Strawberry Freezer Jam

I LOVE strawberry freezer jam, but have never tried to make it. It's so easy and delicious I wish I would have made this a long time ago.

With strawberries on sale right now it was a good deal, especially because I found Pectin on sale as well. For about 5 pints it cost around $6.00 to make (minus cost of containers).

2 cups crushed strawberries (I have heard other crushed fruit is good as well but have never tried it) The strawberries should be fresh.

3-4 cups sugar
3/4 cup water
1 (1.75oz) package pectin

Crush strawberries and stir together with sugar. I said 3-4 cups because it depends on how ripe and sweet your strawberries are...mine were not that sweet (I was too impatient to wait a couple of days) so I used the 4 cups.

Let stand for 10 minutes.

Stir together Pectin and water and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute than stir into strawberry mixture. Allow to stand for 3-5 minutes than pour into jars/containers. Cover with lids and stand at room temp for 24 hours. Freeze or refridgerate as desired. Lasts at least a year in freezer and around a month in the fridge (if it lasts that long before everyone has eaten it!!).

Empanadas, baby, yeah!

So my friend Sarah married a man from Argentina named Alfredo. Last Friday Sarah and Alfredo invited Christin and I over to make some Empanada's for Alfredo's birthday and the World Soccer Cup. In all reality these are not hard at all, just time consuming. But time consuming is fun when you are visiting with good friends (and listening to Glee).

Empanadas
1 lb chicken meat
1 white onion
1 green bell pepper
1 potato
1-2 hard boiled eggs
cumin
paprika
salt
chili powder
1 lemon
2 packages of empanada dough (Fry or bake)--this is found at your local Hispanic market place. You could also home make this but that is additionally time consuming. Google for a recipe if interested.

Okay so boil up your chicken. Chicken breast off the bone is easiest but you can use any type of chicken (we used drumsticks) you just need 1 lb of meat for 2 packages (24 empanadas). Chop chicken into small pieces, reserving some chicken stock. In the mean time also boil your peeled potato whole, and make the hard boiled eggs.

Dice up the onion and green pepper. Add to pot with a little chicken stock (probably about 1/4 cup), and chopped chicken. Cook on stove top for a bit seasoning with cumin, salt, paprika, and chili powder to taste. To make spicier you could also throw in some red pepper flakes.

Place pot into a cold water bath in the sink to cool meat quickly. Chop potato into small pieces, and also hard boiled egg. When chicken has cooled add potato.

Spoon a large spoonful of meat and potato mixture and a small bit of egg into each dough round. Fold over in half and starting at one corner turn in edge every 1/2 inch overlapping previous fold (this is the trickiest part) you could also crimp edges with a fork or form like pie crust to seal the edge. Bake the baking shells for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees, or fry the fry shells (these ones are much tastier, but the baked are good too).

As you eat them try squeezing some lemon juice inside. They are SO good with the lemon juice.

Other delicious fillings to try: Dulce De Leche/cheese/strawberries, Nutella, apple pie filling with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top... How would you fill them?

A "Gleeful" Summer Salad

This was a salad that I made for the Season finale of GLEE. The happy summer colors and flavors made us all happy and it tasted delightful too.


4 cups Spinach greens
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 sliced and diced English Cucumber
1/4 cup bacon bits
1/8 cup Poppyseed dressing

Toss together and top with some sort of nut. I chose glazed pecans, deliciousness ensued.

(Measurements are gestimates...it really doesn't matter how much of each thing...just do it to taste.

Samoan Bars

These are a homemade version of the Girl Scout cookie...pretty darn tasty!

Cookie:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Cream together Butter and Sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg. salt, and vanilla. Stir in flour making a crumbly mixture. Press into pan and bake until light brown 20-25 minutes. Cool on wire rack in pan until completely cool.

Coconut-Caramel Center:
3 cups shredded coconut
14 oz of Caramels (I use 1 bag of Caramel bites because they melt faster)
1/4 tsp salt
3 and 1/2 TBSP milk
1 bag chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spread coconut onto a baking sheet and toast in oven until lightly browned for about 10-15 minutes stirring every 2-5 minutes. Cool.

In a pot melt caramel with salt and milk. When smooth remove from heat and stir in coconut. Spread over cooled cookie base (This is more difficult than it looks. I spooned coconut onto base and then pressed with a greased piece of wax paper to pread evenly. Caramel is still hot so wear oven mitt when pressing with paper).

Allow to cool completely. Melt Chocolate chips (I melt Chocolate chips by putting them into a tupperware container and microwaving for 30 seconds at a time, stirring with a knife in between, until melted. Ususally takes 1 to 1.5 minutes).

Cut into bars and remove from pan. Dip the bottom of each bar into chocolate (Easiest just to turn bar over and spread on chocolate with a knife or spoon). Place on wax paper. Take remaining chocolate and drizzle over the top of bars. I cooled my bars on wax paper and a baking sheet in the freezer for 10 minutes, until the chocolate had hardened.

SO good! While they are time consuming because everything needs melted/baked, and then cooled...they are worth it!

When life gives you Lemons....

...bake Lemon Cupcakes!

I made these Lemon cupcakes and I rather liked them because they don't have an overbearing Lemon flavor.

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1-2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp grated lemon peel (I always grate fresh)
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sour cream

Cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla, lemon peel, and lemon juice and cream together. Mix in baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Sift in flour 1 cup at a time alternating with sour cream. Mixture will be of a thicker consistency. Spoon into a muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. When filled with about 1/4 cup per cupcake this recipe yields approx 30 cupcakes.

Lemon frosting:
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp grated lemon peel
3-5 cups powdered sugar (depending on how much frosting you intend to make)
Mix together butter, vanilla, milk, and lemon peel. Add 3 cups powdered sugar and blend. Add lemon juice and stir. If thicker consistency desired add more powdered sugar as needed. To thin add another Tbsp of milk.

Frost cupcakes when warm for a lemon glaze. Frost when completely cool for a frosting layer. (Tastes great either way!)

The Beehive Bizarre

Today I went with some friends to the Beehive Bizarre which is just a little boutique where people sell their online (usually etsy) shop stuff. It was fun to wander around and check out the latest and greatest in arts and craft (non-scrapbooking). Lots of flowers and headbands and felt were for sale and I got lots of good ideas. Some of the stuff I got as pictured above:

1. Fell instantly in love with this Vinylicious Designs book cover. Harry Potter all the way.
2. The bound book is a journal made from an old school hardback cover book. I have made ones from paperback and thought this one was really fun.
3. a pack of Vintage flashcards.
4. A cute felt and t-shirt fabric flower hair clip from Wendy and Peter.
5. Some little silk flower bobbypins...I espcially liked how they were on playing cards.
7. Some super cute magnets. The Owl and Unicorn are from Isabell's Umbrella, who had so many cute little creatures like gnomes and t-rex's as well. The little Viking I got for my sister and it's from Noddin Shop which has tons of cute and fun zombie, viking, skulls, etc...

I love supporting the little people who take so much time to be creative.

Strawberry Banana Muffins

to continue on the theme of strawberries... I mixed up these strawberry banana muffins off of various recipes and suggestions I found at allrecips.com. I had bananas and strawberries that were going bad and wasn't in the mood for a smoothie, so I thought this seems appropriate.

2 eggs, beaten
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup strawberries chopped into small pieces
1 cup mashed bananas (2 bananas)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup oil (people suggest subsitituing with applesauce, but I didn't have any)
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Mix together all dry ingredients in seperate bowl. Mix together eggs, sugar, strawberries, bananas, vanilla, and oil. Stir in dry ingredients. Bake in Muffin cups at 350 degrees for approx. 25 minutes. Makes 12-16 large muffins.