Thursday, June 30, 2011

#2 - The Jam is the Jam!

1. Host mah jongg night.
2. Make jam.  (Done!)
3. Host brunch. (Done!)
4. Go for a picnic. (Done twice!)
5. Go grocery shopping on my bike.
6. Finish my year-end photo albums.
7. Take Fred to Lost Lake.
8. Rearrange the backyard.
9. Eat at the Space Needle.
10. Stay in bed all day.  (Done!)
11. <edited for privacy.>
12. Have a really girly slumber party.  (Done!)
13. Play a round of mini-golf. (Done!)
14. Get the craft room sorted and gorgeousified.
15. Go for a weekend in the San Juans. (Done!  Orcas at Memorial Day!)
16. Have an individual date with each NGS.
17. Go for a hike.
18. Plan and cook a week’s worth of dinners.
19. Go to Portland to see old friends.
20. Perfect a signature recipe (one slightly more nutritional than Bundt cake.)
21. Go to the drive-in movies.
22. Get a mani-pedi every month. (Done for Jan, Feb, March, April and May)
23. Go ice skating. (Done!  Colorado with the parentals!)
24. Find the perfect shade of lipstick.
25. Host a big tea party in the back yard.
26. Make a quilt top.
27. Take six dance classes of any kind. (THREE down.  Love the Little Red Hen.)
28. Ride on a Ferris wheel.  (Done!  Puyallup Spring Fair!)
29. Organize our finances and filing system.
        30. Plan an awesome 30th birthday party.

For this item on the list, I recruited the help of my good friend Stacy.  Stacy is a rad gardener, an amazing cook, and a bitchin' canner to boot!  She blogs over at www.seattleseedling.com and if you don't already follow her blog, go do it!  

She brought over her water bath canner and we set about to make jam.  I had gone to the fruit stand in Ballard and had picked up these gems:
 
 Locally grown, even!  
 
 So beautiful!  The peaches aren't local yet, but they were $2 a pound.  Speaking of fruit bargains, I went ahead and got some of these too:
 
 Because as far as I can tell, cherries are one of the best things about living in the Pacific Northwest.  (FYI, Seattleites, these were $3 a pound!  Hie thyself to the Top Banana fruitstand and you can thank me later!)

So as far as I can tell, the hardest part about canning is preparing the fruit.  Peeling and chopping is time consuming, but do it with a friend, its fun!
 
 Stacy, cutting peaches!  The summer has finally come to Seattle and it totally waltzed right into my kitchen with all this fabulous fruit.  I prepped the strawberries:
 
 All done and beautiful!
 
 Into the pot goes: 
5 c. crushed strawberries
1 package No Sugar Needed pectin
1 c. sugar (I know, but I like sweet things) 
1 c. water.

The process goes something like stir the fruit continually until it boils, then boil it for one minute.  Meanwhile, heat the jars, boil the lids, remove the hot jars without touching them, fill the jars with hot jam (using a handy jam funnel!), put the lids on, screw the rings down finger tight, and then boil them in a water-bath canner for ten minutes, let them sit in the water for five, take them out of the water bath canner and set them on the counter and listen for the fun "pop!" of sealing lids.  But I don't want anyone to quote me on that and then get botulism, so if you're trying to can, go get the Ball Canning Cookbook, or "Canning and Preserving with Ashley English" and read up before you do it. 

We decided to do strawberry first.  Here goes!
 
Stir stir stir!

(The green blur is my sexy elbow bandage, I had a Ke$ha-induced running accident in the morning before jam-making.)  Anyway, the continual stirring is important.  Then...


Jam funnel is awesome!
 
Teamwork!
 
Yay jam!  
When these puppies came out of the water bath and started sucking down like real jam, I was ecstatic.  Jam, just like that!  It really only took an hour, so we forged on towards peach jam too.
 
So pretty!

Again, stirstirstir!
And voila!  Just like that, peach jam!  One last glamour shot of the fruits of our labor?  (Pahaha!  Sorry, I had been resisting the pun this whole post, it finally got the better of me.)
 
So, this whole endeavor took from 3 to about 5:30.  A really satisfying two hours.  We netted 11 jars of jam, 6 strawberry and 5 peach.  Things I learned about making jam:


1.) Making jam is about 15 times easier and more fun with two people.  Do not attempt as a solo mission, especially since the urge to re-read the directions may overtake you at any moment and someone has to be stirring!
2.) If you have extra fruit cut, throw it in.  We had about 6 cups of sliced peaches and only put in 5.  I think the pectin could have handled 6 and we would have gotten that last jar filled.
3.) "No Sugar" can just mean "Low Sugar".  The sugar-full recipe from the Ball Cookbook calls for 6 cups of sugar!  If you make six half-pints of jam, that's a cup of sugar in every jar.  If your fruit is sweet enough, hopefully you won't need it.  I'll report back on whether or not this jam is too earth-mothery and not sweet enough, but I sense that it will be delicious.
4.) The jars are supposed to sit on the counter for 24 hours covered with a towel and not be disturbed.  The best part of making jam is hearing the whoosh of the sealing jars.  The worst is waiting to taste the delicious fruits of your labor (there I go again!  I just can't help it!)

So there you have it, a jam-making extravaganza!  A million thanks to the lovely and helpful Stacy who took most of these pictures.  Stacy took home a jar of each of the jams and she sent me this final hilarious photo of trying to get them home without disturbing them:




You know it has been a good summer day's work when you come home with a cupholder full of jam!  Yay jam!  Thanks Stacy!



 

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

#12 - The Girls Rock it Out

1. Host mah jongg night.
2. Make jam.
3. Host brunch. (Done!)
4. Go for a picnic.
5. Go grocery shopping on my bike.
6. Finish my year-end photo albums.
7. Take Fred to Lost Lake.
8. Rearrange the backyard.
9. Eat at the Space Needle.
10. Stay in bed all day.  (Done!)
11. <edited for privacy.>
12. Have a really girly slumber party.  (Done!)
13. Play a round of mini-golf. (Done!)
14. Get the craft room sorted and gorgeousified.
15. Go for a weekend in the San Juans. (Done!  Orcas at Memorial Day!)
16. Have an individual date with each NGS.
17. Go for a hike.
18. Plan and cook a week’s worth of dinners.
19. Go to Portland to see old friends.
20. Perfect a signature recipe (one slightly more nutritional than Bundt cake.)
21. Go to the drive-in movies.
22. Get a mani-pedi every month. (Done for Jan, Feb, March, April and May)
23. Go ice skating. (Done!  Colorado with the parentals!)
24. Find the perfect shade of lipstick.
25. Host a big tea party in the back yard.
26. Make a quilt top.
27. Take six dance classes of any kind. (THREE down.  Love the Little Red Hen.)
28. Ride on a Ferris wheel.  (Done!  Puyallup Spring Fair!)
29. Organize our finances and filing system.
        30. Plan an awesome 30th birthday party.

This might have been the most fun item on the whole 30 Before 30.  I knew that this one would probably be awesome, but it turned out even better than I had hoped.  A million thanks to all my fabulous ladies who came, I treasure snorting SoCo out my nose with you so much more than you can imagine.

So, #12 was "Host a Girly Slumber Party".  I sent out an evite, rented "the Parent Trap", and bought burgers and chips and adult beverages.  (A.K.A. It was a cinch, in case any of you are pondering hosting a girly slumber party in the near future.  Fear not the party of large prep, because this one is hostess kindergarten.)  The ladies came, toting sleeping bags, pjs and nail polish.  First order of business was to celebrate the fantastic porch!  I made peach frappes from a recipe I discovered in Better Homes and Gardens this month.  (When Better Homes prints a recipe that involves booze, you know it has to be good.  This one involves peaches, ice and Southern Comfort.  Getchasome!)  The new porch is fantastic.  It only has a temporary floor right now, so I haven't posted about it yet, but it is THE spot for relaxing in the evening.  I'm excited about it already. 
 From left to right, my fantabulous friends Libby, Sheila, Paula, Krystal and Mallory.  Not pictured are the fabulous 'Styne and Jill who rolled in as the second shift of party people.  


Next order of business was dinner, followed closely by nail painting, gossip, playing Apples to Apples and general hilarity.  For any gentlemen who may be reading this blog, this is what slumber parties look like.   

 
Rainbow of polish courtesy of Sheila.
Sheila is stoked to be getting her nails did!
 
My lovely friend Paula took most of these pictures, including the artistic color-select shot above, highlighting Krystal's toe separators.  They spell out "sexy".  I am pretty sure it is not possible to, in fact, BE sexy while wearing toe separators, but perhaps they are exhorting you to greater efforts.

I had some fantastically girly flowers for the occasion (which look oddly gothic on color-select, but were really lovely.)  Then some hilarity with shower caps ensued.  Yeah, search me.
 
Lovely, K-star, lovely beret.


Mal-dawg and K-star are crushing the shower cap fashions of '11, don't you think?

The real meat of this slumber party can really be summed up in the photos below.  I'm pretty sure Libby was recounting a story involving watermelon juice and coffee, but it doesn't really matter.  The point is that when girls get together, sometimes we laugh till we snort, and that is the good stuff. 
I mean really, what IS there to say about these?  They really speak for themselves.  I can't remember the last time I laughed until the tears rolled down my cheeks, but this time was amazing.  This laughing situation happened like three times that night, which is why I heart my girls AND I heart slumber parties.

After these photos, we played Apples to Apples, gossiped, had a topless pillow fight and stayed up giggling till 2.  (OK, we didn't really have a pillow fight, but I just had to throw a bone to any guys still reading.)  In the morning, we ate Bundt cake and bacon, and had mimosas on the back porch in the sunshine.  I was so busy having fun I totally forgot to take any pictures at all, so thanks to my amazing friend Miss Paula, who made sure at least part of the fun was immortalized.  Ladies, thank you so much for helping me make #12 a thing of legends, it was awesome.  Watermelon juice, pahahaha!



Sunday, June 26, 2011

Peonies!

Can we take a moment off of the 30 Before 30 and the house renovation to talk about flowers?  I love flowers but one of my favorites is peonies.  The peonies this year have been awesome. 

First I had these ones, gracing the picnic table at Help Us Put Up The Porch day.  (More on that later.)

Then I had these in the kitchen, adorably complimented by some candle holders given to me by the delightful K-star.


 
Then for our anniversary, the husband surprised me with these.  How amazing are these?


So beautiful.  And they smell just like roses





That giant bouquet was actually commemorative of another bouquet I loved.  About a year ago this week, I had this beauty:
 
You wanna see it again?  Oh ok...
 
So maybe those were my favorite peonies.  When I said I wanted peonies, the florist said she ordered them from a local peony grower and that I could actually pick out my own here: http://peonyparadise.com/ and that she would order them to be at their peak.  Love locally grown of course, but best of all, I could order rootstock from the very peonies that I had on my wedding day!  I ordered six pieces of rootstock and tossed them in the ground late in the fall.  I was nervous that they wouldn't come up at all but look!


I think this one is called "My Love".  Awww.
 


I think this is Mrs. FDR
 
And this one is "Candy Heart". 



I love that I get to see the flowers that I had on our wedding day come up over and over again.  Yay for early summer and good memories.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

#13 - Mini Golf Fantasticness!

1. Host mah jongg night.
2. Make jam.
3. Host brunch. (Done!)
4. Go for a picnic.
5. Go grocery shopping on my bike.
6. Finish my year-end photo albums.
7. Take Fred to Lost Lake.
8. Rearrange the backyard.
9. Eat at the Space Needle.
10. Stay in bed all day.  (Done!)
11. <edited for privacy.>
12. Have a really girly slumber party.
13. Play a round of mini-golf. (Done!)
14. Get the craft room sorted and gorgeousified.
15. Go for a weekend in the San Juans. (Done!  Orcas at Memorial Day!)
16. Have an individual date with each NGS.
17. Go for a hike.
18. Plan and cook a week’s worth of dinners.
19. Go to Portland to see old friends.
20. Perfect a signature recipe (one slightly more nutritional than Bundt cake.)
21. Go to the drive-in movies.
22. Get a mani-pedi every month. (Done for Jan, Feb, March, April and May)
23. Go ice skating. (Done!  Colorado with the parentals!)
24. Find the perfect shade of lipstick.
25. Host a big tea party in the back yard.
26. Make a quilt top.
27. Take six dance classes of any kind. (THREE down.  Love the Little Red Hen.)
28. Ride on a Ferris wheel.  (Done!  Puyallup Spring Fair!)
29. Organize our finances and filing system.
        30. Plan an awesome 30th birthday party.

Hey guys!  Sorry for the long separation between posts.  I've been too busy living life to blog about it!  What have I been doing?  A little bit of this and that.  A combine demolition derby!  Whaaa??  Yes, its true. Here's the before shot:

Yes, those are old wheat combines, ready to tear each other apart.  I passed out from excitement and forgot to take an after shot, but you can imagine.

Then we had our first anniversary!  I looked pretty much like this the whole weekend:
Yes, that is pink champagne in a can people!  With a bendy straw!  Life does not get much better than that.  Unless its this:
Awww, our first anniversary.  Yay newlyweds.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to.  But this post is really about the fantasticness of crossing #13 off the list!  My dear friend Miss Paula asked me if I would like to go mini golfing with her (and cross of 1/6th of #16 at the same time) and of course, I accepted!  Who would turn down a brilliant idea like that??  Even better, it turns out at this particular mini-golf location they serve adult beverages.  Bonus!  I was very excited about that: 
Safety takes no holidays.  Here's me, looking totally pro and teeing off for the first hole.
Ok, maybe a little tooo excited about that adult beverage.   The next 17 holes were pretty much complete hilarity.  We recorded the fact that Paula's ball matched her pedicure.  Go Dawgs!

Pretty soon there we turned into the Bobsey Twins and tried to solve a mystery!

Then Paula played some putter air guitar:

Then I had a ridiculous shot that totally should have been a hole in one.  No amount of blowing would get it there.

Sadface.  My favorite progression of the day?  Here's Paula teeing off...
 
Wait for it..wait for it...
Hole in one!!  No kidding.  Go Paula!

I lost the scorecard in a tipsy moment of confusion but somehow kept the hot pink ball which is now proudly residing in a piece of milk glass at my house.  Yay for mini golf and fun times!  Thanks to Miss Paula, for helping me brush up on my putter skillz and cross off #13!