Yummy 3 Ingredient Strawberry Jam Recipe

It's summer time and we're hopefully starting our first strawberries this year!

I say hopefully because we purchased a pack of strawberry roots that were guaranteed to grow, and didn't. So I plucked several seeds from an actual strawberry and I hope they germinate soon.

I love this recipe so much that I hope we get to make this jam every year with our own strawberries!

This recipe is super simple. It's only 3 ingredients: strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice.

More specifically:
About 2 quarts strawberries
2 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice

I like to use strawberries that are super ripe - too mushy to eat, but not molding. I used 2 pint jars, and one half pint (jelly jar).

I washed my jars and put my lids and rings in a saucepan of soapy water. You want them hot, but not boiling. Once you get your lids going, you can start on the strawberries.

Remove the green stems and core the fruit. I also cut them open to make sure they're not starting to mold. This is a good time to harvest seeds as well.

Place your strawberries in a large pot. Once they're all cored, mash them with a potato masher. This will give you a nice chunky jam in the end.

Mix in your sugar and stir. Let this sit for about 2 hours.

Then slowly bring your goo to a boil, about on the medium setting. Once you've had it boiling a few minutes, turn up the heat to high, and boil about 5 minutes more.

Slowly add your half cup of lemon juice. It makes a fun hissing sound. :) Stir and boil 5 more minutes.

Now remove your pot from the heat, and spoon your jam into the jars, carefully.

Once they're full (leave an inch of room or so), wipe the neck very nicely so you get a good seal. Add your lids, then place your jars in water. Place your lid, and boil for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, remove from heat, and set these aside to cool.

The smaller the jar, the sooner you hear the pop to know they've sealed. It can take 1-2 hours for the jelly jars, and longer as your sizes go up.

Enjoy your jam on toast, crumpets, english muffins, pancakes, and more!

Garlic Dill Egg Salad Recipe

I absolutely love a cool egg salad in the summer time! Although it's only April, I was ready for an egg salad concoction today!

If you grow your own herbs, and have your own egg laying chickens, you may appreciate this the most. Maybe not.

Either way, this recipe is simple and delicious. Even better, you can adjust everything to your own personal taste.

Let's get started!

You'll need:

Large Mixing Bowl
1 Dozen Hard Boiled Eggs
2 t dill (fresh is best, but I'm using what's in the pantry first)
1 t garlic greens (sprouts/scapes/new leaves)
1/2 c mayonnaise
1 t sugar (optional)

Place all your hard boiled eggs in a large bowl. Add dill, garlic greens, mayo, and sugar (if desired). Mash well, and chill.

Serve on homemade bread as a sandwich, or on an english muffin. You can even eat as is if you'd prefer a low carb option!

Removing Tarnish with Pantry Ingredients

The other day, I had a real itch to go thrifting. I love finding wood items I can repurpose, or "shabby chic them up." That's not a real term, but in actuality, how I talk.

So anyway, I ended up at my local Goodwill, and my most favorite pieces were metal, not wood at all! I found a lovely little tray and cup/goblet. They both had clear signs of tarnish, so I knew I had a project!

I heard I could remove this yucky tarnish from silver with aluminum foil and baking soda. The cup is brass, or something like that, so I didn't know if it would work the same.

I did forget to take a picture of the cup "before" but it did work some on this metal.

First I lined the bottom of our kitchen sink with aluminum foil. Next, I boiled several pots of water and poured it over the aluminum foil. You need enough water to cover your items, so if you're only doing silverware, less water is fine.

I placed my items in the water, and shook baking soda over the top. They immediately began fizzing. I noticed a stinky rotten egg smell also. Yay, Science!

Now I would recommend turning on an exhaust fan instead of opening a window. The fan helps with the stench, and doesn't cool down the water in the process (you need it HOT).

When you've added more baking soda, and it just doesn't fizz, you're done. Let your items cool a bit, gently wash off the excess baking soda, and rub them dry.

If you've tried this method, I'd love to hear your tips or thoughts!

Regrowing Celery

Today I want to talk about regrowing veggies. It's not the same as starting from seed. You use the parts you may normally toss out, and go from there. This way is also significantly quicker.

So here you'll see how absolutely easy it is to regrow celery. I simply took a large bunch, chopped off what we were going to use, and placed the bottom portion in water.

I used water that I leave out overnight (our tap is disgusting, and this lets the chlorine evaporate before use), and only used a small amount in a shallow dish.

If the water starts to get funky, I toss it, and refresh. Then I just spritz water from the top when it looks a little dry. When there's fresh growth above the original cutting, I transplant to dirt.

Take a look at the pictures to get an idea of how easy this is.

Growing Garlic Indoors

I don't know about you, but I always thought you had to be a very skilled individual to successfully garden.

Maybe it's because I battled birds and rodents outdoors, and my cats indoors. Maybe I had bad soil or seeds. Who knows?

Well, this particular blog will be about my journey growing garlic indoors. I've read this can't be done. Well, yes, actually it can. I currently have 4 garlic plants thriving in my kitchen. The 4th plant I planted just for the sake of this blog.

Some say your garlic will not produce a bulb without a cold spell. Others say you only need the cold spell for larger bulbs.

So in respect to both, I have placed some cloves directly into dirt, and I have another clove patiently waiting in the refrigerator. The cloves I have placed directly in the dirt, I have already collected multiple scapes from. Except for the youngest clove, that is.

So for our subject clove, all I've done is planted him right into some dirt. Not deep, but certainly enough for the roots to make their way downward, and enough dirt on top to cover the pointy tip of the clove.

Garlic actually sprouts and roots very quickly. It's the process of developing the bulb that is the time consuming portion. However, keep in mind that while you patiently await your bulb, you'll be able to collect the scapes relatively quickly.

The picture below is after only 3 days. I used organic potting soil and coffee grounds. Stay tuned!

The above picture was taken March 13th. The two pictures that I'm about to post were taken yesterday and today (March 15th and 16th).

If you have never seen for yourself how fast plants can truly grow, prepare to be amazed! I can't even keep track of how many times I've walked past a plant, and said, "Omgosh! Where did you come from?!?" 

In the pictures below, you'll see some green sprouts. These sprouts are called scapes, and are absolutely delicious! Since I'm growing indoors, I try not to let my scapes get too long before I trim them. This encourages the plant to focus more growth on the bulb, rather than tall scapes. I do allow some length, though, so I have something to work with when it comes time to hang and dry the mature (and delicate) bulbs. 

This is also a great time for me to point out the bend in the sprout. This is from the plant reaching for the sun. So be sure to keep turning your pot so your young garlic gets sun all around. More soon!

Only two days after the picture above was taken, I already started trimming down my sprouts/scapes, and had deliciousness to nibble on.

A lot of people like to cook these scapes, but I prefer to eat them raw. I believe they have much more flavor this way, and probably nutrients, too.

As my plant continues to sprout, I'll continue to collect these little scapes, and tell our bulb to focus more on growing.

If I were growing my bulbs outdoors, there would be more room to let the scapes get longer before collecting. But with container gardening, we work with what we have.

Enjoy today's pictures of fresh scape, and the after to show where I've trimmed it.

I'm not going to add a whole heck of a lot of text today. I'm just going to keep adding pictures for everyone to get an idea of what your garlic will be doing. The first picture will be about a week after I trimmed, and the second picture about 4 days from that. 

As I mentioned before, I'm going to let these guys sprout a bit, then trim them down. Enjoy!