Homemade Jam

Well, I know most of you are expecting and wanting to see Ivy pics.  You will just have to wait until the next post.  I just wanted to do a post on what I made last Friday.  Well , since I am not working I am trying to get into making more homemade items as well as do some baking.  As some of you know Kevin had a work party and I made this beautiful pie. 

It was a peach pie, probably the prettiest one I have made yet. It must have tasted delicious since Kevin didn't come home with any left overs.  Instead he brought home this chocolate swirled cheesecake a lady from his work made, marble pound cake, and some other delicious dessert.  So the baking inspired me to make more things.  The problem is finding the right ingredients in a language I still don't know.  I had picked up some Johannisberren (currents) from the local vegetable stand.  I decided to make Jam.. I found this great UK website with recipes on Jellies and Jams and most of them are without using pectin. Its a mix of fruits that contain high and low pectins to get the right amount so you jellies and Jams gel.  Well, this recipe was pretty simple so I decided to try. If you know anything about currants and making them into jam its the right balance of sugar and water.  Currants contain high levels of pectin.  I also added a hint of lemon. First  I cleaned the red currants and rid them of all stems. 

 

 

Then I added the water, 1 lb of berries so I used  3/4 pints of water.  I brought the water to a boil and let it simmer for 15-20 min.  Then I removed it from the heat and added 1 1/2 cups of sugar and a dash of lemon juice.  I put it back on and let it boil for another 15-20 minutes.

 

 

Here is the tricky part.  To do a test to make sure your jam has set you put a silver spoon in the freezer (2-3 spoons)  and let it get real cold. Around the 15 minute mark you take the cold spoon and dip it in so see if the jam gels or if its set.  If it falls off the spoon its not ready.  If it starts dripping slowly to the point of almost not dripping its set.  You do this to your preferred thickness of your jam.  Honestly I got 2 jars of jam.  After a few hours they were still to runny for my liking, so I dumped it all back in the pot boiled it for a few more minutes and added some lemon juice and walla I had great Jam.   This was my first time ever making Jam.   

This pic was from the first time boiling. After the second time I only had 1 and 1/3 jars of jam.  Next time I understand the set test better and I think 1 lb of berries would yield 2 jars.  It was delicious and we all are enjoying it. Even Ivy thinks its rather tasty.  I am pretty proud for the first time making it. 

I am back up and running!!!

Hello all, Its been a very long time since I have posted and I apologize for that.  We just got reconnected to the internet on Tuesday.  I have been busy the past few days catching up on headlines, emails, facebook etc.  Things are going pretty well here.  No we are not settled yet.  As some of you know we still do not have our stuff. Our ship landed in the UK on the 16th of July.  I will try to make this story short so I can post other items.  They did not tell us the money was due before the ship arrived.  I had traded many emails on options of payment.  We found out on the 9th that the money was due prior to the ship docking and they put a hold on our items. Kevin wired the money on the 12th.  Some how their bank never received the money as our bank sent a check and did not wire since it was a first time thing.  Well, we had to cancel the transaction and charge it on our card.  Come to find out they charged our card and then reversed the charges, sent us an email that the credit card had declined.  This is actually the very short version of this story.  So as of now we are steaming and hoping to resolve this as of this week. Our stuff went into storage in the UK on the 23rd and could have been delivered here.  So its very upsetting and frustrating at the same time.  We just want our stuff and have more things that are familiar for Ivy. 
    On another note, we love where we live and we love our apartment. At the moment it is still pretty bare.  We do have a kitchen table and 4 chairs, a patio set, grill, air mattress, and a pack n play for Ivy.  This weekend we picked up a small table for Ivy that we purchased last weekend and we have a toy chest coming in on Tuesday.  She has been helping me pick out things to decorate her room.  On here I will post our apartment as of the weekend we moved in .  I will post pics as we get more settled and finish rooms. Right now we are slowly starting to decorate little by little just to make it more like home.  We did buy a couch back in June but it takes 8-10 weeks for delivery so we should have that beginning or mid September.  I am sure there is a lot to tell you but I will have to think of it through the weeks as I am so far behind with posting.  So this post is to basically show you our apartment the first week we moved in.  If we ever get our stuff or when we are settled I will show you updated pics as we go.  I am sure I will have posts on decorating each room.  Right now Ivy is the important one so her room and a small area of the living space is our focus.  Ok so here are the pics of our humble abode.  As you know we moved in on our Anniversary weekend.  Kevin was so sweet, he walked in our first night in our place with some beautiful flowers. The first pics are of the lovely flowers I received!!

 

 

 

 Now for our apartment.  The first pic is of our entry way.  We have a small foyer.  When you walk in our room is to the right with the kitchen next to it and Ivy is on the left ( not shown in this picture).

 

Next you have our lovey room with the fabulous air mattress we have been sleeping on since the 8th of June. 

 

Next to our room is our kitchen small but has lots of storage and I really like it to be honest.  Its bigger and better then what I expected we would get.

 

Now we have Ivy's room.  She decided that she wanted to help me show off her special place.  As you can see it doesn't have much in it but that will change very soon.  It actually has a few decorations now but I will not show it until its complete.

Next to her room is a half bath with just a sink and a toilet

 

And next to that is a full bathroom.  The half bathroom is technically a WC. 

 

Before taking you to the main living space I will take you to our second level.  The door is just to the right of the entry door before entering Kevin's and My bedroom.  The stairs are pretty steep so I am very thankful to have a door that keeps that area from Ivy's temptations. 

 

 

 

Upstairs is an open room then a bedroom.  I don't think there is a door that closes off the one room. The open area we are going to use as an office space, storage, etc.  Once we get our room/bed set up the air mattress will move to the spare room. 

 

 

 

 

Back down stairs to our main living space we have two pretty big rooms, one with a wood stove, and a balcony.  Right now the room with the woodstove is our dining area and the other room is our living area.  When the season changes and things get colder we may rearrange this. The first pic is of the current living area.  You will see a window with a tiny cove. That is where Ivy's little space will be.  She really likes it.  I will update when we finish it. For now in this pic its empty. 

 

 

 

The next pic is our current dining area which currently does have a table and 4 chairs. The mattress is on loan from Kevin's institute.  They were nice and wanted us to have something to sit on.  The mattress is now in our living area.  Ivy decided to pop into this pic as well. Below this is a picture of the two living areas together.

 

 

 

Now for our lovely balcony.  The first weekend we bought this green outside mat since the tiles get hot.  We bought a grill, Ivy an outside chair and 2 chairs for us. Not picture are 2 more chairs with a matching patio table. 

 

 

I will end this post of a taste of our view.  We do like our house and are slowly making it our home.  As we get more settled and I feel the rooms are complete I will post pics.  It may just be a post room by room as we go.  I will be posting through out the week updating you on our stuff, pics of Ivy and what ever else we are up to.  Enjoy and it is great to be back!!!!