Fireweed Jelly

I love being a hunter and gatherer!  Although hunting has been a little trickier with a baby, I was still able to do a little gathering this year (and had some saved up from last!)  For those who have visited Fairbanks at the right time of summer,you can attest to the areas prosperity of wildflowers (love this!) especially fireweed.  Shortly after moving up here I read about some locals who turned this beautiful flower into jelly and I had to give it a try.  I searched until I found (most of) a recipe, tweaked it ever so slightly and gave it a go.  Days when the temperature does't break 30 below are good for this sort of thing!

Step 1:  When the flowers are in full blossom, pick 8 cups of the flowers only (confession, I had one or two leaves that didn't get plucked out).  I then freezer bagged these and popped them into the freezer until I had a cold day at home to cook in front of the stove with quiet music playing, a fire blazing, and a sweet baby entertaining himself on the rug.  Ah...okay it didn't look exactly like that. But it was cold! =)

Then, for the jelly:






Ingredients:
8 cups frozen fireweed blossoms
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 1/2 cups water
2 packets of Sure Jell or equivalent
5 cups of sugar
4 pint jars or equivalent, clean and lids heated*

Place frozen blossoms in a large pot over which pour the lemon juice and water.  Bring to a boil and continue for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  I got worried at this point: the flowers all started turning a dingy brown color and smelling very earthy.  Not appetizing.  Hang in there.  It gets better.

Then sift into a large bowl.  Since I wanted a few petals to remain in mine, I just used a colander, but you could use something finer if you wanted.

Return liquid to pot and allow the liquid to cool just a little (near room temp).  Fynn started fussing at this point and I was in a hurry, so I used my accelerated cool method:

Then you're going to add the two packets of Sure Jell and stir until dissolved as you bring the liquid back to a boil.  Boil for 1 minute, then add sugar, and boil robustly for 10 more minutes while stirring.  Pour jelly directly into jars and seal lids.

 
I don't have anything big enough for a water bath for these jars, so I had my  sink half filled with the hotttest water I could, placed the jars in upside down, then poured boiling water from my tea pot over.  I promptly boiled another pot and added it as soon as it was ready.  It worked!  They sealed beautifully!

*Heating the lids:  space is precious in our cabin, so instead  of heating all of the jars, I just placed the lids in a frying pan of water over the lowest heat on the stove top.  Not correct but it worked.

I was so pleased with how it turned out!  It tastes great and has great color.  So fun!  I'm definitely going to have to do this again!

This is truly a small world we live in!  I was doing my grocery shopping in town and ran into a familiar face.  Now we've been here long enough that that is not terribly uncommon, but this face didn't quite belong.  It was a face from the past: Nurse Theresa.  When I was in high school I worked as a CNA at a local assisted living facility specializing in dementia.  One of the nurses there was an inspiration, Theresa put compassion before the schedule and kindness before hastiness.  She was one of the people who really encouraged me to get my nursing degree and believed that I would make a good nurse.  She was a Christian and a poet and I still have one of the poems she wrote as a bookmark in my Bible.
And now, 10 years later, I run into her at the grocery store!  She had moved to southern Alaska and gotten married and was just in Fairbanks for a class her husband had to take!  We talked about our lives in general, but I am kicking myself now that I didn't tell her what an inspiration she had been to me!  So if ever Nurse Theresa happens across this page: thank you!

I have been unsuccessful in finding my favorite tea at the store for months now and came to discover why.  Good Earth changed their packaging!  Now my frustrations have ended! =)  They can't do that to me, I shop by color and design, not actual words, silly people.

Fynn's doing better in the car and pushed another pearly white out today(3rd, bottom right).  He's still not crawling forward, but manages to scoot around quite effectively despite that fact.  I catch myself saying, "how'd you get over there?" frequently these days.  I just got to playing with one of his (sort of goofy) photos today...

Grandma's visit...

I love living in Fairbanks.  But the biggest downside is being so far away from family.  We are blessed with amazing extended family that we love dearly and miss greatly.  Technically, Washington is the closest state (even if it is a 5 day drive and you have to travel out of the country!=), but it is so expensive to get there!  Well, Dad got Mom a plane ticket for her Christmas present and we got to keep her for a week!  Fynn (and Clancey and Keagan and Keira) were in heaven and got spoiled rotten!  It was so much fun!





We didn't do a lot more than just spend time with each other, but that was more than enough.  Lots of peek-a-boo, playing with the critters, practicing crawling and walking, and the regular errands.   Fynn did cut his first teeth this week though too!  He popped out both of his front top teeth on Saturday!

Also, with Gramma babysitting, I was finally able to complete a project that Josh had asked for years ago: a firewood carrier.  I had already got the material, but just had to put it together.  I just eyeballed this one, but thought I'd share it, in case anyone just needed the idea.

Materials:

about 2 yards of duck cloth

2.5 yards heavy ribbon (mine was a hemp weave)

sturdy thread

First trial by error: set your machiene's tension all the way up!  We're dealing with super thick fabric here and it took me many broken threads before I realized what I needed to do.  Okay, so I tucked all the corners like so: 

and sewed the outside of all but one side, flipped it so the seams were inside, then finished the last side.  Again, I just eyeballed this, so the angles can be what ever you want.  You just want the two ends to be about the length of your logs.

Next I pinned the ribbon in place like so: 

Then sew down really good!  It's going to be carrying a lot of weight as you'll only have to make one log fun instead of 5!  Happy snuggles in front of the fire!

From Grandmothers House She Came!

Grandma's here!  And boy did she get a surprise when she arrived.  As I mentioned before, our heater went out, no one would be able to deliver until the next week, and the weather started to dip to 40 below again!  So life was fine in the room with the stove, but the rest of the house was staying pretty chilly!  Here's the whole household in front of the stove: 

And then Fynn stole his Poppa's hat when he got home.  The little laddie's really into hats right now.  He'll start giggling when you put one one!

So it was cold, but clear at our house.  We had to drop into town to get some new work boots for Josh and immediately were engulfed in the ice fog.  Here's some of the sun right about noon time, as high as it gets in the sky these days.

And then just cute little Fynn ready for church.  More of him and Gramma Laine to come!

Chilly days like this are perfect soup days.  Hitch: Josh doesn't eat soup.  Solution: Mom and I call it "chowder" and gang up on him!  Hee hee!  I had experimented with this before and this is more or less what I came up with:

Loaded Cheesy Chowder

• 2 tablespoons butter
  1 cup diced onion
  2 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
  1 1/2 cups cooked sausage
  3 cups chicken broth
  1 cup heavy cream
  1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
  1 cup velveta cheese or similar
  1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
  1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  1/4 teaspoon salt
  1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
  
  
  1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Cook onion in butter until softened. Stir in potatoes and broth, bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
  2.  Stir in cheese(allow to melt), cream, sausage, dill, pepper, salt and cayenne. Bring to a low boil and cook, stirring, until thickened, 5 minutes
  3. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and enjoy!

Friday Fun Finds: How to Be a Dad

When we woke up this morning it was 45 degrees in the house (and -25 outside!)  At some point in the night we had run out of heating fuel, and now the soonest anyone will be able to deliver is Tuesday.  I thank God for the wood stove and hot tea! 


So funny!  You've got to check out every post here: http://www.howtobeadad.com/

Baby Sign Language

I've decided to try to teach Fynn some of the basics of Sign Language as I've heard of so many benifits (the most appealing being less frustration on the baby's part as they can often sign before they can speak English).The thing is, I know none at all.  So we're learning together.  I just found this video of the basics to  a tune:

Baby Food

We had a yummy smelling kitchen this morning as yams, apples, and pears were separately boiled, then purred into a smooth goop.  Okay, that might not sound so appetizing to you or me, but it's enough for Fynn to get excited about!  I'm not a perfect natural mom, I often feed him store-bought baby food, but I like to make my own when I can.  Especially the fruits; Fynn will barely touch the store-bought fruits but if I make them myself, he gobbles them down.  It's fun for a breakfast treat on occasion.

This hardly calls for a recipe it's so simple, just basically take fruit or veggie of choice, boil if it's hard, then pop in the blender and puree until smooth.  I even leave the skins on some things like the pears (after washing, of course).The real question that kept raising it's head was what to feed him and when.  I found one great page just by blindly bumbling through Pintrest (Homemade Baby Food) and another link a public health nurse friend of mine sent me (Infant Feeding Guide.)  Both were so helpful and really lay things out clearly and are worth checking out.