So, yes, I know I just wrote about strawberries, but 'tis the season! Last year I ordered the 30-pound pail of sliced strawberries from the local Kiwanis group and they were so good (and convenient!) that this year I doubled my order. We use them for everything: freezer jam, smoothies, strawberry lemonade, stirring into plain yogurt, and topping waffles and ice cream. And in case you're curious, 60 pounds of strawberries fills 29 quart freezer bags. Yum! And I have no doubts that we'll finish them before this time next year...
If you have any favorite uses for frozen berries I left out, I'd love to hear them in the comments!
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes
Strawberry season is finally in full swing in western Oregon, and so as the kiddos and I picked 10 pounds this morning, I thought it was time I share our new favorite recipe for fresh strawberry cupcakes. We just discovered these at Easter when Trader Joe's had some particularly good strawberries in, and they were so good that Mugger requested them for his birthday this week. 
So the recipe is found here at Just Jenn Recipes -- you'll have to click through for the link. We (and by "we" I mean Other Half as he is the Chief Cupcake Baker in this house) pretty much follow the recipe as it's written until the frosting part. We haven't tried her suggestion for chocolate frosting -- Other Half made strawberry frosting for Easter and white frosting with a strawberry garnish for Mugger's birthday.
The best thing about this recipe is that the unfrosted cupcakes freeze well, so you can double or triple the batch if you need to use up lots of berries. And if you leave the frosting off, you can call them muffins and serve them for breakfast, too!
Can't wait to get my sliced strawberries this week -- this year we're getting 2 30-pound pails instead of just one!
So the recipe is found here at Just Jenn Recipes -- you'll have to click through for the link. We (and by "we" I mean Other Half as he is the Chief Cupcake Baker in this house) pretty much follow the recipe as it's written until the frosting part. We haven't tried her suggestion for chocolate frosting -- Other Half made strawberry frosting for Easter and white frosting with a strawberry garnish for Mugger's birthday.
The best thing about this recipe is that the unfrosted cupcakes freeze well, so you can double or triple the batch if you need to use up lots of berries. And if you leave the frosting off, you can call them muffins and serve them for breakfast, too!
Can't wait to get my sliced strawberries this week -- this year we're getting 2 30-pound pails instead of just one!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Making Pasta Beads with Food Coloring
School is out for Bug tomorrow, but she's getting a jump on her summer art plans today. She was making a picture with glued macaroni when I picked her up from Pre-K yesterday, so I asked her if she'd like to make something with colored pasta. As soon as I showed her the colored pasta necklaces on Make and Takes, she was ready to go! This is such a simple craft as you only need tubed pasta, food coloring, and rubbing alcohol. Here's how she did it:
Since Bug wanted 6 different colors of pasta beads, we put our pasta into 6 different sealable sandwich baggies. Each baggie then got 4 drops of food coloring (orange = 1 drop of red + 3 drops of yellow and purple = 3 drops of red + 1 or 2 drops of blue) and 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol. We zipped the baggies shut and then tumbled them gently to coat all the pasta pieces.
Bug spread out her baggies and gave them a quality control check to make sure they were all saturated with color.
Then we spread them out on a pan to dry. Instead of letting the pasta dry on paper towels, I put tissue paper underneath, remembering a post on tie-dyed tissue paper from Parent Hacks. Bug's brother turns 7 tomorrow and she's hoping it will all be dry in time for wrapping his present.
Make and Takes puts it out in the sun to dry faster, but unfortunately our Oregon skies are a bit rainy again today. Bug is thinking hopeful thoughts at least. We don't have it spread out real thin, so it might not be dry by tomorrow, but we'll post a creation when she gets to craft with her new beads.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Summer Plans in the Making
Last summer I collected all sorts of ideas to keep summer boredom at bay -- you can read all about my plans here -- but the kiddos weren't too interested! Bug was only 3, though, and hadn't discovered the world of school. This year, the kiddos are 4 and 7, and they both have interests they just can't get enough of in school. Bug never gets to do enough art (unless you count coloring, which I don't) and Mugger could do science experiments every day of the year (which is why he's getting a science kit for his birthday next week.)
For collecting our plans, I found a great summer calendar template to print off here at Thirty Handmade Days as part of her Funner in the Summer series-- isn't it cute?
The kiddos and I then came up with a theme for each of the weekdays and I've been on the hunt for projects. Our themes will be...
Masterpiece Mondays: This is our art day for Bug. I've got lots of art projects lined up thanks to The Artful Parent and all sorts of craftiness via The Crafty Crow. These 2 sites have to be my favorites for kiddo arts and crafts. I also have 2 books I'm pulling lots of projects from, Preschool Art by Mary Ann Kohl (definitely not just for preschoolers -- this is a fabulous process-based art book) and The Kid Concoctions 10th Anniversary book (which is 4 Kid Concoctions books in one and has all sorts of paint and dough recipes, among tons of other things!)
Play in the Park Tuesdays: Our MOPS group meets at a different park every Tuesday morning in the summer, so I'm looking forward to checking out some new parks with the kiddos. After 2 years here, I still feel like the new kid on the block sometimes!
Wacky Wednesdays: This is our science experiment day for Mugger. He's receiving the Sciencewiz Chemistry Experiments and Book for his birthday and also has Gizmos & Gadgets and Things that Go Boom! to find projects in. Those, along with some good concoctions and contraptions in the Kid Concoctions book, as well as some projects I've bookmarked, mean we'll have plenty to keep us busy on Wednesdays.
In the Dirt Thursdays: This will be our nature exploration day. Some Thursdays we'll hike or explore a local waterfall, while other Thursdays we'll tackle nature craft projects like drying flowers or attempting woodworking with sticks and twigs! Thursdays are also the night we leave to go camping which leads to...
Family Fun Fridays: Other Half's day off is Friday, so this will be our family field trip day. Some Fridays we'll be at the pool or camping, but we do have a couple of bigger field trips planned like the Salem children's museum, Enchanted Forest theme park, and OMSI. Can't wait!
And not on the schedule but whenever we feel like it will be all our food activities: berry picking, making jam, gardening, making ice cream in baggies, cooking outside in the new fire pit, and baking new recipes. My mouth is watering already!
So what about you? Any big plans? We're always game for more ideas if you have winners you'd like to share.
Oh, and one last note, this is my 100th post. I haven't exactly been a faithful blogger, but I've made it this far...
For collecting our plans, I found a great summer calendar template to print off here at Thirty Handmade Days as part of her Funner in the Summer series-- isn't it cute?
The kiddos and I then came up with a theme for each of the weekdays and I've been on the hunt for projects. Our themes will be...Masterpiece Mondays: This is our art day for Bug. I've got lots of art projects lined up thanks to The Artful Parent and all sorts of craftiness via The Crafty Crow. These 2 sites have to be my favorites for kiddo arts and crafts. I also have 2 books I'm pulling lots of projects from, Preschool Art by Mary Ann Kohl (definitely not just for preschoolers -- this is a fabulous process-based art book) and The Kid Concoctions 10th Anniversary book (which is 4 Kid Concoctions books in one and has all sorts of paint and dough recipes, among tons of other things!)
Play in the Park Tuesdays: Our MOPS group meets at a different park every Tuesday morning in the summer, so I'm looking forward to checking out some new parks with the kiddos. After 2 years here, I still feel like the new kid on the block sometimes!
Wacky Wednesdays: This is our science experiment day for Mugger. He's receiving the Sciencewiz Chemistry Experiments and Book for his birthday and also has Gizmos & Gadgets and Things that Go Boom! to find projects in. Those, along with some good concoctions and contraptions in the Kid Concoctions book, as well as some projects I've bookmarked, mean we'll have plenty to keep us busy on Wednesdays.
In the Dirt Thursdays: This will be our nature exploration day. Some Thursdays we'll hike or explore a local waterfall, while other Thursdays we'll tackle nature craft projects like drying flowers or attempting woodworking with sticks and twigs! Thursdays are also the night we leave to go camping which leads to...
Family Fun Fridays: Other Half's day off is Friday, so this will be our family field trip day. Some Fridays we'll be at the pool or camping, but we do have a couple of bigger field trips planned like the Salem children's museum, Enchanted Forest theme park, and OMSI. Can't wait!
And not on the schedule but whenever we feel like it will be all our food activities: berry picking, making jam, gardening, making ice cream in baggies, cooking outside in the new fire pit, and baking new recipes. My mouth is watering already!
So what about you? Any big plans? We're always game for more ideas if you have winners you'd like to share.
Oh, and one last note, this is my 100th post. I haven't exactly been a faithful blogger, but I've made it this far...
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Jam Wars
If you've been reading along, bloggy friends, then you know that I've been all about the freezer jam this summer. It's all part of my transformation into a housewife since moving to Corvallis, but that's another post to come...
Anyway, when we moved into this house a year ago, we found that we were blessed with 2 Royal Ann cherry trees. (And no, I'm not being sarcastic in saying blessed, as cherries are Other Half's absolute favorite fruit.) However, this blessing (like any other?) brings responsibility as well and that would be consuming said cherries. Since we knew nothing about pruning the trees and never got around to it this winter, we have a rather abundant crop for just 2 trees.
A week ago we got rather industrious with picking the cherries and ended up with 5 gallons to process-- yes, I filled that same bucket that the 30 pounds of strawberries came in the week before. These cherries, however, were certainly not pitted and ready to go, so processing them took way more than two and a half hours. Over the course of the next couple days, some were dried, some were juiced and made into popsicles, some were cooked into killer pies and scones (Other Half is quite the baker), and of course, I made more freezer jam.
Batch Number 1 was made with my new favorite pectin, the Ball Freezer Jam Fruit Pectin (which I've since found is cheaper at Winco than at Bi-Mart for you local bloggy friends.) I love this pectin because it uses much less sugar than traditional pectin. For both my strawberry and cherry freezer jams, I used 4 cups of smushed fruit with 1 packet of pectin and only 1.5 cups of sugar for 6 jars of jam. (The packet say 5 jars, so we must have juicier fruit in Oregon.) With less sugar, I think the bright fresh fruit flavor really comes through and I feel like I'm eating smushed fruit, not loads of sugar.
For Batch Number 2, Other Half wondered if cooked cherry jam might taste even better, reasoning that cooking the cherries would bring out their flavor even more. So the Jam Wars were on! I got out the pectin from the cupboard and turned to my trusty Ball Blue Book for a recipe for a cooked cherry freezer jam. This batch also made 6 half-pints, but only required 2 cups of crushed fruit (not 4) and used 4 cups of sugar (not 1.5). Besides the pectin, I also needed 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 3/4 cup of water. Not only did this have more ingredients and more sugar, it required turning on the stove, something I do as little as possible when the temps are in the 90s. (OK, I do this as little as possible period, but it's not my fault that Other Half is a great cook as well as a great baker...) But, for the sake of the perfect jam, I tried to withhold judgment.
So which batch won the Jam Wars? Thankfully, we both preferred Batch Number 1. Although cooking the cherries does change the flavor, the traditional recipe just has too little fruit and too much sugar to get that same burst of fresh cherry flavor. So lucky me, the easy way is the better way and I'll now be stuffing my garage freezer with no-cook cherry jam, along with the strawberry.
Blueberries are now in season, so maybe they'll be next...
Anyway, when we moved into this house a year ago, we found that we were blessed with 2 Royal Ann cherry trees. (And no, I'm not being sarcastic in saying blessed, as cherries are Other Half's absolute favorite fruit.) However, this blessing (like any other?) brings responsibility as well and that would be consuming said cherries. Since we knew nothing about pruning the trees and never got around to it this winter, we have a rather abundant crop for just 2 trees.
A week ago we got rather industrious with picking the cherries and ended up with 5 gallons to process-- yes, I filled that same bucket that the 30 pounds of strawberries came in the week before. These cherries, however, were certainly not pitted and ready to go, so processing them took way more than two and a half hours. Over the course of the next couple days, some were dried, some were juiced and made into popsicles, some were cooked into killer pies and scones (Other Half is quite the baker), and of course, I made more freezer jam.
Batch Number 1 was made with my new favorite pectin, the Ball Freezer Jam Fruit Pectin (which I've since found is cheaper at Winco than at Bi-Mart for you local bloggy friends.) I love this pectin because it uses much less sugar than traditional pectin. For both my strawberry and cherry freezer jams, I used 4 cups of smushed fruit with 1 packet of pectin and only 1.5 cups of sugar for 6 jars of jam. (The packet say 5 jars, so we must have juicier fruit in Oregon.) With less sugar, I think the bright fresh fruit flavor really comes through and I feel like I'm eating smushed fruit, not loads of sugar.
For Batch Number 2, Other Half wondered if cooked cherry jam might taste even better, reasoning that cooking the cherries would bring out their flavor even more. So the Jam Wars were on! I got out the pectin from the cupboard and turned to my trusty Ball Blue Book for a recipe for a cooked cherry freezer jam. This batch also made 6 half-pints, but only required 2 cups of crushed fruit (not 4) and used 4 cups of sugar (not 1.5). Besides the pectin, I also needed 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 3/4 cup of water. Not only did this have more ingredients and more sugar, it required turning on the stove, something I do as little as possible when the temps are in the 90s. (OK, I do this as little as possible period, but it's not my fault that Other Half is a great cook as well as a great baker...) But, for the sake of the perfect jam, I tried to withhold judgment.So which batch won the Jam Wars? Thankfully, we both preferred Batch Number 1. Although cooking the cherries does change the flavor, the traditional recipe just has too little fruit and too much sugar to get that same burst of fresh cherry flavor. So lucky me, the easy way is the better way and I'll now be stuffing my garage freezer with no-cook cherry jam, along with the strawberry.
Blueberries are now in season, so maybe they'll be next...
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
30 Pounds of Strawberries & 2.5 hours
Before:
After:
In case you ever have use for this piece of trivia, a 30-pound pail of sliced strawberries will yield 13 jars of freezer jam, 15 quarts of sliced strawberries, and 1 bowl left for fresh eating on top of pancakes for dinner. As for the 2.5 hours, I promise it goes fast when you don't cook any of the berries or process the jars as I am certainly no kitchen wizard.
(Oh, and this bounty was after the 9 pounds the kiddos picked last week at Twedt's which yielded 12 jars of freezer jam and 2 bowls for fresh eating...)
If you're curious about the specifics, I used this pectin from Bi-Mart, which only required a cup and a half of sugar for every 4 cups of crushed berries for no-cook freezer jam. For the sliced berries, I mixed in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1/3 cup of sugar for each quart before freezing-- there's no other liquid added because the berries were just that juicy! Ask me in a couple of months if I would change the amounts of lemon juice and sugar-- I couldn't find any sites that took into account the juiciness and softness of Oregon berries!
After:
In case you ever have use for this piece of trivia, a 30-pound pail of sliced strawberries will yield 13 jars of freezer jam, 15 quarts of sliced strawberries, and 1 bowl left for fresh eating on top of pancakes for dinner. As for the 2.5 hours, I promise it goes fast when you don't cook any of the berries or process the jars as I am certainly no kitchen wizard.(Oh, and this bounty was after the 9 pounds the kiddos picked last week at Twedt's which yielded 12 jars of freezer jam and 2 bowls for fresh eating...)
If you're curious about the specifics, I used this pectin from Bi-Mart, which only required a cup and a half of sugar for every 4 cups of crushed berries for no-cook freezer jam. For the sliced berries, I mixed in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1/3 cup of sugar for each quart before freezing-- there's no other liquid added because the berries were just that juicy! Ask me in a couple of months if I would change the amounts of lemon juice and sugar-- I couldn't find any sites that took into account the juiciness and softness of Oregon berries!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Filling the Days of Summer
My Mugger (who'll be 6 next week) is a planner and a doer. He likes to fill his days with activity and often enslaves me if he doesn't have something in mind to do by himself. That in mind, I've been bookmarking the following to help him fill his days on his own:
- After seeing this on Etsy, entitled "216 Summer Ideas for Bored Children Printed Individually in a Mercantile Mason Jar Ages K thru 12," I've started my own list in a Word document so that I've got plenty of age-appropriate ideas.
- Although, after seeing this on the Artful Parent, our list might take a more visual approach and be scattered around a doorway instead of hidden in a jar:
- If I'm in need of some art ideas (that probably will require my assistance), I'll draw some from Artful Parent's list here. She entitled this "An Activity a Day for March," but there are lots of spring projects that will work well for summertime, too. At the end of her list of 31 projects, she also has a great list of ideas to put in her daughter's Fun Box.
- Another great resource would be Blue Yonder Ranch's Book of Days. We purchased the May edition and didn't get past the first page (since Mugger got hooked on Rube Goldberg contraptions), but I'm guessing that with school ending next week, we'll be revisiting it and might want to purchase Summer, Book 1 as it looks like a good one.
- For more ideas, I'll be checking out the links on the Summer Lovin' post on 30 Days and the "Mom, I'm Bored" summer edition of Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family. I should have no problem filling an idea jar with all the links at those two posts.
- I don't know how much "academic" learning we'll undertake, given the kiddos' ages, but I do know that whatever we choose to study will be their choosing. I plan on checking in at the Summer Unschool on Vintage Chica from time to time to see how other families are taking their summers.
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