homemade peach jam

I may have a new hobby. Yes, another to add to the list of 1,345,215 things that I enjoy doing. Canning! Travis and I ventured into canning when we were trying to make his barbecue sauce shelf stable. So we packed the mason jars full of sauce and boiled them, then sat back and listened to the "ping, ping, ping" and they self sealed. So gratifying to hear that little sound.

My sister in law recently bought a new house in the area and was lucky enough that the property came with 3 mature fruit trees, two apricot and one peach. We feasted on apricots (one of my favorites) prior to out adventures in canning, otherwise i'd be slathering apricot jam on every food item at every meal. 

Don't get me wrong, when we visited the new place a few weeks later we were lucky enough to pull about 20lbs of beautifully ripe peaches from her tree. She didn't want them and sent them home with us. I immediately knew I wanted to try my hand at making peach jam and canning it, and so I did!

We followed the directions on the back of the Sure Jell pectin package. "If its not broke don't fix it" was our first time jam making motto. And it turned out SO GOOD!!! I made a whopping 21 jars of jam and our tiny family of three has already gone through almost three jars. 

I also had to have labels for the jars. Im kinda obsessed with sticker paper and making custom tags and labels and stuff. It makes it look so much more official. I came across this amazing site called the jam labelizer where you can customize different designs and print them. Super easy, super cute. I named my jam after the little one-of course. 

I also DIY'ed a little something extra to go with the jam I gave to a few friends. There's a sneak peak below, but I'll share more about that later this week. Now don't be intimidated, go make some jam!

green smoothie

Spring is here! Yay, finally! The sun is shinning which makes taking blog photos much more enjoyable than fighting with dark skies and no natural light. It also makes me want to clean and eat healthier because I know i'll be forced into a swimsuit in a few short months (ugh). I'm trying to eat healthier (mmm...pizza) and tried my hand making a green smoothie after seeing a few motivating Instagram pics by Emma over at Red Velvet. 

This one has:

 two handfuls of spinach

one sliced apple

three large strawberries

one scoop protein powder

one cup water

a handful of ice

The verdict? It was yummy overall. I couldn't taste the spinach at all, but the consistency was rather thick. I think adding more ice would help for next time. The thing I like about it is that its filling. I couldn't even finish the whole thing. I'm looking forward to trying a few others this week, maybe something with blueberries? That sounds tasty.

yummy yummy fudge recipe

Only 18 days until Christmas and the season of holiday parties has begun! If you need a special indulgent treat to share with friends at a party or other festivities this is my go-to recipe. What's better than fudge? It's rich, chocolatey and you can top it with tons of different things: nuts, toffee, chopped chocolate covered espresso beans...mmm.

Ingredients

1.5 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup evaporated milk

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups miniature marshmallows

1.5 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped pecans/walnuts/toffee/etc (optional)

Directions

LINE 8-inch-square baking pan with foil.

COMBINE sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boilover medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

STIR in marshmallows, morsels, nuts and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until marshmallows are melted. Pour into prepared baking pan; refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Lift from pan; remove foil. Cut into 48 pieces.

(In case you're wondering the nail polish i'm wearing is called "Passion" by China Glaze, and the glitter is Martha Stewart Craft glitter.)

kale chips recipe

After the overload of all the Thanksgiving food from yesterday here's a quick and healthy snack/side to prepare in case your in need of some healthy nutritious food. Kale chips. They sound scary, and look even scarier, but trust me they're tasty and good for you.

Ingredients

1 Bunch Kale

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Salt to taste

Directions

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 

With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

Easy peasy, right? Give em' a try!

yummy yummy pumpkin bread

If you're looking for my giveaway at Keepin' It Thrifty, click HERE.

It's October, time to make yummy pumpkin recipes! This one is for the most amazing, moist, just enough spice, pumpkin bread. Make it today, you won't be disappointed. I doubled the recipe exactly and it yielded 6 beautiful yummy loaves of bread.

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 2.5 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Recipe Yields 3 - 7x3 inch loaf pans 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans. Top with desired extras (nuts, chocolate chips, etc.)
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

{Baby Bird, Baby Shower}

Here are some photos from the lovely baby shower my sister in law hosted for Travis and I. The theme was "baby bird" and it was such a good time with family.

Aren't the nest cupcakes adorable? And the mini bird eggs? So cute!

Love the flower choice...ranunculus right? So pretty!

The yummy sandwich bar, my favorite was the quinoa curry salad. Soooo good!

Me @ 31.5 weeks...my belly is getting HUGE!

{Thanksgiving!}

{photo credit}

Hello! It's been some time! The baby and I are out of our first trimester, and I hear the relief from sickness is fast approaching us. We'll see I suppose. I've been keeping it very low key, not to mention that school is almost over for the semester, and I am now working full time. Very little extra time for blogging, and experimental crafting and baking. I'm looking forward to when school is out, and I can devote my evenings to creating things other than term papers.

I thought I'd share my favorite recipe for cranberry sauce while I patiently wait for my life to be a little less crazy. I miss this blog. I miss crafting and sewing and baking. Siiigggghhh....

Well, onto the recipe. It really is soooo easy and delicious! I have never had the canned gelatinous jello-mold looking cranberry sauce, so there is no comparison on an actual level, but I can almost guarantee that this is 10 million times better, yeah...I'd bet some serious money on that.

Ingredients

1/2-1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)

1 package fresh cranberries

Juice of 1 orange

Zest of 1 orange

1/2 cup water

Directions

Place 1/2 cup sugar, water, and the juice of the orange together in stove top pan, heat over medium flame until sugar has dissolved in the water. Add the package of cranberries and the orange zest and cook over a low simmer (medium heat) for 7 to 10 minutes or until all of the cranberries have burst and the sauce is thick and deep red. Taste and add additional sugar if you like your cranberry sauce on the sweeter side. Serve warm or at room temperature.

{Craving Chocolate}

Mmmmm....chocolate! It's football season and that means that most days of the week my t.v. has been taken over by my husband and his obsession with football. This season I'm trying to be a good sport and make the most of it, which to me means I have another excuse to bake goodies and cook up treats to eat while watching the game.

I suggested we invite some friends over for food and merriment during the first real weekend of the football season. Any reason to have a small party right? Not surprisingly my husband was all for it.

These chocolate cupcakes are nothing special really, just a basic recipe, but I did try out my new mini cupcake pan, and the mini espresso brown paper liners I bought a while back at this fabulous online bake shop. They are just adorable! And not to mention the perfect bite size. Maybe even too perfect. You could eat a dozen of them no problem.

I also made their larger counter part in oversized white paper baking cups. I actually prefer the oversized ones to regular sized baking cups, I like the excess at the top, it's pretty and is perfect for catching the frosting if it should go dripping down the sides.

I haven't been posting as regular due to school starting and my new job. I've been a busy girl! But I have a lot of projects to share with you all, most of which are related to the baby shower I am planning for my best friend. I don't want to spoil the surprise for the mom to be, so i'll be waiting until after the shower in a few weeks to post all those projects and goodies.

{Baking It Pretty}

Hands down, one of my favorite leisure activities is baking. It's such a stress reliever for me that I bake every chance I get, at least once a week. I've posted before about a lovely little site that sells adorable baking goods called Bake It Pretty. Last week I ordered some light blue office-esque tags, chocolate brown mini and regular sized cupcake liners, and my new favorite cookie cutter, which I have affectionately named "the 'stache". I am already thinking of a few people who will be receiving cookies made with "the 'stache" very soon, and the husband has already requested I make some for his upcoming birthday.

It's so exciting opening the mailbox to see a package you know is going to be filled with great things. I was very excited today was delivery day. My items were packaged nicely in a brown paper bag with a Bake It Pretty sticker seal. I love details like that.

I suggest you stop by the site and take a look around. It's filled with a million awesome things for the baker who obsesses over making food pretty. Because eating cute food is a millions times more fun, right?

Oh, in other AG news...I've started a Flickr account. (I know, I know, who doesn't have a Flickr account? Apparently no one except me until today.) I'm hoping it makes me more diligent about taking photos and blogging about them. You can see the scant collection so far here.