of the good low sugar kind for two weeks now!

Applesauce

We have two apple trees in our backyard. Neither were pruned last Spring, so they gave us lots of tiny apples. One is a tart green (Granny Smith, maybe?), and the other is a sweeter red and greenish/golden type (some kind of Gala, perhaps?)


The apples started falling a couple of weeks ago, and I was overwhelmed with sadness at the thought of them all rotting and going to waste. I've also been thinking about the fact that my daughter will be eating semi-solid food in a few short months, but who wants to pay 80 cents for a quarter cup of Gerber applesauce? Not me. So, I decided to try making my very own super-organic applesauce.


My apple/peeler/corer/slicer didn't work very well for these because they are so small. So I just chopped these kiwi-sized apples into quarters (and cut out lots of mush spots and black nastiness), and filled both of my stockpots.



Then I let them simmer into a golden mush.


And then I put them through a Victorio Strainer that a kind friend offered to let me borrow.


I think I will have to get my own strainer at some point, because that machine took all of the seeds and peels out in a few short minutes, leaving me with a pot of beautiful golden pink applesauce.



I haven't cared much for applesauce in many years... even before I started using processed, cold, store-bought stuff to help patients swallow their pills. But boy, let me tell you, the perfect blend of tart and sweet, warm out of the strainer... oh yum.

Since I've never actually canned and don't have any of the equipment, I'm hoping all of this goodness will keep well in my freezer.