Triple Berry Spread

My sister was visiting on her last day before she heads back up to school (shes such a smart cookie :)). We just got back from the Dutch Market up the street and I though it would be neat to send her back to school with something sweet that she can use. I had about 6 cups of frozen mixed strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. I didn't want to make jam because I'd have to chop everything a little more than it already was. So I decided we were going to make a mixed berry spread. I slightly modified the recipe that I was given by the sweet lady at the Dutch Market.

Here's the original recipe (I thought it had too much sugar):

Dutch Jelly/Jam

2 cups fruit

4 cups sugar

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup dutch jell (like Sure Jell or generic pectin)

Mix fruit and sugar and let it stand for 10 minutes. Boil water and dutch jell for 3 minutes. Add the fruit and sugar mixture. Bring to a full rolling boil. Stir for 3 minutes, bringing back to a full boil. Remove from heat. Ladle into prepared jars and process or let cool and refrigerate.

Here's my version:

Triple Berry Spread

6 cups fruit

8 cups sugar (I'll decrease this next time to 6 cups since I think it was too sweet)

2-1/2 cups water

1-1/2 cups dutch jell

Mix fruit and sugar and let it stand for 10 minutes. Boil water and dutch jell for 3 minutes. Put sugar and fruit through a food processor until its the consistency of a very thick smoothie (no big chunks). Add the mixture to the water/jell mixture. Bring to a full rolling boil. Stir for 8 minutes, bringing back to a full boil. Remove from heat. Ladle into prepared jars, let cool and refrigerate.

We put them in the jars and went to a movie. After we came back we noticed that the spread that was in the jars settled a bit and there seemed to be some liquid on the bottom (I think its because of the amount of sugar we used). The consistency after it cooled was almost like a thick mousse - very light and almost poofy :) very surprising.

I had her take 2 jars and give my brother and other sister 2 jars each. I kept the left over big jar.
I had the spread on wheat toast this morning :) It was delicious!

Cheers!

Sewing Machine Cover

I was not happy with the yucky vinyl cover my sewing machine came with so I modified this pattern slightly and came up with my own reversible cover with a hole for the handle.

Cheers!

Upcycled Skirt

I found this tutorial and decided to make a cute little springtime purse. I went to the GoodWill and found a few adorable printed pleated skirts. Here's the first purse I made :)

I'm thinking of putting a clasp or something at the top to help keep it closed.

Cheers!

Why I Love Craigslist

A few days ago I was bored at work during my lunch break. I hadn't checked Craigslist in a while so I decided to check out the free stuff people were giving away. I hit the jackpot! I found a wonderful old man that had just retired and was cleaning out his basement to make room for his ceramics studio. Guess what he was giving away? ALL of his wife's old canning stuff!!!

Check it out!

I walked away with 28 wide mouth quart jars, 4 pint jars, and 3 half gallon jars (one of the half gallon jars was a wide mouth!).... I had to stop at Walmart on my way home to get these little crates that conveniently held a dozen quart jars each. The nice man just seemed to want all the stuff out of his basement and he also handed me a bag with random canning stuff. Check out the vintage items. I might keep them around just for giggles :)

Neat old spices :)

I know these lids aren't vintage but they are typically pricey. Plus they were still in the original packaging so I think they are brand new :)

I was half-tempted to send these forms in to see if they'd send me a book...

Jar Rubbers - I giggled when I read that :)

These lids aren't so vintage but they are almost a decade old.

So I am completely ecstatic about this. I thought I was going to have to BUY a bunch of the wide mouth mason jars so I saved a TON of money. If you haven't heard of Craigslist, check it out. Just click on the city nearest you to start finding stuff. People are giving stuff away everyday. If its not free, it's usually pretty cheap :)

Happy New Year everyone!

Sewing Machine

I splurged and finally bought a sewing machine - a Singer 7467 !! I went to JoAnne's thinking I was going to get a cheapo model that I could learn on, but after talking to the experts there, I got a $200 model that was discounted down from almost $400! It's a good thing I got it before Christmas :) Now all of my gifts are sewing/craft related!

I'll have pics of the first craft I made later :)

Lotion Bars and Lip Balm

Sorry I haven't been around guys. School and work got the best of me. But I'm back and with lots of pictures!!

BTW!! My kitchen is a freaking mess! Despite the mess, my hands are so freaking soft I may never go back to regular lotion.

Here are the results of my lotion bar experiment. Luckily my little sister was here to help :) See how pumped she was about the lotion bars!!

Lotion Bars

1 part vegetable shortening

1 part vegetable oil

1 part beeswax

Here my sister is providing a close up of the CUTEST MOLD EVER!!! Horray for penguins :)

Here is the total batch of the lotion bars. A bunch went to my sisters and some to other people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lip Balm

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

1 tablespoons beeswax

Here, the little pots and tins are cooling. The lip balm sets fairly quickly.

Here is the stack of the completed lip balms. I sent a bunch home with my sisters and I still have a ton left over...

Overall, the experiment was a huge success. The lotion bars are incredible! And my elbows are grateful. They stayed together without any issue. They are a little oily at first but it rubs into your skin and then it's wonderful. The lip balms are pretty good too. They got a little hard but they work pretty well. I just rub it between my palms for a few seconds and then its good to go. I love stuff that I use that I know the ingredients of :)

Happy Winter everyone!

PS: In case anyone is wondering... I got the beeswax off of Amazon and the molds/tins from The Chemistry Store. Also, I was considering maybe having a giveaway for a lotion bar and lip balm... would anyone want them??

Uses for Canning Jar Rings

I got this idea from Ms. Catalina.

Grease the inside of a wide mouth canning ring (PAM or butter works). Heat pan to medium heat. Place ring onto pan and crack an egg into it. Flip when egg looks firm.

Place on toasted english muffins.

Yummy :) I love dippy eggs!

Freezing Zucchini

I LOVE ZUCCHINI!! Thank goodness it freezes well ^_^

Here is the zucchini that I shredded up from last time I went to the downtown farmers market.

Rinse the zucchini to get off any dirt. Then shred them into a giant bowl.... or bowl+plate...

Then get out the plastic wrap cut off about a square. Scoop the zucchini out into 1 cup portions. Make sure you pack it in the measuring cup because it will lose moisture over time.

Then fold the plastic wrap over making little zucchini pillows. Make sure you get out as much air as you can. As you can see I got 14 cups of shredded zucchini :)

Then throw them in a giant freezer bag (or 2) and use when needed. Again, make sure you get out as much air as you can.

Easy Peasy :)

Also, if you have any bits that you had to peel or cut off, throw them in a bag and put it in the freezer. Whenever I have leftover veggie bits (zucchini, carrots, celery...), I freeze them until I have enough to make veggie broth. It's soooo very yummy :)

Cheers!

Upcoming Crafts...

My sister will be back from college for Thanksgiving next month so I thought getting her and my other sister together to do a craft would be fun. Here's what I have planned...

Homemade Lotion Bars

Homemade Lip Balm

Stay tuned for the results :)

Make-A-Mix Chocolate Chip Cookies (revisited)

I like making things in large batches so that I can freeze/store them away for later (who doesn't?). Well I think that the freezer cookie dough is wonderful but with the recent salmonella scares, it definitely not worth it. In an older post I mentioned this book I got from my BF's mom called Make-A-Mix: 306 recipes to save time and money. I LOVE this book!!

I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies to take to my BFF for her birthday so I made this recipe and made extras. Originally, the book says to roll the extra dough into logs to slice. Well since I have to be different I tried making my own freezer cookie dough ball packages.

Place extra dough balls made with a medium cookie scoop on wax paper and place in the freezer to harden. Then, transfer to sandwich baggies. I got 12 dough balls in 1 standard size Ziplock sandwich baggie ^_^ The total recipe made about 6.5 dozen cookies. I froze 4.5 dozen shown below. My BF likes to eat the dough raw anyway so he likes the easy access :)

Refer to this post for the recipe ^_^ Now if I want to bake cookies I can just pull out a baggie, separate the dough balls and toss them onto a cookie sheet. I like being lazy :)