Rose Jam, the easy freezer version

I'm famous for my Rose Petal Jam. Ok I'm not, I'm famous for my sarcasm and bitchiness, but the Jam is really good, and our property is SURROUNDED by rose bushes, filled with amazing wild roses that REEK of awesome, so I took the liberty of making this tutorial on how to re-create my Rose Petal FREEZER (easy) Jam.

I figure I'll wear my son on my back to keep him from getting all rose-thorn-poked

First you need rose petals, I like to use leather gardening gloves as to not hack up my hands while rooting through the bush to get the roses. It's somewhat gratifying to go through a beautiful bush and snip the heads of the roses, not sure why.

Note: the egg in the picture is my multi tasking, I had a late layer in the day and I took her egg. This was my first bounty, I stupidly washed these, and put them in the freezer which turned them into a yucky mess, so I had to RE-go out and collect more

Second you have to take the petals off, it's rewarding because they smell good and you still get to wear your leather gloves.

Third, WASH THEM, wash them wash them WASH THEM in cool water. BUGS live in roses, beetles even, I had to rescue these adorable little beetles from a watery grave, and once I thought I got all the bugs out, I submerged the petals for an hour and then washed them again, as to evict all inhabitants from my future Jam.

Spin the water off in a salad spinner, again, smells great.

You should have collected about 4 cups of petals, if not, go get some more, I'll wait.

now wash those ones too.

Spin them.

Ok you have four cups? I'd say get eight because four cups wet is really only two, if you want to, use fresh strawberries, that's what I did for half of the batch, 

Good, let's move on.

I'm using this stuff, it makes Jam making a breeze and if you're making jam for vegans, they'll be happy you considered their needy needs. The gelling agent is actually an extract from sea weed. I'm making jam for my husband and daughter, they're not vegans.

Rip up the leaves to sizes that aren't going to gag you when you eat them, the petals are very thin and tear easily, they also bruise easily so tearing is a better option than chopping, but that's merely my opinion

Add about a tablespoon of Lemon Juice, and enough water JUST to let it mimic the wetness that fresh fruit would have, I'm guessing I used about 3 tablespoons

Then add 1.5 cups of sugar, I like to reduce the sugar and I ran out of granulated sugar, so I used a cup of granulated, and a quarter cup of icing sugar.

 Mix that up and let it sit for fifteen minutes. Go facebook or something, (yes I'm using that as a verb)  set a timer, the internet steals your time and your soul.
I spent my fifteen texting my pregnant friend a few towns over, so my soul remains intact. 

If you're adding fruit, I add it separately and don't let the sugar sit on top of it, I kind of feel like it's sweet enough, and that seems to hold true, so finely chop your fruit and add it to the mix after the 15 minutes is up. I heard a quote the other day, "facebook is like looking in the fridge, you keep going back, checking it, and still nothing has changed, there's nothing there"

Ok, now slowly add the powdered jelly mix to the mixture and stir that for five minutes, not to worry, you wont get carpal tunnel syndrome.

Looks delicious already! 

SURPRISE! you're done! Let that sit for five minutes, then put them into jars! I'm being lazy this time around so I used the plastic freezer jars and they are AWESOME because once you use the jam, you can fill them full of nuts and raisins and throw them in a diaper bag without worry of spillage, yes, I've become THAT person.

 *groan*

  

The top is strawberry rose, the bottom is just rose, both equally delicious in different ways, I wish sugar didn't hate my guts, I should try a splenda version and watch people flame me for using splenda.

My husband had some just now, he says it's "actually QUITE delicious" but he wishes I'd torn the petals up more.

Life Factory Teethers

WIN, win win WIN. The life factory teether is my favorite, ok second only to the razbaby teether, but I can never seem to figure out just WHERE I have put that teether, the life factory one is always within reach, you can wear it as a bracelet, or hook it onto one of those weird little baby hooker things, you know, the plastic things that strap a toy or what have you to a stroller or carrier, we all have houses plagued with the things, it's always around, and it doesn't SCREAM 'cool toy to play with' so my toddler takes off with it and hides it, hoards it really, with the stash of soothers she's collected from her new brother, it sounds like a downfall but it isn't, she has NO interest in this teether, so where I leave it, it stays!

It's 100% silicone, so you can boil it, and it's not porous so it won't collect any gross bacteria, it's got multi sensors so they can really get in there and figure out what works best for them. They're eco-happy and awesome and our son seems to be giving them a what for, and he can't make a dent, the thing looks like new!
Warning though, it's not a pretty bracelet, you'll certainly look like a mom.

ETA: I got ours at hard candy baby boutique in Qualicum beach

mOmma

So my mom likes to shop, more over she likes to shop for her grandkids. She lives for her grandbabies, I'm a little jealous I'll admit, but whatever. She knows I love love LOVE gadgets and new products so the other day she came home describing the worlds BEST sippy cup. I kind of brushed her off thinking that a sippy cup is a sippy cup is a sippy cup, My daughter has a bahjillion sippy cups and they are annoying and hard to clean.

Well, while out shopping with her, she showed me this sippy cup. It's made by a company called mOmma Technology. At first glance, these cups are pretty futuristic looking, they have a little bubble at the bottom of the straw, an astroboy spoiler type thing on the lid, I guess it's a thumb hook for sliding it open and closed, so over all, they please my eyes.

Cute right? She bought the red one, for my 2.5 year old daughter, and a bottle topped one for my 5 month old son, both to drink water from. 

We got them home and they were both a hit. My son drank from the bottle as per usual (my kids love water) and my daughter loved opening and closing and being able to see the water sloshing around in there.

I was holding my son in my lap while watching my daughter blow bubbles, and the next thing I know, he lurches forward and is drinking from the momma sippy cup! I was impressed when my daughter could drink from a sippy when she was a baby, I guess it's a natural reflex, anything that goes into their mouths, they suck on, both breast fed babies, it's only natural, but I was impressed that he was SO loving the cup that I went out and got him his own blue one.

He's able to grab it because it's wide and doesn't have handles, I held it for him for a while, but then put it down in front of him and he latched on to it and giggled like a mentalcase because I guess the water comes out pretty quick, it's a bite valve.

 This looks like a sour face, but it was hysterical to him, I assure you

I love these bottles, love love LOVE them, BPA free, Disney free, ugly free and modern looking. 

I kind of want one for myself....mom? I can has?

Eco-Tree Colored Pencils

Ok for real, I really like to get super cool stuff for my kids, (sometimes and only SOMETIMES for myself, but I limit myself to an obsession to lush) ANYWAYS, I was super excited to find these awesome little twig pencils from a local place so I scooped up four sets, that put me back about 56 bucks but they were organic, I was supporting a local retailler, and they are kind of awesome and they'll last a while, so I splurged on CRAYONS and got a bunch of awesome stocking stuffers.
They're great, they're rustic looking, they're functional and they're small enough to take with you in a diaper bag, plus because they're not wax, if you leave them in the car, they don't melt.
All awesome things, right? RIGHT?!

Wrong.

First they are sold EVERYWHERE, even on Amazon, which of course are cheaper, but hey, second they color pretty well, they're SUPER cute; look at how cute they are:

Happy little tree loving eco pencils, lovely colors too, 

The deceiving butts.

We have had them since December, my Daughter got them in her stocking, as well as a few nieces, I only really re-found them after xmas, in the past few weeks, today we went to sharpen one. we followed suit and sharpened with a knife, as it looks like that's how the creators sharpened them...

My Daughter brought it to my husband to be sharpened, He was hacking away, asking if we had a pencil sharpener to use instead, when all I heard from the kitchen was "Oh wow, that is SO cheap!!"

He brought the pencil for me to see, I figured the lead shattered or something, nope, worse, there was not even a half INCH of colored pencil in there, so you sharpen it once, and the "lead" runs out, look!

I was like, weird, maybe they missed a spot? Not sure how I even thought that possible, but there was colored pencil on the butts of them, so he sharpened that side....

PAINT! The butt dots were PAINT, EVIL misleading, PAINT blobs made to LOOK like there was lead through out, I am completely mortified that someone who is so eco-conscious can be completely ethically challenged, they are essentially a buck a twig, and to get a single use out of ONE pencil is completely and utterly pathetic. 

SO unimpressed, SO disappointed, SO shocked. 

Seriously? LAME Eco-Tree, LAME.

Eggs!

Ok this is the first post, I figure that we do lots of stuff, and I like to keep things within reach and archivable so why not keep it on a blog that's not a family type blog, so here it is, the BLOG!
Gonna start things off like I did this morning, with breakfast. For years, YEARS I've loved eggs, but haven't been sold on the hard boiled egg idea. I'd like them if someone else made them for me, but I'd always screw it up and make them taste nasty, how can simply boiling water differ at my house to someone else's? Technique! I've come up with a method for hard boiling the most perfect egg.

First off fill a pot with cold water, this keeps the eggs from cracking, at least most of the time.

Second off, bring the eggs to a boil, once they start to boil, remove from heat.

Put the timer on for 15 minutes.

When the timer goes off, put the eggs into cold water to stop them from cooking then you eat them, because they are the best, non rubbery, non grey-yolked eggs ever.

Woo and amaze your friends with your super awesome hardboiled egg capabilities. I'm thinking this makes them easier to peel too, I've found they're easier to peel when I make them this way, it's not fact, it's just an observation.