Monday, August 22, 2011

Nature's Bounty

So this past week has been a week of firsts for me as far as cooking goes. On Saturday I got a flat of raspberries from Bountiful Baskets. I was so excited for them to come because I have been wanting to make freezer jam for YEARS. Ever since I met Mike i have been wanting to make some of my own. My wonderful Mom Olson has raspberry bushes in her backyard and always has a nice supply of homemade jam. One time in college Mike had some of his mom's jam. He brought it over to our appartment and the group of us proceeded to eat the entire container of jam...slice after silce the sticky goodness just got better and better.
I made two batches of jam and we even had berries left over to freeze for smoothies. I couldn't believe how much sugar is in this jam. I bought the Sure Jell pectin and followed the recipie inside. 3 C. mashed berries to 5 1/4 C sugar!!! It is delightful though:)

Last week I went to Provo with my besty and her two little ones. We went down for a Down East warehouse sale and stopped by at a local farm to get peaches. Because it is just Mike and I at home we could never eat a half a bushel before the peaches went bad. So I had my first experience canning. I did can tomatoes but I can't really say that I did it...it was mainly my mom. I boiled the tomatoes and helped put them in the jars but my super hero mom took care of the canning process and even woke up multiple times thoughtout the night to take care of it.

So pretty! I only had one of my 10 jars break and I'm pretty sure it was my first jar which I filled too full.

Summer is so fun with all of the fresh fruit that is available. I have been trying to make more of my food from scatch and stay away from all the nasty preservatives in store bought canned food. Plus it makes me feel good to serve my hubby something that I know every ingredient that went into it. No more silly names that I can't pronounce that are on the back of a can!

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