Pinterest Experiment: Freezer Jam!

About once a month, my friend and I get together for a lady date. It usually consists of one of us going to the other's house for dinner, and then we knit and talk for a couple of hours. I LOVE it.

But this time around, I wanted to do something different. And this something I wanted to do I just knew my husband wouldn't really be in to, so I suggested it and my friend was all on board. We invited another cute girl to join us and had a blast. As we were doing it, we found out that everyone's husband was relieved to be 'off the hook' for that particular activity.

We went berry picking at the Fruit and Berry Patch. I've always wanted to do berry picking and was super happy that the other ladies were on board. We have plans to go back when it's blackberry and peach picking time, too. But this post is not about berry picking.

Its about what I did with the berries.

It was strawberry picking time when we went. For quite a few years, I've been wanting to be a 'better' homemaker, but really just want to be more self-reliant and frugal. I pinned stuff on Pinterest to help me out.

One of the earliest things I pinned was a Freezer Jam recipe. And that is what I had in mind for these strawberries from the get-go.

I followed the directions, that I understood. The first step was to cut the tops off the strawberries:

Then I was supposed to put them one layer at a time in a bowl and mash them. This is the direction I didn't understand, so I just dumped them all in at once and mashed away. I later realized that this direction meant I needed to put just a few strawberries at a time in the bowl, so none were on top of each other. My brain hasn't been functioning much lately.

I boiled the apple juice and pectin on the stove, while repeatedly telling my husband in my teacher voice that if he got in the way when I removed it that I was not responsible for any injury or death. (We have a very small kitchen and he followed me around in there!) I added some sugar as well, and made sure that it all boiled for a minute or so.

And added it to the mashed strawberries. After stirring vigorously for a minute or two, I poured the mix into the containers I had bought for this sole purpose. I bought the amount the recipe said I would need and that would fit all the jam.


The recipe was wrong. Not only did it fill those four cute containers, there was a TON left over. It filled a ziploc reusable and half of a clam chowder container. I would say there was at least double what the recipe claimed it would make. And yes, other than adding sugar and not mashing the strawberries one layer at a time, I made the recipe with exact measurements.

I actually waited a couple days before being brave enough to try the jam, and once I did I was pleasantly surprised that it actually was edible. I have never made jam of any sort before and wasn't sure I was doing it right, or that it wouldn't be sweet enough since some of the strawberries were a little past being ripe and some were not quite ripe yet.

I would count this one a Pinterest success.

Pinterest Adventures: Jello Fruit Snacks

This is a first of hopefully many Pinterest Adventure posts. I know a lot of people do them and the humor in it is that real life doesn't always translate to pinterest level products. However, I really think it's nice to see that someone else, a "normal" person, was able to somewhat successfully do something found on Pinterest.

(If you have any pins that you would like me to try out first to work out the kinks, just let me know!)

Picture and Recipe credit goes to Six Sisters Stuff blog: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/06/homemade-jello-fruit-snacks-recipe.html

This pin caught my eye because it said Homemade fruit snacks. I love fruit snacks, but being a graduate student, and a newlywed, fruit snacks are not in the budget. So of course I thought I'd be able to have fruit snacks if I made them at home. Sadly, the ingredient list at the time would have cost about the same amount as a box of fruit snacks, so I just let it sit.

Then, I decided I really really wanted to try it. I went to Kroger and found out that Kroger brand gelatin was on sale for only 39 cents a box. So I grabbed a couple on the last shopping trip, and waited for a weekend.

First off, it says to "sprinkle the gelatin" into the water. This didn't work. The gelatin clumped up all gross and kind of stayed that way on the first go around. The second time though, I whisked it in like I would with gravy mix. Whisk constantly while slowly pouring the powder in. It worked better, but not perfectly. Maybe it would work better with brand name gelatin?

Next, I poured it into a mini ice cube mold, the ones with the silicone bottom so you can pop the ice out easier? I had difficulties trying to decide how full to fill them though. This is the first go around when I filled them up pretty much all the way. I ended up not filling every one up. And ended up with some monstrously big fruit snacks. 

My second go around, I filled them to where the silicone part ended. I had enough to fill up this mold, and if I had a second mold probably about half of that one. Since I didn't have a second mold I used my husband's gun shaped ice cube mold. Got two guns out of it too. 

The tutorial instructed me to let the fruit snacks "sit" for "at least 20 minutes". Ok. Good, I could do that. I wandered off to Netflix a show. When I came back, they were still really soft and I couldn't get them to come out of the mold. 

Yeah, so turns out you should let them sit in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. This was missing from the instructions. Second go around, golden on this.  However, this did not ease the getting them out of the mold process. Alas, I have no pointers on this part other than be patient, and maybe a little aggressive. They will eventually come out. 

Finally, they do not need to be kept in the fridge after the initial setting. But they do need to be eaten rather quickly ( a couple of days) if you elect to not keep them in the fridge. They will mold otherwise. At least they will if you live in the South like I do.

My last thought: These really aren't like store bought fruit snacks. They are weirdly squeaky (best word I could come up with) and don't taste nearly as good as store bought ones do. BUT if your children are young and you are on a budget, go for it. They probably won't be able to tell the difference.

Cooking, a Love (and future regular post)

Recently while talking with my fiancee, he asked how much it costs me to bake bread from scratch. He was trying to figure out if it was really worth the time of baking it when you could just go to the store and buy a loaf.
I said it was worth it because I like cooking and baking. It was cheaper, but I couldn't tell him exactly how much cheaper. But I felt like (and still feel like) the time and effort are what makes it infinitely better than buying. I love mixing it together, letting it rise, baking it, and eating it fresh from the oven. I get a really satisfying contentment from it.
It's not just bread either, I love baking desserts and cooking dinners. I just like it.
However, he did get me thinking. So I started to calculate how much it costs me to bake and cook the things that I make. I thought maybe perhaps some other people out there would like to know this sort of thing too, so I will be making a regular post of it.
I will be posting the recipes I use, the cost of the ingredients, and how much I get out of the recipe. Keep in mind that I am a single girl, and I shop at Kroger using store brands. Also, one of my pet peeves is when people say 'it cost such and such', but they don't break it down, so I'm going to break it down for you telling you how much each ingredient cost as well as the total cost.
If you have a recipe, or see one on Pinterest, that you'd like me to try and calculate for you, let me know! (again, keep in mind that I'm in grad school, and it might take me a couple weeks to get to it...)

Love you all, if you have a chance you should come over for brownies, peanut butter cookies, or cinnamon bread!

Finance Friday: Couponing made Easy

I don't 'coupon' like some folks do. It's ridiculous. But I still do what I can to save money at the grocery store.

Enter: The Kroger App (disclaimer, I have no idea if other stores have this type of thing, but Kroger does and I love it)

Each week I need groceries (which isn't that often really), I open up the Kroger app on my phone. It has the weekly specials in it. AND coupons. Generally I get my list together before checking the ads, but sometimes I have a general idea of what I need, like some fresh veggies, and see what they have.

The nice thing about this is you can add the item to "Your List" and it gets organized based on the areas of the store. You can pull up your list and it's in an order of sorts that makes sense so you're not running back and forth in the store.

The best part however, is that the coupons get loaded directly to your frequent shopper card. When you scan the card, if you have a coupon for an item it automatically deducts it. You don't have to cut the coupons out, and such.

Super nice too, I can open the app while waiting in line at the post office, while on the bus, over my lunch break when I don't have homework. It's portable coupons folks! I love it.

Bonus tip: When you get your receipt, check it for the survey code. Each survey you complete  gives you 50 fuel reward points, and with the cost of gas these days every little bit counts!