Popcorn, Jam, Equipment

Popcorn - Small kernels of corn exploded by heat

May 8, 2009

We eat A LOT of popcorn at our house. But it has to be movie theater butter or extra butter. I wonder why I'm not losing weight? Popcorn is an integral part of all movie watching, as well as our "Sunday Routine" of all junk food all day long.


So on Saturday I decided to make jam. Macey's had strawberries on for a good price and since my strawberry plants are just barely flowering I decided to buy some for "jamming." My strawberry plants are kinda hit and miss anyway, since I have to try to keep the neighbor kids out of them. Last summer I found 2 of the neighbor kids sitting down, right in the middle of the strawberry plants, just going to town on them. No wonder I wasn't getting much of a harvest! Anyway, I love making strawberry jam because it smells so good, and the freshly washed and hulled strawberries are GORGEOUS. I could just look at them all day long.

But I have to move the jam making process along, so I typically have 2 or 3 batches going on at any given time. I have this really weird ability when I am doing any kind of canning to dirty every single dish towel I own in the process. Even with freezer jam. Weird, I know. But when it is all finally in the bottles, ready to go the freezer, again I have to just look at it for a while. I love the look of freshly bottled anything, and peaches and jam are the best!

Jam - A preserve made from whole fruit boiled to a pulp with sugar.

May 9, 2009

My first favorite thing to make is bread (surprise!) and my 2nd favorite thing to make is jam, especially strawberry jam. Both of these things should come as quite a shock to anyone who has known me longer than about 15 years. I got married only knowing how to cook spaghetti and Kraft mac & cheese, and even that was iffy because I had a tendency to forget about the boiling water and ruined a few pans by letting them boil dry.

Equipment - A set of tools or devices used for a particular purpose.

May 10, 2009

I got a new baking sheet, new 9" round cake pans, and a decorator set for Mothers Day. Time for some experimenting! I've been watching way too many Food Network Challenges because I have ZERO training, but still think I can do what they do. Oh well, it's just ingredients. I can get more flour and sugar and eggs. But I'm very sure that I over-estimate my abilities.

I also got a new geranium from my parents. I love geraniums! They are such a happy flower. I don't do a lot of flowers in my yard because I would rather dedicate the space to vegetables and herbs. I have a few rose bushes that came with the house. But the only flowers that I ever plant are a couple of geraniums in the front yard because they are so colorful and make me smile.