Thursday, July 24, 2014

Jammin

I was oh so fortunate to be able to pick raspberries at a friend of mine's Mom's place.. plump juicy berries.. with nothing yucky sprayed on them.
My girls love raspberry jam. well lets be honest. .who doesn't love raspberry jam!?!
My friends Mom told me how she was making her jam.. with no pectin. Sounds good to me, so I gave it a try this round and was very pleased with the results.
  • 8 cups berries
  • 6 cups sugar (I have seen online there are recipes calling for equal amounts of fruit to sugar, I didn't think it needed that)
How easy can that be?? Seriously!

Get your jars sterilizing and the lids and rings in a pot heating.

Heat your berries and give them a good mashing.
Add your sugar and bring the whole mixture up to 220 degrees.
Fill your jars.. then put them in to the canner for their water bath. 5 Min after the water starts to boil (time from the point of boiling)

and voila
 
What to make next?... hmm stay tuned to find out :)

Monday, July 21, 2014

Arizona

I recently traveled to Arizona. A friend of mine owns a house about an hour from Phoenix. We went for a week at the end of June. It was hot.. and yes, while I kept hearing it was a "dry heat" (that became a bit of a joke!) once you hit the 40's (100's for my American readers) it is just plain hot. I was surprised how quickly I acclimated to the heat .. but yes, it still was hot lol. That just gave us an excuse to lounge in my friends wonderful pool.
Knowing I had never been to Arizona, my friend went out of her way to take me places and show me the sights. I was floored with the beauty I found everywhere. It was a different kind of beauty than I was used too on the west coast of Canada.. but, just the same.. it was very pretty. I loved the saguaro cactus I saw everywhere. Some were huge and gnarled.. you could see they had been through many years of weather. Some cactus we saw had fruit on it.. that was pretty cool.

We took a drive to the Superstition Mountains... they are amazing. I would love to go in a cooler season and have the chance to hike out there.

We had a wonderful experience one day while driving on one of the highways.. a way off to the side, on a cliff we could see the silhouette of some wild horses. We pulled over and found a road that led us out to where they were. These horses were amazing.. most were in remarkably good condition. They almost looked like they had been brushed and let out for the day.. but then you would see some of the stallions and see how beat up they were. Scars covered most of their bodies. Beautiful untamed animals. For yes we did try and get closer to some of them.. they were having none of us lol.. the stallion would quickly rush them off.



We went to Scottsdale and walked around one evening.. it is a really quaint place. Lots of statues and very unique stores.


I enjoyed my time in Arizona.. and can't wait to go again!