Tuesday, June 25, 2013

peaches

I can not speak enough food about bountifulbaskets.org. Fresh fruits and veggies every week. Its a co-op so they pool all the money together that's collected on Monday and Tuesday and they are able to buy in bulk. Simple explanation there. We usually participate every week. There are always add ons you can contribute for. This week one of them is peaches. A 20lb box for $18.50.
I have 3 boxes coming on Saturday. 60 lbs of peaches.
Peach jam for sure. Canned peaches. Frozen peaches. Peach leather. Peach preserves. Peach honey. Thankfully I have a friend coming over to help me.
I only have 2 cases of jars... I may have yo go get more.
I have a new 23 quart pressure canner set to arrive Thursday.
I'm already playing this scenario out in my head. Clean the kitchen. Empty unneeded items off the counters, yes the canisters can sit on the table awhile. Use dishwasher to sanitize jars while lids sit in a pan of boiling water.
Step one blanche peaches to remove skin, save skin for honey.
Step two cut peaches into manageable chunks then smash with an old fashioned potatoe masher until its half liquefied with chunks hanging out.
and from there, sugar, pectin, boil, jar, then bathe.

All so simple... But if it were  there wouldn't be entries like the previous few.

Monday, June 17, 2013

adventures in jelly making revisited

You may recall previous mention of an attempt at making apple jelly.
It REALLY didn't go well.
I boiled it as long as the instructions said to. Processed the jars exactly how long it said to, disinfecting them in boiling water before filling. The lids all popped and sealed nicely.
And last night I decided to check and see if that magical rainbow spewing and glitter farting unicorn flew by and waved its magic wand making the jelly perfectly set.
No such luck.
Instead I found every jar with what looks like a kombucha scoby. A vast island of fungus coating the top. When you tip the jar it actually looks pretty cool as it slides down the syrup thick apple concoction.
The scientist hidden deep inside me wants to leave it and see what happens, and the nurse in me wants to gag.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Family night

Tonight we had a family movie night, which with teens means they bring a friend and go see a different movie than the parental figures.
The girls and their friend saw Now You See Me. Lee and I saw The Purge.
Very interesting movie, it makes you really think. Lots of social implications.
The kids thought their movie was pretty good to. It's also on my list of want to see movies.
On the way home though... their friend asked if it was ok to smoke in the car. ummm nope. not when you're 16. kids.

On a different subject... Our idiot dog Snickers went after our 17 yr old kitty. Mia wasn't hurt, just had dog drool all over her. I was beyond pissed though. I literally kicked snickers down stairs and into the living room and locked her in there with Lee. There was no reason at all for it. Mia was laying there doing nothing at all. Mia literally sleeps 20 hours a day, and lays around the rest of the time. I swear if that stupid dog hurts Mia I will kill her. I don't know if its jealousy because Mia sleeps on Lees lap most of the day or what. I'm just sick of this dog sometimes. Several times she's snarled and snapped at me, and thankfully missed, because the first time she makes contact she is gone. I already want her gone because that is not acceptable at all, but Lee has an attachment to her.

And to end with some awesome news...the credit union is mailing the title to the PT cruiser tomorrow! It's paid off and all ours! Now just two more years before my SUV is paid off. It was down to 16 months, but we refinanced for 2 years, lower payments and overall paying less. Like payments almost half of what they were before.

Life as We know it

This ones harder to write, and encompasses a lot of feelings and emotions.
It's about my husband Lee.
We met about 7 years ago. Our first date we arranged to meet at Hammers coffee in the mall.
We sat and talked for hours. Before we knew it they were closing up and telling us it was time to go.  It felt so right. I felt like I had known him forever. I was in love, but because of my past history I wouldn't accept it.
We started dating and grew closer and closer.
After about five years we moved in together.
We had so much fun. Hiking, camping, vacations, day trips, hockey games, watching movies, and just being together.
Then Thanksgiving happened. Lee got a really bad cold. He got up at 4 am, got dizzy, fell and hit his head pretty hard. I kept an eye on him and in the morning took him to urgent care.  He had a sinus infection pretty bad, and they did a CT scan just to make sure everything was ok.
They told us there was something there but they weren't quite sure what but it was probably just an artifact and to follow up with his doctor.
We did a week later. He ordered an MRI, and discovered this thing, probably an artifact was a brain aneurysm.
Thus started a whole string of events , doctors, surgeries and hospital stays.
The first surgery was a full craniotomy, where they opened up his skull and proceeded from there. The aneurysm was sitting on the optic nerve. He was slowly losing vision in that eye and we hadn't noticed.
Once in they discovered the aneurysm was to close to the sinus cavity to safely clip it, however, they were able to move it which left him a candidate for a 2nd type of procedure called a coiling, where they insert a wire, break it off and the body forms a clot around it sealing it off so it will never rupture. The 2nd procedure was a success.
The first surgery though, it left him in a wheelchair, unable to walk more than a couple steps without falling.
It left him dependent on me and the multitude of therapists and nurses that were in and out of our home every day.
He learned to walk with a cane and now manages that pretty well, though on occasion needs his wheelchair.

A few weeks after the second procedure he was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease. We suspected this so it really wasn't much of a shock. He got on meds, the tremors stabilized, and life goes on right?
We decided to get married a couple months later. July we got married in a simple, sweet ceremony with all our family around. It was wonderful and life felt perfect.
Just a few short months after our perfect day we get a call from Lees internist. His white blood count was up and could he come in for a repeat tomorrow as well as some other tests. I remember that day. His WBC was 12,000. Normal is 4-10000. Only a little up, but they wanted to make sure there was no infection. He had a urinalysis done as well as a chest xray and blood cultures.
A week later the tests were back, and all negative. No sign of infection anywhere, and a WBC that was now in the 20s.
 Off to a hemotologist/oncologist for a consult.
One bone marrow biopsy and a few weeks later we got the results. the big C. Cancer. that evil and most unholy word ever. He is Philadelphia  and BRCA1 positive, both considered positive results for chronic myelogenous leukemia.  All I heard was leukemia.
we went back to the waiting room for some more tests they wanted to do. While waiting I stepped out into the hallway and called work to take the night off. I needed a night because I was ready to have a break down in a bad way.
 That is how we got to where we are today.

I know thats long for background, but it's important.
It hit me bad. Yes Lee is a lot older than me, that's never been an issue. I knew the odds are that I would outlive him, simply because he is 29 yrs older than me. Then in one year he was given two terminal diagnoses.
The world slammed to a screaming stop for me, but I could still see it going on around me.
I wanted to get mad. I wanted to scream and yell and tell everyone to stop because it was over.

I couldn't though, because as life has taught us Life MUST go on.

I'm a nurse. I take care of kids that shouldn't have been alive. Kids that were given a few months, maybe a couple years to survive. I take care of kids that gave their doctors a big FU and lived. Not just survived, but LIVED.
Going to work while all this was going on with Lee gave me a little hope.
A little sunshine in a dark world.
Kids who don't know the meaning of "you aren't supposed to be able to do that" showing me that no matter what happens it's ok somehow.
The few hours a day I spend with these families have taught me that doctors don't always know it all, and to never give up looking, hoping, and praying.
The families that inspire me for the simple reason that they never gave up.
So many times in life it's so easy to sit back and look at the big bad broad picture. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the why us mood. Its so easy to be selfish and forget that there are others out there with problems....but then when you sit and play with a toddler it's all in perspective... the big picture becomes small and you learn quickly that if you have the wrong teddy bear at bedtime the world will end.
And you eventually realize that yes, Life will go on.

Adventures in canning part 3

So, having gotten the bug I decided I would venture out a little more. I made strawberry jam a couple weeks ago... I'm in heaven. The taste is so strawberryish(I don't think that's really a real word), the texture was perfect, it set beautifully. Having gained a little confidence I decided that 6 lb bag of apples on the counter that no one was eating needed to be turned in to jelly.

I was tired and decided to take a short cut. Wrong turn detour go back do not do. Short cuts and canning are not ok.

I put the apples in the pressure cooker to turn them to mush.

Problem with that is they didn't cook long enough to really release their juice and all that natural pectin.

Thinking I'm just brilliant and cut the prep time down by oh about 3 hours I commenced with the jelly making. I took the apple mush and ran it through a sieve over and over. I put some in cheese cloth, tied the top and squeezed more juice out. I finally had the 6 cups of liquid I needed. Dump it in the pot, add sugar, add the half bag of pectin, boil and stir.

It didn't thicken.

Add the other half the pectin packet.

Boiled.

Stirred.

It didn't thicken.

Got another packet out, added half.

Boiled.

Stirred

 YES it's a little thicker.

Thinking I had success I proceeded to pour it in the jars, lid them, put them in the hot water to be boiled.

Timer goes off, take them out, the musical popping of lids sealing happens immediately, I leave the jars to set overnight.

In the morning...I had liquid jelly.

I stuck a jar in the fridge.

The next morning....I had liquid jelly. I took all the jars to the basement food storage area and left them.

A week later....I had liquid jelly.

I don't think it was successful.

Next step is to open the jars and dump that sweet appley goodness down the drain and try again.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Adventures in jelly

After the jam making our confidence was slightly elevated, oh hell, for that matter we felt like we could do anything. So we decided to try making jelly.
We had apples and pears. We boiled apples with a pear thrown in for a little additional flavor. Pureed them, filtered the juice out, dumped it in a pot with sugar and pectin.
There were some slight chunks of pear floating around, but we weren't to worried about that.
We did encounter a couple problems though....
Foam.
Jams and jelly like to foam up when boiling. I learned later a pat of butter in the goo will stop the evil foam. On the jam it wasn't a big deal, since the jam is chunky anyway.
With the jelly though...the foam floated to the top. The bottom is so pretty. Clear pinkish color with a few pear flecks floating around...until the top...the foam...It set with the foam on top. It's quite ugly...but so appley sweet.
That was last year...this year I tried apple jelly again...that disaster coming soon....

Saturday, June 8, 2013

adventures in jam

So, previously mentioned I've been learning food preservation techniques, including canning, drying, and cheese waxing.
Lets start with canning. I got the bug last year. I took my younger daughter and her boyfriend berry picking. We ended up with somewhere around 30 lbs of raspberries and blackberries. Many were eaten right away. Some were washed, dried and frozen on a cookie sheet to be bagged up later to be snacked on. And some were dumped in a food processor until pureed, thrown into a hot pan with sugar and pectin, boiled a bit, then poured into hot jars waiting for lids and a nice bath in boiling water.

Despite it being our first foray into the world of canning the jams turned out surprisingly well. Yes, I had my doubts, but this time there was no need for worry.

Our confidence being slightly elevated...we ventured into the world of jelly. Specifically apple pear jelly.
Purposely I had left some small bits of fruit floating, no big deal there, that was fine, just meant we wouldn't have a perfectly smooth jelly. The problem came with the boiling. Jelly, and jams to, tend to get a little bit foamy as they boil. I later learned that you can add a bit of butter to stop that. I failed to adequately skim the foam off the jelly mix... After it cooled in the jars the foam floated peacefully to the top of the concoction. and formed a foamy cloudy layer.
It looks like crap but the taste is divine.


So there's how our first jam/jelly making experiences went. It was GLORIOUS. The kitchen looked like a berry farm had exploded in it. The smells coming from the kitchen were amazing. The living room was packed with teens watching the Wizard of Oz... THIS is how life should be.