Last week I made my daughter homemade macaroni and cheese. Its one of her favorite foods.
Macaroni and cheese is one of my daughter”s favorite simple meals.
My how her eyes lit up when I pulled that out the oven. I like surprising my daughter. The things I do usually aren’t extravagant,even little things can tell a person you’re thinking about them, right? I made it just the way she liked it… dark brown and crispy on the outside (thanks to the crust of toasted bread crumbs and finely ground cashews) and soft and creamy on the inside.
We don’t do the prepackaged macaroni and cheese since we both think most of them taste awful. You could say, that the version I make isn’t the ‘ traditional macaroni and cheese’ since I tend to put a whole lot of things in it besides those two ingredients, such as finely diced vegetables that go well with the two, but it’s still quite tasty and when I’ve made it for various events… it’s never lasted.
I’ve always loved making stir fry, the meal is prepared quickly, and I tend to toss whatever fresh produce is available.
My daughter thought this was great, she said she wished I added more greens.
Since we had cauliflower, turnips, still in the garden, those were the main ingredients in this dish. And to that I added red pepper, onions, and garlic. Pepper and onion season have ended in our one acre garden. I added a dash or two of olive oil to the skillet, tossed in yellow onions, and then stirred in the vegetables. I’m sure there are other ingredients I’m missing…
After a few minutes, I added a spicy sauce to the dish, let simmer for a few moments, then I served the meal. The spicy sauce came about several years ago. IT was an attempt to recreate this lovely (and incredibly hot) shrimp paste sauce that I used in my pre-veggie days; so that was in the 1990s. And I think I did a great job of replicating it, since it has all the flavor (and heat) of the shrimp paste I adored.
This simple dish turned out very well, and it didn’t last too long since my daughter had a few helpings, one at mealtime, and the next the following day. And here I thought I would have leftovers that lasted a few days! Sighs, not this time! 😉
Today, my daughter and I wanted a quick meal. We decided that we wanted fried rice.
In the picture below, you can see our food being prepared in my hand hammered stainless steel wok. It’s a nicely seasoned wok. I’ve had it since I was in college, so it’s over twenty years old.
I recently discovered that I could cook with it on our smooth top stove, so it’s been seeing a lot of activity.
Since we didn’t have any already steamed rice, my daughter decided she would steam more rice. She was the pilot of this meal. I was just along for the ride. My daughter is nine-years old, and knows how to cook a variety of meals. I asked if she wanted chicken or beef to her portion, but she said no. She just wanted vegetables, which is all right by me!
While my daughter was steaming the rice, I set aside the cutting board, and observed as she sliced and diced; garlic, ginger, yellow onion, broccoli, and thinly sliced carrots. You know, I was going to do that, but my daughter blocked me. Can you believe that. She told me, she was handling it.I just stood on the sidelines… observing. It seems she wanted to run the show today. My daughter did add a bit of egg to her portion of the fried rice.
Together we added some herbs/seasonings. I’m glad she let me do that much! 😉 Some of the things we added were… cumin, homemade garlic salt, and my daughter said… “You don’t need to know the rest, it’s my secret!” I’m realizing, that my daughter can be a bit bossy when she prepares a meal. And I must say, that it’s nice to see, since it tells me her confidence with her abilities, has grown. It’s now time time for her to show off her culinary skills, and I’m one proud mama, and am I’m thrilled with whatever other job she assigns to me. 😉
I must say the meal was quite delicious. I love cooking, and enjoy passing on that skill to my daughter. A nice perk is it gives us even more time to bond.
I’ve been making my own natural skin care products (shampoo, lotions, soap, facial cleansers, scrubs, etc) for over twenty years. I was naturally curious about the ingredients that went into products, and during my time of research I ;earned a lot, accumulated numerous books on natural skin care and picked up a few certifications in the process (such as my aromatherapy certification). I even had a small business that focused on natural skin care products, and while I still make products for a few stores, I’m not doing the volume I used to.
About a year ago, one of my favorite essential oil companies stopped making essentials and is now strictly a resource database for all things related to essential oils. I still frequent the site, but I sure wish that they still had their essential oils. Earlier today, I restocked my supply of essential oils (I purchase in bulk so my supplies last a while) and I’m hoping that I’m liking the quality of the companies products. Either way, I’ll definitely write a review once they arrive.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve easily canned over 100 jars of preserves, all from produce growing in our garden.
You should see the storage area in our basement. It’s lined with rows of canned preserves. Jellies, jams, and butters are in the spotlight soon to be joining them will be a variety of pickles; cucumbers, beans, and peppers. Of course I’ll be canning numerous vegetables too. Vegetables are typically low acid foods. Those that aren’t pickled will need another method for canning than the hot water bath method. It’s time to pull out the pressure cooker. But let’s not get hasty…
Today I canned some more fruit and herb preserves using the hot water bath method for canning. I made some more grape jelly and there was also mint jelly too.
What I enjoy about fruit preserves is that they can be added to more things than your traditional fare; toast, biscuits, turnovers, tarts, etc., Preserves can also be added to other dishes too such as vegetable dishes, toppings for risotto, a whole host of rice and bean dishes, and of course… they also make a lovely glaze for a variety of meat dishes — if you aren’t vegetarian (or in my case vegan).
The beauty of making your own preserves, is you can get creative and make your own recipes. I like the fact that our preserves aren’t loaded with a lot of unnecessary junk that our bodies really don’t need, and since they aren’t overly sweet they taste more like the fruit in its natural state.
I was finally able to cut the grass (we’ve been getting rain all week). We pulled weeds in our garden, and old plants were dug up and carted to the mulch pile. We also added more fall plants to our garden…
The fruit comes from our fig tree and grape vine that grow in our garden. Our grape vine produces a grape that’s not overly sweet and it’s tart too. We love them, and the grape jelly tastes the same way.
Canning: How long does it take jelly to set?
If you’re new to jelly making, don’t get discouraged if your jelly doesn’t set immediately. Sometimes it will take a while. 🙂 As a rule, I don’t gift anyone with the jelly until a few days later… simply for that reason. It’s perfectly edible before it sets, but I want it to be an actual jelly before I gift it to someone.
Yesterday it took about six hours for our grape jelly to set. There’s been occasions where our jelly has set almost immediately. This morning, almost 24 hours later, the grape jelly has become even more firm. The information included on the fruit-pectin packet, says it can take up to five days.
If you’re using a fruit pectin, such as Sure-Jell, make sure you follow the recommended suggestions. And although I rarely follow a recipe, when it comes to fruit pectin, I always use the recommended suggestions.
Since we had a lot of figs, there was plenty that was set aside for fig jam.
With the fig jam, I added orange and vanilla bean to my recipe and loved how it’s turned out. I’m not much of a sweet eater, but I’ll be sure to sample that fig jam again.
Fig jam being canned in a water bath. Hot water bath canning also called water-bath canning, is generally the method used to can high acid foods.
I use a smooth top stove, but have had not trouble canning. If you have a smooth top stove, make sure the surface of your pot is flat. If it isn’t you can always add a small metal cooling rack. I have a stainless steel cooling rack that I place onto the burner, and then I place some of my pots on that. I have a few pots that don’t have a flat surface.
Here’s all the preserves I’ve canned thus far this year… fig jam, peach jam, and grape jelly!
We now have 25 jars of jam and jelly. Of course some will be given away as gifts, the rest will be stored away to spread on freshly baked bread, or perhaps added to thumbprint cookies, jelly rolls, jelly cakes, etc., oh I could ramble for a while about the variety of ways I could use my preserves.
What will I be canning next?
Hot pepper jelly
Mint Jelly
Pickles
Salsa
And although I don’t measure, yes that carries over into canning too, I’ll be sure to make an exception or two and post some of the recipes here at Celebrate Life.
We didn’t can in the morning like I’d originally planned. I was much too busy for that. Also, we only canned one type of jam but, but we still had a lot of fun. Yesterday morning we had to rush to the store to purchase canning jars. I completely forgotten that I’d given all my small “jam and jelly” jars away to a friend who didn’t have any canning jars. And so… off to the store we went to purchase canning jars.
Here in the USA, it seems that many people use Ball or Korr jars for canning. They’re also referred to as ‘Mason jars’. A case of Ball canning jars contains twelve jars. We bought three cases. Two of the eight ounce canning jars, and one four ounce. I spent less than $8 per case.
I asked my daughter what she wanted to make, and her quick reply was peach jam. Fortunately, our peaches were picked and processed the day before (Wednesday). They were washed, cut and added to storage bags. Since our two peach trees are producing a lot of fruit, we had several bags to be put into the freezer.
Peaches from our garden. They’re getting ready to be turned into peach jam
When we returned home, I pulled out two bags of peaches from our storage freezer.
Before canning, you need to sterilize the canning jars. My daughter is pouring water over the jars that will be sterilized.
My daughter enjoyed sterilizing the canning jars. When cooking, she knows to be careful, and of course I’m right there to supervise everything she does.
She’s already a knowledgeable/experimental cook. Which is an awesome accomplishment for a nine-year old — in this age at least. She’s so much fun in the kitchen.
The water and the sterilized Ball jars look so pretty, but it’s look but don’t touch since the water is scalding hot.
Have you heard the expression, “A watched pot never boils?” Which really is a way of saying, when we’re impatiently waiting on something, the time spent waiting can seem to take forever.
We did watch this stockpot, and yes it finally started boiling… Yippee!
It’s always smart to set your freshly sterilized canning jars on something like a towel, setting them on a cool surface could cause them to crack.
Sugar, spices and few squeezes of lemon were added to peaches, and the end result was peach jam had been created!
Yeah, it’s time to add the peach jam to the canning jars…
A few spills were made, whoops! But most of the delicious jam ended up in the sterilized Ball jars.
Once the sterilized jars were filled with peach jam, I wiped each jars rim with a paper towel that I’d ran under warm water. I then screwed on the two piece lid.
And then added the peach jam into the stockpot, and made sure the jars were covered with about 2″ of water. It’s time for their hot water bath.
Hooray, all of our canned jars of peach jam have sealed!
The canned jars of peach jam were set aside on the towel seal. I spaced them about 2″ apart. I told my daughter not to touch them, since they needed to cool down from their boiling bath. The types of lids we purchase, allows you to hear the canned jars seal. They make a popping noise. 🙂 For me, that sounds never gets old. It still makes me smile.
Later today we’ll be canning fig jam, and perhaps some salsa too. We won’t be doing that until this evening. My morning is busy, and this afternoon, my daughter has soccer practice.We’ll be making grape jelly tomorrow.
So much work was done yesterday..
