New Year, New You?

So it appears I never blog unless it's a new year. That sucks! I'll try harder this year. Maybe. :) Well, probably, since I created this blog for the express purpose of detailing Eric's and my lives and this year will bring a rather dramatic change: we're expecting a baby! Rejoice, all two of you who read this blog! We weren't even trying-- we just sort of gave up and made a bunch of plans to go to Peru in June and move to Seattle in the fall. Um, derailed. I'm three months along! Or in preg lady speak, 13 weeks.

So here were 2011's resolutions. Let's see how I did.

1) Blog more often (forcing me to be more aware), either here or potentially the preserving blog.
FAIL. The last time I blogged here was 12/28/10 and the same for the canning blog.

2) Spend more time outdoors. 
I accomplished this.

3) Let myself be less busy.
I also accomplished this, to the tune of fewer self-imposed projects and obligations. I did go back to school though, and that's as busy as I'm letting myself be.
 
4) Relinquish expectations.

I'm not sure. I think so? Maybe that's why I got knocked up, I stopped expecting it to happen and busied myself elsewhere. 

Let's see what we can do with 2012!

1) Eric would like to fill our larder with home-preserved foods so we don't have to buy non-perishables in winter 2012/2013. We got a dehydrator for Christmas and he's all about it with his jerky and dried fruit aspirations. I like to can and I'll have three months of maternity leave smack dab in the middle of the best canning season-- summer. So I think this is doable. We're gonna try it.

2) On that note, I will try to chronicle our preserving adventures here: http://putupyerdukes.blogspot.com/

And I'll chronicle baby adventures on this blog, hopefully with at least monthly pictures. Sheesh. 

Welcome, 2012! I love you already. :D

March Project: Charoses-inspired jam

I was all set to make Meyer lemon marmalade when this post over at Food in Jars piqued my interest. What's charoses? It's Passover right now? Why haven't I heard this word before? It sounded tasty, the pretty "cha" pronounced like "challah."

My co-worker and friend Beth confirmed that charoses is a staple of the traditional Seder meal, a savory sweet dish composed of walnuts, chopped apples, cinnamon, wine and honey. It's meant to remind the faithful of the mortar between the bricks that the Jews had to lay while they were enslaved in Egypt.

I followed the recipe at Food in Jars pretty much exactly, and was quite pleased with the outcome: a chunky mix of fruits and nuts, not very sweet but not un-sweet either. Good if you're not much for really sweet stuff in the mornings, si? It was a little hard to spread on a piece of toast, but I think it's a pretty decent morning mouthful. I gave a jar to Beth and await her verdict with matzo crackers next week. As for me, I think it's a success!

What do mandarins and fish fries have in common?

Absolutely nothing.

Aside from being a touch time-consuming to peel all those little oranges, canning clementines was a neat little project. Inspired by Marisa's recipe over here at Food in Jars, I bought a five-pound box of clems at HyVee and set to work with Tracy Bonham and Laura Veirs to accompany me. I adjusted the simple syrup to one cup of sugar to six cups of water and that was plenty sweet-- next time I'll try paring it down even further to 3/4 cup, like Marisa did. All things considered, I was quite pleased with the result.

Five beautiful jars crammed full of mandarins! I gave one to my mother-in-law for her birthday and she must have liked them, because I got the jar back only a few weeks later. I gave another to Jason and Rebecca and they promptly invented a slew of cocktails in which to drop the little slices.

Verdict? SUCCESS. Whatever shall I make for March?

On Friday, I FINALLY got to attend one of my most favorite series of events of the year, the Holy Name Fish Fry. (That is a Facebook page and may not show.) This amazingness puts you through the ringer with a long-ass line and this year's trademark cold-ass weather matched only by the coldness of the beer, but the end result of a happy, heady buzz and crisp-hot, juicy fish are soooo worth it.

We go again this Friday!

I have more blog material but little time and have to hit the books....or book....and later tonight it will be a Sookie Stackhouse book. BUT FIRST THE OTHER BOOK. QUIT TEMPTING ME, SOOKIE!

January's project: Strawberry Balsamic Jam

I made this with a combination of recipes-- the Canning 101 recipes from Pioneer Woman, because they are for a simple strawberry jam...

I <3 Pioneer Woman

...and, the no-pectin strawberry balsamic jam from Savory Sweet Life:

Alice is cool too.

I was intrigued by the balsamic addition presented by Alice, but really wanted to make a jam I could give away if I wanted. Also, I'd made the plain strawberry jam from PW for Christmas gifts already.

The verdict?

It tasted just like the regular strawberry jam. I didn't have them side by side or anything, but it sure tasted like regular strawberry to me. And the color wasn't as pretty as when I made the plain. I wonder if it had to do with subbing in two tablespoons of balsamic for two of lemon juice, since the juice can help brighten the color? The world may never know. In any case, I have some tasty jam for toast in the morning, and that's a win.