Outside around our place we have beautiful blue wildflowers;
nesting supplies for the birds;
a fine feathered rooster;
and tiny toad tadpoles. (To name just a few interesting outdoorsy sort of things.)
Guess what, my friends? I made homemade jam this weekend (in a bit of time between ball games). Oh, it was very rewarding and such an easy recipe. I found the recipe (and the muffin one, too) in a cookbook that I borrowed from the library.
Apricot-Pineapple Jam, makes 4 cups
1 box dried apricots
1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple
6 cups sugar
12 maraschino cherries, coarsely chopped
1 package Certo pectin
1 T. butter
Cut the apricots into small pieces with scissors, removing any hard stems, and place in a bowl. Add two cups of water and let stand for at least 4 hours. Place softened apricots in large, heavy pot and add the other ingredients. Mix well. Place over high heat and bring to a full rolling boil stirring constantly. Boil 10 minutes to prevent floating fruit. Ladle into sterilized jars and seal.
It’s a bright, delicious jam. The boys came home from their Saturday job as I was stirring it on the stove top. They said it smelled so good. “Mom’s making jam again!” After I was done with it, I made some biscuits and we enjoyed the jam on our biscuits. It was a lovely late-afternoon snack.
Rich was busy working on yet another landscaping project here at home–a walkway from the house to the garage–so I served him his biscuit with jam outside and he enjoyed every morsel. Funny story: He asked for a second biscuit and as I skipped proudly back inside through the front door, I told the children (who were munching on their snack) happily, “Dad wants another one!” THEY THOUGHT I MEANT ANOTHER BABY! Ethan even said, “If it’s a boy we could name him Joshua, we’ve always liked that name but haven’t used it yet”. 
Talk about misunderstanding!
This was the weekend project. Actually not only a walkway, but also a patio between the house and the garage. Rich and the boys (and Grace, too) worked on it all weekend long. Six year old Caleb even has a black eye from his “helping” (he was fooling around and ran into one of his brothers, who was carrying some pavers).
The pavers are all in place now, and we are just waiting for them to dry (it has since rained) before Rich finishes it off. We plan on putting a grill down there and planting some perennial beds around the outside of the patio. I am proud of their hard work. In fact, it is one of the ways Rich likes to show me his love, by his hard work around the house and at the office. *swoon* 
He gets rewarded for his hard work in many ways, one of which is GOOD EATS. Yesterday morning he was working outside and I served him “breakfast on a bulldozer”. I made homemade baked oatmeal and orange muffins and took them outside to him as he was working on the bulldozer with Seth on his lap.
The muffins were so perfectly yummy, you must try:
Orange Buttermilk Muffins, makes 12
6 T. butter
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 orange
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
dash salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt the butter, set aside to cool. Put the buttermilk and half a sweet orange, seeds removed, into a blender and puree. Add the egg and butter and blend well. In a separate bowl combine all the dry ingredients. Mix the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until just mixed. Do not overbeat. Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake at 400 for 20 minutes.
Serve with butter and homemade apricot pineapple jam.
Good to be Home 