jars of jam

I've been busy lately...

It is all worth it come January, when there is no fruit to be found in the orchard.  There is nothing like warm homemade jam on waffles, or a bowl of ice cream, or even a regular old PBandJ.  Like a little taste of summer in a jar.

Admittedly, I have never loved to cook. Making jam, however, seems to combine my creative side and my love for chemistry. It is different than spending an hour in the kitchen making a meal that will be eaten in 9 minutes flat, leaving me with another half hour of clean-up.  That kind of cooking drives me up the kitchen wall.

A batch of jam is more like a craft.  And when I practice something enough, I begin to figure it out, and maybe actually get good at it. After batches and batches of jam I have determined just how we like it - with less sugar and plenty of tartness. A notable contrast from Smuckers.

Practice is funny that way. It can seem monotonous and mundane in the process. But in the end, a product emerges that we can stand behind, and even say we are proud of. Isn't it the same in life? Personally, we have been given certain gifts in abundance, like an amazing community of family and friends, and our health, and jobs, and freedom. We have to practice appreciating them, or let that abundance rot on the ground. Add a few key ingredients like gratitude, kindness, and unconditional love for the people in our lives, and soon we produce a cupboard full of blessings.

When life tosses you too much fruit, make jam!
Plum Jam: (my current working recipe)
6 cups cut up plums (remove the pit, keep the skin on)
1/4 cup water (or less)
2 Tblsp lemon juice
--- Boil the above for 10 minutes
add 6 cups sugar 
--- Bring mixture to a rolling boil
add 1 package (3 Tbsp) Ball "Low or No Sugar Needed Pectin" 
--- Bring mixture to a boil for 1 full minute
--- Place into hot, sterilized jars and let cool.  See HERE for sterilization process.
--- Makes 8-9 cups of jam.


(Tip: The "Low or No Sugar Needed Pectin" is the key ingredient.  With other pectin types the recipes call for too much sugar in order to get the fruit to gel.  Then the jam can taste too sweet like store bought jam.)

the crockpot

You won't see me posting recipes very often.  I am not exactly known as a good cook.  It isn't that I can't cook, it is simply my limiting belief that a dish should not take longer to make than it does to eat... say, 15 minutes?  Maybe we eat fast around here.

When I first got married and felt the responsibility of making meals for someone else, I went around asking friends for quick and easy recipes they recommended.  Everyone told me I needed a crock-pot. They would say, "A crock-pot is perfect because you just throw everything in, and then you have a tasty meal that takes hardly any prep time."  Sign me up!

The first time I tried to use my crock-pot, I knew very little about cooking.  It was a day when I came home late from a long day of teaching high school students, exhausted and starving.  Drawing a blank on my dinner plans, I remembered the crock-pot.  Everyone says this is so easy, I thought, I will just look through this crock-pot recipe book (that some soul had thoughtfully given me) and find one with ingredients that I have on hand (which is really the only way I cook anyway, with whatever happens to be in the pantry.)  Every recipe I found required a cooking time of 3, 4, 6, 8 HOURS!!  I was horrified!  Despite all of the great advice I had been given, no one told me that the other name for crock-pot is "slow cooker".

Needless to say, I didn't use the crock-pot that night because I wanted dinner to be ready before 11pm.  However, I did not give up on the idea of throwing some ingredients into a pot and ending up with a tasty meal.  Truly, I have come to love using a crock-pot... I just have to remember to plan about 6 hours ahead.

Since I must be getting my appetite back after 3 months of feeling lousy (1st trimester of pregnancy), today I felt excited to throw one of my favorite crock-pot meals together.  If I ever post another recipe (not making any promises), my recipe motto will be:  If I can cook it, so can you!

Cream Cheese Chicken in the Crock-Pot

You will need these ingredients:
2-3 lbs chicken (4-6 breasts)
1 onion, chopped into bite-size squares
Italian dressing in a bottle
1 8oz package of cream cheese
1 10oz can cream of chicken soup
1 bag of pasta
(notice there are not very many ingredients, and, true to form, these are mostly ingredients I keep on hand.)

Part 1:
1) Lay the chicken breasts and onions in the crock-pot
2) Pour Italian dressing over the chicken so that it is mostly covered
3) Turn crock-pot on low setting for 4-6 hours, until chicken is fully cooked. (The time may vary for your crock-pot.  I am often in a hurry, so cook the chicken on high until I think it is done)

Part 2:
4) About 30 minutes before you are ready to eat, and after the chicken is cooked, drain about half of the liquid that is left around the chicken.  This is not an exact science, but the more you drain, the creamier your sauce will be.   
5) Add the package of cream cheese, and the can of cream of chicken soup.
6) OPTIONAL: Add other yummy ingredients that go with creamy chicken pasta recipes.  Some ideas: sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, mushrooms, olives, etc.  I usually add sundried tomatoes.  This time I did not have any of the above mentioned, so I added sun-dried tomato pesto (that is why my sauce came out orange instead of white.)
7) Let the ingredients continue to cook and melt together for the next 30 min - 1 hour, and the chicken sauce is ready!

Part 3:
8) Boil your pasta of choice, drain, and serve the chicken crock-pot sauce on top.
OPTIONAL: Top your pasta sauce with cooked bacon (we like turkey bacon around here), and Parmesan cheese.

Hope you find it as yummy as we do!  My 2 1/2 year old devours it, but she does take after her father who will eat almost anything - now didn't God choose well for me by giving me a man who likes anything I cook?  Remember that if I can cook it, so can you!

Note from the cook:
The original recipe can be found on food.com at http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-12458  I changed it to fit my cupboard.  I also don't believe in making extra pots or pans dirty, so I eliminated the step where you saute everything in a pan first.  If you wanted to do that, then why would you use a crock-pot??

how not to bake a strawberry pie

1. Use a frozen crust. Leave it in the microwave for too long until it becomes a mushy mess.

2. Press the crust into the pie pan, but don't worry if the crust does not reach to the top edge of the pan. Go ahead and under cook that crust, too.

3. Consult 3 different strawberry pie recipes. Mix and match instructions according to which ingredients you happen to have in your cupboard.

4. Pay no attention to the portion of the recipe that says to boil the strawberries while "stirring constantly". It is okay to walk away and do something else, like entertain your child, feed her, and step outside for a few moments to look for your husband so that he can watch her because, by now, it is probably time to get back to stirring.

5. Overfill your pie crust so the strawberry filling runs between the crust and the pie pan. Of course, this won't happen if your crust is above the edge of the pie pan (see step 2).

6. Ignore the instructions to let the pie set in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. Leave the pie unattended on the counter top where your husband can discover it and sneak a piece before it has cooled.

Wa La! You have a freshly baked strawberry mess!


Note from the Cook:
While you might have followed these instructions flawlessly, I would like to recommend that you not give this pie away to the friends you planned to take dinner to tomorrow (sorry, Staci!) It might be better to keep it at home and eat it yourselves.

When baking a pie like this, I try to remember that God has given me many passions and talents. Cooking is not one of them. I thank Him for the other things in my life that I am good at.