Matthew's Puzzle and a mom putting it all together

Strawberry Vanilla Brown Sugar Jam Recipe

May 2, 2013 By Maryann

This is a recipe that comes from necessity. I had a bunch of strawberries that were turning and I needed to do something with them. Larry suggested that I turn them into jam. I pulled out my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and found a recipe for strawberry jam. It has a variation that suggested using vanilla bean. Luckily I had some vanilla beans around so I decided this would make a lovely addition. As I began to get everything together I realized that I was almost out of sugar. I couldn’t find anything in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving talking about substitutes for sugar, at least nothing I was OK with. So I did a quick search on line to see if you could use brown sugar in jam. I had plenty of that on hand. I found a recipe that mentioned using brown sugar with blueberries so I figured I’d give it a go and that is how I came up with this recipe.

5.0 from 9 reviews

Strawberry Vanilla Brown Sugar Jam Recipe

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Serves: 7 jars

Ingredients

7 cups of washed, hulled and mashed strawberries
2 cups white sugar
4 cups brown sugar
6 tablespoons or 1 package pectin
2 tablespoons butter
1 vanilla bean, split

Instructions

Prepare your water canner or large pot filled with water and brought to a boil.
Warm your canning jar.
Have your lids and rings ready.
Have your canning funnel ready.
In an large pot add the strawberries and pectin, mix, add vanilla bean and bring to a boil.
Add sugars all at once, add butter and return to a boil.
Once the mixture reaches a boil that can not be stirred down cook for 1 minute longer.
Quickly fill jars, screw on tops and process in water bath for 10 minutes or per your canners instructions.

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This makes the perfect jam for fresh bread, is delicious over vanilla ice cream and it makes every peanut butter and jelly sandwich special. My boys love it and ask for it on their toast for breakfast. It is also perfect as a gift.

Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil Review

May 1, 2013 By Maryann

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

We are hooked on coconut oil! I use it all the time. There are really only 2 oils we use in the house and that is olive and coconut. I do keep butter around for certain things but my first choice whenever I bake, fry or cook is coconut oil. I have even been known to add it to my coffee!

Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is beautiful and fruity, it smells just like a fresh coconut. Since it is still a bit cool here, my bottle of Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil is quite solid, but I’m sure as it warms up around here it will begin to melt. I don’t know why, but I love to open the jar and find liquid coconut oil waiting for me. There is something so luxurious and exotic about that.

Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil is 100% organic virgin coconut oil from the Philippines. And as I said I like to use it to bake and fry with. I used it recently to fry corn tortillas for our taco dinner the other night. But Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil can also be used as a moisturizer for your skin and hair. I have several friends who swear by it for taming their frizzy curly hair. They simply take a small amount of the oil, rub it in their palms to warm it up and rake their fingers through their hair. To use it as a moisturizer simply warm a small amount in your hands and rub over your skin.

Tropical Traditions does have a slight coconut flavor, but my boys like it so much they actually ask for a spoonful of it whenever they see I have it out. Of course I indulge them. You can visit Tropical Traditions website and get all sorts of wonderful recipes using coconut oil. But Tropical Traditions doesn’t stop there, their website has EVERYTHING you can imagine from soaps to swing machines!

Halloween Adventure Review

April 30, 2013 By Maryann

For years I used to make the boys Halloween costumes. I loved putting together things like a spider, a pirate and even Agent P from Phineas and Ferb. Then my boys started getting a little older and they started wanting store-bought costumes. I usually went over to Target and picked out a middle of the road costume. I didn’t always want to spend the $40 or even more on the top of the line deluxe costumes, and I hated to purchase the really crappy ones that looked like they were made out of tissue paper. So I would opt for the ones that cost in the $25 range and were just that, middle of the road.

Then I found out about Halloween Adventure. For $15.20 you can get a Deluxe Muscle Chest Green Lantern complete with ring and mask. Matthew absolutely adores this costume and has been wearing it around the house and even outside to play. I was really impressed with the quality of the garment. It has the molded muscles and foam foot covering. The material is multi-dimensional instead of being just one color. This costume is more like the $40 items I found at other retailers, but was significantly less expensive.

I was so impressed with this costume that I will be purchasing Halloween costumes for the other two boys from Halloween Adventure this coming October. They have costumes for the whole family from baby, up to mom and dad, even pet costumes and decorations or props. I love the Katy Perry costumes, wish I had the body to pull that one off this Halloween. Bet my hubby would love me in that one too. wink wink

You can follow Halloween Adventure on Twitter to find out all the latest and greatest Halloween information.

glass dharma Glass Straw Review

April 29, 2013 By Maryann

You probably don’t give your plastic straw even a moments notice, do you? I mean, why should you, right? You get them with every drink you order at any restaurant. They come attached to kids juice boxes. And for every celebration, at least around here, you are sure to find some sort of “silly” straw in the goodie bag.

I started thinking about straws a lot. My mom uses them almost exclusively to drink with. My boys love to have a straw in their drinks. They even help get our younger two to drink healthy smoothies if a straw is included. But I found out some staggering information about plastic straws. According to glass dharma, plastic straws are always in the top 10 of number of items collected during beach cleanups. And according to McDonald’s website they serve 52 million meals a day – each one probably comes with a soda cup and straw! That is just ONE fast food restaurant for just ONE day. What about all those other fast food joints and regular sit down restaurants? Plastic bags, plastic water bottles and plastic straws make up the bulk of single use plastics!

So what can you do about it? Well for one you can ask your server to not give you a straw. If you really want a straw you can opt for a glass dharma glass straw instead. glass dharma has several different types of straws in different sizes. They have 4 different diameters, 14 mm, 12 mm, 9.5 mm and 7 mm. They also come in different designs including “shorty” 6.25 inch length, beautiful bends (bent straws), decorative dots, and 8, 9 and 10 inch lengths. The sizes allows for everything from a small sipper size to those large enough for bubble tea.

I have had the pleasure of trying the 9.5 mm ice tea straws. I have the beautiful bends, the decorative dots, the 9″ and the shorty. The beautiful bends is perfect for sipping iced tea or other drinks. I actually gave my mom the 9″ straw for her to keep at home. She uses a plastic straw to drink almost everything. The amber decorative dots is lovely and would make a beautiful gift set. I think the shorty is perfect for the kids, especially since my boys like to drink smoothies from our small juice glasses.

The glass dharma glass straws are very safe. Although they can break, glass dharma does offer a guarantee

Hassle-Free Lifetime Guarantee Against Breakage

If, for any reason*, your GlassDharma Drinking Straw should break, click the link below and fill out the form to obtain your replacement.

glass dharma likens their straws to a Pyrex coffee pot or pie plate – very strong and usually safe, but always with the chance they could break if dropped.

Please check out glass dharma, there wonderful product, their mission and passion for limiting plastics in our world, and even their unique fundraising opportunities.