Strawberry Pickin'

 

Picking Strawberries was on our bucket list this summer.  So, one morning I loaded the kids up and we found a U-Pick berry farm not too far away.  There's something about popping fresh, sun-ripened berries into my mouth that I LOVE.

When we got out of the car we could smell the berries!  Yum.   It didn't take long to fill up these two boxes.  We lucked out with big berries as this particular farm had just opened for picking and wasn't picked over yet.  The kids did most of the work as bending over in the heat 8 months pregnant just isn't as productive as you'd think.

 

 

We came home and made a batch of strawberry freezer jam the first day.  I like to use Certo Liquid Pectin by Sure-Jell and I always follow their recipes from inside the box.  The jars are Ball Plastic Freezer Jars.  I can find both at my local grocery stores or big box stores.

 

We cooked and processed two batches of strawberry peach jam the next day.  The strawberry peach was my favorite of the two.  Next time I'll try raspberry peach.
 

Do you pick fruits with your family?  What do you make with them?  I want to do peaches next summer!  In the mean time, I'm off to make more toast.

Valentine's Party

The kiddos invited a few friends over on Valentine's Day for a little party.  Keeping with my theme for the year {Keep It Simple} I kept it pretty simple. 

First everyone decorated a bag to put their valentines in.  I laid out crayons and stickers...mess free.

They played a few games like Duck, Duck, Goose, Hot Potato and Freeze Dance.  They love these games as much as themed ones I spent time and money making up.

They played Valentine Bingo with candy hearts.  I printed the bingo cards off at Crayola.com. 

My friend, Julie, made cookies even though her kiddos got sick and missed the party.  She makes the best, soft, thick sugar cookies {recipe below.}  She even brought icing and sprinkles and the kids all decorated their own.  Thanks, Julie!

I kept the food minimal as it was after lunch.

I made up a pink punch with raspberry sherbet, pink lemonade and sprite.  I also cut up watermelon and cheese with a heart cookie cutter.  Then I put out a few bowls of candies.  That with the sugar cookies was plenty for these little ones.

Last they exchanged valentines.  I love seeing what people came up with and they loved looking at their valentines and showing them off to their dad when he got home. 

We ended Valentine's Day with sushi and then chocolate fondue.  Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day yourself!

Now for the recipe.  These sugar cookies are soft, thick and have a hint of lemon flavor.  Try them.  You won't be sorry!

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies*

2 1/4 cups sifted flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten well
1 Tbsp heavy cream

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg and then sift again a second time, set aside. Add lemon rind to butter and cream thoroughly. Add sugar gradually and cream together until light and fluffy. Add eggs and cream then beat thoroughly. Add dry ingredients gradually and blend. Chill overnight. Form into balls or roll then cut shapes.  Bake at 400*F for 10 minutes.

*My friend got this recipe from another friend.  We do not know the source.  I claim no rights to this recipe, I just wanted to share it with you.

Caramel Apples

To celebrate the first week of fall we made caramel apples last month.  We ate a couple of them but gave the rest out to neighbors and friends. 

I started with large Gala apples I found at Sam's Club.  I bought wooden round sticks in the craft department from Michael's.  And I melted wrapped caramels in my small crock pot.  It was perfect for dipping.

After I dipped the apples I drizzled them in white chocolate and dark chocolate.  Then they all took a roll in another topping: Snickers, Heath Bar or Nuts.  They are a little messy but they passed quality inspection from my little taste testers.

I wrapped them up and added a tag I made with Shabby Princess free graphics. 

We delivered them to friends, neighbors and the ladies I visit at church.  They were yummy but they sure were messy to make so I won't be making them again any time soon.  I'll just hit up Rocky Mtn Chocolate Factory next time I need my fix.  They've perfected these babies.

Rainbow Party

My kiddos got invited to a rainbow birthday party a few weeks ago and I had to share the cake with you.  My friend made seven layers and stacked them to make a rainbow cake.  LOVED IT!  Everyone oohed and ahhed as they cut it and revealed all those fun layers.  Well done, Samantha!

I love a good theme party so to go along with it I put rainbow colored pony tail holders in my daughter's hair and we painted her tootsies with rainbow colors as well.  

I foresee a rainbow party in my future now!

Best Kiss Party + Contest

I had a Best Kiss Party before I moved but I don't think I blogged about it on here. So, I'll blog about my latest one here.

The kisses are some of the most anticipated and celebrated scenes of many movies. I asked everyone to bring a dvd with their favorite kiss scene and we'd spend an evening in watching the best parts of movies...the long awaited kisses. Last time I did this party in the fall but this time I planned accordingly and bought up "kiss" prizes from the Valentine's Day clearance.

I served popcorn and drinks and asked everyone to bring their favorite movie candy or snack.
We started with some kiss quote trivia. They read quotes about kissing from movies and had to guess what movie they were from.

I had prizes lined up to give away in categories like most romantic, sloppiest, best all around, hottest guy, cutest, etc. In the end we really didn't all agree on the votes and I've since forgotten which movie won which award so I'll just show you the gals with their prizes and tell you which movie they brought.
Melissa brought Sixteen Candles and picked the kiss at the end between Sam & Jake sitting on table (I'm reading the novel If You Were Here right now about a gal who buys "Jake Ryan's" house in the Chicago burbs. If you love John Hughes movies, read it! It is by Jen Lancaster.)
Nikki picked the wedding kiss from Braveheart. Very romantic.
Julie picked the Notebook kiss in the rain. "It wasn't over for me. It STILL isn't over!"
Rachel brought Some Kind of Wonderful where Keith and Watts practice kissing. Love it. Bought the soundtrack just for the song playing when they kiss.
Emily brought Sweet Home Alabama and picked the kiss at the end with the lightning. Loved that movie, too.
Samantha picked Moulin Rouge and we looked all over for a kiss but never found a specific one, but I know they kiss, I've seen it plenty.
I showed several kisses because there are just so many good ones. My top picks were Maid of Honor (where they kiss at her bachelorette party in the bar) and Practical Magic (the kiss at the beginning is so great!) We also watched some kissing montages from Youtube.

My son was so excited when he woke up the next morning and there were prizes left. He picked the lips lollipop which was pretty humorous.
I have a couple of other prizes left and I'm going to mail one of them to you! Leave a comment with your favorite movie kiss and I'll pick a winner on Wednesday the 18th and mail you a prize.

Leprechaun House

When Wal-Mart marked the Wilton Gingerbread House kits down to $1.50 I bought up several. It's an easy, quick thing to make for the holidays and the kids love decorating them. The best part? The ones I bought were assembled (no waiting for wall icing to dry) and the icing was in a bag, ready to use (no mixing!). Could it get any easier?

I saved Halloween colorful candy and other random candy in a big ziplock and pull it out for these moments. This time around we divided up the green and red candy it came with and just used the green.
Then we added some green of our own and some rainbow candy we found as well. We even made a pot of gold out of a mini Reese's and some nerds.
I don't claim to be talented enough with icing tips to make this fancy or beautiful AT. ALL. But, it sure is a fun way to fill an afternoon and have some decor for the holidays. And we never eat ours so I don't care that the candy and the house are old.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

I saw this post last year on Design Mom's blog and thought, "What a great gift idea." But, you really have to plan ahead so it didn't happen last year. I put a reminder on my calender for August to start working on it for this Christmas and my timing paid off. I researched several sites online about making homemade vanilla and took advice from several different sites. The best tips came from the Instructables site. I bought all of my supplies in August. I bought my vanilla beans off eBay. They had better prices than many of the vanilla sites I looked at and even Amazon. Madagasgar, Grade B seemed to be the fav among extract makers as their moisture content is low thus giving a stronger flavor. I bought 8 ounce amber bottles from www.sks-bottle.com and I bought Smirnoff vodka at Sam's club.

Ingredients: vanilla beans, vodka...so simple!
Slice your beans lengthwise then scrape out the pulp with a dull knife.
You can just add the pulp but I decided to chop up the remains of the beans and throw them in as well.
I mixed them up in quart sized jars as everything I read noted that "brewing" smaller batches yielded more flavorful results. It would make more sense just to dump the beans into the vodka bottle but I didn't want to take any chances. I saw many, many different "recipes" for vanilla to vodka ratios. I used about 18 beans per quart jar and that worked for me.
After a good shake. I shook them every day for two weeks then I tapered it off to about once a week and then about once every two weeks. They need to be stored in a cool, dark place and my basement was perfect for that.
Three months later. I read that you can let it brew anywhere from six weeks on but these sat for fifteen.
I strained mine before I poured it into the bottles. You can leave the pieces but it's a little nicer to have a "clean" product when giving it as a gift. For myself, I'd just leave the bits in there to continue extracting the flavor. Don't forget to sterilize your jars or bottles before you fill them!
I designed labels on the computer then had them printed on label paper so I could cut them the size I wanted.
The final product. I'll definitely be doing this again. It's so much less stressful than baking for a week since most of the work is done early and I like to give something a little more original. And it's much yummier than store bought extract!
I gave them out to my neighbors, a few friends and my family. The out-of-town family and friends missed out since they're fragile, liquid and flammable. The USPS wouldn't be too happy with me trying to mail these.