Killer Moths, an Anniversary, and Salad Tips

Moths doesn't look right.  What is the plural of moth?  Anyway, this morning I was sweeping and this big black moth flew up from behind the couch.  Gross.

Then yesterday when coming back from cub foods, a HUGE beige colored moth started flying around in the cab of my truck.  It was enormous.  I rolled down the window and was trying to shoo it out.  I may have swerved a bit in this process because a man passed me and flipped me the bird.  I'm sorry sir, but your fist and middle finger do not scare me, I have a moth the size of your head trying to eat me and my first born!  Hopefully my moth encounters are over for the rest of the weekend.

Moving on.  Today is the one year anniversary of the wedding of Rachel and Matt!  It was a warm day that ended in hail and bad storms, but it was a beautiful wedding and a wonderful day.  I was honored to be a bridesmaid- even K was "in" the wedding.... in my bellly   : )   Congrats again Matt and Rachel!

We hung out with friends both Friday and Sat. night of this weekend, and I cooked a little for both occasions.  Friday night we got together with some friends to celebrate Steve's birthday!  It was super fun to hang out, sit around a fire, and relax.  I made potato salad.  POTATO SALAD TIP:  when making the dressing to pour over the potatoes, celery, egss, whatever you put it, it's usually made up of mayo, mustard, ect.  ADD a 1/2 cup of buttermilk.  It makes a total difference and tastes delish!

Last night we had Scott and Kerri over.  Kerri is a fellow teacher, lover of the pioneer woman, and just a really fun girl.  For Scott's birthday a few weeks ago, she got him a nikon 3100, which is the first camera I had.  They came over for dinner and I showed Scott one or two tricks on shooting in manual.  I grabbed jalapenos, a green pepper, and 3 big tomatoes from my garden for a salad.  LETTUCE SALAD TIP:  combine all of your chopped veggies in the bowl you'll serve your salad in.  Add about 1/2 cup of dressing to the veggies, stir, and let them hang out.  The juices from the tomato will thin out the dressing and kind of "marinate" the veggies.  Stick the bowl in the fridge and then at the very last minute, add the lettuce/spinach/romaine, toss and serve!

Last night we also grilled up some cheese brats.  They are totally under-rated.  Go get some. 

14 on the 14th for Jenny's Birthday

My beautiful little sister turns 25 today.  Here are 14 facts/stories about Jenny.  I love you Jen, and am so glad you're my sister.

1.  When Jenny was younger she had two imaginary friends, Lottie and Lollie.  When she played restaurant she would call herself Monica P.
2.  When Jenny was in high school she broke her finger.  Playing soccer.
3.  Every year Jenny makes the thanksgiving turkey and always tries new things:  brining, injecting, creole flavor.  Every year we make fun of her techniques, but every year she blows us away at how good it turns out!
4.  Jenny used to sit on the armrest between the front two seats of our family's station wagon when riding in the car.  She said she got to sit there because she was the youngest, and called it the "perch"
5.  Jenny once caught two fish at the same time on one bass lure.
6. Jenny always tried to teach our collie Cookie tricks.  She had a promising career as a dog trainer, but chose Occupational Therapy instead. 
7.  Jenny once won her age division of the Slice of Life 5k in La Crescent.
8.  Jenny had some sinus problems as a kid and could pinch her nose together, breathe in, and it would stay like that.
9. Jenny took violin lessons for awhile. I don't actually remember this, but have seen pictures of her holding a violin.
10.   For Christmas a few years ago Jenny gave my brother a chicken-  he didn't get the chicken, it was donated to a village somewhere.  I think my dad might have gotten a goat.
11.  As a child Jenny used to jump from the side of the bathtub into the water. She called them swan dives.
12.  When at a restaurant, Jenny is the best orderer.  She gets things I would never think to order... and I'm usually jealous.
13.  Jenny was rear ended three times in a 2 week period, or something close to that.
14.  One time Jenny and I got tickets to a Miranda Lambert/ Blake Shelton concert.  It was random, but one of the best concerts, mostly because we were there together.


Jenny, you are a wonderful sister and a great aunt to K.  We love you so so so much and hope you have a wonderful birthday!!

We Can!

My mom, sister, and I can.  We can tomato sauce, jam, pickles, jalapenos, and last year, even eggs!  It's super fun, and not really hard if you have all of the equiment ready to go!
You need a few things to can successfully.  In this picture is a jar lifter, a wand to get the lids out of the hot water, and a funnel for getting the jam into the jars.  The West Ladies love their lid wands.  If you want some joy, google the West Ladies.  They also think wooden spoons are "a blessin'"  I agree.

My mom, sister and I like kitchen gadgets. Jenny likes new ones like you'd see on the food network.  My mom likes older ones that kind of look antique, especially rolling pins.  One time we saw old rolling pins displayed in a wine rack.  Not big wine drinkers, my mom and I bought the "rolling pin holder" and 5 antique rolling pins.  I'm not exactly sure when it was that we realized there probably was no thing as a rolling pin holder.

You'll need a mom to hold your baby and wear a sweet canning shirt.  You also need a big canning pot with a can lifter/rack thing.  Fill it about 1/2 full and heat that water up!

We made strawberry jam, so we crushed and measured out 8 cups of strawberries.  I like jam thicker, so I left some big chunks in there!

Can you see that sugar in the background?  You need to measure out 3 and 3/4 cups of sugar and put it in a bowl.  In a smaller bowl, combine one package fruit pectin and 1/4 cup of sugar  (that's 4 cups sugar for those of you good at fractions, and this was the reduced sugar pectin recipe!)
While doing all of this, put your clean empty jars in the hot water.

In another big pot on the stove, put in the 8 cups strawberries and the 1/4 cup sugar/pectin mixture and bring it to a rolling boil.  Take the jars out of the hot water.  In a separate bowl or sauce pan, warm up the lids (not the rings) but don't boil them.
When the strawberry mixture reaches a rolling boil, add the big bowl of sugar in, stir it, and bring it to a rolling boil again.  After it boils for one minute, turn off the heat, ladle into hot jars leaving 1/8 inch of space on top, put on a lid, and screw a ring on tightly. 

Return all jars to canning pot, lift the rack and lower it to the bottom of the pot, and boil for 10 minutes.  This is called processing.  After ten minutes, use the can lifter to take them out to cool!  You can tell if the jars are sealed by pushing in the middle of the lids after a few hours.  If they pop back up, they aren't sealed and you better put those in the fridge and use right away.

Beautiful!