Paddington might be hunting Strawberry Marmalade!

I've had the recipe marked in my Jam cookbook that has been calling my name for quite a few months. Last week, in an urge to put off doing all that I needed to do to coordinate the "End of School Year" Picnic.....I up and made some Triple Berry Jam.

Strawberries

Boysenberries

Blueberries

All mixed together in a fragrant sugary pot.

Washing the jars in hot soapy water

S was doing her best to take a picture of me skimming off the foam. =)

Fast forward to this week...last week of school, mind you....I managed to remember the ingredients when making my grocery list. I stopped at the Strawberry stand to find that they had 1/2flat of jam berries. After lunch I started processing and figured out that I had just enough to make a double batch of Strawberry Marmalade

Strawberries mixed with a plentiful amount of Orange and Lemon zest and fruit. The citrus brightens the sweet jam delightfully. The handy dandy zester comes from Pampered Chef. I highly recommend it. (The side prongs nicely score a cucumber as well)

The marmalade mixture at first showed the citrus color...as you can see below, cooking made it primarily red.

My efficiency loving side delights in being able to use my 9 qt canner + a towel on the bottom to can all of that jam in one shot.

Oh Paddington....where are you....there's marmalade available!

Caramel Pear Jam, Strawberry Marmalade, and Triple Berry Jam....it's what's in stock. But by far the most fun one to say is....STRAWBERRY MARMALADE.

Thought Question....Dorcus was the only woman raised from the dead. She served her community selflessly. What can I(you/we) do to better serve our community? In the spirit of humility, i don't expect public answers...but take a minute or two or three...PAUSE...and let the Lord speak to your heart. We all have room to grow.

P.S. Kendra - you must be streamlined....20 minutes? Hahahahah! =) Excellent post right there, blogging friends! I've definately caught myself comparing myself to other bloggers. Then low and behold life happened and I got so far out of this that I wondered if I should simply bid everyone goodbye here in blogland. But I didn't...obviously =) Goodnight!

Caramel Pear Butter

This concoction was suggested by my sister Sharon, who pinned the following link on Pinterest. (How are you all liking this Black Hole Pinterest?)  Knit & Nosh recipe location. 

I followed fairly closely to the recipe, substituting only cooked pears for fresh (I had a lot and tend to be a bit of a fresh fruit hoarder...LOVE the stuff).  As far as technique, b/c I had already cooked them, I didn't get the Victrolia Food Mill out of Grandma's garage, but instead used my Bosch blender. 

This recipe chain makes me laugh a little because Knit and Nosh also references the recipe she found and changed to her liking.  I haven't yet tried it in my oatmeal, but it is excellent as apple dip, as well as ELEVATING A PB&J TO NEARLY GOURMET!


Thank YOU, GOD, for pears, and sugarcane, spices, and lemon trees.  You make all things beautifully.  Our creations come only from your MASTER DESIGNED building blocks.  For YOU alone are worthy of all praise. 

Limited Edition as usual - I think I have 8 extra jars. They come with ribbon bedecked and sporting lovely labels for instant gifting =)  Contact me on my Aria Gardens facebook page to order a jar (or 2 or 3)


Hmmm, I only have 1 jar of Apple Butter in my pantry....maybe that will be next?  But, there is also a "Pink Pear Extraordinaire" recipe tugging at my apron strings.....AND THE POMEGRANATE TREE IS RIPENING!  


Well, you know I always have a "thought" Question....Which one WILL I make next? 

And the winner is....

Lindsay and the Beach.  What?  You've never heard of them?  No worries, it's just me smashing 2 posts into one, probably breaking all blogging rules that might exist...Deborah from KS...- can you help me out on that one?

As some of you know, my last rather lengthy post was about Pluots and Jam...and more pluots and jam.  I added a giveaway, will work it differently next time, but hey...learning usually requires experience, yes?  One thing I learned was my ridiculous propensity to misspell giveaway.  But I digress.  You of course... are wondering who the winner is!  

A Lady named Lindsay M...a friend of a friend who liked my page on facebook.  I must say that she makes darling knit fingerless gloves and sells them on etsy, which you can handily link to from here.

Kind of funny how I was mentally rooting for one of my close friends to win.... are we always so biased to those we love?  Probably so. 

Speaking of spending time with those we love; well we were just privileged to spend the weekend at the beach with my Mom and sisters.  It was glorious, even if it did rain on Sun. afternoon.  Ok, well drizzled...David, John, Sarah and Stephen (in the stroller) went with me on my run.  I pretty much ran in slow circles, zigzagged widely, jogged ahead, coming back to meet them.  Stephen is a trooper, didn't act like a little drizzle bothered him in the least!  Felt sorry for the couple that was planning to get married on the beach...the only activity we saw was the music man setting up under a lowdown beach umbrella. 

REJUVINATING

RELAXING

Pretty much everything a vacation should be!   Thanks MOM

I got to run on the beach 2x AND  play FRISBEE with my son and others.  It really is fun when you can start playing "older" games with your children.   

And there is the inspiration for my thought question.....What did you play with your parents when you were a child? 

 

Another semi random thought....if you want to be inspired re: HOSPITALITY...go read about the Shunnamite woman.  It's semi random b/c hospitality is on my mind...it is such a big blessing to both those who recieve it, and those who serve (as long as your heart is right)  Anyways, I believe it to be no coincidence that God led me to read about this amazing lady right before the hospitality opportunity came to my doorstep.  So yes, I will be busy for a few days...make that a week+ - but it will be such a "good" busy =)  

Blessings to you all, thank you for reading and responding to my thought questions.  this really is fun!

P.S.  I f you want an inspiring wonderful humorous motherhood blog to read....meet my friend Kendra.   Like my adjectives, Kendra?  =)

Whoops,...found some more pictures =)  I'm beach happy right now!

Praise the LORD for the OCEAN...there is a special peace there.  Don't worry, I won't go into the fascination diversity of  sea life.  Our God truly is an AWESOME GOD!

In a Jam with my Hobby

I like jam...ok...make that Homemade Jam. Mostly just on bread, but occasionally I've been known to put it in cookies, on a ham, or on ice cream. The boughten stuff doesn't even belong in the same realm.  I think that I've bought a total of 2 jars of grape jelly (for specific recipes) in my eleven years of cooking.  Over the years I've developed more and more of a jam hobby. Normal jam like strawberry, and boysenberry. Different ones like peach pie preserves.  Apple butter, Blueberry lime, and my all time favorite....CHERRY BERRY.  Why is Cherry Berry my favorite?  Boysenberry is great, but add cherries to the mix and great jam turns delectable. Although...Boysenberry has a perfect tartness to it!

Canning jam is just one facet of canning...most of which I enjoy (chicken, while handy, is just boring to can). It took me a while to decide why I got a  thrill out of canning.  Ok, it makes one feel domestic.  But more than that, I think that my semi-fascination with it comes from good memories of Chem lab.  Glass jars, straight lines of beakers, boiling for precise amounts of time, and the ever present journal. Yes, I managed through 2 yrs of Chem.  There is nothing like lining up your jars in straight rows after they come out of the canner.  And the thrill of notating in my canning journal how many jars completed this year compared with last year and then the columns showing how much our family consumed in the last 12 months. The dormant scientist in me wakes.  You see, there are many things I'm not terribly particular about...but my canning journal is kept up to date!   David even gave me a 9qt. canner for my birthday this past year  He knows me well.

So, all this to say, rather unsuccinctly, I like to can jam.  I can jam a lot.  I have tooooooooo much jam on hand.  So, if you would like to help get me OUT OF THIS JAM go to my facebook store site Aria Garden's Facebook .  I will occasionally put up a limited edition sale.  For example, I currently have some CHERRY BERRY and BOYSENBERRY jam available. I enjoy putting cute little labels on the tops of the lids, and if you want to give them as gifts, I will also put a ribbon around the top - Free =)

Cherry Berry Jam - 4 Jars available

Someday, maybe I'll have neat photos of me actually canning the jam, but I'm not very good at that yet...plus sometimes it doesn't seem as though my durable mottled yellow tile is very photogenic...just saying! =)

Boysenberry Jam - 3 Jars Available

Remember, if you are new to this blog.....PLEASE RESPOND TO THE THOUGHT QUESTION!  There will always be one, and it makes blogging so much more fun.  Commenting on my facebook crosspost counts =)

Thought question: which household task; fun or otherwise do you most enjoy? Men, this applies to you as well!

Berry picking at it's Best!