Canning Box

During my recent Kitchen Purge, I discovered a lot of stuff in my kitchen that I didn't need at all, as well as items I only need occasionally. A big chunk of the "occasional" items were related to canning, thus my "Canning Box" was born.

I already keep my extra jars and water bath canner in the garage, but I needed a place for all the extras that go along with canning that were taking up valuable space in my kitchen.

Here is what went into the Canning Box: Ball Utensil Sets, Cherry Pitter, bottle brush (great for cleaning jars), Food Saver & plastic rolls, mandolin, new jar lids, extra canning spices, and old dish rags & towels. I think I might stow our Apple Peeler-Corer-Slicer in this box too.

Now I can bring up the box up when I'm canning and easily stash it all away in one place. I rarely need most of these when I'm not canning, but if I do they are still easily accessible in the garage.

Project 365: Week 18

Our good camera was occupied by my husband for a good part of the week, so there are multiple iPhone Pictures this week. 

iPhone Pic

iPhone Pic

iPhone Pic

iPhone Pic

 

Meal Plan Monday

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day! I was a bit tired...my 2.5 year old had a 14-hour day Saturday with no nap + a family reunion. He was way overtired and up almost every hour ALL.NIGHT.LONG! Such is the "joy" of motherhood - ha! He made up for it when he kissed me goodnight and said "Happy Mudders Day". Just too sweet!

Speaking of moms...please watch this HILARIOUS video of "In the Muthahood"

Now that you've had a good laugh, here's what I'm serving up this week in my "Muthahood"

Monday: Lasagna (from the freezer) & Salad

Tuesday: Cookout for my Brother-in-Law's Birthday
Wednesday: Chicken, Broccoli, & Rice Casserole
Thursday: Taco Salad
Friday: Pizza Night!
Saturday: Hot Dogs on the Grill
Sunday: YoYo (You're On Your Own...leftovers, sandwiches, whatever you can scrounge up!)

Check out other weekly Meal Plans at OrgJunkie

Garden Goodness: Freezing Broccoli

This has been an AMAZING year for the broccoli in our garden. Usually we barely have enough to eat, certainly not enough to freeze. However, these year the heads are huge and abundant! This is a picture of the bounty from our first cutting (minus the head and a half my mother-in-law saved for them to eat fresh). 

Doesn't that just look so good? I wish we had smell-o-vision on here because it smells just divine. Yum!

Anyway, on to freezing. I've never frozen broccoli myself, but I always buy the bags of frozen broccoli florets. They work best for how I typically cook, so I knew I wanted to freeze in a similar fashion. I consulted the Ball Blue Book (my personal preserving Bible) for instructions. This was super easy and I was done in under an hour (including the first 30 minutes of soaking in brine & final dish clean-up!). 

First, you chop off all the leaves and woody stems. Cut into manageable pieces that you want to cook with later. Soak in a brine solution for 30 minutes. Rinse. 

Blanch.

Ice Bath.

Spread on cookie sheets (I had enough for 2 cookie sheets!) and freeze. I prefer this method because they are more easily separated than when first put in a bag and then frozen.

Later I'll vacuum seal them using the Food Saver (or you could put them in a freezer Ziploc bag) and they'll be waiting to be transformed into a delicious side dish!

Entertaining Your Kids: Travel Box

Summer vacation season is fast approaching - hooray! Although it's fun to get away, I sometimes struggle with what toys to take with us to entertain the Little Man (when we're not enjoying the sand & water).  I want to take toys that he doesn't get to play with all the time in hopes he won't get bored. I don't want to take big toys for obvious space & packing reasons. So, I tried out a "Travel Box" while we vacationed over Spring Break. 

Any books & toys going with us had to fit in this box (obviously, since the lid is broken I found this around the house, but at least I'm not worried about it breaking in the car with all the luggage). This box gets stored away in the back with all the luggage and can't be opened until we get to our vacation destination. We have the DVD Player and the Toddler Car Bag to entertain us on the road. And snacks...lots of snacks!

So, what's in the box?

I had to pack his favorite book - the "Jesus Book" that we read at nap/bedtime.

I removed the take-along-car mat from the car bag and put it along with Mack in the box. Lots of fun with the Radiator Springs crew!

I found this little felt barn and a pack of animals at the Target Dollar Spot (love that place!) a while ago. I threw in "Baby Tractor" because he was small and fit with the theme.

Take-n-Play Thomas & Dash with the Tidmouth Tunnel.

Squishy Crocodile - Little man's current favorite animal. He loves to eat toes!

Of course, we vacationed with grandparents, so a few things were added to the box during the week...

Like this green motorcycle

Dinosaurs

Play-Doh & a dino sandwich cutter (found in the grocery store) that worked great in lieu of cookie cutters

And a tube of aquarium animals after our trip on a rainy day.

Even with the additions, it all fit for the ride home.

I'd definitely recommend only bringing out one or two sets of toys per day to keep things fresh and entertaining throughout the week (lesson learned...).

I returned the "Jesus Book" to Little Man's room and "Mack" was needed to haul a few Matchbox cars around, but everything else stayed in the box and is waiting for our next out of town trip.

Recipe Review: Strawberry Fruit Leather

We recently visited to our local Strawberry Farm for our annual strawberry picking. Well, it turns out we were there on BARGAIN DAY - yay!!! They picked too many strawberries the day before, so all the day-old pre-picked berries were half-price. They still looked good, so that's what we chose to buy. 

After making 19 half-pints of jam, we still had plenty more berries to use. I didn't want to freeze them, so I looked into making Fruit Leather. I've never done that before, but I was intrigued. Typically it's made in a food dehydrator, but I don't have one so I looked into doing it in the oven. I combined several variations of instructions I ran across here, here, and here, so I'm including what I did below. 

Fruit Leather Recipe

Ingredients

• Strawberries
• Water
• Lemon Juice
• Sugar (optional)

Directions

1. Rinse the berries, cap and quarter them.
2. Place berries in a large covered sauce pot on medium heat. Add half-cup of water for every 4 cups of fruit. Bring the berries to a simmer and let them cook down for 10-15 minutes.
3. Either mash in pot or pour into blender/food processor and work until smooth.
4. If you or your kids are particularly sensitive to seeds, strain through a cheesecloth to remove. I didn't worry about this.
5. At this time, preheat your oven to 120degrees (note: my oven wouldn't go below 170, so that's what I used).
6. Add sugar to taste. I found that 1/4cup of sugar for every 4 cups of berries worked well for us.
7. Add lemon juice. I just did a hefty splash.
8. Simmer fruit until sugar is dissolved and mixture has thickened. About 5-10 minutes.
9. Line baking sheet with butter parchment paper. Pour the fruit mixture onto the parchment paper to 1/8inch thickness. (Typically, about 4 cups of cut fruit will fill one baking sheet).
10. Bake for a LONG time. I saw times ranging from 10-12 hours. Since my temperature was a bit higher, mine didn't take quite that long - probably closer to 6-7 hours. 
11. You'll know it's ready when it's dry. Sometimes the edges were ready before the middle, so I just cut it and let the wetter parts in there so the edges didn't overcook.
12. Cool and peel off parchment paper. I used kitchen shears to cut into ~6inch long x 1in wide strips, then stored 5-6 strips in FoodSaver bags. Others rolled theirs up in plastic wrap - whatever you feel comfortable with. I'm hoping mine won't be stuck together when I take them out of the freezer, but that may backfire - we'll see.

From what I read, it's OK to keep them at room temperature for 30days in an air tight container. If you made a large batch and want to store them for longer (like I did), then they need to be frozen. 

Strawberry Puree before it's dehydrated

Dehydrated and Cooling

Pulls off parchment paper in one big sheet

Then cut into small strips

The fruit leather turned out AMAZING! They taste just like a fruit roll-up (according to my husband). Thankfully this chewy candy is full of fruit and not yucky stuff like high-fructose corn syrup.

Sealed in FoodSaver Bags

Here is a chart of various fruits and how well suited they are to make fruit leather. 

Fruit	Suitability for Fruit Leather
Apples	Excellent
Apricots	Excellent
Avocados	Not recommended
Bananas	Fair to good
Berries with seeds	Excellent
Blueberries	Only in combination
Cherries	Excellent
Citrus fruits	Only in combination
Citrus peel	Only in combination
Crabapples	Only in combination
Cranberries	Only in combination
Grapes	Fair to good
Guavas	Only in combination
Melons	Not recommended
Nectarines	Excellent
Peaches	Excellent
Pears	Excellent
Pineapples	Excellent
Plums	Good
Strawberries	Excellent

Source

We'll definitely be trying out some other flavors of fruit leather as the season continues!

Corn Allergy Explained

I've mentioned before that I'm allergic to CORN and all corn products. 

I would like for you to let that settle in for a moment. 

---

Think about all the foods that contain the obvious corn ingredients like Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Starch, Corn Meal, Corn Oil, etc. There are other corn-derived ingredients, like Xanthan Gum, that I also have to avoid. 

I live in the South, where corn reigns supreme in the form of grits, corn bread, and hush puppies.

I can't eat any of them.

My allergy goes beyond just eating corn.

The smell of popcorn bothers me immensely (sort of like someone wearing a really strong perfume that gives you an immediate headache and makes you feel sick), so I hold my breath as I speed walk through the lobby of the movie theatre and politely ask others not to pop it when I'm around.

I wear closed shoes to the State Fair and dodge all those huge roasted ears of corn that people walk around with and often drop in hopes that I won't get touched by them.

I avoid shaking hands with people who have been eating corn chips or popcorn (lesson learned the hard way when I met our State Governor at a basketball game in college).  

It affects my friends and family.

We don't grow corn in our garden, even though everyone else in the family loves it.

No kisses for my hubby if he's eaten a corn product.

When we have Bunco and other events I'm attending, the hostess tries to plan a corn-free meal (which can be quite challenging and sometimes stressful to the cook).

I have to have my own bowl of salsa (that I eat with potato chips) so that nobody dips their corn chip in it.

---

You may find yourself thinking, "Poor thing!" or "Gosh - what CAN she eat?". At least that's what I hear most often when people find out about my allergy.

Honestly, to me it's not really a big deal. There are no pity parties around here where corn is concerned. 

We've known about this allergy since I was about 2 years old and I've dealt with it. I know what foods to avoid and instinctively do so. It's second nature to me, just like buying Size 10 shoes. 

I usually don't feel deprived of anything because there are plenty of corn-free foods to eat in this world. 

Like chocolate :)

However, one thing that I have a weakness for is fruity candies. They are FULL of corn products which obviously puts them out of my diet. That is sometimes frustrating for me. 

But my frustrations are OVER!!! This weekend I made Strawberry Fruit Leather for the first time.

DELICIOUS!!!

I'll be back tomorrow with the recipe...

Meal Plan Monday

This is sort of a hodge-podge week for us with dinner meetings, unusual plans, family visits, Mother's Day and so forth, but here's our "expected" Meal Plan for the week.

Monday: Baked Rigatoni (thank you freezer meal!)

Tuesday: YoYo (You're On Your Own - Hubby has a dinner meeting, so Little Man & I will wing it)

Wednesday: Pizza (we missed our usual pizza night)

Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner (Hubby doesn't like this, but he has plans so Little Man & I can enjoy!)

Of course we still have tons of lettuce coming in from the garden, as well as broccoli, radishes, and spinach so I'm sure all of those things will be making appearances on our plates this week. 

And just for grins & giggles...these two girls are always nearby while we're in the garden. I just think they are adorable! Maybe I have a warped sense of cuteness, but they are miniatures and really are very cute in person. They are so sweet and love for Little Man (and anyone else) to feed them cookies. Ginger Snaps in case you're curious :)

Don't forget to stop by OrgJunkie for lots of other meal plans.

Project 365: Week 17