Robin Eggs and Chocolate Nests and You Don't Mess With Tradition

The other evening we started out on a family walk after dinner.  It started to thunder and Ruth got spooked.  It started to rain, and I headed back inside.  But... ten minutes later it was sunny and we started off again.  It paid off...

Aaron found the first robin's egg of the season!

He said, "Now we get to make the dessert nests!"  Russ had no idea what he was talking about.  "You know, Dad.  The tradition."  ...  Apparently Russ didn't realized we have a tradition.

Aaron brought the egg shell home.

he says they don't smell too swell  

Dominic put it on his nature plate.  Bickering ensued.  

I got the ingredients for chocolate nests.  Because it's tradition.  But I messed with tradition and got pale greenish-blueish Jelly Belly's instead of bright blue.  An uprising ensued. They almost revoked my title of Chief Tradition Establisher and Maintainer.  Russ didn't realize that was even a title in our family, let alone one of honor...  We need to work on his involvement in fun family things :)

Tasty!

Happy Spring!

The Expectation of Meteorological Changes to Come (and some camera talk)

The kids made the most of what was quite possibly the last snow of the season.  But... you really never know for sure...

You don't hear me complain about weather too much (besides the occasional grumbling brought on by oppressive humidity and outbursts of rage brought on by excessive mud.) I love living in an area where we have the privilege of experiencing all the seasons fully.  When it's winter here, it's really winter.  But without a serious winter, I suspect that we wouldn't appreciate spring as much.  Early spring finds us giddy with excitement - temperatures above 35???  Heat wave!!  Sunny, coolish warmish days,  tulip buds showing themselves, the first crocuses, the geese coming back, the local maple syrup flowing!  Blessed spring!  And just when you think you cannot stand one more spring rain, or the mud, or the never knowing if you'll need boots or sneakers, heavy coats or light jackets... The seasons change again.  Open windows, planting gardens, sunny afternoons in the sprinkler, popsicles, beach days, flipflops, splashing in the creek!  Splendid summer!  And... just when you think you cannot possibly take the humidity, or one more mosquito bite, or the bees overtaking your picnics, or the sticky mess of popsicles, or the sand in your living room rug... it's fall!!  Apples, and pumpkins, cinnamon sticks and kitchen spice candles, hot cider, cozy sweaters, gorgeous colors, and crunchy leaves, crisp air, stacking the firewood, lots and lots of baking, and  the Fall Soup Party!  Glorious autumn!  And then it drags on, and just when you can't bear the thought of lifting another rake, or mushy leaves gathering on the floor of the van, brown grass, and bare trees against gray skies... another welcome change!  The first soft snow, the excitement of the first plows on the roads, new mittens, sledding, snowmen, snowball fights and forts, seeing your breath in the air, cozy nights in front of the fire, hot chocolate, Christmas lights!  Glistening winter!  And though it seems it will never end, just when you think you've reached your breaking point and you can't possibly stand another frigid day, or shoveling the driveway, or storms and slush and ice... 

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And here is my one random picture from the maple sugar house we visited last weekend.  Please cover your ears because I'm going to scream here - AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!  Ok.  My camera and/or batteries choose the worst times to go all tech-trippy on me.  I keep thinking about getting a new camera - a big girl dSLR camera - but then I get scared off by the price and by the thought of approaching my husband with the request and the price, and so I resign myself to using my current camera until it malfunctions AGAIN and I realize a camera can only be dropped on the floor so many times before it says, "I'm outta here."  Sooo - please give me some camera advice, like what should I get and how should I keep it away from the children who invented the drop-the-camera-on-the-floor game.  (Coincidentally, these children happen to be the same ones that live in my house...)

Extolling the Pleasures and Benefits of Freezer Jam

This is our third year of making freezer jam.  I've always been interested in learning how to can things for real... but since I like to involve my kids (and they like to be involved!) I'm pretty sure we'll be avoiding activities that involve words like "meticulously sterilized jars and lids" (or meticulously sterilized anything for that matter) and "boiling hot water bath" for quite some time.  

So freezer jam it is.  And oh! how we love it!  Every year we make more than the year before because no one can bear to think of running out before next year's berry season.  Last year, even though the strawberry jam was a flop (used the wrong pectin and it didn't set... we used it as an oatmeal sweetener instead of on sandwiches) we still had almost enough jam to last us through the year.  (In fact, the above photo was taken on Monday - the day we used the last of the 2012 blueberry raspberry jam!)  

Freezer jam is so simple to make.  In my mind, it's the obvious choice for busy modern-day moms who like to play a little "Little House on the Prairie" on the side.  It makes me feel thrifty, industrious, and healthy.  And - super sappy mom alert - it's such a joy to see the kids "love" the jam that they made from the berries they picked!

I use Ball Instant Pectin.  This year before jam making I did some pectin-related research.  It's safe (don't eat it out of the jar, though.  Ugh, I just gagged.)  It's natural (most commercial pectin is extracted from apples.)  The instant pectin I use contains dextrose (obviously it's wise to limit added sugar in our diets, however one of the great things about freezer jam is that it requires very little sugar, period!).  The rest of the ingredients on the bottle are all on the "safe" list of food additives published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.  I checked several other websites and received similar information elsewhere.  Soooooo... after all that I decided to stick with the instant pectin again this year.  

Since you do not cook the fruit used for freezer jam, it retains its true flavor and sweetness.  For a traditional batch of cooked jam, recipes typically call for 4 CUPS OF SUGAR for ever 2 cups of fruit.  Insanity!  (Though I'm sure some of it is cooked out?  But I couldn't find that info.)  2 cups of fruit for freezer jam takes about 2/3 cups of sugar.  Big difference, right?  Freezer jam also retains all the flavor of the fresh fruit as well as all the nutrients that would be cooked out of the fruit while making traditional jam. 

Again, it's a kid friendly process.  Lots of measuring, chopping,  and stirring.  Kids can touch (or sneeze on) the jars and you don't have to hyperventilate about sterilization issues, because the jars for freezer jam have to be clean, but not sterile.  No fancy equipment needed... no giant pots, no foot-long tongs.  No sealing required.  Just fill those non-sterile jars, twist those lids on, and your done! 

You can freeze it for up to a year.  (Remember just this week we finished the last of last-year's August jam, so I know it's ok!)  Once opened it will last in the fridge about 7-10 days, but honestly, it won't last that long.  

Finally, the cost.  My thriftier-than-me husband did some figuring for me the other day.  At a local organic farm, we picked 10 quarts of strawberries for $25.  From those strawberries, plus the sugar and pectin, each half pint jar of jam cost a little over $1.  We did not add in the cost of the jars because we reuse them from year to year. 

So, those are my reasons to love and promote freezer jam.  And did I mention how delicious it is??  I'll probably go on and on about it again when blueberry-raspberry jam season rolls around. Only a few short weeks to go!

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This year, I made several batches of plain traditional strawberry, but I also started to wonder if the freezer-jam method meant you had to forgo creativity.  Could I make specialty jams using the instant pectin??  I began some experimenting and will soon post my  three new "artisan" freezer jam recipes.  I can't wait to share them!   

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PS - BONUS tip of the year:  I've always used a manual food processor to prepare our fruit (as opposed to a potato masher).  And every year it's been a super awful mess.  Until this year.  I used my new Pampered Chef manual food processor and those strawberries were jam-ready lickity split, with no mess.  I filled the canister about 3/4 full of berries and then pumped the chopper "handle" for 20 counts and the berries were the perfect consistency - chunky, but not whole.  I'm so happy to have a new perfect chopper!  Use yours if you have one!  If you don't, you can order one on their website, but it's so much nicer to support your local P.C. rep!  Call her (or him!) today! 

Strawberry Stained Fingers

This strawberry picking photo dump is brought to you by my children: the strawberry picking workhorse, the strawberry fields daydreamer, the eater of berries from other's quarts, and the trampler of berries.  They are from two different excursions - one to our regular berry place, and one to a new organic farm which is now our new regular berry place.  The berries at the organic place were better... and much cheaper.  Who knew?  

We had to do something with this harvest... so, stay tuned for my amazing new strawberry jam recipes!  Coming tomorrow, hopefully!  

Spring is So Distracting...

... because it's road construction season.  The distraction factor is at an all-time high - the street in front of our very home (which also happens to be our school) is the object of said roadwork.   

We didn't get many lessons done yesterday or today.  My kids have been a little distracted.  In all fairness though, I admit it's by design.  One of the reasons we home school is so that we don't ever have to miss a garbage day, or recycling pickup, or neighborhood construction event, or any possible big machine that may be passing by.  (You do remember that we will wake our boys up in the middle of the night just to see a truck, right?)

So, here are some photos of the distraction.  I'd say my kids are the luckiest kids on the block, but... they're the only kids on the block.  

In case your're interested, you (or the men and boys in your life) can learn about the CAT PM 201 cold Planer here.

A Spring Tradition Involving Dessert (Keep-It-Simple Science)

(I love living in an area of the world where we get all four seasons to the extreme, and I love finding ways to celebrate each one of them with my family!  Sounds cheesy?  I don't care!  Love it.)

Four years ago the boys found their first robin's egg while on a Spring walk.  Since then, we've had a tradition that when we find the first robin's egg of Spring, we make candy nests to celebrate.

This year, Aaron found the first robin's egg without us :(  He spotted it on a nature walk he took with the kids at the homeschool study center.  

I wasn't going to officially count it as the first egg for the family, but since then we haven't had much luck.  The neighbors are probably starting to wonder why we've taken to wandering the neighborhood at all hours with our heads drooping down, randomly circling trees.... "Oh, it's those people from down the block again...  Didn't we see them picking up a dead mouse from our yard last Spring?  Should we call someone about them???"

We've had no luck until yesterday, and even yesterday's finds weren't actual robin eggs. But we're combining the egg-found-outside-the-family-unit and the family-neighborhood-walk discoveries from yesterday and calling it a win.  (We are in league with the mailman who has promised to alert us to the next robin egg he sees, so we are hopeful this isn't the end.  Believe me, my kids won't let him forget his promise.) 

still have not identified this egg... will carefully sift through any and all suggestions offered by readers who happen to be bird enthusiasts

we used our bird guides to identify this as a robin's nest - messy outside,
neat grass inside, layer of mud in between

a nest Aaron found about two weeks ago... several friends have indicated it's
probably a finch's nest

We've got some fine material for our nature notebooks here. (Ohhh, the nature notebooks... we got them out today only to find that the last entries were from October, if that tells you anything...)  More on that soon.

So............. on to the chocolate nests.  We've never been able to find a pale blue Jelly Belly, so have had to settle for the dark blue ones... a bit overpowering and not robin's egg blue, yet they suffice.  This year we also bought some toasted marshmallow jelly beans to imitate the cream speckled egg we found.  One year we tried an elaborate recipe for the nests that involved Chinese noodles, pretzels, chocolate, marshmallow fluff (gag) and peanut butter - the nests were very 'moldable' and we were able to make very neat and tidy nest shapes.  Too much work though.  Now we just go with melted dark chocolate discs and Chinese noodles. (If you make these, do yourself a favor and add some peanut butter to the warm chocolate!)  They are not so moldable and are wacky and messy - true to robin nest form, I guess.  

I can't even begin to imagine how to get a carb count on one of these things... but other than that potential hiccup, we're all looking forward to dessert tonight!

You can see by my children's serious faces that making the nests each year is no laughing matter.  We take "fun" very seriously around here...