A few days ago I posted about our strawberry picking and how we froze and dried the berries.  We have been snacking on the dried berries all week and they are delicious!  On top of drying and freezing our berries we also made two batches of strawberry jam.  My husband and I love to make jam together so it took us a couple of days to coordinate our schedules so that we had enough time to finish.  We kept the berries in the fridge and they were still delicious.  You can store some varieties of berries such as Rainiers in the fridge for a few days before you make jam but others such as our favorites shuksans need to be processed as soon as they are picked.  We had picked regular can be kept in the fridge strawberries so we had time to wait.

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If you are new to jam making it is really important to do your research first.  There are a bunch of awesome books and websites out there that walk you through the steps to process your canning jars safely and with minimal risk for spoilage.  Some of my favorite are:

USDA Home Preserving website

The Ball Book of Canning (The canning Bible)

Signs of Spoiled Food by Live the Old Way

There are many many more and a quick Google search can find you what you are looking for.  We used the instructions that came in our box of Sure Jell Pectin for both batches but for the second batch we added a little bit of fresh squeezed lemon juice.

We wanted a “lower sugar” jam which you can do with strawberries but it still used 4 cups of sugar so don’t be fooled into thinking it is actually low in sugar, it just means you use less sugar to process it. Before you do any canning you have to make sure all of your jars, utensils and surfaces are clean and sterile.  I always wipe down the counters and put a clean dry towel down to work on.  We ran our canning jars and bands through the dish washer on the sterilize cycle.  Before we placed our lids on our jars we put them into the boiling water for a few minutes to warm up the seals and kill any germs on them.  We used the Kerr brand wide mouth jars and lids but any of the brands are fine.  We just got a good deal on them so that is what we use.

The first thing we did was measure out and crush our strawberries.  For the first batch we used a potato masher for chunky jam and the second batch we used an immersion blender to make a smoother jam.

Then we measured out our sugar and spit it into two bowls and added the pectin to one.

Next we put our crushed strawberries into a pot and added the first batch of sugar/pectin.

We stirred that up and brought it to a boil.

Then we added our second batch of sugar and brought it to a rolling boil again for one minute.

Then we quickly poured it into our jars, leaving about 1/4 inch of head space.  We used a Ball canning kit similar to this one I found at our local grocery store to make sure we had the correct amount of head space in the jars.

Yum! Chunky strawberry jam. We opted not to skim the foam off but many people like to do that so that their jars look prettier.  We won’t be giving a lot of it away so for us it wasn’t a big deal.

Next we wiped the jars clean with a paper towel so that they would seal correctly.

Then we used the little magnet thing to put the lids on the jars without touching them and screwed on our bands to finger tight.

Next we made sure the water in our canning pot was fully boiling and then we added our jars, brought it to a boil again and left them in there for 10 minutes.

This year I broke down and bought the special tongs for pulling the jars out of the water and let me tell you they are amazing.  I don’t know how we went without for so long. They make it so much easier and I wasn’t worried at all about the jars slipping so if you only buy one canning tool I highly recommend the jar grabbing tongs.

After our jars were processed we put them on another clean towel to cool.  We check them the next morning and only one of ours did not seal so we will be eating it this week.  I am not complaining, our jam turned out delicious!

We had a great time with our strawberries this week and I feel much better about eating our own jam rather than buying some in the store that may or may not have high fructose corn syrup.  I am already thinking ahead to raspberry season in July and how much raspberry jam I will be eating. Raspberry is my favorite and Costco has been out for months.  I fully plan on canning a bunch of raspberry so that we don’t run out this year!

What types of jam are you making this season?

Links to Products Used:

Ball Canning Guide

Canning kit similar to the one we have

Sure Jell Pectin

Ball Regular Mouth Jars

Strawberry Jam by Sure Jell

June 17, 2017

Servings: 8 cups

Prep: 20 min

Cook: 60 min

Total: 80 min

Difficulty: Medium

Print This

Make your own strawberry jam!

By: Oscoey

Ingredients

• 12 cups whole strawberries (6 cups crushed)
• 4 cups sugar
• 1 package Sure Jell Low Sugar Pectin

Directions

• Step 1 Use a dry measuring cup to measure exactly 12 cups of strawberries with the tops cut off.
• Step 2 Measure exactly 4 cups of sugar into a bowl.
• Step 3 Combine 1/4 cup of the sugar from the bowl with 1 package of Pectin in a small bowl.
• Step 4 Crush your strawberries and measure out 6 cups of crushed strawberries into a pot.
• Step 5 Add your sugar/pectin mixture and bring to a full boil on high heat, stirring constantly.
• Step 6 Stir in remaining sugar and return to a full boil. Boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly.
• Step 7 Remove from heat and skim off foam with a metal spoon if desired.
• Step 8 Immediately pour into prepared jars, filling within 1/4 inch from the top.
• Step 9 Wipe jar rims and threads, cover with lids and screw bands tightly.
• Step 10 Place jars into boiling water making sure they are covered with 1-2 inches of water.
• Step 11 Process for 10 minutes or adjust time based on Altitude.
• Step 12 After the jars are processed remove from the water and place on clean towels. Check the seals after the jars have cooled down.
• Step 13 Let jars stand at room temperature for 24 hours before storing in a cool dry place for up to a year.

This site participates in affiliate links and receives a small fee for affiliate recommendations at no cost to you. As always we only recommend products we have tried ourselves. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Products Used:

Ball Canning Guide

Canning kit similar to the one we have

Sure Jell Pectin

Ball Regular Mouth Jars

Fire Pit S’mores on the Deck

S’mores on the deck are a great way to spend time as a family! Read more about our first experience with them over the summer.

My husband has wanted a fire pit ever since I can remember and once we moved into our house we knew we would get one.  Last year we never got around to it but a few days ago we decided to take the plunge.  We ordered it from Amazon when they were having a lightening deal on it so it was a decent price.  It called a Solo Stove and is supposed to cut way down on the amount of smoke it releases. The fire pit can also be used on a deck without damaging it which is nice since our deck takes up most of the flat area in our yard.   Just to be safe we put our heat shield from the grill underneath it and aside from the gigantic spider that went running there was no damage to our deck.

The little kids loved playing with it while they were waiting for dinner. They kept stacking the wood and moving it all about which was hilarious. Our son loves anything mechanical so he spent a lot of time trying to figure out the wood holder and how the fire pit was put together.  Our three year old “pealed” the wood for us and rearranged it so that it was just so.  It was great fun and luckily they understood (mostly) when we lit it on fire that it was hot and they were not to go near it.  We still had a grown up watching them at all times once it was lit since you can’t ever be careful enough with little kids and fire.

The wood we used was from extra large branches that fell during the first major wind storm we had in our new house about a month after we moved in.  We cut the larger branches up and stacked them and they worked pretty well for our fire pit. Most of my neighbors sent their branches to the yard waste bin but I was in the back yard super excited about all the free wood we got.  My husband probably thought I was slightly nuts being out there pregnant and insisting he cut the branches into manageable pieces  instead of throwing it into the bin but my mind was on how we could use it later. The branches were a good size and burned for just the right amount of time we needed so it worked well plus we didn’t have to spend a bunch of money buying fire wood. If you have a place to burn it is a good idea to keep some wood around for emergencies.  We lost power for a couple of days our first winter and it would have been really nice to have some seasoned wood to burn in our fireplace to keep the house semi-warm. Luckily my mother-in-law had power so we were able to hang out there once the house got too cold.

My husband lit it with some fat wood and we were ready to go. We shut the slider to keep the kids off the deck, ate dinner and then the fire was perfect for S’mores. Our kids love S’mores (and we do too).  There is something magical about them.  My childhood is filled with memories of being promised S’mores after a long day of working in the woods but somehow they rarely materialized.  My husband and I are all about creating family memories and having a great time with the kids and I could never imagine promising something like that and then never following through.

I found these jumbo marshmallows at Target and some dark chocolate that is dairy-free for our daughter.  Our son was given a chocolate free S’more so that he would definitely sleep tonight. Ha ha, I wonder how long that will work before he realizes he is the only one without chocolate. The jumbo marshmallows worked ok but they really were too big for our fire since it burned pretty hot while we were making them.

Somewhere in our house are some long skewers we bought many, many years ago to roast hot dogs in our fireplace at the townhouse during a power outage but they got lost in the move.  Hopefully we can find them when we get some more cleaning in the garage done.  We still have quite a few boxes that we are slowly sorting and unpacking.  I would highly recommend not moving in a crazy disjointed manner while one of you is pregnant since it becomes impossible to pack properly for a three week close on the house you are selling with items being stored at 4 different locations while you live at your mother-in-law’s house during the closing of the house you are purchasing. Whew. It was enough stress to make me never want to move again.

There is some debate about the proper way to cook a S’more marshmallow but I fall firmly in the light it on fire camp.  I love a little char on my marshmallows with a gooey center. Delicious!

The fire died down in about 2 hours from when we lit it. We did not add any wood to it and it ended up being the perfect amount of time for us.  We got a chance to hang out on the deck as a family for a bit while the kids ate their S’mores and by the time they were ready for bath it had mostly died out.

We had a great time tonight and we are looking forward to a full summer of S’mores and chilling around the fire pit.  Now off to buy hot dogs for tomorrow night!

We recently had to switch to a dairy-free lifestyle in an effort to see if our younger kids have a sensitivity that is causing them some serious sinus problems.  I was having a hard time finding granola bars for our kids that were dairy free, mostly nut free and not expensive. We love to cook as much as we can from scratch so I tried to look up recipes.  I could not find any that would work for our family’s particular needs so I decided to try and make them on my own.  Children were consulted and they love peanuts and rice krispies so I used those as our base.

We buy 90% of our groceries from Costco as you can see. I bought the “Crisp Rice” at Winco and if you need to be gluten free this is where you could substitute gluten-free Rice Krispies and make the granola bars gluten-free. We are not super gluten sensitive so I did not worry about it.

I had my three year old dump all of the ingredients into a bowl and stir. It was a little sticky so I helped her a bit.

Next I pressed the granola bars into the pan using a regular spoon and put them into the oven for 20 min at 350 degrees.  Your oven temperature may be different or you may want them chewier so check them after 15 minutes.

After baking I melted some chocolate chips and spread them on the top. Be careful if you use something with a handle since it could get very hot in the microwave.

I let the whole thing set a bit and my kids ate them pretty much over night so I would say they are a hit!  Next time I might try adding some raisins and cinnamon or even dried apples and see how they turn out.

Happy cooking!

Easy Dairy-free Peanut Butter Granola Bars

April 29, 2017

Servings: 12

Prep: 10 min

Cook: 20 min

Total: 30 min

Difficulty: Easy

Print This

Dairy/Gluten-free granola bars for the kids

By: Oscoey

Ingredients

• 2 cups Rice Cereal
• 3/4 cup Peanuts
• 1/4 cup Honey
• 1/2 cup Peanut Butter
• 1 cup chocolate chips (dairy-free)

Directions

• Step 1 Spray an 8×8 baking dish with cooking spray.
• Step 2 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Step 3 Put Rice Krispies, peanuts, honey and peanut butter into a bowl and stir.
• Step 4 Press your mixture into the baking dish and even out.
• Step 5 Bake granola bars for 15-20 min until they are firm.
• Step 6 Allow to cool for a couple of hours.
• Step 7 Microwave 1 cup chocolate chips in a microwave safe dish for 60 seconds. Stir and microwave them for an additional 30 seconds if they are not melty.
• Step 8 Spread your chocolate chips over the granola bars and enjoy!