Strawberry season is upon me again. The prices are even better than they were last year. So I - again - bought three flats. $7 a flat - who could resist - it was $7.50 last year - and my friend just told me today (the day after I bought 3 flats) that she found them for $6.50 a flat. How annoying!
Anyway - picked up my flats yesterday - and today -so far- I've made 16 containers (about 2 cups each) only 1 1/2 flats to go.
The reason I'm recording this information - is so NEXT YEAR when strawberry season is upon me - I can see how much we went through - and how much more I need to make to make it last until NEXT strawberry season - as compared to THIS year.
I need to make more, but I think I'm out of containers.
Maybe I should clean out the fridge.
Maybe I should just freeze the last flat (smoothie supply?) & eat the last 1/2 flat?
I'm strawberried out.
OH - also - to remind me next year - I accidentally followed the freezer JELLY recipe instead of JAM and did 3 cups of juice to 6 cups of sugar - I always remembered it being 2 cups of juice to 4 cups of sugar. So I realized it just at my last few things of pectin.
OH - and also to remind myself - so far I've gone through 5 boxes of pectin.
But that might all be screwed up since my juice/sugar mixes were different than normal. I hope they taste okay, anyway...shouldn't taste different, right? Maybe just different texture? Anyone ever done this before?
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Ahhhh - The call of the wild....
I haven't been camping since I was pregnant with Brynn - almost 4 years ago! I decided on that camping trip that I would NEVER go camping again. Mostly because - it's not fun to get up in the middle of the night 4 or 5 times for a potty break. Not. Fun.
So, it should come as a shock that - when our friends asked if we wanted to go I was actually pretty excited!
We went to a new place this year - about 1 hour and 45 minutes from our home - that would be 45 minutes on freeway - and about an hour - on a terrible washboard, pot-holed gravel/dirt road.
When we got there - our trailer was pretty thrashed...
BUT - it was a lot of fun! I enjoyed this weekend. We got away from the house, the city, the TV, the COMPUTER, the fights. Yah - the kids got along splendidly! I forgot how nice it was to go camping!
It was a nice 20 degrees cooler at our campground than in the city - and little Ross was driving around on the quad with short sleeves (I think the low that night was 18?) So - brrrrr!
We went on hikes. Found a creek - with actual WATER in it (this is unusual for Phoenix - our river beds have nothing in it - weeds - but no moisture!) So a creek was exceptional!
Look - a teeter totter!
Running around the land on the rhino & quad...
More hikes (India was panning for iron pyrite) the water was so clear and the mud was so sparkly with gold-colored flecks...
Kiersten had a blast on the quad! Gabby enjoyed riding on the back! (she was too afraid to drive it - never mind that her chauffeur was only 13....)
And - I know we live in a desert - and while our view consisted mainly of cactus and sage brush - look at the blossoms on the cactus -
and the half-dead-infected oak tree - right in front of us - see the little "bush" growing on it's branch - it's mistletoe! Cool, huh!?
Going home - the 60 minute washboard/pot hole dirt road made little Ross sick - but Coby hummed to the bumps & played peek-a-boo!
And for the first time - in probably 30 years, while I was scrubbing dirt from my person - I got a finger-full of soap in my eye! OUCH - I can say that honestly hurt - and if anyone was in the room when I did it - I would have cried like a baby - so to answer the question - if a tree falls in the forest - I mean - if you get soap in your eye - and no one is around to hear you cry....do you? Nope...I bucked up - but ouch. it REALLY burned!
So, it should come as a shock that - when our friends asked if we wanted to go I was actually pretty excited!
We went to a new place this year - about 1 hour and 45 minutes from our home - that would be 45 minutes on freeway - and about an hour - on a terrible washboard, pot-holed gravel/dirt road.
When we got there - our trailer was pretty thrashed...
BUT - it was a lot of fun! I enjoyed this weekend. We got away from the house, the city, the TV, the COMPUTER, the fights. Yah - the kids got along splendidly! I forgot how nice it was to go camping!
It was a nice 20 degrees cooler at our campground than in the city - and little Ross was driving around on the quad with short sleeves (I think the low that night was 18?) So - brrrrr!
We went on hikes. Found a creek - with actual WATER in it (this is unusual for Phoenix - our river beds have nothing in it - weeds - but no moisture!) So a creek was exceptional!
Look - a teeter totter!
Running around the land on the rhino & quad...
More hikes (India was panning for iron pyrite) the water was so clear and the mud was so sparkly with gold-colored flecks...
Kiersten had a blast on the quad! Gabby enjoyed riding on the back! (she was too afraid to drive it - never mind that her chauffeur was only 13....)
And - I know we live in a desert - and while our view consisted mainly of cactus and sage brush - look at the blossoms on the cactus -
and the half-dead-infected oak tree - right in front of us - see the little "bush" growing on it's branch - it's mistletoe! Cool, huh!?
Going home - the 60 minute washboard/pot hole dirt road made little Ross sick - but Coby hummed to the bumps & played peek-a-boo!
And for the first time - in probably 30 years, while I was scrubbing dirt from my person - I got a finger-full of soap in my eye! OUCH - I can say that honestly hurt - and if anyone was in the room when I did it - I would have cried like a baby - so to answer the question - if a tree falls in the forest - I mean - if you get soap in your eye - and no one is around to hear you cry....do you? Nope...I bucked up - but ouch. it REALLY burned!
Friday, April 03, 2009
Party at the local grocer....
not kidding..."KIDS - HOP IN THE CAR - LETS GO TO THE GROCERY STORE!!!"
That's what I heard myself saying as I grabbed the camera and made a dash for the car, because last one in the car eats a rotten egg, you know.
I had Ross pick up some pepperoni on the way home from work - he said the grocery store was having a mini-Easter party - Easter bunny will be there & everything.
Who cares...right?
Not me...I mean - how more commercial can we make a religious holiday? I've never been a fan of visiting the Easter bunny ever since they invented an Easter bunny to visit (there wuddin' no Easter bunny in MY day to visit! He was too busy making candy for the hollow eggs to visit kids - plus - it's not like you can TELL the EB what to get you for Easter - 'cept the token church dress and chocolate bunny - plus EB doesn't even talk...DUH!) So there was never a dumber holiday representative to visit than the Easter Bunny - unless, of course, someone wises up and gets a suit for Valentines day - which if they do, I hope it's all glob shaped and pulsing with blue blood and all....but I digress...
Going to the grocery store because they have an 8 hour special - for the next 8 hours, you can get hamburger meat for 88 cents a pound...limit 2...we have to bring the gang so we can get 14 (Coby can't purchase items yet, she'd rather eat the money than give it to the cashier) -
Meanwhile, while I'm shopping, they have a fun little area set up where the kids can decorate cookies.
Yes, I brought the camera. Doesn't everyone bring a camera with them to the grocery store?
The first thought when we walked in was to get all the kids - regardless of their age - or belief in a 7 foot tall bunny with fake fur and a lazy eye to sit by the bunny & take a picture.
Here we take a rare look into their thoughts:
Coby: Yay! It's not Santa Claus!
Ross: I hope no one else notices I'm wearing my jammy bottoms....
Kiersten: I'm on the floor. And they want me to smile.
Brynn: Hippity Hoppity, I'm a bunny rabbit...I have NO idea what this means, but it's a GIANT bunny - and there's a lot of chocolate ALL around him!
Howie: Take the picture so we can decorate cookies.
Kali: Good hare day.
Here's the cookie decorating part of it.
And the best part is that I didn't have a mess in my own house! WONDERFUL!
No, I didn't take a picture of the hamburger we bought.
That's what I heard myself saying as I grabbed the camera and made a dash for the car, because last one in the car eats a rotten egg, you know.
I had Ross pick up some pepperoni on the way home from work - he said the grocery store was having a mini-Easter party - Easter bunny will be there & everything.
Who cares...right?
Not me...I mean - how more commercial can we make a religious holiday? I've never been a fan of visiting the Easter bunny ever since they invented an Easter bunny to visit (there wuddin' no Easter bunny in MY day to visit! He was too busy making candy for the hollow eggs to visit kids - plus - it's not like you can TELL the EB what to get you for Easter - 'cept the token church dress and chocolate bunny - plus EB doesn't even talk...DUH!) So there was never a dumber holiday representative to visit than the Easter Bunny - unless, of course, someone wises up and gets a suit for Valentines day - which if they do, I hope it's all glob shaped and pulsing with blue blood and all....but I digress...
Going to the grocery store because they have an 8 hour special - for the next 8 hours, you can get hamburger meat for 88 cents a pound...limit 2...we have to bring the gang so we can get 14 (Coby can't purchase items yet, she'd rather eat the money than give it to the cashier) -
Meanwhile, while I'm shopping, they have a fun little area set up where the kids can decorate cookies.
Yes, I brought the camera. Doesn't everyone bring a camera with them to the grocery store?
The first thought when we walked in was to get all the kids - regardless of their age - or belief in a 7 foot tall bunny with fake fur and a lazy eye to sit by the bunny & take a picture.
Here we take a rare look into their thoughts:
Coby: Yay! It's not Santa Claus!
Ross: I hope no one else notices I'm wearing my jammy bottoms....
Kiersten: I'm on the floor. And they want me to smile.
Brynn: Hippity Hoppity, I'm a bunny rabbit...I have NO idea what this means, but it's a GIANT bunny - and there's a lot of chocolate ALL around him!
Howie: Take the picture so we can decorate cookies.
Kali: Good hare day.
Here's the cookie decorating part of it.
And the best part is that I didn't have a mess in my own house! WONDERFUL!
No, I didn't take a picture of the hamburger we bought.
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