Monday, June 27, 2011

Canning your own fruit is easy.

The Discover You Can House Party was a success.  We had so much fun learning to can peaches and making strawberry jam and then preserving it. I had so much help from my Grams she is a canning expert!  Thanks Grams.  To all of my friends that came over to can, Thanks I could not have done it without you!

Here is what we did:
First we put the Ball brand jars in a pot of boiling water to sterilize them and to keep them warm as we put the filling into them.

While the jars were boiling we boiled the peaches.  It is a good idea to boil the peaches so that the skins will peel off easily.  Then we cut them up, and sprinkled the Ball brand fruit-fresh Producer Protector to keep the fruit from turning brown.


We packed the jars with the peaches and added a light syrup mixture of water and sugar. To fill the jars we used the Ball brand collapsible funnel (since I receive 4 in my hostess package, I raffled off 3 of them.)  


We used a bubble remover & headspace tool from the Ball brand utensil set to get rid of excess air.  Before we put the lids on we wiped the jars clean and made sure to leave head space of 1/2 inch to insure the best seal possible. (Each recipe will tell you how much head space you should leave.)


To seal the jars and to preserve our peaches we used a hot water bath.  We placed the filled jars into boiling water and covered with a lid for the designated time of 25 minutes. 


When the Jars were done we took them out and let them rest on a towel on the countertop for 12 hours.


And that is how we canned Peaches.  It was so easy and simple will the aid off all the Ball Brand Canning products.


To be a little bit more adventuresome  we made strawberry jam too.  Here is me mixing the strawberry and the classic pectin.  After this I added a little sugar and brought it to a boil.

 We followed the recipe that we down loaded from the http://www.houseparty.com/events/view/discovercanning website and made Strawberry Jam .

Strawberry Jam recipe:
about 5 of the 1lb strawberry containers.
6 Tbsp Ball brand Real fruit Classic Pectin Flex Batch
4 cups granulated sugar

Crush strawberries in a large bowl.  n a 8 -quart saucepan add  strawberries and pectin, bring to a full boil stiring constantly. Add sugar and stirring to dissolve.  Return to a boil  and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and skim foam if necessary.



Here is the finished product.  Our Jars of strawberry jam.

Each guest was able to go home with one jar of strawberry jam and one jar of can peaches.  They also received a bag of goodies from Jaden home brand and I raffled off some of the extra products that I had received from Jaden Home brand.

Check out http://www.freshpreserving.com/ to get recipes for canning your own fresh fruit and veggies.  You can even be a part of the National Can It Forward Day Saturday August 14, 2010.    National Can It Forward Day.

PS.  I will be hosting a Give-A-Way with some coupons and products you can use to can your own food.  Keep a look out this month for when it will be announced!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Little Man's Baby Dedication


This last Sunday we had the privilege of dedicate our son to our Lord and Savor Jesus Christ. So why do we do this you may ask yourself.    It allows us as parents to commit our son to God for His blessing on our son's lives.  It helps us to remember that our son is a temporary gift from God and our children's spiritual development is our responsibility as parents. This is not a baby baptism and does not indicate or assured salvation.  We believe that every person must make a personal decision by placing their faith in Christ when they are old enough to understand the Gospel.   This dedication is more of a spiritual commitment on the part of us as parents to provide a Christian home in which our children can easily come to Christ.  This involves praying for our children and teaching them God's Word as well as setting a Christian example. 

The following are Scripture examples in the bible that support dedication your child:  In the Old Testament, Hannah presented her son Samuel to the Lord in Shiloh (I Sam. 1:11).  In the New Testament, Jesus was dedicated to God when He was an infant (Luke 2:22).  Later in His ministry, Christ allowed parents to bring their little ones to Him for His blessing (Matthew 19:13-15).


Our word of Dedication:

Baby {our son's name} your name means Gracious gift of God.  And that is exactly what you are to our family.    

We have given our lives to Christ and now we must encourage you, so that one day you too will trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and  Savior. 

We as parents promise to pray for you and teach you God word so that it may be written on your heart.  As  Deuteronomy 6:7 says we promise to speak of God word to you as we sit in our house, as we walk along the road, as we lie down, and as we get up. 

God we dedicate {our son's name} to you and remember your words in Palms 127:30 “Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him.”  

Amen



This was such a blessing to be able to share this moment will our Church family and with all you out there that read my blog.  If you have any question about what all this means or how to ask Jesus as your Lord and Savior please visit this link.  How to become a Christian.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Discover You Can House Party

I don't think that I have had a chance to tell you that I was selected by house party to host a" discover you can house party"  sponsored by the Jarden Home.  It is so easy and simple to host a house party.  If you are chosen to be a host the company send you FREE product.  All you have to do is to educate your guess about the product and share the product will them.  It's that simple, no selling involved!

So today my hostess box came for my "discover you can house party"  sponsored by the Jarden Home Brands.  I was so excited to see what kinds of goodies were inside.

I opened the box saw all the cool thing that I get to play with and try out, but first I read my hostess letter.  It outlined what items were in the hostess kit.  It also outlined what I still have to do for my party; like buying the fresh fruit.  I am so excited to start canning fresh fruit.  I have already decided what fruit we are going to can, but I will not spoil the surprise for those of you that are coming to the party.
This is what was in my hostess box.  I do not want to spoil the fun and tell you all that I received! 
The party will be in a little over a week and I will post pictures and maybe even the recipe that we use.  I will make sure to tell you all about the fun we have, but it would be even more fun if you come!

http://www.houseparty.com/party/507287

 *by the way if you have not RSVP by now it is still not to late to do so.  But you had better hurry so that I have enough for each of you to go home with two different jars of can fruit.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Make Your Own Pizza

MareBear's Birthday party part 3

We even make our own homemade pizza dough for the party.  We used a 10 minute rise Pizza Dough so that it would not take to much time to make.



Here is the 10 minute rise Pizza Dough Recipe:

1 cup of hot water
2 tsp and 1/4 tsp of dry active yeast
1 tsp salt
1 (overfilled) tsp  white sugar
2 Tbsp oil
2 2/3 cup all purpose flour (be careful to measure exactly for the flour)



Add hot water to bowl and then add yeast and stir until it dissolves.  Add remaining ingredients and stir until dough is sticking together.  It will be very sticky.  Let dough rest for about 10 minutes.  Divide dough into 4 equal part (we also keep it whole and make a big pizza for the adults).  We had our guest lightly flour the surface they put their dough on and some roll out their dough and others patted it out.  It will make 4 pizza that are 5 inches . I did have to watch the kids to make sure that they did not make the pizza too flat (it all needs to bake evenly).  We had the kids place the pizza's on a sprayed baking sheet and then add sauce and topping (we tried to transfer a few did not work as well).  Now Add pizza sauce and topping.  For the pizza sauce I used 1 can tomato sauce and 2 can tomato puree (it was cheaper then pizza sauce). Finally you are read to bake for 20 minutes at 425 degrees. Remember to watch the pizzas so they do not burn.  Each pizza will cook a little different since they are all different sizes.


The pizza was yummy and filling.  Most of us were not able to eat more then 2 pieces of pizza.  YUM!

Again if you have any question please post them and I will answer them!  





Make Your Own Pizza Party: The Decorations

Mare Bear's Birthday Party Part 2

 I wanted you to see the invitations that we sent out!  I make them look like a post card.  I also make them 3D.  I cut out the "pizza" using a circle punch  I added color by brushing the end of the pizza with a brown color stamp. Then I used a smaller circle punch for the pepperoni.  For the cheese I cut had a die cut that cut out rectangles.  I used a green pin for the green line and a red pen and a ruler for the red checker board.  For the rest of it I used Microsoft Publisher.     



Now for the decorations.  I mostly used ballons and "happy birthday" banners, but I was able to make this fun banner that says "Marion's Pizzeria"  we called it the Grand Opening of her pizza place.



We also made chef's hats for the kids to wear.  It as easy to make and inexpensive too!
Little Man and my oldest


You will need:

Tissue paper
Poster board
tape

Cut the poster board in strips 3 1/2 inches wide (and as long as you need depending on the head size of the kids you are inviting.  then take two pieces of the tissue paper and and fold them in half.  Put on piece of the tissue paper inside the other.  Fold the both tissue papers at 3" over and over.  Now unfold the tissue paper and place it on the strip of poster board.  Tape the end (the part that opens up) of the tissue paper to the poster board.  Then tape the two ends of the poster board together. You can use your child head to see how big or small you need it to be.  finally you tape the tissue paper together so that it looks like a real chef's hat.


Mare Bear with her chef's hat




For the last part of the decorations I went to the dollar tree and bought checker board table cloth, plates and napkins.  This gave it a real pizzeria feel.  I also bought ketchup bottle and filled them with pizza sauce so that all the kids had to do was squeeze the sauce on their pizza.  




If you want more detail about how to make any of the decorations that I have listed her, just post or e-mail me and let me know!

Pizza Cake


Marebears 8th birthday Party:

We had so much fun planning and getting everything ready.  First things first I had to figure out the cake.
I wanted it to look like a pizza, but taste like a cake.

 So here is what I did.  I mixed a regular box vanilla cake according to directions.  Then I baked  the cake in a Deep Dish round cake pan that is 11" around.   I let it cool and then turned it out into a plate.  I placed it in the freezer for about 2 hours to make sure that it was frozen and the cake would not stick to the frosting when I frost it.  I used red frosting for the "sauce".  I was not able to get it red enough to look good so I went to my local HEB grocery stores and asked the baker if I could buy some of the butter cream frosting that they use.  I was able to purchase it from them for a reasonable cost.  I spread the red  frosting to 1" of the edge. I left the 1" edge  unfrosted so that it would look like crust.


 For the cheese I used white chocolate grated with my cheese grater.  For the topping;  I used fruit roll-ups for the pepperoni (cut into circles with a 2" Mellon baller),  for the green bell pepper I used "punch" green apple candy cut into 2" inch long stips.  For the black olives I used wilton's black decorative icing in a tube.  I would squirt a dime size amount onto parchment paper and then place a straw (the straws I cut to 2' long) in the center.  I placed the black olives in the frezzer to let them set. I took the straws off first then used a butter knife to get of the paper and place them on the cake ( I did this step last).



It was so realistic that one of the kids at her party said they did not want the piece with the olives because they don't like black olives. It was so cute, I had to tell them it was just icing.  All the kids eat up the pizza cake and their was none left.

If you have any question about how to make this pizza cake you can e-mail or post your questions and I will be happy to answer them!


I will post more about what we did for the party in a little while.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Testing:

I am testing to see if i can send messages from my mobil phone.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Marebear News







Marebear has started a strollathon page to raise money for Rett Syndrome.  We will be walking in the strollathon this October during Rett syndrome awareness month,  I am an eight year old little girl living with Rett syndrome. I have two brother, one older and one younger. I like to ride horses and go swimming. I look forward to someday finding a cure for Rett syndrome. Please join me by donating!





http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/marionsmovers/texasstrollathon