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.

April showers bring wedding presents :D

This past Saturday was Sara's bridal shower. We're in the wedding home-stretch with 38 days to go!

The shower was held in the bright and airy upper level of Sara and Dustin's home. It rained that morning, but cleared up nicely by early afternoon--a perfect spring day, really. I should have taken more pictures, but I kept getting blurry ones and they made me mad so I kind of gave up. I did take some pictures the day before though, of these hysterically cute cupcake pops Eric and I made for the shower:



To learn how to make these, visit Bakerella!

If I remember correctly, there were 15 women present at the shower. Sue, Kath and Beth put the whole thing together, and so nicely that Sara thought they should open a wedding shower business. The place was already perfectly set up and immaculate by the time I got there, thinking an hour-early arrival should give me time to help out with anything. It was all already done! There was the prettiest flower arrangement in the middle of the table in perfect spring colors. Kath had made these super cool chocolate-dipped strawberries that looked like little tuxedos. There were cupcakes from the place Sara's getting her wedding cupcake tower done, and the lunch provided was a scrumptious chicken salad and warm, yeasty rolls from Sgt. Peffer's. Here's a poorly lit picture, one of my few decent ones:

We of COURSE played some fun bridal shower games (Julie was crazy good at famous couples, I could hardly believe how many she got right). We ate that delicious Sgt. Peffer's chicken salad and bread until we could've burst, then relaxed as we watched Sara open generous piles of beautiful gifts. Look at this sweet thing!



I think it was a perfect shower and I hope Sara had a wonderful time! Next up....the Bachelorette next month! OH BOY, that'll be a fun post! :D