June

I'm backtracking, making a chronology of events.

June was pretty normal. Nothing incredible happened. Nothing tragic either.

Tyler was working for the Utah Board of Pardons on this case. He'd come home a better father each day but filled me with horrific stories of the bio he had to write about this man. Stories that were worse than any movie you've seen.

Here are some highlights of what we did in June:

Playing with Jimmy and Johnny before they left for Alabama. We miss those boys! And their mommy too!


Swim lessons. 4 days a week for 2 weeks. Samuel was a fish in water. Jocelyn, on the other hand, would not get in the pool the entire first week. She eventually overcame her fear of the male teachers and got in but still wouldn't put her face in the water. Needless to say, neither of them "passed" and would have to take the beginning courses again. I don't see why Samuel did not pass but whatever! He had a blast and did learn some useful skills.


The beginning fruits of our labors. Thinning the carrots. Aren't they cute? Too bad they were a little bitter tasting still.


We suspect this is one of the baby robins that hatched from the nest in our apricot tree. It must have been kicked out it's nest by it's mother or was just an inexperienced fledgling that could not get back home. Sadly, it died overnight. I couldn't stay up and feed it all night. Another one was found dead the next day. Such is the circle of life, I suppose.


Then I sewed a lot. Here is an example. Samuel loves sharks. Here he is showing his approval.




And cooked a little. On Father's Day I made a fresh strawberry tart. I made my first pate sucre and it turned out pretty good.





Then my MIL and her best friend, Julie, came out to visit. They helped me make freezer strawberry jam. I had no idea how easy it was! We also had fun talking into the wee hours of the night.

This is a plate of a French inspired breakfast with some of the jam. When Tyler and I stayed at a B&B in the Loire Valley we had beautiful and simple breakfast such as this each morning. Complete with freshly baked croissants and baguettes coupled with seasonal fruit. Lovely!


I was feeling like Tyler and I both needed a date, as it had been a while. So we called up his sister and sent her to take the kids out so we could have a "romantic" dinner at home. I set up the yard and we cooked together. It was a lovely summer night with delicious food and decor. I made the candle votives but they to do not work so well. The wind blew them out too quickly but I still enjoyed the ambiance for a few minutes. Until the earwigs started crawling out of the roses. Dang bugs! And then Tyler was getting mad at me for "taking pictures so you can blog about it!". But I enjoyed it anyway!





Goodbye June 2010!

Domesticated Grapes

I learn a lot from failures. And it feels good with successes. I experienced both with my first canning experience.

The yard we have been blessed with in this current abode brought forth some beautiful concord grapes. A friend in the ward suggested I make grape juice with it using a juice steamer. Luckily, my grandma had one that I could borrow! It was suuuuper easy to make the juice. The jelly, on the other hand, was a little more challenging.

I attempted to make 3 batches. Only 1 was a success.

The first batch, I was using liquid pectin. But in my haste to get started I mis-read the two simple instructions (not one of my strong points to begin with, reading instructions) and I mixed the steps up of when to add the sugar and then pectin. With liquid pectin, you put the sugar in first, then the pectin. With powdered, it's the opposite. So, after reading online, I felt I couldn't continue with making it and saved it for a later use. I tried drinking it and it tasted okay, a little bitter. So I decided to make fruit leather in the oven with it. After baking it for 12 hours, it jelled instead of dried. The pectin did that, of course, I should have known it would gel! I had to throw that out. darn it.

The 2nd batch I used the 2nd packet of liquid pectin. I followed the instructions properly this time, or so I thought. After waiting 24 hours (and now nearly a week) they have not "set" yet. I'll have one more chance to re-make those jellies which means I have to buy more lids and pectin (only to use a tablespoon of it and store the rest of the pectin for a later use). My guess for this failure was that I did not let the juice and pectin get to the proper boiling point before adding the sugar. But that doesn't seem right either because it boiled all over my stove! Sooo, I don't know what went wrong.

3rd batch is a charm! This time I used powdered pectin, to see if there was a difference. This batch turned out perfectly and we've already finished off the first jar. I wanted to give these away for Christmas neighbor gifts but I like it too much to share! Selfish, isn't it? But really, it was so much cheaper to make than to buy it in the stores, and I wanted it for my food storage.

I was happy for days after I made this jelly. I felt so domesticated. It was sort of empowering, like a right of passage into the "canning club." or maybe it was just a great sense of accomplishment. Now I wish I had a huge garden earlier in the summer to can all sorts of things. Though I am still scared to attempt making salsa since that has so many steps and gathering the best produce and recipe is important. Hopefully, we'll be living here next summer and we can plant our own garden and start from scratch!

So here they are, it actually yielded one more jar than suggested (and is in the fridge). To learn more about how to make juice/jelly, go to my Bonne Nouvelle blog and I'll post a how-to and helpful websites there.