Fun in the Kitchen Part 3

Where do I start? You'll be pleased to know our kitchen only scored a 2 on the mess scale. This is even after we realized we had too many peaches and therefore had to make a double batch.

We decided to show you all step by step how to make peach jam.

This is steps 1, 2 and 3. Step 1-Get lots of peaches. Step 2-Put peaches in boiling water for one minute. Step 3-Put peaches in cool water to prepare for step 4.

Step 4-Peel the peach. White peaches are WAY easier to peel than yellow peaches. The skin just fell off the fruit. It took us less than 30 seconds to peel each one.

These are the naked peaches.

Now unfortunately when I took pictures of Peter cutting up the peaches I didn't focus the camera very well and the pictures came out all blurry, so hence no picture of cutting the peaches, but that step comes next. Then once you have four cups of peach tidbits, you put them into a large pot and squish with a potato masher. Hence you get peach goo.

Believe it or not, this is how much sugar we had to add. 15 cups of sugar! So once we added the sugar, we had to bring it to a rolling boil. Our mixture was boiling and spitting hot goo. At one point we were worried about the size of our pot. Luckily for us the mixture didn't boil over the edge of the pot.

Of course while your peach goo is heating up, you should rinse out the jars you plan on putting the goo in.

After boiling goo for amount of time specified on pectin box ladle quickly into jars. Very carefully with hot mitts on or in hand twist on caps and turn upside down. We left them upside down for about twenty minutes or so and the lids seal themselves. The jar in the front was the left over goo, only made 1/3 of a jar.

Now we were wondering how white peach jam would differ from yellow peach jam...can you tell which one is the yellow peach jam? It's like a Where's Waldo book. There are a bunch of white peach jams and only one yellow peach jam on the counter. Can you find it?

And that our friends is how you make peach jam.

Fun in the Kitchen Part 2

We decided to try our luck with making peach jam today. We've learned from our mistakes last time. Peter said, "We're using the big pot this time."

Peter asks, "Do we have enough sugar?" Mandy says, "Yes we do." Peter- "Now is that a Mandy yes or a Peter yes?" Of course we both knew exactly what he was referring to (refer to fun in the kitchen part 1 if you don't get it), so I said, "It's a Mandy yes."

Now peaches are slightly more difficult than plums in the fact that you have to peel and pit them. Mind you pitting plums wasn't terribly fun, quite frankly it was very messy, but at least we didn't have to peel them too.

Now to peel peaches one must first put in boiling water for a minute. Then soak in cool water. Of course if you soak in cool water too long, they get hard, therefore destroying the reason for boiling. Mandy-"I still can't get the skin off and now they're hot too."

To pit peaches you have to cut in half and pull out pit. Make sure you do this before skinning the peaches or else you might lose a finger or two. However skinning the peach is easier done when the peach is whole, therefore also being very hot, so pick your battle.

The jams have been ladled and are now upside down in hopes that they will seal themselves(it worked last time). Then its into the fridge they go. This time we feel the mess was an average score of 3 where as last time it was well into the 8's. We have a bag of white peaches and a bag of plums so fun in the kitchen part 3 and 4 will be happening soon. If you live close by you might even get to have one of our delicious jams. :)

I might've....

When Peter says, "I might've..." I know he has! He once said, "I might've bought two model airplanes for $60 each, but don't worry I saved $10 on shipping by buying two." Of course he said that as there was a box sitting on our doorstep. He also said, "I might've bought some movies." They were ancient old movies...yeehaw. Not too long later he said, "I might've bought some more movies." They were a box set. He apparently got a good deal. A couple weeks ago, I heard it again. "I might've bought some musicals. Rodgers and Hammerstein box set only $50." 6 movies but with 12 discs ooooooo. So then tonight...It was my first day of school and I was exhausted and falling asleep at 7:30ish....he waits, it's about 8 and I'm in bed and he whispers in my ear, "I might've pre-ordered a Play Station 3 today. I got a really good deal. It comes with a controller that goes bzzzzzzz!" And lo and behold I'm awake now. We hardly ever use our Play Station 2. We still have games that have never been opened. He claims they're critically acclaimed.

Yet he tries to compare the times that I go for a good deal. I bought a case of belly flops from the Jelly Belly Factory.....yes we still have two unopened bags, mind you the entire case of 16 2 pound bags cost $48.

I might've married a nut....but I wouldn't trade him for the world :)

Teamwork

Peter and I have come up with an interesting way to put groceries away. Peter was working on shoving everything in the freezer only to find most wouldn't fit. I came in and said I would make it all fit, then I handed him a carton of ice cream that was nearly gone and told him his job was to eat it. He ate the ice cream and I made everything fit nicely in the freezer. Talk about good teamwork!

Bleck!

I finally did it. After putting it off for a couple of weeks, I decided to clean out the fridge and try the year old wedding cake. Well needless to say it didn't taste very good. I went straight for the middle of the cake and the raspberry filling tasted pretty good. I even made Peter try it, though he basically ran away from me as I came towards him with a fork. He did lick the edge of the fork and said he had tasted worse things before. The rest of the cake was disgusting. I took two bites and decided it was time to take the trash out.

It has been a year and a week

So last Sunday Peter and I celebrated our first anniversary. We had gotten four miniature bavarian cream and raspberry cakes from Edelweiss on Saturday and indulged ourselves Sunday evening. We also took the top of our wedding cake out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw...we still haven't tried it yet. Peter has no desire to try it, but I'm willing to give it a try, I just keep postponing it.

I also got some pretty flowers.
We also went out to Souplantation....my favorite place! Peter figured that out pretty early and we do our best to go at any special occasion or just because.

You would not believe the language I discovered I could speak!

So last night as we were getting ready for bed, I tried giving Peter a kiss. As I was pulling him close I realized he had ACT mouthwash(recommended by 4 out of 5 dentists) in his mouth. At which point I pushed him back and said, "that could be a disaster." With ACT still in his mouth, Peter uttered mmm mmm mmmm! I responded, "No we can't try." He tried not to laugh at my amazing ability to comprehend him and then responded with mmmmm? I said, "No." He appreciated our non verbal communication. He then spit out the ACT and told me that he couldn't believe I knew what he was saying word for word. So for those that want to know, the conversation was:
Peter: We can try!
Mandy: No we can't try.
Peter: Please?
Mandy: No.
And thus we see by using effective communication as a married couple we can avoid getting mouthwash in the bed.

Pancake Flop

Peter loves cooking pancakes. Blueberry pancakes are his favorite. Sometimes he is successful and other times, let's say today for example, he is not. When we buy Bisquick we dump it into a container and then throw away the box saving the recipe for waffles and biscuits. This morning Peter realized he didn't have the recipe and figured he really didn't need one. After all real men don't need to follow directions. When was the last time Chuck Norris (Peter's idol) ever asked for directions? It would've taken all of two minutes to do a google search for a pancake recipe, but Peter decided to save time and guess. So Peter made pancakes...more like the gushers brand. He was so kind to give me the ones that looked perfect on the top. After it was syruped I cut into it and took a big bite. It was pure uncooked batter. I cut in again and the batter oozed out. I'm usually willing to try new foods, but this one I just couldn't do it. So with those in the trash, I headed for the darker pancakes and well they were mushy in the middle AND burnt. Peter tried his and found the same problem. We threw out the pancakes and made toaster strudel instead.

Luckily Peter is much better at stir fry without a recipe than pancakes. We won't starve. :)

Mamma Mia

We saw Mamma Mia today. It was great! Loads and loads of ABBA songs, which Peter and I loved! We will definitely own it when it comes out on DVD. Peter thinks since we have a Bat Bear we should also have an ABBA bear. We're currently looking for a bear sized 70's outfit.

Peter introduced me to ABBA while we were dating. I fell in love with the music as I fell in love with Peter. We had some ABBA music playing at our wedding and it is almost always on in our cars.

Batman

Today we went and saw Batman the Dark Knight in IMAX. We could've watched it in a theater only 15 minutes away, but no, Peter and our friends wanted the true IMAX quality, so we drove for 1 1/2 hours to Ontario. Luckily our friends and Peter are not big enough Batman geeks to dress up in costume, though we heard on the news that some people did. I had no desire to see Batman, until I realized that Ontario has a giant outlet mall and this mall just so happens to have a Disney Store and a Build a Bear. So I went to see Batman, and Peter bought me a bear. And not just any bear, a bat bear.

We also had fun at the mall for a few hours. The Rainforest Cafe was lunch and dinner combined. It was great! I ate all my food-1/2 slab of ribs, coleslaw and fries, Peter brought some of his lettuce wraps home. Peter and I got smoothies and ended up trading. He liked mine more than his and I liked his and mine, so we switched. I drank all of my smoothie (originally Peter's) plus whatever Peter didn't finish of my original drink. I just couldn't let that good stuff go to waste. For dessert we stopped by Wetzels Pretzels and got a cinnamon pretzel, which I ate most of. I'm only telling you this because as we were wandering around looking for food, Peter was asking me how hungry I was. I told him I was starving! "Do you think you could eat a sit down meal at the Rainforest Cafe?" "I want food, I don't care where it is, I'm hungry and I want food now!!!!!!!" (Peter said to add exclamation marks)So hence I ordered food and ate it all! I think I was hungry don't you?

Peter would like me to also mention, that he had asked me several times prior to the incident to see if I was hungry and my reply was usually, "Yeah a little bit, oooh let's check out this store."

We went to the Disney Store, but it was a big upset. Yes things were all very cheap as it was the Disney Store Outlet, but they had no adult clothes, so we left empty handed.

So for those of you wondering if you should go and see Batman...Peter says, "Batman rocks! Go and see it, but don't take your kids." I say, "Given that I didn't want to see it in the first place, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had thought it would be. Actually it was good, I only had to cover my eyes in a few scenes, but Peter didn't look either on one. So my suggestion, if you liked the first Batman movie then you'll like this one a lot."