Strawberry Jam

With all the delicious fresh strawberries I have been seeing at the Farmer's Market recently, I decided it was finally time to make my first batch of homemade strawberry jam. I remember "helping" my mom make jam when I was young (I think this consisted of mostly eating berries, and maybe a small amount of mashing the berries for her, followed by eating more berries). We bought 4 over-flowing quarts and brought them home. This is less than half of the berries.

Here they are on my lap, on the way home, compliments of my Instagram.

I admit, I was a little nervous about ruining the whole batch, so I called my mom a few times before starting the jam, asking for advice. After searching the internet and looking at several strawberry jam recipes, I decided to use the same recipe my mom has used for years- the one that comes with the "Sure-Jell" fruit pectin. It calls for 5 cups of crushed strawberries (about 4 pints), 7 cups of sugar (yes, you read that right) and a package of fruit pectin. After some slightly burned finger tips, here is what I ended up with!

As I was in the process of making jam, I also had homemade bread rising! Nothing beats homemade bread, topped with freshly made jam. It reminded me of after-school snacks, when I was growing up.
YUM!

On another note, we made hummingbird food yesterday for the first time this season, and they have already returned to our backyard!

They were loving the rain today.

I had a busy but relaxing weekend, finally completing some little crafty projects I have been wanting to do for awhile. More blog posts to follow soon (I hope!)

Green Spiced Smoothie

Since the beginning of the new year I have been into making green smoothies for breakfast. It's the perfect breakfast option for me because it is packed full of nutrients and I can take it to-go! This is my newest creation that I am actually currently enjoying as I type this.

If you don't have a high powered blender (I was lucky enough to get a Vitamix recently and LOVE it), I would suggest replacing the kale with spinach. The kale is much more fibrous and harder to break down- which may result in the kale not completely blending in your smoothie. Or maybe that doesn't bother you- in that case, go for it!

Green Spiced Smoothie
Serves 2
(Print Recipe)

Ingredients
2 cups kale, stems removed (if you use spinach, no need to remove stems)
1 cup almond milk
3/4 cup filtered water, or additional almond milk if you prefer
2 sliced and frozen bananas
1 thin slice fresh ginger (I throw it in the blender un-peeled. You could also grate it first, enough to equal about 1/2 teaspoon, or more if you like it with a kick!)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 pinches each of ground cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg
dash freshly ground pepper

6 ice cubes

Put everything in the blender and blend until smooth.

It's just like a chai flavored smoothie, but green! Try it, and adjust the spices to your taste.

Here are a few bird pictures my husband recently took of birds in our backyard. At any given time, if we look outside, there are birds on our fence, feeder, tree, and grass. All just hanging out or eating.

Three birds crammed onto one feeder.

Even a woodpecker!

We haven't had any snow yet this year. I always love the contrast of the birds against freshly fallen snow. Oh well, spring is on it's way, and I'm not complaining!

Menus for People, Menus for Dogs

Happy Sunday! Check out these beautiful flowers Nate brought home.

This morning I planned our menu for the week from the comfort of my couch. Lilly was sitting with me, when I had to get up to get another cookbook. I came back to this.

The cutest little menu planner I have ever seen.

Lilly's menu plan is oats and veggies mixed with her Taste of the Wild dog food. Every day. For breakfast and dinner. She can't get enough of this stuff! I swear she has had a new zest for life ever since we started mixing the Sojos with her dog food. She never used to eat her food right away when we would feed her... and when she did eat, she would pick at it and eat slowly. She also always used to sleep in all the time but now she wants to get up early so she can eat her beloved breakfast blend. She seems to have more energy too. Sometimes I wish she'd still sleep in though :) Call me a crazy dog person, but I'm happy that she enjoys eating so much now. She should enjoy it, right?

This is the menu I came up with for Nate and I this week. I am hoping to take pictures of Monday's recipe and share it on here soon. We stumbled upon this recipe last week and loved it. It is delicious and actually healthier than it sounds- no cream involved!

Yesterday, I went to Crate and Barrel to find a small kitchen trinket, because I had ten dollars left on a gift card from there. Instead, I came home with this.

A smoothie maker! It was too perfect AND too good of a deal to pass up. It was on sale and also came with a twenty dollar rebate. I love it because it also came with 4 (BPA FREE) travel cups that you can use to blend the smoothie in too! No transferring the smoothie from the blender to the cup... which means fewer dishes to wash. We desperately need fewer dishes to wash, especially with all the cooking we do. Nate and I shared one this morning because we didn't have enough almond milk to make two.

I also saw a yummy looking smoothie recipe book there, that I might have to find on Amazon and order. I think I need to expand my horizons with smoothie making... I pretty much stick to the same recipe all the time. I think I'm in a smoothie rut. But it isn't a bad rut to be in. Things could be worse.

One of my favorite things about summer...

This is the sweetest, juiciest watermelon I have had so far this season. Thanks to our neighbors for buying a watermelon that was too big for them to finish- they gave us half of it! I cubed it and will be eating it as snacks and desserts for as long as it lasts. 

Now, I know I said this wasn't going to be a hummingbird blog. I lied. I have to share this picture. If you are sick of seeing hummingbirds on here, stop reading now. But come back tomorrow! This hummingbird madness can't go on forever.

Remember my complaints about bad lighting for my first hummingbird pictures I posted? Here is an example. Good lighting (and the right camera setting) makes all the difference in the world!

Maybe the next blog will be hummingbird free. Don't hold your breath though.

A little bit of random

It is Friday evening and I am definitely sick! One bright spot in my day was I stepped out back when I got home and saw this.

I realize I just blogged about hummingbirds, but I did get a few more interesting pictures... so I can't help but to share them! (More humming bird posts: hummingbird food, first pictures, more hummingbirds.)

Hiding in a tree in our backyard.

Eating in our NEW feeder!

I love our new feeder because it is so easy to clean AND it looks like an old pop bottle.

Taking pictures is part of my plan for recovery. So is eating smoothies out of a bowl.

And remembering to take my vitamins... especially the immune boosting ones! I have gone through an entire box of tissues in 2 days.

As part of my random blog, I wanted to show you my vase I painted from when I went to paint pottery with the girls, now that it has been glazed.

The special effects paint looks much better after it was glazed and fired!

I can't wait to put some flowers in it.

Oh, and check out Nate's garden!

Well, I am off to go take a nap on the couch and snuggle with Lilly... also a part of my recovery plan. I'll leave you with one last hummingbird picture, and then I promise not to turn my blog into a hummingbird obsession blog.

I love the colors and texture on their feathers. (Note: If you want to see a larger version of the picture, just click on the picture and it will enlarge it... I just found this out the other day, I'm sure some of you... perhaps all of you, already knew that).

Pictures Pups and Hummingbirds

Last night we had friends over for our favorite dinner (artichokes and wheat berry salad)! Before they arrived here, look who decided to hang out for awhile.

I LOVE his colors and long beak for sipping nectar.

I have never seen a hummingbird just chill like that! They are usually flying and eating... and fighting.

I couldn't believe how different it looked from different angles. These were taken one right after the other.

As you can tell, I was obsessed with photographing this rare occasion.

I hope it comes back and hangs out more often... although, I might use up my entire memory card on it.

Before we made dinner, Lilly and Nate hung out in the back yard. When I took this picture of Lilly, my camera literally said, "detecting smile".

That underbite cracks me up! We had a beautiful sky too.

This is Lilly "playing" with her "friend" (No, she is not really a fan of other dogs).

She does look kind of interested here. She was also trapped on the couch.

I seriously love this dinner. I think Brandon and Lisa did too... at least that is what they told me.

Here is Lacey enjoying her first artichoke leaf. She took it outside to eat it... I guess she didn't want us watching. We did anyway. (Lilly loves them, as I have shared before!) 

Lacey definitely loved them... I'm sure she will be requesting more artichokes in the future :)

Lisa made a yummy strawberry pie, with strawberries from the farmer's market. I wish I had gotten a picture of it! We had fun hanging out... Lilly is still recovering from the stress of it all.

This is the only thing I had to recover from. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to have the luxury of laying on a soft, comfy pillow all day. I still had to go to work.

If only we could all have the life of Lilly... or Lacey.