The BEST Strawberry Jam

I am a little bit embarrassed to say that I have attempted to make strawberry jam before and it was a complete disaster. I used a different pectin than my mom uses and after a phone call to both my mom and my grandma they gave me total opposite instructions on how to make it work (-can you tell I've been watching Project Runway during Addie's night time feedings?). After going through the whole cooking process I decided that the unset jam was not worth the blood, sweat, and tears. I accepted that I would not be the trophy wife and mom that I had hoped to be.
Luckily a year went by and my mom came out for Adalyn's birth. She bought us three cartons of strawberries and brought her own pectin. I was over due and decided to watch her process from the couch- yes I was that tired by the end of it. A month after my mom left, I realized we had already gone through 4 jars and that we wouldn't have enough to last us until next summer. My mom sent a care package with a box of pectin in it for me to try again, and last night at 10 o'clock I decided it was time. Was my two year old still awake trying to peak at me from her bedroom door? Yes. Did I send my husband to Target at 10:40 because I didn't have enough Karo syrup? Yes. Was Adalyn awake in her bouncer on the island with me the whole time? Yes. But I did it. And by 12:30am it was all done and I felt SO good about myself.
So because I don't want you to feel the same failure I once felt, here is the recipe that is tried and true by my mom and now me (woo-hoo!).

Easy Freezer Strawberry Jam:
3 1/4 cup Crushed Strawberries
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
1 (2oz.) Box MCP Pectin
1 cup Karo Light Corn Syrup
4 1/2 cup Sugar

Wash, stem, and finely grind strawberries in food processor.
Combine exactly measured strawberries and lemon juice into a large bowl.
Measure exact amount of sugar into a separate bowl.
Gradually stir MCP Pectin into berry mixture. Set aside for 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to dissolve pectin completely.
Add Karo Syrup to berry mixture and mix well.
Add sugar gradually. Stir well to dissolve completely until it is no longer grainy. (Grab some with your fingers to feel for sugar- it should feel completely smooth besides the seeds.)
After sugar is completely dissolved, pour jam into containers leaving a 1/2 inch of space for expansion.
Cover and leave out at room temperature for 24 hours until set.
Store in Fridge for up to 3 weeks or freeze for up to 1 year.

Pancake Day

Happy National Pancake day! Don't forget to go grab some free pancakes at IHOP today. Since we live a little too far from one, we will be celebrating at home with breakfast for dinner. Who doesn't love that? You can check out our favorite pancake recipe here, or some other recipes I'm dying to try here.

Our Summer in Pictures

If you didn't know, Stafford had an internship in Washington this summer and that's where we've been! We stayed with my family and got to party non stop basically.  Ok well at least McKinlee and I got to party non stop while this hunk of man went to work everyday.

Our summer was full of county fair milkshakes, petting zoos, campfires & s'mores, carnivals, swimming and lots of playtime with M's aunts. I was so grateful to have my family around. It's different going home as an adult with a family of my own. I totally revert to my daughter state of mind and happily let my mom cook for me and fold my laundry. M absolutely loved playing with grandma and helping grandpa water the lawn after work. She learned so much this summer and grew like crazy! More on that in her 19 month update in a few days.

In the middle of our summer we were able to take a trip to Arizona to see Stafford's family. We went to a Diamondbacks game and played with M's cousins. She was in heaven with all those younger kids! After our trip to AZ we stopped by my grandparent's town to celebrate the town's history. I've never seen that little town so full of people!

This summer was full of family bonding time. My little sisters are 10 years younger than me, so being able to be home for long periods of time gives me a taste of what it would've been like to grow up with them. My favorite thing to do with my little sisters is to have a spa night complete with mani's or pedi's and a homemade (gross smelling) face mask. This one was a real crowd pleaser! Haha I hope your summer was absolutely wonderful...  And now for FALL!

Moisturizing Face Mask:

     - 1/4 cup yogurt
     - 2 TBS honey
     - 1/2 mashed banana

Leave on for 5-10 minutes then wash off with warm water. Enjoy!

Our Favorite Pancake Recipe

I am not a morning person. Not really. I sleep in until McKinlee wakes up and slowly get ready by 1 in the afternoon. I know this is not an effective use of my time, but I sure do love getting those extra hours in the morning to sleep. There's plenty of years ahead of me that I will be waking up with the kiddos to get them ready for school and activities, so I'm going to enjoy my last few years of getting 9 hours... No judgement please.

One thing that will make me get out of bed a little happier and excited for the day is breakfast. I'm not a bacon and eggs kind of girl, but I do love a good flapjack stack or breakfast casserole. So today I am sharing my absolute favorite pancake recipe.

Fluffy Eggless Cinnamon Pancakes

                                  1 cup flour                                                      1 Tbs vegetable oil

                                  1 tsp sugar                                                      1 Tbs water

                                  1 tsp cinnamon                                               1 tsp vanilla

                                  2 tsp baking powder                                       2 Tbs butter

                                  1 c milk

Combine dry ingredients and mix slightly. Add milk, oil, water, and vanilla. Whisk together until just combined. Do not over mix- batter should be slightly lumpy. Set aside to rest for a few minutes.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. While pan is heating, add butter. As soon as the butter is melted, add melted butter to pancake batter. Stir. Makes 6-8 pancakes.

Cook until bubbles form on the surface and flip. Then cook until golden brown.

These are so good. I love the cinnamon in them for the extra flavor. I eat them with regular maple syrup, my husband likes strawberry syrup on his, and McKinlee takes hers plain with a few frozen blueberries on the side. This meal is definitely McKinlee approved and she is my little picky eater.

Enjoy!

pizza braid. yumm.

 It may not look like much, but this baby was delicious.

For one of my foods classes, I had to make a braid of some sort. We made an 

apple danish in class, but I'm not a big fan of 

cream cheese- call me crazy-

 I thought a pizza braid would be perfect so I could use it as dinner. I was a little worried because my past pizza making experiences haven't been the best, but it turned out so good!

Stafford loved it.

I thought I would share :)

Pizza Braid:

Ingredients-

Crescent rolls

Pizza Sauce (I made homemade from this recipe)

Mozzarella and cheddar cheese

olives

pineapple chunks

ham

(of course you can put whatever you want on it, but this is what I did)

1. Lay out crescent rolls on baking sheet and pinch together the seams.

2. Layer sauce and toppings in the middle third of the dough.

3. Using a pizza cutter slice the sides into one inch sections to the toppings in the middle.

4. "Braid"the sections by crossing one at a time.

5. Bake at 375 for 25-ish minutes.

This was seriously delicious and so easy to do. In fact Stafford wants it again this week :) Enjoy!

Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup in Crock Pot

Operation: Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

Picture and recipe from here.

Supposed to look like:

Makes about 2 quarts (I halved this)

2 (14 oz) cans diced tomatoes, with juice
1 cup finely diced celery
1 cup finely diced carrots
1 cup finely diced onions
1 tsp dried oregano or 1 T fresh oregano
1 T dried basil or 1/4 cup fresh basil
4 cups chicken broth
½ bay leaf
½ cup flour
1 cup Parmesan cheese
½ cup butter
2 cups half and half, warmed
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper

1.  Add tomatoes, celery, carrots, chicken broth, onions, 

oregano, basil, and bay leaf to a large slow cooker.

2.  Cover and cook on LOW for 5-7 hours, 

until flavors are blended and vegetables are soft.

3.  About 30 minutes before serving prepare a roux. 

Melt butter over low heat in a skillet and add flour. 

Stir constantly with a whisk for 5-7 minutes. 

Slowly stir in 1 cup hot soup. Add another 3 cups and stir until smooth. 

Add all back into the slow cooker. 

Stir and add the Parmesan cheese, warmed half and half, salt and pepper.  

Add additional basil and oregano if needed.

4.  Cover and cook on LOW for another 30 minutes or so until ready to serve.

Drumroll please...

:) yep. I did pretty good. 

Stafford even liked it. No meat though, so obviously he wasn't full.

I put the tomato mixture in a blender after it cooked for a while. I don't like big chunks.

It turned out delicious. Definitely suggest this.

Orange Julius.

I am taking a couple of cooking classes

and Tuesday we made these delicious smoothies.

Can I just tell you that I never thought 

orange juice and milk could mix...

but they do and it's amazing.

Super simple.. Stafford and I made these tonight!

Orange Julius:

In a blender add and whip:

1 cup milk

¼ cup water

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 oz. Frozen orange juice

about 20 ice cubes 

makes 2 smoothies. 

Seriously.. make this tonight.

You will be amazed.

lasagna roll-ups and breadsticks.

So lately I've been back on my whole

"do everything I pin on pinterest" thing.

The whole reason for me getting a pinterest is to learn new things and try them out. 

I may not be able to do everything right away, but yes, I'm on it.

The other day I decided to make lasagna roll-ups which I pinned. 

They actually turned out pretty good!

I got this recipe from here.

This is how they're supposed to look...  

with a nice camera and lighting and everything.

  

Ingredients:

8 lasagna noodles

1/2 pound lean ground turkey (gross. we used hamburger, and for my special ones I had no meat)

1 T olive oil

1 clove garlic

1/2 onion

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 egg

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 T fresh basil, chopped

1 1/2 T fresh oregano, chopped

1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

(I changed a lot from the recipe and just did stuff I like and what I had: prego, no red pepper flakes, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Boil a large pot of water.  Add salt and noodles.  Stir occasionally and cook to just al dente.  You want to leave them slightly more firm since you'll be baking the pasta.  Drain noodles and set aside.

Meanwhile in a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add garlic and onion and saute for 2-3 minutes.  Add turkey and brown.  When almost cooked through, add tomatoes and reduce heat to medium low.  Simmer for about 15 minutes.  Add 1/2 the basil, oregano, and crushed red pepper flakes and stir to combine.

In a small bowl, lightly beat egg.  Add ricotta, Parmesan and remaining basil and oregano and stir together.  Spray pan lightly with cooking spray.  Add enough sauce to lightly cover the bottom of the pan.  To assemble, on a drained noodle, add a spoonful of ricotta mixture.






Top with a spoonful of meat sauce and roll up.  Place seam side down in pan.  Continue until you've used all the noodles.  Top each with a little more meat sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella and remaining crushed red pepper flakes.  Bake approximately 20 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.

BTW this one was mine... no meat. Stafford's were a bit bigger and he was full after 2-

or he didn't like it. Either way..

This is what mine looked like at the end.. Pretty good I'd say. These were perfect for our small family, and so delicious.

I also made some yummy breadsticks from pinterest as well. You can find that recipe here.

If you like the food I like, follow me on pinterest.

:) Have a good week!

Serendipity's Frozen Hot Chocolate

Hello again!

So, I am taking a Doctrine and Covenants class through BYU Idaho, and we were asked to set a goal.

My goal for the next 5 weeks is to write in a journal everyday.

I know that will be really hard for me..  duh that's why it's a goal.

BUT, I figured I could kind of cheat and use this blog as a type of journal.

No I'm not about to share all my deepest darkest secrets, but when it comes to the cute things

my husband does, or the fun people we meet, then yes. Those things I will write down.

On top of that, I also set a goal for myself to actually do all the DIY things I've pinned on pinterest. 

Yes, I love pinterest. Infact the other day I got on it and Stafford 

was sitting right next to me. "Not pinterest again..." haha 

Come on sweetheart.. I'm getting so many good recipes.

So, last night we attempted Serendipity's frozen hot chocolate.

I got this recipe from here.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz. chopped semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 cups whole milk, divided
• 1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. your favorite powdered hot chocolate mix (I used 2 tsp more)
• 3 Tbsp. sugar (I used probably another Tbsp)
• 6 cups ice cubes
• whipped cream for garnish

Preparation:

1. Place chopped chocolate and 1/4 cup of the milk in a microwave-safe container. Heat on 50% power for 1 minute. Stir.


2. Heat on 50% power for 30 seconds. Stir. If necessary, continue heating in 30-second increments until chocolate is melted.


3. Add hot chocolate mix and sugar. Stir.


4. Slowly pour in 1/2 cup of the milk. Stir, and let cool to room temperature.


5. Pour cooled chocolate mixture into blender. Add remaining milk and ice cubes. Puree until smooth.


6. Top with whipped cream and serve immediately.

This site said it's supposed to make 2 big cups, but holy cow it's alot. It will probably feed 3 adults that love chocolate.

I am a lover of all things cold and chocolate.. Needless to say I'm a major ice cream fan. This 

recipe sounded amazing and it was..  

No.. Our presentation wasn't as pretty, but it tasted amazing!

I would definitely recommend trying this. Doesn't take long at all, and we had everything but the whole milk. yay!