About Me

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Hello! I am Diana, wife to Ted. We are the parents to one miraculous 6-year-old little princess. Aside from my daughter my earthly passions include home-cooking at an intermediate level, Music, knitting, photography, learning Adobe Photoshop, digital scrapbooking, and online social networking.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Fresh Off The Needles: Autumn Toddler Sweater

Well, the last time I blogged about knitting was back in July because I took a break from knitting most of the summer. But I am back into it now and wanted to share my latest completed project. It is a toddler sweater for the Little Princess. It is the same pattern I have used to knit baby sweaters, and is adapted from Baby Knits for Beginners by Debbie Bliss. It is my favorite knitting pattern book that I have ever used, and there are some great intermediate projects in there as well. I borrowed the book from my SIL about 3 years ago and haven't given it back (((blush))). I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to knit non-complicated stuff for babies & toddlers:


I say the pattern is adapted because I used the pattern for "Sweater with Square Set-In Sleeves" which has a diamond stitch pattern. I did the sweater in straight stockinette stitch choosing to do a striped color pattern instead.

Back in the spring, I knit a sage & rose toddler dress for her in the same pattern that I used for other dresses I have talked about on here, and I loved to color combo so much (and had the leftover yarn in my stash) that I decided to do up a sweater for the Little Princess for fall.

It knits up fairly quickly on size 7 needles, it took me 3 days to complete the body panels & neck band, but not without a small glitch that involved the sweater not fitting over my child's giant melon, and me having to rip out my bind-off and redoing it. And then knitting fatigue set in, my pace slowed and it took me another whole week-and-a-half to finish the sleeves and the sewing together.
Anyway, it's done, it fits great, and I am really happy with it. The princess seems to like it as she keeps picking it up and saying "Mommy, you knit this for me?" :)

Here are a few pics I snapped with her in it, and a little digiscrapbook page I did about it:



This scrapbook page was created using all goodies you can find over at The Sweet Shoppe.

That's it on the knitting front for now. There could be a baby shower for a close friend on the horizon, so we shall see what kind of projects that may bring! Thanks for reading!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Make Mine a 4-Way, Please!

Oh. Hi. O...I know I haven't done a legitimate cooking entry in over a month now, but here I am with a discovery that I have been wanting to share for awhile! Back in August my friend Ryann from A Working Mommy's Blog, and a Cincinnati girl, asked our collective mommy's board if we thought this was weird:

Chili served over spaghetti with shredded cheese & onions.

As a New England girl, I had never heard of such a thing, nor have I ever travelled to Ohio. My first thought was about Texas-style chili over spaghetti, which sounded interesting. She claimed (her claims have now proven to be beyond reproach, hehehe) that she got it that way at a restaurant called Skyline. Our friend Terri, also a Cincy girl at heart, backed her story up. The whole idea intrigued me, but I had never heard of it being served that way. So I went to do some reading.

Not only do people, indeed, eat their chili over spaghetti in Cincinnati but there are lots of restaurants (or chili parlors) that cator to this very demographic! In reading the Wikipedia article found here, I discovered that the chili in question was not at all like Texas style chili. Same basic idea but with more eastern European and middle eastern influences with the use of cinnamon, cloves, and chocolate! The culinary adventurer inside of me was starting to get really piqued.

I also read some about Skyline which appears to have more than just a cult following among Cincinnati natives and extends to those who've relocated all across the country. People have cans of it shipped to where they are. Apparently the chili is traditionally served as a 2-way (chili over spaghetti noodles), 3-way (chili, noodles & completely covered with shredded sharp cheddar cheese), 4-way (chili, noodles, cheese, fresh chopped onions) or a 5-way (chili, noodles, cheese, onions, and kidney beans).

I looked up recipes for Cincinnati chili, and lo and behold, there was one at allrecipes, under my nose the whole time! In reading the reviews of the recipe over and over were the words "very similar to Skyline." So follows the recipe that would change my culinary presuppositions forever, or at least taste really, really good.


Cincinnati Chili from AllRecipes.com (with a few slight modifications by me).
INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 pounds ground beef
1/4 cup chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 bay leaf
1/2 (1 ounce) square unsweetened chocolate
2 (10.5 ounce) cans beef broth
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Directions:

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 6 minutes.

Add beef, in batches if necessary, and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until browned. Now here is where I altered the recipe just slightly. In reading the reviews on allrecipes, many people stated that the "authentic" way to make this was to boil the ground beef in the broth. So that is what I did, I added the broth to the sauteed onions, brought it to a boil and cooked the ground beef in it. I get a finer consistency from the ground beef this way.

Add chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, allspice, cloves, bay leaf, chocolate, beef broth (see above), tomato sauce, cider vinegar, and red pepper.
Stir to mix well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
It is the best if you now refrigerate overnight. I did not let it sit over night, and it was still DELICIOUS!

Remove the bay leaf. Reheat gently over medium heat. Serve over hot, drained spaghetti. Top with shredded cheddar cheese. End recipe.
The chili is supposed to be a thinner consistency and mine turned out pretty thick, but it is because I should have added another cup or so of beef broth after the meat was cooked. That being said, both DH and I loved it with a thicker consistency and he even said he likes this better than traditional spaghetti sauce.
It was very good, and this recipe makes more than enough to freeze for future meals. We ate ours as a 4-way, DH is not big on beans, and it was just so delicious. The picture at the top of the entry shows a scant amount of cheese compared to how it is served in restaurants, but I was trying to be good. Hopefully I will get to visit Ohio one day and stop by for some authentic Skyline chili! And a big thank-you to Ryann and my Cincy girls for introducing me to it.
-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

My (not so) Secret Shame

Ok, the time has come for me to let you all know why I REALLY have been slacking in my blog posting. I have an addiction problem. Well, if you can be addicted to pixels that is. Yes, I have a pixel addiction. It has even been taking over my will to...cook. I am so ashamed (not really).

More specifically I am addicted to pixels in the form of BEAUTIFUL digital scrapbooking kits, and even more specifically the kind they sell over at Sweet Shoppe Designs. I have been intrigued by the concept of Digi for some time, since meeting Lauren from Lauren Grier Designs. I've always looked at her beautiful digital scrapbook pages in awe, and even tried to do it some back in 2006, but gave up. Then I got one of Lauren's kits in a little giveaway she did on a forum we are both on. They say the first one is not addictive...LIARS!



My love for photography and Photoshop lend itself to digital scrapbooking, so it was a natural for me. I am not saying I am any good at it, but the Sweet Shoppe kits definitely let me produce pages that I am proud of., and have given me a medium to work with in continuing to learn about Photoshop. I get 8x8 inch prints made up at a photo lab and put them into an 8x8 album. It is so much fun and I love having an album of lovely decorated pages. The other great thing about digital scrapbooking is being able to share them online with friends and family. The fun, inspirational challenges over at the Sweet Shoppe are just a bonus!


Anyway...so that has been the hobby I have been kind of throwing myself into learning these past few weeks, and I just wanted to let everyone know that I am in NO WAY abandoning my blog, in fact I have a good entry in the works about Cincinatti Chili (ever heard of such a thing?), so I hope to have that up soon!


-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Recipe: Maine Maple Sausage Egg Rolls

Welcome back to the Ivy kitchen, I want to apologize for my long hiatus. Sometimes, with all that goes on in a mom's life it's hard to find the motivation to do one more thing in a day, so the blog gets pushed to the back burner!

I hope my faithful readers are still with me. My first post back from "vacation" is big one, so grab a drink and sit down! I am gonna share the recipe my world famous hubby loves them home made egg rolls! There is really no special occasion for sharing the recipe, other than the fact that I made them a few weeks ago and finally took pictures of the process for the first time.

The reason I made them is that DH finally complained, after 9 years of marriage, that I have never made a batch just for him. I always make them for get-togethers and pot lucks, and have even been paid to make them for other people's parties, but I had apparently, never made a batch for just him to enjoy!

The name "Maine Maple Sausage" may be a bit deceiving since I usually use Jimmy Dean Maple sausage to make things easier, but in a pinch I have added a hint of real Maine maple syrup to sage or Italian sausage to make these egg rolls. Plus they are made in my kitchen which is located in Maine...yeah...

A bit about how this recipe came to be: One of my childhood friends (and next door neighbor) came from a Cambodian family. Her family came to the U.S. in the early 80's when she was 4-years-old. They were being resettled from the refugee camp in Thailand where she was born. Her family had fled, on foot, through the jungles of Cambodia to escape the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime that took over during the late 70's. Anyway, I was blessed enough to grow up with them next door to me. My friends mom, who we all just called "Mama" spoke no English, but is the best home cook that I have met to this day.

Mama's specialty are pork spring rolls. She makes them for any and all occasions, including sending them over when someone in the family was sick or once, when I was a teenager, when our power was out and all our food went bad.

As teens, my friend and I loved to cook together, and one of the things we always aspired to do was have her mom teach us how to make egg rolls. But this was her most guarded recipe, and she refused to teach us how to make them. She would always let us fry them, and once, ONCE she let us roll them, but she would never share her filling recipe.

As a result, my friend and I set out to create our own recipe with what we had on hand in *my* mom's non-Asian kitchen on that particular day. Here is the list of ingredients we decided upon:

Package of 20 Wonton Wrappers
1 lb. Bulk Maple Breakfast Sausage
1 medium onion
1 bunch Scallions
Baby Carrots (eliminating the peeling step)
Garlic (about 3-4 cloves, crushed)
1 Egg, beaten
Seasoned Salt & Pepper to taste
About 2 quarts of canola oil fro deep frying.

Well, the recipe came out tasting better than we ever imagined it would, although completely unlike Mama's egg rolls, hahaha. I have used this egg roll recipe, unchanged, since that fateful day!

On with the recipe:

In the past I have spent a good hour dicing veggies, because the pieces have to be small enough to cook all the way during the deep frying stage of the recipe, the carrots taking the most time. Well, I guess those days are a memory as long as I am blessed with a working food processor. This was my first time making egg rolls since I've had one, and let me tell you, it took about 90 seconds total to chop the veggies (I snipped the scallions into 1/4 inch sections using kitchen shears)!!!!! Yay! There is nothing like revolutionizing a kitchen task!

The next step is to prepare the meat for the filling. Now, Mama never cooked her meat filling first, she would just trust that the deep frying would cook it through. I am just not that trusting. So, in a large non-stick skillet I add the sausage, 3-4 cloves of crushed garlic, and seasoning salt and black pepper to taste (I like well seasoned). I cook and crumble the meat until it is just BARELY done, just until the last shade of pink disappears. I don't want to over cook it because it still has to cook in the deep fryer.

Next I beat the egg and add more seasoning salt and pepper:


Then, in a large bowl, I toss the meat with the chopped veggies, and pour in the beaten, seasoned egg. I stir the mixture well to make sure all the ingredients are evenly distributed. During rolling, you'll want to keep stiring the filling int the bowl to ensure it all stays coated with the egg mixture.

Next, I assemble all the ingredients on my rolling surface, including 1 separated egg yolk, broken into a bowl, to use for sealing the wrappers:

Rolling the egg rolls is always the hardest part of the process to explain, and really warrants a video, but since I was making them at home alone with the Little Princess underfoot I was not able to produce a video. The Princess's videography skills are still quite lacking. So I will do my best to explain it:

Begin by placing one wonton in "diamond" position in front of you, and spoon on about 2 -3 TBSP of filling in the center, but closer to the bottom point:


Bring bottom point up over filling:

And tuck bottom point down under filling on the other side:

Next, keeping the filling wrapped fairly tightly, fold in the side points, and dab a little egg yolk onto top point, then continue to roll the egg roll up into a tight cylinder and seal with egg yolk at top point:
Viola!


While I am rolling the egg rolls I put the canola oil in the bottom a stainless steel dutch oven, or large flat bottomed skillet. I put it on low heat so that the oil can be slowly heating while completing the egg rolls. Raw wantons get soggy (causing ripping) FAST so it is important to have the oil pretty much ready to go when the egg rolls are done being rolled:

Test to see if the oil is up to temperature by dropping in an extra little piece of wanton or a piece of carrot. The oil should bubble GENTLY around it. If the oil bubbles too rapidly or smokes at all the temp is way too high and you will probably set off the smoke alarms and/or start a fire, lol. It is very important to constantly temper the flame when you are deep frying on a stove top. There are plenty of times when the oil is hot enough that you don't need the flame to be on at all.

Fry the egg rolls, 8-10 at a time, turning if possible, until the wontons are golden brown, remove from the oil with METAL tongs and let drain on a plate lined with paper towels:

And there you have it, my most requested recipe, serve with rice and hot pepper or sweet and sour dipping sauces! I hope you enjoy them as much as we do, and thanks for reading!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

Sunday, July 20, 2008

The Sound of Silencio: How Quiet is TOO Quiet?

That is the question we parents of toddlers are constantly asking ourselves...and here is just one of many possible answers:


Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Scrumptious Strawberry Season Vol. 2 - Strawberry Banana Shortcake

Finally! Here is the long awaited (or long forgotten about) 2nd half of my Scrumptious Strawberry Season entry! What is strawberry season without strawberry shortcake? Try explaining that to Dear Husband while he is grumbling and complaining about the can of Reddi-Whip he had to make a special trip to the store to get ("I thought picking your own strawberries was supposed to be a way of saving money!" No silly, picking your own strawberries is a way to ENJOY the season and an excuse cook and eat yummy food, DUH!!!).


Thus follows the recipe I used to make this year's favorite beginning-of-summer dessert...with an unexpected twist!

I used this recipe from allrecipes.com, but I basically only used the shortcake part of the recipe, not the berry part or the cream.



2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
1 egg

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease and flour one small cake pan or small rectangular casserole dish. I prefer my strawberry shortcakes to be rectangular, they are easier to work with, I think.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, 2 tablespoons white sugar and the salt. With a pastry blender cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. I washed my pastry blender to have it ready right away, as I use it to crush my berries instead of slicing them!


Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg and milk. Stir until just combined.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool partially in pan on wire rack.


While the cake is cooking, I prepare the RIPE berries by crushing them with the pastry blender.
While crushing the strawberries, I glanced over and saw two lonely bananas that would shortly be taking "The Long Walk" to MIL's compost pile. Maybe you can, but I can't leave a dying man....er...fruit behind, so I grabbed them and sliced them up and added them to the crushed strawberries. I added a little lemon juice (about a TBSP) to keep the bananas a nice color, and added 1/2 cup of white sugar. Mixed it well and set it aside.


Need I say more? I think not. But I will :P In hindsight, I would have used a little more sugar. The berry filling was a little on the tart side, probably due to the addition of lemon juice. I like mine more tart, but I would probably add 2/3 cup of sugar next time to suit a more universal palette. But all in all, the bananas were a delicious twist!

Anyway, once the shortcake is cool enough to touch, cut it into squares of a desired size, and cut each square in half. Pour some berry mixture over the bottom half of the shortcake, followed by a good size squirt of Reddi-Whip, then layer on the top of the short cake, some more berries, and a final squirt of the sugary, aerosol goodness that is Redd-Whip. And there you have the finished product: Strawberry Banana Shortcake!

The Little Princess is going through a picky stage right now with food, basically if it's not cereal, peanut butter, Goldfish or a hot dog, she ain't eatin' it. I was somewhat reassured when I put this down on her tray and got the repeated reaction of "Oh WOW! Oh WOW!" :)

Thanks for reading!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

Monday, July 7, 2008

Fresh Off The Needles: Stars and Stripes Toddler Sun Dress

Well, I meant to post "Scrumptious Strawberry Season: Vol. 2" within a day or two of posting "Vol. 1" but time got away from me, and it has been a BUSY holiday weekend! So "Scrumptious Strawberry Season" will now be interrupted by the latest installment of "Fresh Off The Needles."
Since my first post showing the knit toddler sundress that I made in May, I have made two more. I have not had the chance to post a picture of the second one yet and the the most recent one is the dress I will talk about here. I have been designing a 4th of July themed dress in my mind for awhile, and actually started knitting it before I had the design pegged. The construction is the same as the first ones that I knit, but I made the skirt on this one a few inches shorter. The color theme is American Flag inspired (obviously) but I chose "country Americana" colors instead of straight red, white and blue. It was meant to be worn by the Little Princess for all of our Independence day get-togethers, but it turned out really cute and she will be able to wear it all summer!

I finished it the morning of the 4th, right before leaving to go watch the parade!


Since I have had tons of blog hits from people looking for a knit toddler sun dress pattern, I will post it here. Parts of it were inspired by a free pattern I found for a tank top online, but I have changed and added so much that I now pretty much call it my design, hehehe. Keep in mind I am no expert pattern writer!

Stars & Stripes Toddler Sun Dress (Size 2T)

Materials:
Size 9 (US) straight needles
1 skein each of worsted weight yarn in red, white, and blue

Back:

*CO 84 sts

Knit 8 rows in red for garter stitch border.

Switch to white and p 1 row
Work 4 more rows in stockinette stitch.
Next row: k2, sl 1, k1, psso, k across to last 4 sts, k2tog, k2
These 6 rows form 1 stripe.

Work 5 more stripes, reducing in the same fashion every 6th row. (72 sts remain)

Work 2 more stripes even with no reductions.

Switch to white and begin the last stripe (total of 10 stripes). Work two rows even.
Next row: k3, (sl1, k1, psso)x15, k6, (k2tog)x15, k3 (42 sts remain)
Work 3 more rows even.

Switch to blue and k 1 row.

Work the following chart bottom to top, left to right, right to left, etc...


Next row: BO 5, p across
Next row: BO 5, k across
Next row: p2, p2tog, p across to last 3 sts, p2tog, p1
Next row: k across.

Repeat the last 2 rows 2 more times*, BO

Sew in ends.

Front:

Work the same as given for back between **

Straps

Next row: p7, BO 12, p7

Work on these last 7 stitches for 20 rows in stockinette stitch (approx 5 inches), BO.

Re attach yarn to remaining 7 stitches and work on them for 20 rows (approx 5 inches), BO.

Sew in ends. Join front to back and sew side seams, sew straps to back of dress.

And that's it. I am hoping there are no errors, but it's almost a guarantee that there is, please let me know if you find anything glaring! Thanks for reading!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Scrumptious Strawberry Season, Vol. 1

Remember how I said that I never intended for my blog to become a forum for reviewing Pampered Chef Products? Well, I also never intended for it to be laden with recipes for jams and jellies. I guess it is just the season for it. Here is yet another sweet sandwich spread tutorial for your viewing pleasure (or boredom...)!

Strawberry season in Maine starts late and is pretty short. Depending on how the spring weather has been it runs from late June through early July. So you have to plan picking times strategically to avoid under ripe berries at the beginning of the season, and worse, over ripe berries that start to get mushy and grow mold at the end of the season. If you get them at just the right time, picking can be fun and the strawberries are just plain beautiful!Where we live we are fortunate to have many farms around that open up for "pick your own." The prices this year were around $1.90/lb which is about 1/2 of store price. I am not sure how many pounds of strawberries I picked this year, but I went twice and got this much (a counter top full, hehehe):

My primary objective was to make as much Jam as I could. It's a way to bottle up the season for enjoyment year round, and because jam lasts for more than a year after it is canned, it makes great Christmas gifts in the food baskets that I am so fond of giving out, so really I can never make too much. On to the recipe!

I used the recipe given in the insert that comes with the Certo liquid pectin.

4 cups of crushed strawberries

7 cups of white sugar (yes seven!)

1 packet of Certo Liquid Pectin

I start by filling the canner about 1/2 full with water and bringing it to a boil. This may take awhile as the canner is basically a giant stock pot as you will see below. I fill it by pouring the water in with a 2 quart pitcher, the pot is way too heavy to move once it is filled with water!

Once the water is boiling I place the washed jars inside and boil them for 10 minutes to sterilize them. Then I turn down the heat, leaving the jars in the hot water until they are needed (I also sterilize the ladle & funnel). The next step is chopping and crushing the berries with a pastry blender:

Then I get everything ready to go stoveside - The sugar, the saucepan for cooking the jam, and the canner full of hot jars:

I also wash the new lids with hot soapy water, and then rinse and dry them very well.

Next, I measure 4 cups of crushed berries into the saucepan (if you have any crushed berries leftover, save them for the next batch of jam, or use them in strawberry shortcake or as an ice cream topping). Then I combine it with the sugar.

Bring the sugar and berry mixture to rapid boil that can not be stirred down with a spoon. Add the packet of liquid pectin and boil for exactly 1 minute more. Remove from heat and skim as much foam from the top as possible (as quickly as possible):

While waiting for the berries to come to a boil, use metal tongs to remove jars from the hot water. Place the hot jars on a paper towel or dish towel, they should dry out very quickly. Have the jars ready right next to the saucepan. After the jars are out, bring the water in the canner back to a boil (make sure to have the canning rack up and resting on the sides of the pan, you don't want to try fishing it out when the water is boiling!)

After skimming the foam, immediately ladle the hot liquid into the jars, using the canning funnel. Fill the jars to 1/8 inch of lip. This recipe makes about 7 half pint jars. Something I learned the hard way a few years ago is never to cook a double batch of jam, it just DON'T WORK for some reason (meaning it doesn't jell or "set"). So when doing large amounts of canning you have to cook one batch at a time, so it is important to be very organized and keep a sink of soapy water to throw your utensils and pans in so they will be ready for the next batch.

Use a wet paper towel to make sure the rim is free of any of the liquid because it will mess up the seal when you put the lids on!

Place the clean, dry lids on top of the jars, making sure the rubber seal is sitting squarely on the rim of the jar.

Screw the lid rings on tightly and place the jars, one by one, onto the canning rack. SLOWLY lower the rack into the boiling water. The water should cover 1-2 inches above the tops of the jars. Place the lid on the canner and boil the jars for 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes, turn off the heat, remove the lid of the canner and use metal tongs to lift the canning rack out of the water. Use a pot holder to hold the rack handles and slowly remove the rack from the canner. Using a potholder (the Jars are VERY hot!!!) place the jars, one by one, onto a dish towel or paper towel. Let the jars rest for 10 minutes, you should hear all kinds of "pops" as the jars seal in the open air. After 15 minutes, test the seal of the jar by pressing the center of the lid with your finger. If it does not pop up and down, it is sealed! If it is not sealed, process it in the canner for another 10 minutes. If it still doesn't seal, store the jam in the fridge and it will keep for 3 weeks or more.

Once sealed, let the jars cool to room temperature for 24 hours. After 24 hours, tip one of the jars. The contents should be "set" and not slosh around inside the jar. Properly sealed and set jams and jellies last a year or more stored in a cool dry place! If for some reason the jam has not set, but remains sealed, it still makes WONDERFUL pancake and ice cream topping, also a GREAT gift!

I ended up doing two batches which yielded a dozen 1/2 pint jars and a 1 pint jar (pictured here with one of my more underwhelming loaves of homemade bread): I was pretty tired by the second batch and I actually started my first true kitchen fire when the strawberry/sugar mixture boiled over into the drip pan. It was easily put out with a splash of water. I also burned my finger when I touched the inside of the canner by accident! So learn from my mistakes and don't can tired! I wish I could have done more, but I have not had a chance to pick again, and I am guessing this past weekend was the peak. I did have some leftover berries...which you will make there appearance later in Vol. 2 of Scrumptious Strawberry season!

Anyway...this is the first time I have made strawberry jam and had all the jars seal and set properly, so I am excited. We have already demolished 1/2 pint of the jam, and it is so good and so fresh tasting. Now I am looking forward to raspberry and blueberry season! Thanks for reading!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen