Makin’ Some Strawberry Jam

adminLeave a comment

I ended up getting some strawberries picked last Saturday with my daughter and sister.  The berries this year are fantastic!  We had nearly 20 lbs picked within an hour.  We cleaned and ate a bunch on Saturday, made a total of 5 batches of jam (20 pints), and had leftover berries for a pie and frozen sugared strawberries.

Cooking Jam Smells Wonderful!

 

Finished Strawberry Jam

Here’s the recipe I use:

Strawberry Jam

2 quarts strawberries

6 cups sugar

Prepare jars, lids, and rings.

Wash strawberries and drain.  Remove stems.  Crush berries with a potato masher, one layer at a time until mashed well.  Combine the crushed strawberries and sugar in a large saucepot.  Bring slowly to a boil until sugar dissolves.  Cook rapidly to gelling point (This takes about 25-30 minutes).  As jam starts to thicken, stir often to prevent sticking.  When gelling point is reached, remove pot from heat.  Skim off foam.  Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving a ¼ inch headspace.  Apply two-piece caps.  Process 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner, OR let jars cool to room temperature, label, and freeze.

I don’t LOVE making strawberry jam, but I like the fact that I make my own.  I only use two ingredients: strawberries and sugar.  In the picture, notice how dark the jam is?  When you make the jam without pectin, it turns a deep red-purple color.  If you use the powdered pectin, the jam ends up a nice strawberry red color.  Either way, it’s good makin’ your own jam!

Have a sweet weekend!  😀

Missie

Weather…or not

adminLeave a comment

I was supposed to get up early and go running this morning with my sister, followed by some strawberry picking at The Fiedler Farm with my sister and daughter.  However, last night, around 1:30am, it was lightning and rumbling and threatening to storm like mad.  My husband was watching the radar online and the map was a violent rainbow of storm colors.  When I awoke around 6:00am, the radar on my mobile phone indicated we were surrounded by heavy rain and storms and it looked wet and gray outside.  We called off running and strawberry picking just in case.  It never did storm and now it is sunny as can be.  Figures!

Ah well,  I always have enough to do inside the house.  I have overripe bananas begging to be made into muffins or bread, Sock Monkeys to be made, and ever-present household cleaning to  be done.  Hopefully, we will pick berries Monday morning.

Last Thursday, I shared a picture on Facebook of my “baby bump”.  I know, not everyone is on Facebook, and completely respect that.  Here is my picture, for my sweet friends and family who want to know how we are doing, or just get all warm and fuzzy over “baby bump” pictures!

Baby Bump Picture – 21 weeks

Don’t let the rain and hot, humid weather ruin your weekend!  Make it great! 😀

Missie

BBQ Pulled Chicken Recipe

adminLeave a comment

There are days when I am scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook, and don’t look twice at the recipes and food pictures that people share.  Especially when I had morning sickness, those pictures made me green.   Recently, I have been taking notice.

I plan my family’s meals two weeks at a time.  When I make up the grocery list, I use a calendar I print off of the internet from this site: http://www.printfree.com/Calendars.htm  I don’t go grocery shopping until the next two weeks of meals are planned, and I have all of the ingredients I need on the shopping list.  I save those calendars so that when I go blank on what I should make for the next few weeks, I can look back at things I’ve made.  My menu planning has become boring and lame!  I have been in desperate need of new recipes!

I made a recipe last night for dinner called, “Sweet Baby Ray’s Crock Pot Chicken”, from the Facebook page of Dail Stuart.  It caught my attention because my husband and daughter love BBQ chicken and I am always looking for easy crock pot recipes.

BBQ Chicken Breasts in Crock Pot and Sauce

Sweet Baby Ray’s Crock Pot Chicken

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 bottle Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce – Lrg for 4-5 qt crock pot

¼ cup vinegar

1 tsp red pepper flakes

¼ cup brown sugar

1 tsp garlic powder

  1.  Mix together everything but the chicken.
  2. Place chicken in a 4-5 quart crock pot.
  3. Pour sauce mixture over the chicken.
  4. Cook on low 4-6 hours.

When I made this, I used three thawed chicken breasts in a West Bend brand 4-qt crock pot for 4 hours and it turned out wonderfully.  I didn’t serve these as bbq’d chicken breasts, however.  I shredded the chicken and added it back to the bbq sauce.  I served up shredded bbq chicken sandwiches.  The family loved them!  They were moist and tangy with some heat!  (If you don’t want the heat, leave out the crushed red pepper flakes.)

For a printable version of the recipe, click here: Pulled Chicken Recipe – Printable

BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich

 

I am so glad I found this recipe!  I have made pulled chicken before and it didn’t turn out very well.  This was very easy and turned out great!  I wonder what I will add to my recipe collection next!

Have a great weekend!

Missie

 

Done, Done, Done!

adminLeave a comment
Cotton Candy Socktopus – Find it in the Shop! $15.00

9 socks, sewn – DONE!

9 socks, cut out – DONE!

8 legs and a head, stuffed – DONE!

Legs sewn on, face applied, DONE, DONE, DONE!

I have finally completed a Socktopus!  It has been so long and it feels great to have created something new!  Picking out the colors, working my sewing machine, and carefully sewing on those soft, chubby legs.  It’s wonderful to look at it’s sweet  smiling face and be proud of something I’ve made once again.  I almost don’t want to sell it – Almost! 😀

Missie

Patience

adminLeave a comment

Patience is a virtue. I was not a virtuous person today at all!  All I can say is, it is difficult being pregnant and the mother of a teenage daughter all at the same time.  Most days are fine.  Today was not, but most of the conflict was on my part and my crappy hormones.  I’m such a wiener, so here is a picture of me in front of a wiener truck.

image

Tomorrow, I will be more virtuous and less nagging. 😛
Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Missie

The Turtle, Socktopus, and New Carpeting

adminLeave a comment

My family and I have been working hard on getting our condo ready for sale.  My daughter and I cleaned window sills and ceiling fans last Thursday.  I have been detailing certain areas like my kitchen sink and base boards.  I am highly motivated to tackle any little thing that can make a difference in selling our condo.

My Studio is mostly packed up and my husband’s office is now occupying part of my space.  It has all worked out nicely so far.  I don’t do a very good job of finishing organizing things when I start them.  My workspace was in a large space and I was only using about one-third of the space.  So, having my husband move his office into my workspace was really not a big deal.  We did all that moving yesterday.  Up and down the stairs, dusting, vacuuming, and cleaning in general.  I was ready for bed around 8PM.

We had to move my husband’s office up into the loft (my studio), so we could move the living room furniture out for new carpeting.  When we moved in 4-5 years ago, we really liked our condo.  We noticed the carpeting wasn’t perfect, but thought a good carpet cleaning would make a difference.  It did not.  The last owner had dogs, dogs that affected the carpet.  She probably had the carpets cleaned after she moved out.   As we lived in our condo, we added our own spills and stains to the carpet, and the stains of the last owner came up through the carpet as well.  We decided to go the whole nine yards and just replace the gross carpet.

After moving the office furniture out of the old room, it was time to go purchase new carpeting.  We took a sample of the old stuff with us, because we have to match it up with bed room and stairs carpeting that will not be replaced.  We came pretty close on the match-up and think it will blend in nicely.  We were also told, if the pet stains were bad enough and soaked into the carpet pad, they would come up through the new carpeting.  We will need to replace the carpet pad and shellac underneath to seal away the urine stains.

Today, we moved all of the living room furniture into the old office room.  We went to Menard’s to purchase the best rated shellac – B-I-N® Shellac-base primer by Rust-oleum.  We purchased it on sale for about $36.00/gallon.

 

When we arrived home, neighbors warned us of a special visitor close to our front door:

Friendly Neighborhood Turtle

A female snapping turtle comes to lay her eggs in our mulch every year, we were told.  We were all amazed.  I had never been so close to a turtle before!  It was fabulous!

 

My husband wanted to get right at shellacing the floor.  He cut long strips in sections of the room.  When he rolled up the carpeting it was disgusting!  You could see the brown stains that soaked through to the bottom.  I have read before how carpeting is not a healthy flooring option because of the chemicals and the bacteria it traps.  This was a first-hand look at our germy carpeting.  New house must have little to no carpeting, or we will remove it.

Rolled-up Icky Carpet

All this hard work has been motivating me to get back to work on giggleFritz creations.  This morning, while waiting for my sister to pick me and my daughter up for the Farmer’s Market, I got to work on some new Socktopus guys.  I plugged in my sewing machine, got out some socks, scissors, and stuffing and got to work.  I hope to have some guys in the giggleFritz Shop and Etsy Shop soon.

Soon-to-be Socktopus Guys

 

Now it is time for a well-deserved cook out with a bonfire and s’mores!

Have a great weekend!

Missie 😀

 

 

 

Catch Up

adminLeave a comment

Let’s play catch up!

Last Sunday my sister and I ran our first 5K of the year, Silver Lining Boys & Girls Club 5K for Kids.  We ran the whole thing, without walking, in 36min 23sec.  That isn’t a competitive time, but our main goal was to run the whole thing without walking.  We met our goal and are very happy with that!

Missie and Sister (who would kill me if I used her name because she is silly!)

Last Thursday we were at the doctor’s office and had ultrasound pictures done.  We are expecting a girl!  We are very excited and it was so emotional to see all of the pictures of the tiny baby!  She is a silly wiggler baby and we cannot wait to see her in October!

My husband and I have also decided to try and sell our condo so we can buy a house.  We need more room, and even if we don’t sell this year, we need some home improvements anyway.  So, we will be painting, cleaning and replacing carpets, and moving things around.  Not much has been getting done here at giggleFritz and Co. and now I fear even less will be created.  But, it is a short-term break while my family and I handle some important changes.

I am supposed to be cleaning and packing up my work space/studio as I type.  So, I am off to keep that happening.  The sooner we get done, the sooner I can create some more neat stuff!

Have an awesome Monday! 😀

Missie

 

 

GiggleFritz Smores

adminLeave a comment

image

A new snack favorite!  I was craving chocolate and had none on hand. I found half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the ‘frige, poured a mug of milk, and started to throw back some chocolate.  The chips were pretty good, but I started to think deeper. Peanut Butter! But, I needed a crust, so graham crackers were just the thing.  I had three squares of these things, and they were exactly what I needed. I’m sure these are not new to many people, but this is the first time I’ve enjoyed them.  They need a name, not just, “These Things”.  I will call them “giggleFritz Smores”.

                      GiggleFritz Smores
Graham Crackers
Creamy Peanut Butter (I like natural)
Chocolate Chips (I used semi-sweet)

1. Spread peanut butter over crackers.
2. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of peanut butter.
3. Enjoy!

Homemade Chicken Soup Day

adminLeave a comment

Yesterday, I had to pick up my daughter from school, she was not feeling well.  She spent a good deal of time sleeping and trying to feel better.  It was actually a good day to be home sick.  It rained all day long and became cold – perfectly normal weather for Wisconsin in May (heavy sarcasm here).  It was a perfect day for homemade chicken soup.

Homemade Chicken Soup

I’ve been doing more cooking in the past two weeks and it feels great.  It is good to get back to smelling fresh, cut up vegetables and herbs.  The morning sickness was so bad my spice cabinet made me want to retch.  How sad was that!  Back to making soup.  So, I found some frozen vegetable broth and cooked chicken in my freezer, cut up some fresh carrots, celery, and onion, and pulled out some simple herbs and made soup.  Oh, did it smell magical!  The mixed smell of simmering oregano, pepper, chicken, and vegetables made me feel so alive, yet calm.  I was hoping the aroma would help make my daughter a little more cheery too.  Some warm soup, grilled cheese, and an old movie after lunch contributed to a peaceful nap taken by both mom and daughter.  I love it when simple things remedy crappy days and tired souls.

Here is the chicken soup recipe I use:

Homemade Chicken Soup

Prep Time: 25 min                            Cook Time: 34 min

Ingredients:

32oz (4cups) chicken broth

2 cups water

1 medium carrot, peeled and diced

1 medium rib celery, diced

1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges

1 tsp dried majoram, or oregano

1 bay leaf (I don’t use)

¼ tsp pepper (or less)

2 cups cooked chicken or turkey, chopped

1 cup flat noodles, or noodles of choice

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, or 1 Tbsp dried parsley

 

1. In a large sauce pan, combine chicken broth, water, carrot, celery, onion, marjoram, bay leaf, and pepper.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 10 minutes.

2. Increase heat to medium-high; return to a boil.  Add chicken or turkey, noodles, and parsley.  Return to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium.  Cook, loosely covered, 15-20 minutes or until noodles are tender.  Remove and discard bay leaf.

Click here to print or save recipe: Homemade Chicken Soup – Printable

 

Have a wonderful day!

Missie

Lead Poisoning Fun

adminLeave a comment

I was out shopping yesterday.  I had to run a few errands and I stopped at Hobby Lobby to look at their $0.99 McCall’s patterns.  I was looking for a pattern for maternity clothes.  I didn’t find any patterns for the clothes, so I went to look at paper punches that were on sale for 40% off.  I have been making my own tags for craft shows, but I thought it would be less time consuming and look nicer on my products if I would use a paper punch.  I looked a long time, compared prices, bought my paper puncher and went home.

I didn’t have enough time yesterday to use my new paper puncher.  This morning I started to rip open the package and try out the new puncher to make some tags.  As I was pulling the plastic carton away from the cardboard, I noticed a warning at the bottom of the package stating the punch contains lead and can lead to reproductive problems and birth defects.  Well that is just great!  Here I am 15 weeks pregnant and I just purchased a product that could kill or deform my baby, wonderful!

Paper Punch Front

 

Paper Punch Lead Warning

Needless to say, I am mad.  Many people buy these punches to make photo albums and birthday cards.  Are you supposed to wear gloves when using this thing?  Lead can still be transferred to the final product.  I am grateful that someone made The Paper Studio add that warning, but why are we manufacturing these types of products with lead, products that are harmful to ourselves and our kids?  I am fed up with this cheap China crap!  It makes me wonder what else in my house is laden with lead and other chemicals.

Paper puncher is going back to Hobby Lobby.  I have washed my hands thoroughly of lead.  There is no lead poisoning fun!

On to safer projects!

Have a great day! 😀

Missie