>Where do you keep your foods in jars?

>Food In Jars, a canning blog, is one of my regular reads and go-to sources for information. A month ago (was it really almost a month ago?) blogger Marisa put up a post asking readers where they stored their goodies after canning them.

I’m a beginning canner, so there aren’t many cans on the shelf yet. The cupboard, like almost everything in our home, has a history.

This gray cabinet resides in our basement along an inside wall. It has glass fronts on the main lower shelving, and solid doors on two smaller sections on top. When we found these in the basement, we presumed they had been part of the original kitchen or dining room, probably lining the walls. The previous homeowners, most likely practical and frugal sorts, had moved them downstairs rather than throw them in a dumpster.
Last summer a young couple knocked at our door. Somewhat sheepishly, the woman told us she had lived here as a child and as long as she was in town, could she see the house again? Of course we invited them in. She described many changes beyond those we’d made, and told us that the gray cabinets had indeed sat in the small dining room, but they had lined up at a 90 degree angle from the wall at the bathroom door, making a sort of short hallway.
Well, now they’re in our basement, serving a good purpose. My canning supplies and the resulting jars are sitting behind the glass doors, looking delicious. I expect to fill the shelves a little more each year as I learn new skills and get more adventurous with the canner and food in jars.

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>Raspberry Applesauce

>This is a real recipe, not a pantry raid, not a garbage recipe. I’d picked up apples at the Farmers’ Market – Macs to cook & Honeycrisp for my workday lunches – and we had 2 pints of raspberries, the last of the season. The raspberries were heading past their prime, and we needed to use them up.

It’s a great problem to face, to have fresh fruit that must be used up ASAP! I turned to my stash of cookbooks and found this raspberry applesauce in Food to Live By: the Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook.

Ingredients
4 medium sized sweet-tart apples (I used MacIntosh), peeled and diced
1 1/4 cups fresh or frozen raspberries (mine were fresh and getting softer by the minute)
1/2 cup sugar or more to taste (we found 1/2 cup to be just right)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
…and (you guessed it, I never perform exactly by the script) I added 1 teaspoon frozen orange zest just because I still had some in the freezer.
Directions
1. Place the apples and 1 1/2 cup water in a large, non-reactive saucepan and bring to a simmer over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until the apples are soft, about 15 minutes.
2. Add the raspberries and sugar (and orange zest, if you live in my kitchen) and cook, stirring frequently, until the apples are soft, about 5 minutes. Break up any remaining chunks of apple with the back of a wooden spoon. The applesauce should be thick.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the sauce to cool slightly. Add the lemon juice. Taste the applesauce and add more sugar if necessary. If you are not planning to serve it immediately, transfer to a clean container and cover it. Serve warm, room temperature, or cool.
I realize there are a few potentially confusing redundancies in the directions. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to a simmer? I brought the apples to a light boil and then immediately turned the heat down to a simmer.
We also have the “simmer until apples are soft” followed by a second “cook…until the apples are soft.” Use your own judgement, of course. I considered the first step done when I could pull out the peelings, the second when the chunks were almost gone.
I did not peel my apples immediately, either; I cored and quartered them before cooking, then pulled out the peelings with a fork. (Hint, hint family, a food mill is on my wish list for Christmas or birthday! It would make chores like this easier. I might even share the resulting goodies.)
This sauce is delicious. Even with end-of-season raspberries, it beats the heck out of any store-bought flavored applesauce. I predict this applesauce will become a regular on our table every August and September.

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>Investing my blood, sweat, and tears in teaching

>”I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” — Winston Churchill

Well, Mr. Churchill – may I call you Winston? – I have all that and more to offer my students and my coworkers. I have fifteen years of experience in public schools, more in private preschools and as a substitute teacher. I have undergraduate and graduate degrees. I have knowledge gained from myriad sources: classes, training sessions, professional institutes taught by experts in their fields. I have colleagues who help me apply that knowledge in useful and practical ways.
And I have my own blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
Sweat:
Have you ever been in an classroom in a 60-year-old brick building, with no air conditioning, with only two windows that open? Add 24 sweaty bodies after recess and you’ll know sweat.
Have you ever followed a child across a playground in muggy heat, a child who knows how to keep one step ahead, a child who has emotional issues so extreme you worry about getting too close lest he run out into the street or into the nearby wooded area known to be a repository of broken bottles and sometimes syringes with needles? Even without the hot weather, it was a sweaty situation.
Tears:
Student throws tantrum, shoves staff member.
Student throws another tantrum, kicks aide.
Student gets suspended for aggressive behavior.
Student returns from suspension. Teacher monitors mood, tension, calls on all de-escalation training and years of experience to keep him calm – alone. Because no one, but no one, stops in to check on student when he returns to school after his suspensions.
Feeling totally unsupported leads to tension, high blood pressure, and yes, tears.
Toil:
This I can do. If hard work could solve the problems of all my students, life would be easy. I’m working on grant letters and looking up books to fit the needs of my hardest working, most struggling readers.
I’m also doing the research in advance on procedure for removing a dangerous student from class, even as I sincerely hope it won’t be needed. Toil, perhaps unnecessary, but still toil.
Blood:
Does swelling count? Physical pain? I’ve been teaching on an unexplained and undiagnosed swollen ankle for two weeks. My doctor must understand teachers. She didn’t recommend I take several days off to heal; she suggested I teach sitting down whenever possible. I keep teaching through the pain, not calling a substitute, because that’s what we do.
Winston, I know you made this statement in a time of a great world war. My battles are different. Instead of an enemy with bombs and troops, I fight poverty, apathy, budget cuts, and misinformation. In those battles I offer my knowledge, my experience, my continued professional connections, along with my blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

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>Anecdotal Evidence that School has Started

>There is more laundry than usual.

During breaks, especially summer, I spread out the laundry loads and don’t have to depend on weekends to do it all. Not any more!
There are books all over.
Yes, that’s a normal state of affairs in this house. However, the table next to my rocker now holds Lucy Calkins’ A Guide to the Reading Workshop and two books I’m previewing for my classroom library. There’s a pleasure book sitting on my bedside table; that’s a must.

I’m exhausted. The beginning of a new school year always brings extra tasks, extra stress. This usually subsides with time and then picks up again around parent-teacher conferences and progress report seasons. This year, with the additional challenges in reading instruction, I’m working every spare minute to plan effective lessons and find appropriate materials and books.
I’m running out of coffee. Yikes! I’m making my own and bringing a thermos to school, determined to be both frugal and green by avoiding the drive-through expresso place. But I need to pick some up soon, or this refreshing beverage will be out of stock at home.

Oh, by the way, if you were wondering what the family is eating for our NFL Regular Season challenge of “Eating the Opponents” – we chose Chicago style deep dish pizza. This is Monday night game, and Da Bears are 2-0 just like the Packers, so we might repeat this fine entree on Monday night. I think it’ll be worth the sacrifice to eat the same meal twice. Really.

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>Where the Cookbooks Are

>It’s the economy. Or maybe it’s due to the increasingly common food-borne illnesses like salmonella. More and more people are turning to buying locally and cooking from scratch. Where do they get their recipes? For many of today’s cooks, the basics and the preserving tips skipped a generation. Our mothers (and occasionally our fathers) cooked from mixes and made convenience foods whenever they could. These frozen foods and boxed mixes made it easy for working parents to feed the family when they got home. For a long time, there was no desire to go back to the old ways of slow cooking, starting with the basic ingredients. Time-saving was time-saving, and thank goodness for that!

That’s how food blogger Drew came up with the name for his web site and blog How to Cook Like your Grandmother. Drew recently asked readers where we get our recipes and where we keep our cookbooks. You guessed it, readers. I grabbed my camera.

The main batch of cookbooks, the ones I use most often, sit on an easily accessible shelf next to the kitchen. It’s on the main drag in the home; you can tell by the keys/ change bowl in the center and my purse on the right.
A second shelf of cookbooks takes up space inside the cupboard. It fills about half the shelf. My 13 by 9 pans, muffin pans, and cooling racks sit to the right. Below, well, you can see below! Slow cooker, mixer, immersion blender, coffee grinder.
Now back to our main event: cookbooks and recipes. I also have a file on my laptop aptly named “Recipes.” Subfolders include cookies, canning, and crock pot. There’s a similar folder on the family desktop computer, the one I use very little these days. Between two of the cookbooks inside the cabinet are two old-time files — manila file folders — filled with printed recipes and inspirations cut from magazines and newspapers. Some day (some summer day, most likely) I’ll make a project out of organizing them into a binder.
I don’t really cook like my grandmother. I cook like me. Only the future will tell how my daughter will cook, and so far she’s doing quite well. I might even let her take a few favorites away to start her own cookbook collection. Maybe.

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>The Adventures of Sun-Loving Rat

>Hi, I’m Sun-lovin’ Rat! I came from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada to visit Daisy and family. Any visit to the O-K Chorale (yes, I did mean to spell it that way! ) includes a road trip of some sort.

On our way out of a medical appointment we stopped at the golden arches. Mmmm, fries. That huge Ronald guy was kind of scary, though.
Next we drove a long, long way to drop off Amigo at the school for the blind. We got him there just in time for track practice. The Visitor tags were so cool I decided to wear mine all the way home.
It was a beautiful day for a long drive; I think I napped a little. The seats in Chuck’s Saturn are a nice gray color, just like Sun-Lovin’ Rat!

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>Healthy Choice steamed meals

>

I’m all about fresh foods whenever possible, cooking them from scratch whenever we have time. When Mom Central offered a blog tour sponsored by Healthy Choice, it took a little thought before I signed up. I’m glad I did. In their new steamed meals, Healthy Choice worked hard to minimize the ingredient list and keep those ingredients identifiable to ordinary people like you and me. They created packaging to steam cook each meal, maintaining the quality of the frozen-fresh vegetables. No mushy cafeteria beans!

Many of my teaching colleagues stock up on microwave meals for their school lunches. They’ll pick out five at the store on Sunday, drop them in the lounge freezer on Monday, and continue on with their teaching week with no worries about lunches. These are really handy, and not just for teachers, I’m sure.

Healthy Choice sent me two of their new Steamed meals to try: Rosemary Chicken and Sweet Potatoes & Garlic Shrimp. Here’s a snatch from the back of the Rosemary Chicken box:

“Steaming is one of the freshest ways to prepare food… it locks in fresh taste and unlocks the vibrant flavors and colors of quality ingredients.” Agreed. The vegetables looked delicious and colorful; the “Eat the Rainbow” crowd would have approved. Cooked in the microwave under their special steam film, the meat and vegetables were cooked well, but not overdone. I followed the directions precisely (are you proud of me?) and even checked the temperature with a meat thermometer to make sure my slightly weaker microwave had cooked the meat through. The meal wasn’t burn-your-tongue hot, though. That’s a serious consideration when you have a lunch period like mine, with limited time to “cook” and eat before meetings and prep times begin.

The back of the package also has nutrition information in a form that requires little thought. That’s okay, folks; if you’re calculating calories, exchanges, or Weight Watchers points, it’s all there for you.
My impression? Overwhelmingly positive. Microwave meals usually leave me unsatisfied, wanting to make a PBJ on the side. This one was delicious and satisfying. I could eat it for a school lunch and not worry about my stomach growling before the dismissal bell.

I usually cook Rosemary Chicken by reaching outside the door for my herbs. But in the middle of winter when I’m hunting for good and easy lunch options, I’ll look to Healthy Choice and steam it up for lunch. Before that happens, though, I’m going to try the shrimp option. It looks simply delicious, too.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Healthy Choice and received samples of their new steaming entrées to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central also sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate. Healthy Choice has a Facebook page if you’re interested in more information.

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>NFL Season: what do you cook?

>Game Day meals can be so much more than pizza or bratwurst. What’s a bratwurst? If you’re not from the Midwest, you probably don’t want to know. It’s kind of like really knowing the ingredients in sausage – a little too much information.

Last week Chuck made his version of Philly Cheese steak on French bread. Our Green Bay Packers proceeded to beat the Philadelphia Eagles on their home turf for the first time in nigh on 50 seasons.
This could become a tradition or even a superstition, if we’re not careful. The second weekend of the NFL regular season, Gang Green and Gold lined up to play the Buffalo Bills. What to make? Buffalo burgers? No, Chuck isn’t fond of bison meat. Buffalo chicken wings or nuggets? I’m not fond of nuggets, and Chuck didn’t know what to do about the sauce. Well, that’s never stopped us before, has it? Time to search the cookbooks and the Internet!
Chuck bought our Buffalo wings this time, but I did a little research so we could make them next time.
We found a Taste of Home recipe for chicken nuggets from scratch. I could handle these.
Then I looked into one of my go-to cookbooks, 70 Meals, One Trip to the Store for a buffalo chicken recipe. She had a buffalo chicken sandwich, and it looked easy enough for a game day lunch!
Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches
Ingredients;
4 chicken breasts
1/2 cup hot sauce
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup butter
4 rolls (or hamburger buns)
4 slices lettuce
4 slices onion
Combine flour, garlic salt and pepper. Coat chicken well in the flour mixture. Heat butter and hot sauce in a small pan on stove just until butter melts; turn heat to low, cover and keep warm on stove top. Heat oil in large skillet, and cook chicken breasts for approximately 15 minutes, turning once or twice until browned and cooked through. Drain chicken briefly, then immediately toss in buffalo sauce mixture and remove. Serve on rolls with lettuce and onion.
In my house? On game day? Serve with tomatoes and cheese, of course!
As for the hot sauce, I like to play it safe. I’m not a huge fan of spicy food, so I’d use a regular barbecue sauce. Chuck is still looking for something better. Let him know if you find something perfect for Buffalo Chicken.
This is not a sponsored post. Kelly Donlea sent me the cookbook for a review last summer, and I continue to use it. You can find her web site and blog and even order her books here. And if you’re wondering, The Packers beat the Bills, 34 – 7.

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>Mad Science and Me

>

I often tell my students that my favorite scientists are Bill Nye and Ms. Frizzle. They remind me that Ms. Frizzle isn’t real, and I concede the point. If I try to tell them I want to be Ms. Frizzle when I grow up, they remind me that I AM grown up. Darn. But I do enjoy teaching science, and I hope my students absorb that enthusiasm.


Mom Central began a blog tour reviewing Mad Science KNOW Magazine, and I said “Wow! This sounds like fun! Maybe they’ll let me do it!” Mom Central said yes and will send a 6 month subscription, which includes 3 issues of this bi-monthly magazine. Readers, you know me. As soon as I browse each issue myself, it’ll go straight to school, where the issue will probably live on a shelf for a few minutes before a student says, “Cool!” and brings it over to her desk for silent reading time.

If you’re interested in browsing, Mad Science KNOW Magazine has a free online issue. KNOW is geared toward ages 6-9, which fits my class nicely. My students are 9 and 10, but many are still struggling readers. A magazine like this, very graphic, with a slightly easier reading level than they’re used to, will appeal to many in my class. Features include Know-It-All, a Q&A column; Experiments – this month features math and science in string art; and this month’s title feature on Patterns and Shapes. I predict my students will enjoy the patterns and shapes articles and pictures, including photos. I’m happy to see patterns introduced in a unique way; students who recognize and understand patterns have an easier time learning and memorizing math facts and concepts.

I’m going to set up the web site so that my students can browse it when we’re in the lab. There are some fascinating videos that connect well to our curriculum and increase their motivation and enjoyment of science. When I’m in my role of Ms. Fourth Grade Science Teacher, that’s what it’s all about: science learning is so much stronger when it’s fun.

There is a companion magazine for older kids. It’s called YES Mag, and it’s aimed at ages 10-15. KNOW Magazine is just right for my students right now.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Mad Science and received the products necessary to facilitate my review. In addition, I received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.

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