Tuesday, August 30, 2011

So Pinteresting

Have you guys started using pinterest yet? It reminds me a lot of Delicious (it is essentially an online bulletin board), but is a lot more visual way to organize things you find online and explore new ideas. I have been using delicious for years... it was a lot of fun initially because it really drives finding new things you are interested in and also stored all of my links (way safer than favorites, as my computer has a tendency to crash and I lose my favorites!) This is the same idea but it requires less clicking as you see all various "pins" on one page.



I could go on and on... Needless to say... I am finding loads of cute ideas lately using this nifty tool. Now to find time to put some of these in execution.I found out about pinterest on Bake at 350... it contains details on how to sign up :)

Once you are logged on check me out on pinterest at http://pinterest.com/kmcelderry/.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Summer Magic in a jar

One of my favorite things about summer is fresh summer fruit. I didn't really experience this a lot in Texas as it is a bit too hot and we didnt live in a region with a lot of fresh fruit (at least growing in a place you could easily pick!) However! One of my great loves of Michigan Summers (and Falls) is the bounty of delicious fruit. This year John and I went strawberry picking, which was a first for me. Fresh strawberries to me can only be described as nature's candy. We spent the day of and after picking enjoying an abundance of berries, as well as canning some up into yummy jam to be savored all year long. Here are a few of the highlights of our canning process. Canning may have been a theme for this summer... I just finished doing salsa and also did Rasberries and Blackberries. Peaches are up next :)

1. Start with great, yummy fresh fruit. This stuff spoils fast when you pick it yourself, so use it really fresh.


2. We washed and hulled the strawberries, and began mixing with sugar. Yeah-- this is some sweet stuff.


3. We used pint sized jars... these babies have to be washed and sanitized before using for canning.



4. The steps of acrually preparing the jam aren't here as they didn't get documented as it was hurried. However, the recipe we used can be found here. Here we are putting the jam in the jars.



5. And now to boil thse babies to seal them up. This was done only for a short period so this jam is not very cooked-- tastes just like fresh berries!



Voila! Yummy jam.



What are you doing to capture the magic of summer?
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