Strawberry Kiwi Jam - Yummy

In honor of my newfound canning jar collection I made Strawberry Kiwi Jam last night. The strawberries are ones I froze last summer for just such occasions and the Kiwis were purchased as they don't freeze well and I don't have a good source for Alaska grown ones yet (guess I just might have to grow my own). Unfortunately, I still haven't mastered the art of keeping my fruit from floating but it turned out much better in this batch than in previous ones.

I got the recipie from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jams, Jellies and Preserves which I checked out from the library. I'm really liking this book. It has great recipies that have been tested and idiot proofed (I need that when cooking).

My Kitchen has been Overrun!!!

Ok. I think I'm ready to admit I might have enough canning jars.

I responded to an add on Craigslist from an older lady who wanted to winnow down her collection of canning jars now that she was preserving for two instead of a whole family. For a few dollars I gained all these canning jars and she gained more room for her fabric stash. It's mostly pint jars (several dozen) with a few of the quilted crystal 1/2 pint jars and about 20 quart jars. Since it'll probably be a couple years until we have our garden fully up and running, I probably wont use all these jars right away but it's nice to know I'll have what I need when I need it.

Dehydrator Fun

I recently dug the dehydrator I purchased back when I was in college out of storage and now I can't figure out why I didn't have it out this whole time. I'm terrible about eating my fruits and veggies. However, I will snack on dehydrated apples like they're candy. I was having so much fun dehydrating snack foods I ended up buying a second dehydrator at the thrift store for $5 so I could add the extra trays onto mine and dry more food at once.

Apples I picked up for $0.45 a LB (this is AK people, that price is just short of miraculous). I'm giving the slices a pineapple juice soaking before dehydrating to prevent browning. The apple infused pineapple juice is amazingly yummy after you're done soaking the apple slices.

Laid out on the dehydrator trays.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. My house smells so yummy.

Victory! Apple Chips. I dehydrate the hell out of my apples because I like crisp chips better than the smushy textured dehydrated apples you can get at the stores.

My loot for the last two days. Apples and some carrots that were getting soft for using in soups and taking camping.

The Toy Society

This is the best idea ever! The Toy Society makes small homemade toys and stuffed animals and leaves them in random places for children to find. I am going to have to go through my fabric and find some that will work for toys.

Pretty Wally Hangy Thingy

(Yeah, I'm weird. Live with it)

The last few weeks I've been worried about one of my favorite little stores. Good Karma is a wonderful little store run by a young couple. It has such a happy vibe. They both work at the store so they can spend time together as a family and I've watched their daughter grow from an infant into a toddler. They have great ritual supplies and the best essential oils made by local artists with intent. Since mid January every time I've driven by their lights have been off and the store has been closed. They are a small niche business so they usually operate month to month and I was worried that something happened and they went out of business.

Last week Honey and I stopped by one more time crossing our fingers and hoping they would be open. They were. Kinda. The store was lit by candles and they were having a candlelit sale. Apparently, there were some family related financial issues and in taking care of what had priority they were unable to pay the electricity for the shop (But they are still open and will have the electricity back soon!). Honey and I decided it was worth a little spending spree that we would normally not indulge in to help out one of our favorite little shops...Hence the pretty wally hangy thingy...

I've always really liked this wall hanging when they had it in the store but I try not to buy things new unless I have to. Fortunately, the circumstances allowed me to finally own it without feeling guilty for needless spending. Each part is a different Sabbat. You could use them separately or hang them all at once like I have. My MIL got us the copper pentacle in the middle for Christmas (I really did luck out in the MIL department). We performed a little house blessing and protection ritual before we hung it.

The hanging for Imbolc. So pretty.

I also got several new essential oils, a little cauldron, 3" pentacle for our portable altar box, and honey got a nice metal pentacle plaque to replace the resin one he was tricked into buying online (they said it was clay). If you have a chance, send some positive energy toward this wonderful little store and the family that runs it.

My Card is Here! Happy Dance! My Card is Here!

My Card for the Imbolc Art Card Exchange came! I've been eagerly awaiting its arrival since I sent off the one I made last week. Tami made my card and it is absolutely beautiful. The picture on the front is from a painting she made for her daughter's room. The sun on the inside is from a stamp she carved and she wrote the poem just for me :) I hope Jen over at Chasing Domestic Bliss does this again because it was wonderful fun (hint, hint) but we wont pester her too much about it since she's pretty busy with other projects as well.

Perserverance Pays Off - The Tale of a Food Mill

Last fall my Mother In Law taught me how to make jam and can it. One of my favorite parts of the whole experience was the feeling on connection and tradition that it carried. She taught me like her grandmother had taught her. We used a food mill that her grandmother had given her and had been in turn given by her mother. I loved it.

When I left that day, she gave me the food mill she'd bought before she inherited the family food mill. Unfortunately, it was cracked. She hadn't used it in so many years it had been shoved aside in storage and somehow gotten cracked. We tried to fix it but the first time I tried to use it the crack got bigger and the bowl broke. :( Poor little food mill. I salvaged the bottom pieces with the various sized holes and the metal crank part that pushes the fruit through the holes and put it into storage with my canning supplies for next summer. Throughout the winter, as I slowly gathered my collection of jars for next years canning season from the thrift stores I kept my eyes out for a new (used) food mill.

A couple months ago I found a metal food mill bowl and crank with no bottoms for a couple dollars. I was so excited and brought it home in the hopes I could use the bottoms from my MIL's food mill and make it work. They didn't fit. Now I had two incomplete food mills :( This Monday I found a food mill bowl at the thrift store without any of the other pieces ($0.99). Why not give it one more try? I brought it home. The bottom pieces from the first food mill fit but the crank is too wide for the bowl. The crank from the second mill fits the bowl but the bottom is a little too big for the opening in the bottom pieces of the first food mill. Enter handy-dandy honey (he is going to hate me calling him that) who was able to take a metal punch and make the holes just a little bit bigger so all the parts fit together. Now I have a food mill made from the parts of three food mills :) Am I weird that this situation just tickles me pink? Plus my "new" food mill is still using an element of the food mill my MIL gave me so I get to keep the family connection going. Eventually I might find the parts to fix my other incomplete food mill and pass it on to someone else and keep the chain going.