Yes, We Have No Bananas

...just a picture of some.



Yesterday's song:
Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy - Tchaikovsky - Simplypink

PEACE

Picture from Photobucket.com

Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy

Yesterday my next-door neighbor brought over a huge grocery bag full of red plums from his backyard tree. The plums were great fresh, but there were so many that they'd go bad before we could eat them all, so I decided to make jam. I checked out recipezaar.com and found a recipe that I liked, but adapted it to what I had on hand and made it my own.

Plum-Lime Jam

Ingredients:
8 cups (about 64 ounces) of of plums - rinsed, pitted and coarsely chopped with skins on
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of vanilla
The juice of one lime
Three 2 inch strips of lime zest
~~~~~

For easier measuring, I just filled up a 64 ounce Gladware container with the chopped plums.

Place all the ingredients in a large pot with plenty of room to allow for the mixture to boil. Cook over low to medium low heat. Make sure all the sugar is dissolved, and continue to keep scraping the sides as you stir.

Last to go in -- the strips of lime zest

Once the mixture appears to me more liquefied, take out the lime zest and mash the mixture. The original recipe says to use a potato masher and that the mixture should be chunky. If you like a little more chunky, well then go for the potato masher, however, I love to use my kitchen gadgets, so I opted for the hand held mixer...

...and ended up with a smooth mixture. Keep in mind that the pot is still on the stove on low to medium low heat.


The original recipe explains that the mixture should be the consistency/thickness of honey when cooled. It's not the same texture as honey, but it should be somewhat thick, well, like jam (duh!) To test it, I would spoon out about a tablespoon into a small bowl, cool.

My jam is tangy, and that's what I was going for, but you can adjust the tangy-ness by reducing the lime juice to taste. This recipe yielded just a little over a 2 pound jar of jam. Store in an air-tight container. Will keep in a refrigerator for about a month.




Yesterday's song:
Fast Cars And Freedom - Rascal Flats - Katiefeldmom

PEACE

Fast Cars And Freedom

The pit crew

The cars
(This photo is by Evan)

Lining up at the start

On your mark... get set...

GO!

Woohoo!

There was drama, intrigue, suspense and a crash! We have a winner! The little black sedan, which is barely pictured at the center bottom of the picture, was so speedy, the others didn't have a chance. Who says you have to go to Indy to see the races? It was a great way to end the 4th of July weekend.

In food news, our next door neighbor brought over a huge plastic grocery bag full of red plums from their backyard tree. I made a small batch of plum-lime jam. I'll post that process, recipe and pictures tomorrow.

Yesterday's song:
Swim - Madonna

PEACE

Swim

Did you hear the one about the 41 year old mom who made the Olympic swim team??? Just more proof that it doesn't all end after having kids and at age 40. Rock on Dara Torres.

Full enough, yet?

Tonight's dessert was angel food cake with strawberries.



Yesterday's song:
Rockin' At The Barbeque - Dave Fields

PEACE

Picture from Photobucket.com