Bread Making Class

I have always loved to cook and trying new recipes. Most everything I have learned, I have picked up from books or from cooking shows on TV. A couple of years ago my friend Judy gave me a couple of cooking classes at the Viking Store for my birthday. I loved them! In addition to learning a little more about cooking and some new recipes, they are just a lot of fun. I have taken several more since then and have really enjoyed how to cook foods from different parts of the world. For Christmas, Kip gave signed me up for the Artisan Bread class. I LOVE LOVE LOVE bread and I enjoy their classes so this was the perfect gift for me. I was having so much fun that I forgot to take pictures, except for this one of my French baguette dough rising.

Canned Goods

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything here, but one of the reasons is that I have been spending so much time canning as much as I can. In the quest to eat healthier, I have decided to eliminate as much processed foods and I can and to prepare as much as I possibly can myself. So I have canning. I grew up in a gardening and canning family, so I learned a lot from them. They froze a lot of their foods though and I would prefer to have things in jars. One reason being that I wouldn't have to worry about my food in case of a power outage and another is that I just have the freezer that is on my fridge, I don't have a separate one so the amount of food that I can freeze is pretty minimal.

Because the size of my kitchen is pretty small and I have very little storage I was running out of room to store my jars of food. I already had one stainless steel shelf in my kitchen and decided a matching shelf system would solve a lot of my storage issues. I bought this five shelf system at Lowes and bought two additional shelves. The bottom shelf is tall enough to hold both of my canners and then I arranged the other shelves just for enough apart to allow me to to move quart jars around. I have three baskets on top. One holds tools such as funnels, jar grabber, food mill, and unused lids. The middle one is full of bands. The last one has consumables that I use like clear gel, pectins, citric acid and things like that. 

So here is the back wall of my kitchen with both shelves side by side:

I am pretty happy with the extra storage that this gives me. And I am VERY happy that my kitchen looks much less cluttered.

More Canning Goodies

I have had so much fun since I decided to start canning and making jams and jellies again. I forgot how satisfying it is to look at those jars of beautiful preserved foods can be. And how great it is to hear those "pings" coming from the jars as the seal. I have probably gotten a little carried away with the jams, but I seem to have an unending supplies of offers to relieve me of a jar here and there for taste testing. I did take a few jars of the blueberry to share with some friends at work. 

I went back to my Whole Foods last Friday because they were having a one day sale on peaches. So I bought a bushel. Kip asked if I really needed two boxes. I have found the magic response "well there is peach jam, peach cobbler, peach ice cream, ...." and suddenly he is on board! It did take me a while to plow through all those peaches, but I managed to get a large batch of raspberry peach jam, a couple of batches of peach jam and several jars of sliced peaches. 

Summer peaches are definitely at the top of my list of all time favorite flavors in this world, but I think blackberries hold that top spot. I remember when I was a little girl I would ask my Grandmother for "peanut butter pocketbooks", which was a single piece of bread smeared with peanut butter and blackberry jam. That is one of my strongest food memories from being a child. My SIL offered to take me blackberry picking with her this weekend and I took her up on it. Her BIL and SIL have blackberries on their property and they are out of town and called her and let her know there were lots of berries that would need to be picked while they were gone. We were both able to get enough berries for a good size batch of jam. It was her first time making and canning anything, and I think she is hooked. 

Apple Pie Jam

Having my canning stuff out again is proving to be as fun and as satisfying as I remember it being. I have just been going through a couple of canning books/magazines looking for types of jam and other things to make while the fruit is so available. This one was a new recipe for me, it is called Apple Pie Jam. I love raw apples but only occasionally like them cooked so I only made one small batch of this. It is delicious though! I didn't have any left after filling these jars so Kip didn't get a sample, but I  know he is going to like this one.

I am off today looking for peaches to can!

Blueberry Jam

I used to can and make jams and jellies quite a bit, but in the past few years have neglected my jars. I decided this would be the year to get back to doing something I love doing and love eating even more! I have missed growing things too. This year I am growing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and strawberries in my back yard. I can't grow everything (yet) that I want to can so I am going to be relying on my CSA, the Farmer's Market and wherever I can get what I am looking for. I saw on Facebook the other day that Whole Foods would be having a having a one day sale on organic blueberries yesterday so blueberry jam would be my starting point this year. I went early yesterday morning and got two flats of blueberries. This is the first batch of jam. I will be making another bath this morning and then I will also freeze some of the berries to eat with oatmeal and to cook things like blueberry muffins and blueberry pancakes. 

And I am a happy girl again.

I won 2nd place!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner! Okay actually it was my BBQ Lentil lunch that won me 2nd place in the Cosy Savvy category of the Shape the State contest. I was pretty happy with that!

Bagel Bento

I have made bagels a couple of times this week and thought that a bagel bento would be good. I sliced a poppy seed bagel and spread a cream cheese spread over both halves and then added some smoked salmon.  I have one cup of cherry tomatoes, another with tri-colored pepper strips and some homemade ranch dressing for dipping. I also added a fruit cup with strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, all packed in my Laptop Lunchbox.

BlueCross BlueShied of Tennessee is sponsoring a contest called Create Your Plate. You are supposed to create a lunch using the USDA's My Plate Guidelines. One category can be voted on by the public and I would love it if you could vote for my lunch by clicking HERE. Thanks so much!

Strawberries

Samantha has been checking the strawberries every time she comes over and when she was here the other day one of them was finally ripe enough to eat. We "harvested" exactly one strawberry that day, but that one strawberry was enough to make her one very happy girl. 

A close up of our "bounty"

It is funny how much of an interest she has taken in the things that I am trying to grow. Her Mom also grows things, including herbs and tomatoes, but she is so excited every time she goes out there to look at everything.

Another Bento

Here is the bento I made for yesterday's lunch using an Easy Lunchbox container. The large compartment has turkey and avocado on rye bread, and alongside that is some pepper strips, mushrooms, tomatoes and cucumbers. The smaller compartment has a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad featuring basil that I grew myself. The top compartment is mixed fruit with some kiwi, strawberries and mango strips. She also had some milk on the side that I forgot to set out when I took the picture.

I am also linking this to "What's for Lunch Wednesday".

Friday's Bento

It just dawned on me a couple of weeks ago that the school year will be ending in about 8 or 9 weeks. Yikes! Samantha will be moving to the middle school next year and I am sure it won't be so cool to have someone bring her lunch, not to mention the fact that going back to middle school, even for lunch could trigger memories of my own middle school years. Anyway, here is the bento that I took for Samantha and Abby's lunches yesterday. The top tier has mini whole wheat pitas stuffed with hummus, turkey, avocado and an artichoke heart. the little bee picks have some cheddar and pepperjack cheeses. The bottom tier has orange pepper strips, sugar snap peas, carrots, and tomatoes. There is also a container of ranch dressing for dipping the veggies and a "tiny" orange and mini banana and some milk.