canning frenzy

Here is the long and short of my canning history - I can remember being in the kitchen helping both my mother and grandmother bottle fruits, juices and jams.

Last year i bought a box of peaches that were divine. I quickly tried to round up canning equipment to bottle up this goodness but this consisted of asking around to family and co-workers with no luck. So I ended up cutting up the fruit and freezing it. Unfortuneatly the fruit browned a bit and got freezer burn and wasn't very good.

Fast forward to this year. In the middle of september i went to Idaho for much needed mom and sister time. My sister had visited some farms/orchards with some people in the ward and when i got there she was in the middle of canning peaches and pears. It was fun to help out as an adult and i realized that it is not that hard.

I may have mentioned that i joined a food co-op and my first week they had an "offering" of boxes of pears. I decided to take the plunge head first into canning and i bought a box. After i bought the box, i looked around to grocery stores and such buy the equipment. I didn't find what i was looking for so i go to my trusty source - amazon.com. I order the equipment on line. Meanwhile my pears are really getting ripe. So i turn to the internet for solutions. I read that you can bottle fruit without the big pot and rack, without the special tongs that fit around the tops of bottles but it is not so easy. I ended up using my (small) stock pot and putting down 2 washcloths inside the bottom to use as my rack. It was a hot sticky mess but i managed to make spiced pear jam, bottle a few pints of pears, blackberry jam, raspberry jam and wait you say, what happened to the canner that was supposed to be coming in the mail - i didn't do all of this in 1 day. After a week after it was supposed to arrive, i called the company and it turns out they didn't have any stock. So it wasn't until after i called and said something that they refunded our money. I ordered another canner through another vendor and i am happy to say that it arrived. Meanwhile the co-op had another offering of Honey Crisp apples. Those are my favorite apples and are pretty expensive at the store so i bought a box. So with my box of apples and my canner, i made lots of applesauce. yumm!

lagging behind

I just told my good friend Jessamy that i have a blog and so i figured that i should maybe update it a little.

To be honest, i haven't posted in awhile because the post that i have been mentally writing has been about how much i dislike the state i reside in. (i could even use the H-word) It has been a painful fall. (if you can call it that) Usually, starting with my birthday i am in a state of bliss. I love the changing of the seasons that starts in September and goes through December. I won't elaborate because it depresses me. But here are a few facts. I like cold weather. I love the color black - especially clothing. I love sweaters, I love wool and tweedy type fabrics. I love scarves. I like layering clothing (going back to i love sweaters) I love lots of blankets on my bed. What is Halloween trick or treating in 90+ degrees? CW went water skiing with his friends on Saturday November 1st. But i would say that finally with in the last week it has cooled down. This past week i have noticed that when i leave the gym at 6:00 in the morning it is actually cooler outside then it is inside. (not to give you the false impression that i actually go to the gym on a regular basis or that i am in any type of shape whatsoever except out of shape) I really have to end this now as i am going to get hostile and/or start crying. The next time i have something to say, it will be positive. i promise.

first friday

Things have been slowing down lately at work and they had to lay off a girl. It was a sad thing. Now our office is down to 4. They also went down to a 4 day work week. We are closed on fridays. It is a good and bad thing. It is always bad when you make less money. I was freaking out. I actually got a job as a seasonal worker at anthropologie. Not that i would actually earn any extra money that way- in fact i would probably loose more money then i make. Plus they started me off at a lower wage then i wanted and wanted me to work a couple of full sundays, 8-5 for training. No thanks. Things aren't that bad. So today is my first friday off. I finally got around to doing that thing that i talked about. I roasted cantolope seeds. I read that the taste is "huskier" then pumpkin seeds. Well i roasted them and think they are about the same as pumpkin seeds only more husk and less seed.

following up

(Michelle this one is for you) I went to walgreens with my list and coupons and bought 2 Bertoilli dinner things and 1 thing of Breyers ice cream to get $5 in register rewards. The deal is when you buy $15 of a few things then you get a coupon thing for $5 dollars to spend the next time you go to walgreens. So here i was, after work and i went through the register and nothing printed up. So i asked the cashier what happens when it doesn't print up and she called the manager. She called the manager over the loud speaker and i at this point was ready to tell them to forget about it. I turned as the manager walked over to see my worst nightmare come true. There were 12 people in line behind me. I counted. The manager did a return and gave me $5.42 cents cash so i walked out spending $13 something for a bunch of stuff. I can't tell you exactly what but 20 minutes later, after i got over my embarassment, i was happy with my deal.

Next up is what am i doing with all of my produce from my bountiful baskets order. Well yesterday i made pomagranate vinegrette. I didn't have cheesecloth to strain the seeds of the fruit out of the vinegrette so i went to my vast ( i am not being sarcastic) fabric collection and found a loose weave piece of linen and strained it through that. It worked pretty well. It was good but it tastes really similar to the salad dressing that you can buy in the store with the picture of the strawberry on it.I don't know if it was worth the effort. Tonight i made banana bread. It was really good. I tweaked the recipe a little bit and used half whole wheat flour. I used brown sugar and left out 1/4 cup. With all the bananas i didn't use any oil. I did use some butter but not that much. It was pretty tasty. I have a bunch of cherry tomatoes that we will never eat so i found a recipe online to dry them in the oven with garlic and olive oil. You can store them for longer and toss them into salads or add them to pasta. I cut up all of the tomatoes and then realized that i didn't have any garlic. I will get some tomorrow. I will let you know how that turns out. It looks like Meat[loaf] is back on the menu boys! (i saw lord of the rings way to many times) I am going to make meatloaf tomorrow. We have red potatos and green beans that we need to use up and CW likes meatloaf. No wonder why i can't loose any weight. Finally the other thing that i am going to try is a surprise. It will be interesting to say the least. I will let you know how it is and what it is tomorrow. ciao folks!

Humble pie

Here is the mish-mash post of the day.
*Restaurant review*
Humble-pie is a great place to eat but not so great on the pocket-book. It is right around the corner from my office and the $11 price tag on one of the best caprese salads for lunch doesn't cut it. So if the boss pays (good thing it is their favorite place as well)i won't say no. But this is no way to start a review. One of CW's co-workers brother in law owns the joint not that you care or does it matter. It is located in a strip mall but a pretty up-scale one at that. I regularly see Bentleys and the like parked here. It happens to be in the same strip mall that the starbucks i regularly frequent is located - for da boss. Anyway so it is a one room place with a few chairs on the patio. I would say that the decor is nothing special. It is nice but not fantastic. They have pizzas which are good - hence "humble pie" but are specialty pizzas. If i order pizza, i usually get the margarhita. Their steak salad is good but the dressing- a mustard, caper vinegrette is almost to die for. The fries have too much cheese garlic parsley stuff which is good because i don't need to eat fries. But i have to say the best of 'em all is the Caprese. Before i worked at my current job, i had the salad once or twice but a co-worker of mine loves it and so i think the whole office now eats it a lot more. So instead of your typical tomato and mozzarella slices with balsamic vinegar and oil, it comes with roasted small tomatoes on the vine with a glob of their own buratta cheese. Drizzled on top is olive oil and almost a balsamic vinegar syrup or reduction sauce with pesto on the side. yumm! so if your boss is paying- i suggest going. It is well worth it.

I realize that i am sort of hit and miss with this blog thing. I always thought that my life wasn't interesting enough to blog about and i would start when i had a kid or two to talk about. So in anticipation of that I started. Well since that sort of got derailed (see dust and clean) I guess it is purely just me and my life. I don't want to seem cavilier about anything but you just gotta move on.

So on to what i am doing. Last week CW and i had a conversation that put the fear of "ecomomic disaster, market failure, and job loss" in me. I work in a "luxury" industry and it could dry up with the market. So i decided that i needed to be a more effective and efficient consumer. Now what does that really mean? A few things. I will start with the coupon thing. I got a sunday newspaper with coupons and adds and went to work. There are 20 billion blogs on how to save money and get things for free. There is quite a contingency of women in my ward that are way into this. I kind of scoffed at this because i don't think there were being 100% smart about it. That is neither her nor there and i don't want to offend anybody. Talking to my sister in law, Michelle, she kind of changed my mind about it. It is all about moderation. Sure there are lots of stuff that you can get for free but i decided if i wouldn't buy it normally then i won't get it for free. I feel that there is enough waste in the world already why get it just because it is free. (i have come along way, baby to get to that mental point) Also, i think you need to be careful because this might not be the most healthful way to eat.

This leads me to my next thing. There is a co-op here called bountiful baskets. It is a non-profit group that buys straight from distrubters and local farms for fresh produce veggies and fruit. $15 bucks every 2 weeks for a laundry basket of goods. You don't know what you'll get but i was impressed with the selection. I split it with a friend because i didn't think CW and i could consume it all ourselves. They also have other offerings. Crazy me, i bought a box of pears. I can't remember exactly how much but a lot. I did it with the idea that i would can it. So i know, canning Amy? I will let you know how it turns out.

There is more but this is entirely too long already and i need to get dinner going.

ugh!

So AZ's temperatures are no longer in the triple digits. Horray!

Book Club

So i started a book club. I have wanted to join one for awhile now but couldn't find one. I looked on craiglist, at bookstores, the public library, and on Google but didn't find anything that suited me. Here is a little background before i explain further. My apartment is pretty empty of stuff. I can't decide what i like. What colors, modern, more antique type furniture. The problem is i like everything. So as a consequence, nothing has been done. I did buy red nesting end tables but then i have a purple velvet arm chair that is pretty modern. They really clash but it is what it is. i was kind of embarrassed to have people over so i invited only a few people over that i felt comfortable seeing my apartment in such a state but then told them to invite anybody they felt would want to be in a book club. My scope of friends in AZ is fairly limited. Anyway, a girl forwarded it to like 20 people from church and i was kind of freaking out. I wasn't sure how many people would show up and what they would think of my lackluster apartment blah blah blah. Needless to say, pretty much the people i personally invited showed up and it was good. There was a little political talking considering i choose the debate night to meet. I know there were conflicting political feelings so i tried to reign in the most vocal (to little avail) but in the end we planned out what we were going to do. I invite all of you to attend on the first thursday of the month at my apartment. Since most of you don't live in the state i am giving you plenty of notice to make arrangements to get here ;-)

How long is too long?

My hair is longer then it ever has been in my life. Like past my bra strap. It has happened because i either don't have the time or the money to get it done. Also i guess that i don't actually have anyone to do it. I have had the worst luck here in AZ with hair stylists. The first salon that i went to every time i called to make an appointment the person that did it before was gone. So after 4 or 5 different times and people i decided that something must be wrong with the salon. I have tried different people with varying success. Truthfully i haven't liked any of them. Now i am sick of my hair. It always goes back in a pony tail and my previous highlights are now midway to my ears, a little grey showing - all in all not very nice. But i have mentioned to a few people that i want to chop it (with this length - chopping means a little past my shoulders) and people are adamant about me not cutting my hair. Yesterday i was inline at Starbucks (i am sometimes the gofer at work)and this women walked by and her hair was long - past her butt long. It didn't look that great. So i ask you - How long is too long?

Dust and Clean

It has been a few days since i posted anything. It has been kind of crazy emotionally. Last Wednesday i had a doctors appointment - I thought that i was pregnant. CW and i were pretty excited and nervous. I had been feeling not so well the past few weeks and all of the typical signs (not that i know from experiance) were there. We got to the part where they do the ultrasound and looking at the screen, there was the jellybean shaped black spot but there was nothing inside. I was a little confused and anxious and the nurse called in someone else to look and they explained that it was a miscarrage. When the egg seperated, half of it created the embroyonic sac and the half that was supposed to form the baby never formed. It was a disapointment to be sure. It was weird because i had these feelings for something that never really existed. I hear that it is common and nothing to worry about, it is not indicative of my abilities or inabilities to become pregnant (again?) or carry a child. Weird. So they scheduled a D&C (Dust and Clean as CW's co-worker calls it) for last friday. Well there was this crazy storm that hit thursday night. So crazy that it knocked the power out at the Surgicenter and surrounding neighborhood. They have generators but because it was not a life and death thing they postponed it. So now it is rescheduled for tomorrow. Friday was perfect- i had a long weekend to recover and relax but such is life. They have to put me under and this is the first time i have had any surgical procedure done. I am a bit nervous. So with that note, it hasn't been the best birthday ever but thanks for all the love and support!

Best day of the year

Still figuring out the picture thing works. I think that it is crooked. This is a picture from the best day of the summer maybe even the year. CW and i were in Chicago for his brother Bob's graduation. It was nice weekend but the culmination was Saturday evening we walked down to Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium park where the Grant park symphony was playing Mozart's Requiem. We sat on the grass, rested our feet and enjoyed the sunset and beautiful music. We just had a great meal, we walked around one of my favorite places in the whole world (chicago), the weather was ideal - Life doesn't get much better then that.

My Husband

The other day i went to get the mail and found that we had a package. I get the box and notice that it is from Amazon. CW ordered a few books and even on for me which will probably be the next book i read -World without End by Ken Follett. I read the first book by him which is the Pillars of the Earth. Anyway, the package and his habit of collecting (and reading) books made me think of the first time i met him. I met him on a saturday morning. Our mutual friend Johnny was having a BBQ at his apt. that evening and so he picked me up and then i dropped him off at work so i use his car to run a few errands. One of those errands was to buy pop and drop it off at his apartment. There sleeping on the floor was CW. Johnny and CW hung out the night before and i guess that it was too late to go home. So i inadvertantly woke up CW and we chatted (the lightbulb went on). He asked me if i could give him a ride home, he was cute so i said yes. As i was dropping him off, he asked if i wanted to come up and i accepted under the guise of "checking my email". When i walked into his apartment he had a couple of tall bookshelves full of books and piles of other books all over. I have to say this was one of the things that impressed me most about him (to that point) and solidified my crush. I still love that he loves books and he continues to impress me with what he reads and wants to read!
(on that day i also discovered that he liked Christopher O'Rielly and that impressed me beyond belief and i became a Red Sox fan, they were in the playoffs and i watched for the first time in my life a complete baseball game by myself just to have something to talk about)

Another Week in Review

Well here i am again. I have a lot to post. Since i haven't been feeling very well in the evenings i have read a lot lately. I finished The Shipping News. I really liked the book. I like books that slant your life a little bit. I mean that certain books make you think about things a little differently even if just for a little while. This book was very well written and at times it was not very pleasant. I mean that this is not a feel good and be happy book but it was still good. The characters are not elegant or even very pretty but they get along and in the end are happy and have accomplished something in their life. I am not at all doing justice to this book but it is good. Another random consequence of reading a book set in Newfoundland (that is where this book is set) is a good portion of the book talks about fish and seafood. I kept having inordinately insane cravings for clam chowder, lobster, fish and chips, and the list goes on. To bad i live in a landlocked desert and am limited to what seafood i can eat fresh or not.

With that i will talk about my restaurant review. Los Compadres is a mexican food joint just down the road. It is fast, quick and pretty good. I got a #6. My usual - a taco, tostada, and a buritto with green chilies. I have been having a problem lately of nothing being appetizing to me. I get hungry but most food repulses me. So i ended up only eating the tostada. The rest will probably be lunch today. It is your usual american-mexican type food and i like it. CW, on the other hand had problems. It didn't sit well with him and he was up all night with heartburn and visits to the bathroom. I don't think we will go there again for that reason.

Dog Farts Fell Family of Four

Actually i am just figuring out how to add pictures to my blog. So let me introduce Winston. He is my co-worker Erin's Dog. He comes to work everyday with Erin. Everybody here has a dog except me and as i am learning there are traits that are particular to different dogs and bulldogs happen to have many in common with crotchety old men. Winston sleeps a good portion of the day and snores like crazy. I am sometimes amazed at how loud he is. Next is he is very stubborn. He doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do. You often have to persuade him with a dog treat. And lastly, this dog is a lot better now but this dog has some toxic gas. He can clear out our small office very quickly. Don't get me wrong, i have come to love Winston very much. I mentioned that i am the only one that doesn't have a dog here and despite that I am one on the ones that Winston likes to hangout with. I don't know why. He just sleeps under my desk snoring and farting away.

Fresh & Easy saved my life

A new store in the neighborhood just opened up. Fresh & Easy. I love the place. The produce is, well, fresh and well priced with a good selection. There are a lot of premade meals which has saved me from my husband’s hungry tummy. Or pre-prepared and all you do its cook it up. It is a small store that you can cruise through in a matter of minutes. They keep the costs down by having few employees and all checkout lanes are the self serve type, and finally because they are part of the Tesco family. Tesco may not be a familiar name to most but it is a British shop (originally, now global) that has buying capabilities to rival Wal-Mart. In fact they are Wal-Mart’s biggest competition internationally. It’s kind of funny actually. While on my mission in Hungary, most of the grocery stores were small type stores and even then, we didn’t use them that often. It was off to the bakery (pekseg) to get bread or the stand on the corner for our fruits and vegetables. But two of my areas, Szeged and Pecs, they opened a Tesco while I served there. It was all people could talk about for months. The excitement was palpable. We missionaries were pretty excited. They had an amerikai food aisle with such luxuries as corn flakes and peanut butter. I also had a companion that liked their Fank (a doughnut type thing with jam in the middle) and we went often for that. So for the second time in my life Tesco has changed my shopping habits - once going from small to large and now from large to small.

PS I heard that Wal-Mart is now looking at opening up smaller shops!
PPS I don't shop at Wal-Mart, the nearest one, i've heard from a reliable source, has vermin of the 3 letter word variety that are only cute in animated movies.

Week in review

Well this is more of a general week in review as I often don’t have the energy in the evenings to do anything except lay on the couch and watch Olympics. I don’t know what I will do without them.

Okay here are a few things that I will try to write about in my blog:
Reviews of books I read
Definitions of words I come across
Review of dining places
Etc.

So we will start with the book I just finished - Mr. Norrel & Jonathon Strange by Susana Clark. I enjoyed this book. It was pretty long and I kind of had a more grand idea of how it should have ended but it was not enough to make me dislike the book. I know that is vague but I don’t want to spoil anything in my “review”. I liked how thorough she is in her explanations of characters, spells and myths. It is obvious that she completely thought these out to add depth to the story.

My next book is The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. Often I don’t read with the dictionary near but this book is different and leads me to the word of the Day… EXCORIATION
ex·co·ri·ate /ɪkˈskɔr iˌeɪt, -ˈskoʊr-/ Pronunciation Key -[ik-skawr-ee-eyt, -skohr-] –verb (used with object), -at·ed, -at·ing.
1. to denounce or berate severely; flay verbally: He was excoriated for his mistakes.
2. to strip off or remove the skin from: Her palms were excoriated by the hard labor of shoveling.

Food Establishment reviews: I haven’t really gone out anywhere special in the last week.
So for consistency’s sake, yesterday I went to Subway for lunch. I got a oven roasted chicken breast 6” on wheat. I asked for a little lite mayo. I don’t know if he wasn’t quite paying attention but he loaded it on - like gobs and gobs . So when I actually tried to remove some of it back at the office, I couldn’t really scrape it off without taking half of the lettuce as well. Needless to say, my sandwich was pretty good with all of that slathered mayo much to my surprise!

So this is long enough and I will try to figure out how to add pictures soon.

one more thing

I think the next post will have something to say about not judging me by inability to spell or use grammar correctly.  Yikes! 

Cutting costs

This seems to be a theme in my life right now. Okay, before i start i will state another disclaimer. That is as i try to figure out what to post i am having a hard time differentiating a journal and blog. I know that someday i will actually tell someone that i have a blog and thus all my posts will be subject to thoughts and responses from everyone. My journal, well i wouldn't share that to anyone and so i can pretty much create this stream of consciousness that only i and maybe my sister can appreciate. As if this just doesn't prove my point.

Back to cutting costs - I am trying to live more fully within a budget. I am also supposed to be thinking of the total amount of money that i would need to support myself, a child and a husband (husband- mostly just food costs) on a monthly basis. It is a difficult thing for me. I feel like i am pretty frugal and live pretty cheaply but at the end of the month - no money. I am working on it.

I work at an Interior Design Firm. Our business is high end residential design. Cutting costs seems to be a theme there also. Our client the S_ family is building a second house in the area, not a cabin, they already have one in Jackson Hole that would put any cabin i know off to shame. This is more of a ranch house with a barn for their horses, lots of room to entertain and although i don't understand this - lots of desert landscape - i am not a fan. The builder gave them the estimated costs (without the Architect's and Designer's fees) the estimated total was 6 million dollars. They responded that they only wanted to spend about 3 million. We are scrambling to cut costs with out ruining the desired effect of the house. (how about not spending 90 thousand on your pool)

Client number 2 the D_ family. This house is going to be amazing. I am excited to see it finished. This is going to be a french farmhouse including actual reclaimed elements from original buildings in France. Anyways the D_'s are were not sparing any expense until their costs exceeded 6 million as well. They only budgeted 5 million. So they are going "cheap" on a few things.
man life is hard.

DISCLAIMER

I have been reluctant to start a blog because i have high expectations for myself but am unable to actually create what i think i should be able to. It is the same with scrapbooking. I feel like i should be able to make these fabulous things but then when it comes down to it - i am crap. To quote The Most Interesting Man in the World "Find out what it is in life that you don't do well and then don't do that thing." So despite that sage wisdom... here i go.