Jam, Jam and more jam

I love home made jams and jellies. And this year I had so much fun making a variety of jams. 
Strawberry jam....
Raspberry jam...
Peach jam...
Bumbleberry jam...
Peach blueberry jam...
Crab apple jelly...
Apple cranberry jam(Mom's apple pie in a jar)

This is my favorite new jam that I made this year. I found the recipe in a Bernardin book when I bought a box of pint jars when I was desperate when I ran out while in the middle of making my relish...oh remember all that relish?

I've looked and looked on their site and can't find this recipe. So forgive me if I am breaking copyright laws this recipe is too good not to share.

Mom's Apple pie in a Jar

6 cups chopped, peeled firm apples
2 cups unsweetened apple juice
Juice and grated zest of 1 large lemon
3 inch stick cinnamon
1 pkg Bernardin No Sugar Needed Pectin
3/4 cup dried cranberries or raisins
1 1/2 cup sugar or SPLENDA No Calorie Sweetner

In a large deep stainless steel saucepan, combine apples, apple juice, lemon juice, zest and cinnamon stick. Simmer several minutes just until apples begin to soften. Remove from heat, gradually stir in pectin until dissolved. Add dried cranberries and 1/2 tsp butter or margarine(to reduce foaming). Return mixture to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Add sweetner and boil 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat, discard cinnamon stick and skim foam.
Ladle hot preserves into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace and following directions in product insert. Heat process in boiling water canner 10 minutes. let cool. Makes 4 or 5 half pint jars.

I just opened a jar of this a tried it on toast...oh my, I was in heaven! It was a huge hit with my kids. I would love to try this in mini tarts...but likely we will have it all gone before I ever get around to that.

Happy Anniversary!

Eight years today. It seems like it has just always been this way, and yet it also feels like it was just yesterday. All in all it's been an incredible eight years. There isn't a thing that I would change. Nothing I can honestly say we should have done different, or should have done or not done at all.
On our honeymoon we attended  three Oilers hockey games. Yeah, I know I am the best wife ever. All the men are jealous that Daniel snagged a wife that would allow such shenanigans on the honeymoon. And all the women think that I am nuts to have allowed such shenanigans. To be honest, I enjoyed it. I didn't allow it, we decided on it together. He basically said "what do you think?" and I said "sounds like fun". So we did it, and had a great time.

Oilers VS Flames Oct 3, 2009

Eight years later we headed up to Edmonton for the Oilers home opener. It was a good game...in parts, however the Oilers lost in the last 44 seconds of the game...it was dumb, and I don't want to talk about it. Daniel arranged for some friends to watch the girls for a couple of nights. We stayed at a fabulous bed and breakfast in Edmonton called the Secret Garden.

Secret Garden Bed and Breakfast

The suite(which was originally built to be a basement suite for her elderly parents) was huge. They welcome kids, if in fact we ever wanted to bring them along. The suite has a full kitchen, with everything you need to cook or bake any thing and everything, you simply provide the ingredients. It has two bedrooms and a good sized living room that walks out into a beautifully landscaped garden. Nancy and Harold are wonderful people who make you feel right at home. And guess what? Twenty four years ago they were married on this day too. What are the chances that we would share the same anniversary as the people who were hosting us in their home? And Nancy cooks a killer breakfast. And because she didn't have anyone checking in for a few days, they let us stay for as long as we wanted on Sunday. Which meant that we could stay and watch the morning session of conference in the comfort of our suite and also that we could have a late breakfast... which I guess makes it brunch.
It was superb, the whole weekend.

Beets and a confession

My husband loves pickled beets, so this year I planted a small row of beets so that I could make a few jars of pickled beets for him. I on the other hand don't like beets...at least I don't think I do. I realized the other day while I was in the middle of pickling beets, that if somebody asked me to describe the taste of beets, I wouldn't even know what to say. I haven't a clue what they taste like, I don't even know what it is about them that I don't like. I tried to remember when it was that I decided that I didn't like them, and I honestly don't have a clue. For as long as I can remember I have not liked beets. So...was my experience with beets so bad that I have blocked it from my memory? Or is this a case of a child claiming that they don't like a certain food even though they have never tried it, and I have told myself that for so long that now it's just what I believe? Either way, I don't like them....or so I say. I couldn't even bring myself to just take a taste. Pathetic, I know. So I thought that maybe if I did something different with them, then maybe I could build up my courage to try them just as beets. I had seen a recipe for beet relish in my trusty 4H cook book(the best wedding present ever!). So that got me thinking, and I wanted to see what other kind of recipes for beet relish there were out there. Google led me to cooks.com where I found pages and pages of beet relish recipes. I tried out three different types this week.

so here are the three recipes I put to the test...

Beet Relish #1

2 pounds medium-size beets
1 small onion
1 sweet red pepper
2 cups shredded cabbage
1/4 cup prepared horseradish
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups vinegar

Directions:
Clean and pare the beets. Grind the beets, onion and red pepper, using the fine cutter of the food chopper. Add the finely shredded cabbage, horseradish, salt, sugar and vinegar. Heat to boiling and simmer for 10 minutes. Ladle into hot, sterilized jars and seal. This recipe yields 2 pints.

This recipe was so very tasty! I look forward to eating this with pork or on hamburgers. (I cut this recipe down a lot, I think I only used about 1/2 pound of beets and adjusted accordingly)

Quick Beet Relish #2

* 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) grated cooked Ontario Beets
* 1 cup shredded cabbage
* 1/2 cup ground onion
* 1 jalapeno pepper, minced
* 2 tbsp (25 mL) each of red wine vinegar and prepared horseradish
* 1 tbsp (15 mL) granulated sugar
* 1/2 tbsp (7 mL) Dry mustard

Combine grated cooked Ontario Beets, minced jalapeno pepper, ground onion and shredded cabbage, red wine vinegar and prepared horseradish, granulated sugar and dry mustard. Bring to a boil and cook until all veggies are tender. Ladle into hot, sterilized jars and seal.

I loved the spiciness of this relish!! I will be eating this one alot!

BEET RELISH #3

6 c. beets
6 c. sugar
3 c. vinegar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves

Blanch beets; peel. Grind beets; add sugar, vinegar, cinnamon and cloves. Cook for 30 minutes or until tender. Ladle into hot, sterilized jars and seal.

This one is quite sweet...almost like candy and would be tasty on pork roast. (I cut this recipe down a lot, I think I only used 2 beets and adjusted accordingly)

OK, so I'll admit, I liked beets done up in these three relishes. So maybe the next time my husband cracks open a jar of pickled beets, I'll give them a try...maybe.

The important things.

Today we had an incident with hitting...as we do so often with Tansley Kaye. But this time she hit Kathryn in the face with her baby doll and broke Kathryn's glasses. Thankfully they only cost us $12.95 from zennioptical.com and thankfully she has a second pair. But this is the second time that the same arm has been broken due to an incident. The first time I just got replacement frames for $4.00 plus shipping and hoped that if they broke again that it would be the other arm or the bridge or something....but no such luck. I don't know what I'll do this time...maybe nothing.
Anyways, I was furious. I didn't witness the incident, but assumed it was just Tansley being mean again and sent her to her room until Alex went home at 4:30pm(which meant about an hour and a half of sitting in her room).
A few moments ago Kathryn wanted her other pair of glasses that were in her bedroom. I had strictly forbidden her from going anywhere near the bedroom, so I said I would go get them for her. I had cooled down and wanted to talk with Tansley about why she hit Kathryn with the doll. When I walked into her room she was holding the framed picture of Jesus that I have yet to hang on their wall. We talked about what had happened and I asked her why she had hit Kathryn with the doll. Turns out she wasn't being mean, she was just playing along with what Kathryn and Alex were playing and she didn't think her actions through. I then asked her what she was doing with the picture of Jesus. "I was praying because I was sorry". That touched my heart. At least somethings have sunk in along the way...some of the important things. "Good Girl" I said and let her come out of her room to play as along as she told Kathryn she was sorry.

Sweet Relish

My mom gave me a huge bag of some of her over grown cucumbers that are perfect for making relish. I finally got around to making a batch this week...and only used up about half of the cucumbers. I haven't a clue what to do with the other half....I certainly don't need to make anymore sweet relish...20 pints is more than enough to last us for the year or so and then some. I may have to give it away as gifts for every occasions....oh I just had an idea, Halloween treats! Won't all the neighbour kids love me! I can see their faces now.....

Don't these look delicious?

I used my mom's recipe, I haven't a clue if she made it up, if it was passed down to her, or if she got it out of a recipe book. But here it is

Sweet Relish - makes 17-20 pints

17 cups ground cucumber(about 50 cucumbers)
4 cups ground onion(about 8 large)
2 cups ground green pepper(about 4)
1 cup ground red pepper(about 2)
5 cups ground cabbage and/or cauliflower
6 cups ground green tomatoes (about 10 large)

Brine
9 cups sugar
3 tbsp mustard seed
1 1/2 tbsp celery seed
2 tsp turmeric
6 cups cider vinegar
3 cups water
green food colouring(optional)

Method 1
Mix all veggies together, sprinkle with 3/4 cup salt and let stand over night. Drain and rinse.
Combine brine ingredients and add to veggies. Bring to a boil and boil for 5-10 minutes. Pour into sterilized jars and process for 5 minutes after bath comes to a boil.

Method 2
Mix all ingredients together. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 hour. Pour into sterilized jars and process for 5 minutes after bath comes to a boil.

I'll take mine over yours.

You have got to check this out.

Giant baby born in Indonesia, 19.2 lbs

 Suddenly I am thankful for my 10lb 13oz baby.

Kathryn's Birthday Party

Last Friday we had a birthday party for Kathryn. Again this year we had a Toonie party(every guest gives a toonie in a card instead of a present) and again this year we invited her entire school class including her teacher, plus two of her friends that in the grade above her. A total of 12 invitations went out, although I knew two of those kids were likely not going to come because they are Mennonite(and they didn't come last year), but invitations were given anyways so that nobody felt left out. We had 6 kids and her teacher show up for the party...the perfect size. Kathryn really wanted to play pin the tail on the donkey, so she asked her dad to draw a poster size donkey. Unfortunately I didn't think to get a picture of the donkey daddy drew.

All the kids helping Miss Freel pin the tail on the donkey

We also had made a pinata that tried to look like a butterfly, again, I didn't think to get a picture of it before it was bashed to pieces nor did I get a good picture of Kathryn swinging at it, so this one will have to suffice.

Kathryn's sheer delight over her friend bashing the pinata

She told me that this year she wanted a birthday pie. She requested apple pie and we made homemade strawberry, pineapple, banana ice cream to go along with it.

The pesky boys blowing out the candles before Kathryn could...three times

Everybody had a good time and Kathryn had a blast the next day spending all of her toonies. She bought a fabulous brown and pink sweater dress at Walmart complete with fingerless gloves, material so that she can make a  fancy skirt, and marbles to take to school and play with her friends. She has some change left over and is looking forward to the birthday money that she'll get from Grandma Kaye.

For her actual birthday I made her a lady bug birthday cake. I had to figure out how to decorate it with out using icing bag because Tansley has chewed all my tips to pieces while sucking the icing out of them. I never remember to buy a new set until I have to decorate a cake...and just my luck the grocery store doesn't carry anything of the sort.

not to bad for not having any tips for my icing bag

We gave her a locket that has CTR on the front and a set of scriptures so that she can start reading them herself and preparing for next year when she will be old enough to be baptized.

The scripture bag I made and the scriptures inside...naturally

All in all she declared this the best birthday ever...until next year.