Bam Bam Ball

Here are some pictures of Rebecca in action at Bam Bam Ball from Saturday.

Strawberry Update

We also made pie! YUM!

Strawberry Freezer Jam

I've been finding it hard to keep up with the strawberries in our garden this last week! I guess that's not a bad problem to have, but with so many strawberries I've been looking for good ways to use them all. So I attempted for the first time to make freezer jam.

I cleaned about 6 or 7 cups of strawberries and let Rebecca smash them with the potato smasher - she had fun! I had to do a little math to figure out exactly how many cups of sugar and pectin I should use with the amount of berries I had. After I mixed the berries, sugar, and pectin, I let it set for 30 minutes like the directions said. I didn't think the jam was setting up very well (my berries were VERY juicy) so I added an extra table spoon of pectin to each jar. Then after another 30 minutes the jam seemed to be a little more set.

The taste of the jam is great! It tastes like strawberry puree, which is fine by me. I'm not going to post the recipe because I really didn't follow one very closely. I just followed (roughly) the directions on the fruit pectin container, which called for berries, sugar, and pectin - easy!. Here are the containers I froze.

What is your favorite thing to do with fresh strawberries? I'm going to have a lot more in the next few days!

Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend was filled with lots activity. On Friday my sister Grace, her husband Doug, and 5 of their 6 kids can to our house. A few hours later, Grace and I abandoned our husbands (with all the kids) and drove to St. Louis to spend a few days with our younger sister Rachel. I don't have any pictures from St. Louis, so I will save the details of that for another time when I got a few pictures from Rachel.

Back at our house the kids had a great time hanging out on the farm. One of the highlights of the weekend was Jake finding a salamander in the window well of our house. It was their "pet" for a few days and everyone had fun watching it. I've gotten accustom to all the frogs around our house and pond, but I had no idea there was also salamanders around - a little unsettling, but I guess they are rather harmless.

Jake with the salamander.

Rebecca, Joanna, and Jake with the salamander and two frogs.

Olive Garden Breadsticks

I found this recipe a while back and tried them last week. They were a big hit and I will definitely make them again. Mine weren't quite as light and fluffy as the restaurant's, but they tasted was great. I don't make yeast breads very much because of the time it takes, but these bread sticks only take a little over an hour from start to finish - not bad.

Olive Garden Bread sticks with whole wheat pasta and meat sauce.

Olive Garden Bread sticks
3/4 cup warm water
1 1/8 tsp. yeast
2 1/4 flour
1 Tbs. butter, melted
1 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt

Begin by dissolving the yeast in the warm water. Add butter, salt, and sugar. Add the flour and mix until combined. Knead a few times. (My dough was very dry and I had to add a little more water.) Cover dough and let rest for 45 minutes.

Mix together 1 Tbs. melted butter, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. garlic powder and set aside.

Shape dough into 8-10 bread sticks and place on a greased pan. Bake at 400 for 7 minutes.  Remove from oven and brush each bread stick with butter mixture. Bake for 8 more minutes or until lightly browned. Brush the rest of the mixture over the bread sticks. Serve warm!

Granola

Here is the granola recipe that my mom makes. I think this is only the second time that I've made it, but I have no idea why? It's so easy and good - I should really make it more often.

Granola
6 cup quick oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup dried milk
2/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup oil

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine honey, oil, water, and vanilla. Pour over dry mix and stir until everything is evenly moist. Divide granola into 2 baking pans and bake at 325 F for 45 minutes, stirring after every 15 minutes.

Let granola cool and store in an air tight container. As it cools is gets crunchy and will clomp together - just break it apart carefully. This granola is great with milk, yogurt, and even ice cream :) Enjoy!

Water Play

Rebecca LOVES to play with water. Ever since she was a baby, she has loved bath time and now that she is older, she loves to play in the sink and with the water hose outside. I've let her "wash" dishes a few times in the kitchen, but the water overflowing the counters and floor is enough to drive me crazy. So this winter after she had flooded the kitchen yet again, I decided that when in warmed up I would build her a water table for outside. That idea evolved into an "outdoor kitchen" concept. And this is what I built her this week. 

Pretty great right?! I was impressed with my mad skills too *wink* *wink*. I used the miter saw, the circular saw, and the electric drill all by myself. The wood I used was what we had in the garage and we've had that blue tub for so long, I don't even know where it came from. So this project cost me nothing except a little time. I have to give some credit to Dan too. He cut out the top hole where the blue "sink" drops in. The deck needs to be stained again this summer, so I will give the kitchen a good coat of stain too.

It's a big hit! Many hours of fun for Becca!