Something I've Been Thinking About

Can someone explain couponing to me? I often get coupons at checkout for 30 cents off some name-brand product. I get that this coupon will be doubled, making it 60 cents off. But, when I go to pull that name-brand product off the shelf, I see that the store brand is a dollar cheaper to begin with.

How does this translate into the pictures that people have begun putting on their blogs of piles and piles of non-perishables with captions that say "Cost: $257.99. Paid: $1.00. Savings: $256.99"?

What is going on here that I am not getting?

It's official

This year, because I'm righteous like that, I've been trying to follow commandments that heretofore I didn't feel really applied to me, namely, planting a garden and amassing my year's supply of food.

The food storage is going pretty well. We went to Sam's Club and spent about $200 on our 3-month supply, which Tyler has already broken in to for the Lucky Charms. But we now have enough pancake mix, syrup, flour, sugar, raisins, oil, oatmeal, cereal (minus the Lucky Charms), yeast, spaghetti, and chocolate chips to last in the event of disaster.

The garden is going less well. You may remember I planted a garden a few years ago. It looked so great at the start, but, in the end, it was a flop. The birds ate all my tomatoes, the zucchinis had tough skin, our watermelon rotted from the inside before it ripened, the radishes and lettuce died, and the yellow squash plant turned out to be a cucumber, which I had no use for because they're gross.

Try, try again, right?

Our backyard is unfinished, and in discussing the landscaping, I asked Tyler to put in a planter, so we could have a garden. One day. Because my last gardening attempt went so well, ahem, I decided to prove my prowess by growing an indoor herb garden. I bought a little kit with a container, dirt, parsley, chives, and basil seeds. I kept it on my kitchen counter right by the sink. I planted the seeds and they sprouted. I faithfully watered them, and even had Lillian spritz them with water, on account of the dryness.

The parsley didn't last a week.

The chives made it maybe two.

The last of the basil finally succumbed yesterday. They weren't looking good (they were almost dead) and I was too embarrassed to ask anyone to water them while we were in California. The 4 days without water were too much for the little guys.

I told the ladies at church yesterday about how my garden died-

Ladies: That's because you don't have a drip irrigation system. All my gardens died until I got one. You need one here in the desert.

Me: Oh, um. It was my indoor container garden.

Ladies: Well, um... Better luck next time...?

So, what do you think? Should we spend the money to put in a planter (and drip irrigation, apparently), not to mention sacrifice space in our already not-that-big backyard, for a garden that is probably just going to die?

The Great Jam Fiasco

My mother-in-law makes jam every year. She gives some of this jam to us. She never gives us enough, and I get that: she's got better things to do than enable my jam and roll addiction. Last year (or two years ago?) I asked her to teach me how to make jam, and it seemed pretty easy.

Begin by buying a flat of strawberries. Our flat consisted of 4 2-lb cartons. Then put them in your french door refrigerator that you argued you'd need for platters and flats of strawberries.




I was really excited for jam. I cleaned and prepped the strawberries the day before we made the jam. When Tyler got home, he asked if I had "done the thing [my] mom did with the apple slices." What?

After a bit, I gathered he was talking about Fruit-Fresh. Way back in the way back time, my mom would line up seven brown paper bags every morning and make our lunches. Bless her, she cut up our apples and put them in a solution of water and Fruit-Fresh so that they wouldn't go brown during the day. Wasn't that nice? These are the types of things you don't think about until you get older and think, "wow, that was a lot of work." Also, these are the types of things that I'm not sure why I told my husband. When did this come up? Have we discussed Fruit-Fresh before? And, why does he remember this? Does he secretly wish I put his apples in Fruit-Fresh?


Anyway, Darlene discovered the secret to keeping your strawberry jam nice and red over the months is to dip the strawberries in a Fruit-Fresh solution and then in water before putting them in the food processor.

Too late. I guess we'll just have dark jam. This is lesson #1: Fruit-Fresh.

Here we are, day 2. I may as well mention lesson #2: Do not make a double batch in a single pot, you'll see why in a minute. I should have consulted Darlene on this point, but I didn't and it was pure folly.


Take 6 1/4 C crushed (it says in big letters on the recipe DO NOT PUREE) strawberries, one envelope of SURE-JELL pectin, and 1/4 C fresh lemon juice and heat it over med-high heat until you reach a steady boil.


Once you reach a steady boil, you need to add all the sugar at once, so have it measured out and ready. 7 3/4 C. This is double, remember. Also remember that this is a bad idea.



Add the sugar all at once and then return to a rolling boil. Once it hits a rolling boil, the mixture will roughly double in size and if you decided to make a double batch, it will overflow.


Here was our problem. You are supposed to boil this for EXACTLY 4 MINUTES, skimming any foam off the top with a metal spoon. How do you keep it boiling when it's overflowing?


We took that towel, the one on the left with the burned strawberries on it, and wiped down the stove, and then set the pot back down and boiled it for 3 min, 30 sec, and prayed for the best. Tyler fashioned a funnel out of a juice jug and we ladled away.


Put the jam into the jars (oh, you've been simmering the lids this whole time right? Good), wipe down the rim and the threads, put a lid on it, screw a ring on and then turn it upside down for 5 minutes.



After 5 minutes, turn them right-side up, and let them sit for 24 hours. I'm hoping that my jam will set up. It's been about 18 hours and it's still a little jiggly. I don't know if this is normal, but I'm suspecting we might have what the recipe calls SET FAILURE. Ah, live and learn, I guess.