Strawberry Freezer Jam, Grape Juice

Our veggie garden is blossoming as is our fruit trees. We have apples, apricots, peaches and nectarine trees. They are little green fruits,  but it won't be long now. 

Here's the apple tree....aren't they tiny and cute?

In the meantime I just ate the most delicious peaches from the grocery store. It must be peach season in Utah, although we are still waiting for ours. 



The Peach Festival is going on right now in Utah....great big YUMMY peaches!

 We also have grapes  growing but they are tiny little green buds.

My concord grape vines....this year we are making something with them! I promise!

I can't wait to do jelly and jams with these summer fruits.  On Chez Pim's site she is getting busy doing some jammin.  Her link is HERE for yummy jams and jellies.


Apricot Syrup....Delish on pancakes...but my fav is still boysenberry....

We've been the recipient of some awesome jams and jellies and syrups this past year. We received some Apricot syrup from my friend Linda, some cranberry jalapeno jam from our friends the Meyers.

Cranberry Jalapeno Jam.....very different tasting...fruity with a bite!

My awesome mom-in-law makes raspberry peach as well as apricot jam and gives them out to us at the holidays. She is the jam queen and should have started her own label way back when. She is 89 and still does jam! Now doesn't that intimidate you, you might ask? Yeah, well kinda....you should see how good she can ski! 




Her raspberry peach jam is to DIE FOR! 

Apricot Jam ...yummy-ummy! I use this sometimes on baked chicken for a glaze!




 I also have purple, concord grapes that are growing. I'm not that great at these grapes. They are always yummy but I've never done much with them except eat them. This year I'm gonna make some grape juice out of them. I found a cool blog that gives a tutorial on making grape juice for a beginner. The link for her blog is HERE at Our Little Acre.


 My son-in-law, Dr. Tremayne grew up with homemade grape juice that his mom made, and he raves about how yummy it is.  If she can do it, so can I!  I'll just need to buy another book...or two.....snicker....
                                        
We at one time had planted about a dozen raspberry bushes out back, that were given to us by my dear friend Barbara who was thinning out her mom's Bear Lake raspberry bushes. We went up to North Salt Lake in the rain to dig them up together one fall day.

I love raspberry jam...but today it's Strawberry Freezer Jam Day!  

                                  

 Then a sweet teenager on our street wanted to earn some summer money and I asked him to weed a part of my yard over by the rock gardens. Unfortunately he didn't know the different between a weed and a raspberry. And all those raspberries were dug up and tossed in the dumpster. That was a bad memory. I paid the poor kid anyway. He was saving for a church mission. Oh well....one of those "When Life Gives you Lemons" kinda day.

So this year Barbara said I could come thin out HER bushes. So I can get some more bushes. I'm starting over I guess. It's SUCH a wonderful life. 

If you want my Strawberry Pie Recipe using Jello for the glaze link  HERE for Strawberry Pie.

So with my leftover strawberries from a pie I made, I thought I would make some strawberry freezer jam. It's really good and easy and I just love it on my morning buttered toast.  It is really sweet and natural strawberry tasting. (ya think?)

Strawberry Freezer Jam


2 cups mashed strawberries (smash so you get 2 level cups of mashed strawberries exactly)
4 cups sugar  I know! It's a lot of sugar!
3/4 cup water
1 package Sure Jell Fruit Pectin

Mash up strawberries with a potato smasher till you get 2 cups (about 1 1/2 pounds of fresh strawberries) and then add in the sugar and let them sit for 20 minutes till sugar is pretty dissolved. In a saucepan mix the water and fruit pectin powder on the stove to a bubbling boil and let it boil for about a minute. Then take it off the stove and mix it in with the strawberry mixture. Then pour into 5 cute jars (Walmart has cute small ones) or zip lock has some plasticware small freezer jam containers and add lids.  Leave about 1/2 inch inside the top of each bottle. Let it sit overnight until set. Then put in freezer or if you are using right away it can keep in the fridge for 3 weeks.  Lasts in the freezer 6 months!

Blueberry Freezer Jam

3 cups mashed blueberries (about 2 1/2 pints)
5 1/4 cups sugar

(everything else the same)

I've heard that Mangos make a great freezer jam too. Hmmmm.....I might try that too.  I've also been reading about a "less sugar" type of Sure Jell that you can use with sugar substitutes or with less sugar ratio. I've never tried them but those might be worth a try too.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

Fresh tomatoes for my Black Bean and Corn Salsa...

I'm  making and some black bean and corn (frozen of Green Giant Niblets can) and avocado salsa for my husband's birthday party this weekend. The recipe is HERE  but I always doctor it up a bit. 


This yummy Black Bean and Corn Salsa  is made from black eyed peas, black beans, corn, green pepper,
avocado, tomato, cilantro and purple onion, with a few dashes of lime and Italian Salad Dressing.

 


I added some diced cucumber and avocado and Kraft Tuscan House Italian dressing to taste, and just a few squirts of lime. Then I always add some fresh tomato and cilantro from my garden. The tomatoes turned out a little tiny so far this year, but this is still just my first crop.

  I bought these new Pretzel style Ritz Crackers  to go with the salsa that are super crunchy and yummy. The black Bean Salsa With Triscuits or Wheat Thins or Tostitos chips, It's all delicious and good.



This Black Bean and Corn Salsa is SOOOO much better than bottled Salsa of any kind!



It's really fresh tasting with the cilantro and kind of filling and addictive with the beans, but it's also healthy and  good for you.  And with Triscuits or the Pretzel crackers it's not too high in calories for a yummy healthy, filling summer snack. And hey, you can use up your garden veggies! mmmmhmmmm....

Strawberry Pie with Jello Glaze

Strawberry Pie.....so good it's criminal!  

                                                

I love fresh strawberries and I had a ton I got from the farmer's market on a good deal. So I made a strawberry pie. This recipe is so easy and it was deeeeeeelish.  You make the glaze with jello! So easy peasy.  

     
I'm gonna do another one in peach for Johnny's birthday in a few weeks. We are having everyone over for dinner. I think we'll do some ribs on the barbi. Mmmmmhmmmm. Yeah!

Peaches from my tree...they are sooooo sweet! Yum!

I like to make my crust with real butter. It just tastes better to me, like a yummy crescent cookie. So try your crust with butter.

PIE CRUST INGREDIENTS.....
 I used 1 cube butter,
 cut in 1 1/3 cup of flour.
 Add 1/2 teaspoon salt
 3 Tablespoons ice water
(I add ice cubes to the water before taking out the Tablespoons. 

The glaze is easy..just jello mixed with sugar water and cornstarch...

Then I like to whisk it up mold it into a ball and roll it out on a large zip lock baggie. It just makes life easier and I was out of waxed paper. :D  I rolled it out so it was about 1/2 inch bigger all around than the pie tin layed over it.  Then I cut around it. 

I rolled it out onto the gallon size baggie...you could use waxed paper too. 

cuttin' around the upside down tin...1/2 inch bigger for the cute edging...

It's so easy to flip the pie crust into the pan and peel off the baggie...then toss it!

Making the beautiful edging is my fav part. Just pinch between your left thumb and your right thumb and forefinger to make the pointy peaks around your pie crust edge.  Or opposite if you are a lefty.

Don't forget to poke forkholes in the butter pie crust...then bake at 475 for 8-10 minutes.

While the crust was baking I did the glaze and cut off the tops of the strawberries and washed and dried them. The glaze is super easy.

Mix 3/4 cup sugar withStrawberry Glaze Ingredients and Directions
1 cup of water
2 tablespoons cornstarch   Mix first 3 ingredients....

Put it in a saucepan on the stove till it is smooth and when it is bubbling....boil  for about 2 minutes. Then take it off the heat.
Add 1 small 3 oz. strawberry jello into the thickening syrup.
 Whisk it for a minute till it is dissolved and then put it in the fridge for 15 minutes to cool.

Boil the syrup for about 2 minutes....It's a little bit thick...

Take it off the stove and toss in the small box of jello....

J

Here's my glaze before I refrigerated it for 15 minutes....

Then arrange the yummy strawberries with the pointy side up in the cooled pie shell. By the time I had the green tops cut off and them washed and dried, the glaze was cool!  Pour the glaze over the top,  coating each of the top strawberries. Then pop it into the fridge for a 1/2 hour until set.

 It was delicious because the top of the crust was still crunchy cookie tasting. I hate pie crust that is all soggy Ug! So we ate that baby up so fast!!!  It was gone by morning. Yum is all I can say.  But I wish I had made 2 of em.  

Who says you can't have a piece of Fresh Strawberry Pie for breakfast...NOT ME!

I'll be dreaming of this Strawberry Pie  for awhile......mmmmm good!

Chili Dip, Greek Yogurt Dip, Raspberry Chipotle Dip

I love, love, love chips and dips of all kinds.  I have my favorites too. I love a real easy dip made from 2 ingredients; cream cheese and chili microwaved. It is sooooo good warm and with those "Scoops" Fritos.
I made this one for the family party on 4th of July. It was gone in about 20 minutes.

Chili cream cheese dip

Another one that is wonderful is Plain white Greek Yogurt mixed with dill weed and tiny bits of diced cucumber. It's great with a tray of beautiful summer veggies and very healthy and low-cal. You can buy it made up or just buy the greek yogurt and make up your own.  It's so easy. Just shake in dill weed to taste and a little salt and pepper.

greek yogurt dip

A fancier one that I just recently heard about and tried was a block of cream cheese on a pretty plate, then pour Raspberry Chipotle sauce from Costco over the top. It was kind of expensive but it is a good chicken marinade too. And this dip is sooooooo Good with crackers, baguettes OR  Tostitos.

raspberry chipotle dip

   
Have fun dipping and chipping!

4th of July Cupcakes with the Best Icing Ever!

Today Grandpa opens his pool. We all go up for a BBQ and we celebrate 4th of July too!  I think I'll bring some cool fireworks so Tyler our resident pyro can have some fun.  AND some fun 4th of July cupcakes to share with all the relatives!
                                        

Happy 4th of July! Snap, Crackle, Pop! Did you hear that all night?  





The girls....





There were lots of little girls...lots of cousins the same age too! 3 were born a few weeks of each other!





My son Jeff, and Wendy his wife,  and little Josie, 1 year last week!



Megan got brave and wanted to do the slide and diving board.....she has no fear I swear!



John with his granddaughter Josie



Grandpa always does a BBQ for us at the 4th of July Party...Here is John and his dad, Don Moss.

 I looked online and found lots of cute decorated cupcakes with the patriotic red, white and blue theme going.  I really wanted to find some I could use with blueberries and strawberries because I bought a HUGE package at Costco and I need to use them up since Johnny isn't such a fruit lover....as much as I am!
                                      

My 4th of July Decorations on my entry table...

So on Diana's Desserts website I found a simple 4th of July cupcake decorated with marshmallow whip and real cream that sounded great, and it uses the 2 fruits.  It looked very cute too so I decided to copy. Thanks Diana! Her website link is HERE.

They turned out really yummy.  I used cream cheese and marshmallow whip and cool whip because I thought the real whip cream would melt in the heat.  They were marvelicious!  Mmmmm.....I'm thinkin' of one of those babies right now! 

4th of July cupcakes from Hoosier Homemade... 

                              

Another cute decorating idea was from Cupcake Heaven's ideas at Hoosier Homemade. Her link is HERE.
I liked the red licorice striped cupcakes with the little candy blue balls.  I have some peel apart red licorice so I will try that one too.  And maybe I can come up with some little picks in a patriotic theme. 

Dining Room decorations for 4th of July....

My 4th of July cupcakes!

Uncle Sam and my patriotic quilt...



My finished chocolate 4th of July Cupcakes! Yummo!

 So my cake is chocolate... I always add about a 1/2 cup of sour cream and a small chocolate pudding mix.  It makes it a lot richer......and my icing I made with Marshmallow Creme (fluff stuff) about a cup or so, and cream cheese (about a half of a large block) and about a cup of Cool Whip. I just mess with it till it looks and tastes the consistency I want. And I gave it a little 4 drops of lime juice for a kick.  It is sooooo delicious!  You can also use it as a fruit dip. It's to die for. 




I found some little flags and stuck them on toothpicks and added them to the tops of my 4th
of July Cupcakes for red, white and blue decorations!  





These 3 ingredients make THE BEST ICING EVER!  (or fruit dip)



Marisa and Megan my granddaughters rocking in the hammock....so cute!

Happy 4th everybody!  We all sure had fun at grandpa's pool and BBQ party!