Summer in a Glass

It's when it gets cold that I'm so glad we put up a little bit of food over the summer months. And my favorite thing right now? 

Strawberry syrup.

When I put up strawberry jam, butter and preserves in June I decided to try a bit of syrup too. And let me tell you, my friend- best pantry addition ever! 

Mix it with a little bit of sparkling water and you have summer in a glass. It's the perfect bit of sweet to enjoy with popcorn or while I knit at night.

Peach Canning

In past years I've sort of just dabbled in canning and got a little more serious last year. But the truth at that time was that my kitchen was tiny with very little room to work or to store more than a month or so worth of food at any given time. I canned only small quantities a handful of times through the summer.

We canned a LOT of peaches this year.

First of all, our new kitchen has far more room, making working through a bigger process like canning a much easier venture.


And second? I had a lot of help this time and the process always goes faster when you have great conversation to help pass the time.

We canned about 65 pounds of peaches as peach slices in light syrup, peach sauce, peach jam and peach butter and then split the jars between the 4 of us according to how many pounds each person contributed.

Last Month

 {sign by Ender, for Ellie's door}

{peaches!}

{Strawberry preserves!}

{Baby cuteness!}

Hi.

If I say the last 3+ weeks went by in a blur would you believe me?

I'll give most of the credit to the way time seems to move simultaneously fast and slow when you're getting technically enough sleep but not enough sleep in consecutive hours. Time can be a bit of a foggy and mysterious concept with a newborn.

I can't believe it, but Ellie is already smiling and holding her head up, and trying to push up in a serious way if you put her on her tummy.

She already feels bigger.

Oh my.



It's also baseball season for the boys- 2 nights a week for Brian, 2-3 nights a week for Ender and Ezra once a week.



Oh... and canning. Canning season has begun. I enlisted 3 of my sisters to come over and help (in exchange for yummy canned goods to take home of course!) and we put up a gazillion peaches and strawberries in the last few weekends.... well, they did. I mostly supervised and sat on a bar stool in front of the stove in charge of the stirring.


And don't even get me started on the new syrup obsession...


*Loving* this summer!

Spring/Summer Food

Knitting season is going to slow down for me in the next few weeks- with baby coming and finishing up this school year knitting will slow and we'll start months outside with baseball games and garden time and picnics. Making things never stops, it's just a season full of different kinds of projects.


I always look forward to these next several months where we are able to eat so fresh - from our garden, from the gardens of friends and family and the farmer's market. And my mind has been stuck on spring/summer gardening for the last several weeks as we plan for our new outdoor space.


I warned the boys that our edible garden will probably be small this year (I'm trying to be reasonable here- new baby just as we head into major planting might just be too much for me this year) and that we will be found more frequently at the farmer's market this year. And all they can ask about is when the rhubarb will make an appearance in our kitchen.


I think it's safe to say that the appearance of rhubarb signals the beginning of spring for them in our kitchen, and for me as well. I found myself hunting down rhubarb recipes (both old favorites and new possibilities) in late February and it led to a big list of all the things we want to make this spring and summer.

Favorites:

Strawberry Jam

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Strawberry Lemon Preserves

Watermelon Granita (and made with other fruits as well)

 

  

To try:

Rhubarb Syrup

Rhubarb Cobbler

Grapefruit Jam

Black Raspberry Syrup

Blueberry Butter (maybe substituting some other fruits too for a variety of butters?)

.... And many more planned from Canning for a New Generation and a few other favorite titles.

Strawberry Lemon Preserves

I have to say first that this was the most yummy smelling thing we've made in the last several weeks. My kitchen still smells like strawberries and lemons.

These strawberry lemon preserves were made following a recipe from Canning for a New Generation. I really love this book. Easy to follow directions, recipes organized by season, and it includes recipes for vegetable canning, not just fruit. I have a real thing for cookbooks organized seasonally (Rustic Fruit Desserts got me stuck on cookbooks organized this way) and that makes certain cookbooks trump others in my heart.

Looks like we needed to try to get just a little more foam off the top...

Kristen asked how we were canning our strawberries this year. The plain strawberry jam we canned is freezer jam with a packaged pectin. This is the way we've been making our jam for the last few summers, but I've been reading more about canning without a packaged pectin, and now I'm leaning that direction. The strawberry lemon preserves are the first fruit I've canned without packaged pectin and it was pretty simple.


We have a lot of plans for canning without a packaged pectin this summer, so I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Strawberry Jam

Our kitchen has been quite busy the last few days!

We were finally able to get our hands on some strawberries this past weekend and we took the opportunity to restock our supply of strawberry jam. Last year we made 8 half pints thinking that it would be enough since Ender and I are the only serious jam eaters in the house, but Ezra joined us in the jam eating and we gave a few away... so we ran out around February even after trying to be careful in how we used it.

So this year we made jam plans.

And not just more strawberry jam. We checked out a few different books from the library and I ended up buying Canning for a New Generation. Ender and I have been through that book many many times in the last two weeks and let me tell you- that boy has serious plans.

:: Plain strawberry jam

:: Strawberry lemon preserves

:: Strawberry rubarb jam

... and plans for blackberry and cherries and peaches if we should come across good ones.

We spent Saturday making the plain strawberry jam:

And ended up with 7 half pints and 1 pint, just because I ran out of half pint jars.

Total miscalculation on my part.

We're planning another10-12 half pints of jam from the strawberries because as much as Ender and I love to eat jam I think we love giving it away just as well.

Cake Day

Ezra's celebration is on a weekend, but the real birthday came during the week.

But what's a birthday (or any day ending in "day") without cake?

We made Cake in a Jar right after breakfast,

giving it plenty of time to cool for a lovely post-dinner desert.

Add a little ice cream and sprinkles

(or whipped cream, icing, fruit, jam... whatever you'd like)

and it's your own personal jar of YUM.

At least that's what the new FOUR-year-old calls it.