i said, she said

Melissa hasn't posted in a month of sundays, so when she told me that she was gonna post about our strawberry jam challenge, i just KNEW that she was gonna tell HER side and so i would have to tell MY side...

King Soopers had a sale on strawberries - $.99 per pound

woo hootie hoo!!!

so i left Melissa to pick out some berries whilst i chose a couple of lemons and limes...

when i met up with her, she had four big packs of juicy red goodness 

and i was totally okay with that many strawberries...

till we got back home and i realized that we were gonna hafta do something with them soon, or they would make both of us crazy with watery eyes and itchy noses...

so we decided to make strawberry jam - but i didn't want to use pectin, and she did... 

i cleaned the berries, quartered them, carried the hulls out to the backyard and tossed them for compost, 

and told Thumps* to enjoy himself with the scraps, but to get the h-e-double-hockey-sticks outta the garden, and take his girlfriend with him... 

then i divided the berries into two bowls - half for me and half for Melissa - and started my jam...

which took for freakin' ever!!!

the stupid jam never did get to 220° - it topped out at 207° and refused to get any hotter - grrr!!!

in the meantime, Melissa took a shower and fluffed her hair and put on her makeup and got dressed and put on an apron

 and waited

 and waited

 and waited for me to vacate the stove...

when i finally gave up on the concoction EVER getting hot enough, i ladled the jam syrup into four pint-sized jars

floating fruit and lottsa foam

and started cleaning up my mess...

and before i had the red splatters wiped away, 

Melissa was ladling HER jam into jars - pointing out that HER jam was already getting thick 

and was a lovely color of red

no floating fruit, no foam, no fair

and tasted oh so DELICIOUS

it does, i'm not arguing that fact

and, look!!! there's no FOAM ... and the fruit isn't floating to the top!!!

 she ended up with three pint-sized jars of gorgeous, sweet, thick strawberry jam...

and i would be ever so jealous 

if i didn't know that my strawberry syrup will taste really, really good on ice cream and angel food cake and pancakes...

*i was not opposed to Thumps the Rabbit munching away - as long as he stayed away from the garden and the strawberry plants...

well...

last year i noticed that the strawberry plants had pretty much disappeared from the backyard, so i ordered $100 worth of Stark Brothers strawberries, and Melissa helped me plant them...

we planted twice as many as i thought we'd really need - half for us and half for the Wild Things...

the new plants were thriving...

till they weren't...

gone...

disappeared...

and not just the berries - entire plants disappeared

no berries, no leaves, no roots...

it was a mystery till i spotted Thumps munching strawberry leaves 
and chased his little cottontail outta the yard...

so, yeah, i may have given Thumps mixed signals when i took the strawberry hulls out for compost - i don't care if he eats them all and poops out strawberry seeds ... but he really needs to stay outta the garden...

i'm just sayin'...

If you ever find yourself in a jam, just take a moment to sit and think; calculate things, look at every angle, and then wonder where all that jam came from.

Melanie Kay Taylor

to dye for

there is a story behind this fat quarter bundle...Awesome!

but that is for another post ... this post is about prewashing ... i've heard and read lottsa advice about whether or not to prewash ... some people say that when you buy quality fabric prewashing is unnecessary and/or a waste of time ... other people say that all fabric should always be prewashed ... Auntia and i have a lotta allergies and brand new fabric fresh off the bolt makes our sinuses go crazy and irritates our skin ... with very few exceptions (charm packs and jelly rolls - cuz they disintegrate) i prewash my fabric before i put it in a quilt - and i'm not very nice about it ... i use hot water and Synthrapol for batiks - and if they're gonna be in the same quilt, they all get it at the same time since i'm all about learning to play nicely together ... fabric (including Synthrapoled batiks) gets the same treatment before i cut into it that it is likely to receive after it has grown up and become a quilt or an apron or a hooter hider or a whatever... all of it is thrown in the washer's normal cycle on warm/cold with laundry detergent and fabric softener if i remember ... after the washer has done its best to pulverize the fibers into submission it all gets hung on drying racks cuz we live in the high desert and the air can always use a little moisture - right?!? till it's almost dry ... it gets fluffed in the dryer and then it gets pressed ... for the past year or so i've been throwing a Dye Grabber in the washer ... a brand new Dye Grabber looks like a very white washcloth ... it sloshes around with the rest of the laundry and collects migrating dye...Dye Grabber - my new best friend
we don't always buy quilt shop quality fabric ... but this fat quarter bundle is quality fabric - look at the dye that migrated out of the bundle and into the Dye Grabber ... sheesh!

jammies and fireworks and tutus, oh my!

saturday was a good day ... i cleaned house for a little bit (groan) and then i took a shower (sniff) and put on some clean jammies (love those jimmiejams) and started piecing the wintergraphix 2 fabric using Kim's Fireworks ... Auntia worked with her sheri berry fabric and Kim's pattern, too ... i had to stop piecing to work on some peekaboobies ( nursing covers) that i promised Mrs. Moth i would have finished by next friday ... and Auntia wandered off to read...

i like it ...i love it ... i want some more of it
...but i did manage to finish up the center this afternoon after we came back from singing happy birthday to Princess Itty Bitty of the TwoTwo...

princess itty bitty of the twotwo and her birthday balloon
...she did a little dance when we sang to her ... at least she recognized it as music......Little Nonnie was able to escape the care center and soak up some shade ... i feasted on cherry chip cupcakes with cherry frosting and little princess tiara stickums ...... Mr. Husker has been stockpiling hay and it was very sneezy Near Lyons ... i came back looking like Aloysius Snuffleupagus ...... the fields between here and there and back again are just about ready for harvest ...... today was a good day

strawberry fields forever

i planted strawberries the first year we moved in ... a couple of little alpine strawberry plants with pink flowers, and twenty-five june-bearers from Stark Brothers ... i thought it would be nice to have some fresh strawberries in late spring ... the alpine berries did okay the first couple of years and then they disappeared ... the other plants sent out some runners and i moved them around a few times ...... not too many strawberries made it onto the table because the birds and Ebony ate them before i could get to them ...... i think that birds have a rough life ... they do get to fly and that is pretty cool ... but they also have to eat bugs and worms ... and they don't have hands to work with ... so i'm okay with the robins that like to nest in one of the backyard trees eating most of the strawberries ...... what i don't like is the poop ... bird poop from strawberries is disgusting...
...we've had a really weird spring ... it has been uncommonly cool and wet ... lots of rain showers and big billowy clouds ... the strawberry plants love it...

that is the camera strap hanging down and my fingertips holding back the leaves - we had to stretch to reach those berries!
...lots and lots of strawberries for the robins and for the other birds, too ... so many strawberries that the entire drive and all of the walks are covered with strawberry bird poop ... it's been raining every other day, so it gets washed off ... but, still - it's gross ...... anywho, we were looking out the living room window and saw some red amongst the green in the wall garden ... most of the flowers in the wall garden are pastels - there's not supposed to be any red ... so we investigated and found that the birds haven't been keeping up with the strawberries ... there were some for us for a change ... so we went out with a gathering basket and started picking...
i weawy wike stwabewwies
me, too
i wuv strawbewwies
me, too and i want some
i want some strawberries
i asked first
... i looked up and saw that the neighborhood kids had collected and we were surrounded...
...i sent them off to ask their parents if they were allergic and they all came back in record time to say that no, none of them have allergies and it was okay with all of their parents if they ate some strawberries...
...so i gave each of them a strawberry...
...and then another and another...
...they started to get a bit demanding...
...i put on my stern nonna face and said i haven't heard a please or a thank you from any of you...
there was a chorus of please!
and a refrain of thank you!
and then a plaintive wail of i said "puh-leeese"!!!
they each received another round of berries
and then one of the little stinkers said
my d-d-dad told me ... m-m-my daddy told me to t-t-tell you that he l-l-likes strawberries, too!
okay, here's a big fat one for your daddy ... and tell him that i said he's welcome
thank you!
and she took one, two, three, four, five steps down the drive before i saw the strawberry head for her mouth ...
are you eating your daddy's strawberry?!?
n-n-no! well, y-y-yes ... thank you?

it was fun to see a bunch of little faces with red juice dripping down their chins and staining their little lips ... and knowing that it meant that much less bird poop on the drive ... we still had plenty for dessert...
i shall sit on a cushion
And sew a fine seam,
And feast upon strawberries,
sugar, and cream.

a spoonful of sugar

allergies ... every spring Ebony's allergies kick in and she is miserable ... her eyes get red ... she sneezes and snarfles and paws at her face ... next thing i know there's no fur left on her nose because she has licked and pawed it away ... so i have to give her the dog's equivalent of benadryl everyday ... she hates it ... she refuses to swallow the pills ... i tried wrapping one in bacon - she ate the bacon and spit out the pill ... so i tried wrapping one in cheese - she ate the cheese and spit out the pill ... and then i tried wrapping one in lunch meat - she ate the lunch meat and spit out the pill ... i tried everything i could think of (with the exception of pigeon patties and earthworms - i draw the line at bird crap and crawlies with no legs) and she always refused to swallow the pills...

...and then i remembered the easter morning that i had a Peep in one hand and her leash in the other ... it was a yellow chicken Peep and i was looking forward to biting its little head off and nibbling on its tiny feet ... but i was distracted for a moment ... and when i looked at my hand, the Peep was gone ... it was in Ebony's mouth and she took a lot of pleasure in swallowing it whole before my very eyes ... i was sooo mad at her ... i told her to enjoy it because that would be the last opportunity she would have to steal a Peep from me...

...light bulb moment - Ebony likes sugar ... and she especially likes marshmallowy sugar ... so i stuffed a pill into a marshmallow and gave it to her ... gulp and gone!
every few days i assembly line some Ebony medicine ... she has become a bit of a connoisseur - she prefers flavored marshmallows (strawberry is her favorite) at room temperature and not even a little bit dried out ... it helps the medicine go down

high maintenance

...ebony was already having a rough (ruff) morning ... and she knows that when the purple leash comes out, things are just gonna go from bad to worse ...... look at that face ...... first, she missed her last grooming appointment ... then her allergies kicked in and she licked off most of the fur on her nose ... her eyes got itchy and that made her third eyelid puff up ... her ears were infected (her ears are always infected) ... and it was time for her 3 year vaccinations ... not to mention the kennel cough injection and a general physical (which always involves a thermometer and a pain in the butt) ... her nails were too long, her feet were matted, and her bangs were doing that doodah thing that they do ... and then alpha had the audacity to wash her face ...
sheesh!

...she came back clean and coiffed ... her personal body servant, chauffeur, accountant, nurse, grounds keeper and chef took care of the bills and removed her shiny new rabies tag before she broke her teeth chewing on it ... and then led the princess to her throne ... it's a dog's life

well, slap me silly

and call me sally...

i have a lot of food allergies (we could argue semantics and call them intolerances, but please don't go there with me - i am not in the mood) ...... i can eat golden delicious apples, bartlett pears, onions, garlic, and iceberg lettuce ... most other fruits and vegetables have to be altered ...... even touching a raw fruit or vegetable can bring on hives, rashes, swelling, and (scariest, for me) difficulty breathing ... so i use vinyl (not latex - i am allergic to latex) gloves when i'm working with most raw foodstuffs ...... i was raised on apple juice because cow's milk made me barf ... and it still does ...... i cannot eat any kind of nut ...... avocados close off my airway ...... if there is a banana peel in the trash, it has to go outside or i will be overwhelmed by itchiness ...... i know that anyone can be allergic to anything and i am not ignorant about food allergies...

flashback thirty-two years ... Earth Science said his first sentence, "UNH MO MA!" ... which was baby for i want some more, mommy ... and he was talking about strawberries ... even though he could not tolerate dairy products or bananas or most vegetables, he could eat strawberries ... and i gave them to him

i received a phone call from said son, asking me to make a smash cake for his daughter's first birthday ... doesn't matter what kind of cake, just make sure it's pink ... oh-kay, i can do that ... and did ... and showed up at the party with the cake and scrubbed, hulled, sliced strawberries (his favorite) as garnish ...

youcan'tputstrawberriesonthecake - LABresearched-shesaystheyareoneofthetoptenno-nofoods forallergies - shecan'thavethemtillshe'sone - ohwait-sheisone - iguessyoucan - ihopesheisn'tallergic!!!!!

i did not put the strawberries on the cake ... i did not leave the strawberries near the baby ... and i was already gone before the smashing began ...
i did some surfing about strawberries and babies today (it has been more than a decade since i've had ready access to a pediatrician ... besides, who needs doctors when there's the all-knowing Internet - ready and waiting to diagnose, advise, chastise, prescribe) ... there is information here and here about waiting till a child is more than 12 months before you offer strawberries (and milk and wheat and eggs and peanuts and honey and soy and chocolate and just about any other food) ... you can even buy a bib that will let everyone know not to give your child strawberries to eat ...... now, if she'd just been wearing that bib...