Every year I pretend that I am going to make strawberry jam and every year I wait for my Mom or my Aunt Vivian to come up and make it for me. Well, this year it was my turn, because there is no one here I can delegate the responsibility of making sure Paul has enough fresh frozen strawberry jam to make it through all the Sunday dinner rolls, Saturday morning crepes and freshly baked whole-wheat bread for the year until next strawberry season comes around. So Friday I dedicated myself to the "putting up" of fresh frozen strawberry jam. I guess it would be prettier if I could have put them in little glass jars with pretty little labels which I would have used my calligraphy pens to write "Strawberry Jam - 30 May 2008", but you just don't want frozen glass in your freezer being jostled around. So I've settled for plastic containers with just the date on them.
It's been 5 years since the last time I made my own jam. Can I tell you that it was wonderful. The satisfaction of knowing that you've relatively preserved fruits of the harvest is almost overwhelming...that may be a little bit of an overstatement. Let's see from "10 Things I Hate About You," I'm just whelmed.
I love and enjoy being a homemaker, a maker of homes! I know I'm not out saving lives or pretending to enjoy being in some rat race hoping that one day my "contribution" to society will be noticed. But I am doing what I love. The satisfaction of a clean home, a crisply ironed shirt, knowing my husband can come home to a peaceful homey haven knowing that there will be a hot delicious dinner on the table, it's all I've ever wanted. And the fact that no one is the boss of me except my own self is also nice :)
Preparing dinner - $1 hour
Laundry, Cleaning, Vacuuming and Washing the dishes - $4 hours
Going to Hawaii for 3 weeks this June while husband has in-job training in Chicago - Priceless!
In an effort to celebrate all sorts of events in my life I prepared a dinner Thursday night for my new Williams-Sonoma etched Edwardian glasses. For some reason this took most of the day. I needed to get ramekins for the chocolate souffle, which meant I just had to go to Williams-Sonoma. I also picked up a few ingredients for the celebratory dinner.
After picking up everything I needed, I pre-roasted the potatoes and carrots. While the oven was doing its thing, I also started the raspberry coulis which needed to be cooled for a considerable amount of time, because it had no thickener. I had to de-bone the chicken breast, buying the chicken breast bone-in was the only way I could get it with the skin on. As everyone knows, searing a chicken breast with the skin on then roasting it for 20 minutes is the best way to get a moist chicken breast. I also marinated the chicken in lemon juice, fresh rosemary, kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.
Around 2pm I decided that it was time to start the rolls, Ben's Mom's Rolls, which are wonderfully light and fluffy, if you make them right. LOL! I spilled some of the yeast into the sink and didn't have any extra, so instead of 1 Tablespoon of yeast I think I got a teaspoon and a half. Which meant they needed a little extra time rising.
So when everything came together, I had made; seared and roasted chicken breast, roasted potatoes, carrots and onions, chicken stuffing, chicken pan gravy and rolls. Usually my meals are not so monochromatic but the Costco here doesn't sell those great frozen peas, and I still have that aversion to salad, from that one time....don't even want to think about it. For dessert I made, (and when I say "made" I mean to say I was so scared that it wouldn't rise in the oven I sat in front of the oven to try and "will" it to rise) chocolate souffle, which did come out, and I was so proud that it actually did.
The end product of everything was just so much fun to see and appreciate!
