Watermelon JAM!

As many of you know I have, for the past 10 + years lived outside of the USA. I have lived in Japan and England. I ADORED everything about Japan, with the exception of the traffic. And I England will always be my daughters home. She grew up there and spent the better part of her life there. 

I have a very short list of reasons I am happy to be back in America, (I'm not kidding, it IS very short). I would have been SUPER duper happy to continue on living in foreign countries forever. FOREVER! The military way of life was totally built for someone like me.

One of the few things that I have missed from being stationed overseas is canning. Though supplies were available to me in England they were pricier than what I wanted to pay. I did very little preserving while in the UK and it was limited to apple pie filling and pumpkin empanada filling.

I had to mail order supplies and I did not have the space to store everything that I had left over. I didnt even have the space to store my big pots. Those were banished to garage. :-( They rarely got used and that made them sad.

When I got to Texas one of the first things I did was find a space for my pots INSIDE the house and then I made Mango Chutney and processed about 10 jars of that stuff! I LOVE! <3 And immediately all the fabulous feelings of seeing my mom make her own fruit jams came back to me. I went searching for what to make and what to can. 

While online I came across a Watermelon jelly recipe. 

My first reaction was, WHAT? WATERMELON? OMG OMG OMG! As a matter of fact I think thats how I labeled it in my recipe book! 

But after it was all set and processed I noticed that it was NOT a jelly it was totally a jam. But I was OK with it. 

I realize now I should have just added a bit more pectin and boiled another minute until it reached the consistency I wanted and really YOU should do that too, but I was VERY happy with what I got.

 The original recipe, found here, was jelly, but like I mentioned it did not look like jelly so now this is my recipe for watermelon jam. I found another version at Pickyourown.org recently and I will try this later this summer. Another melon another batch!

Watermelon Jam


6 cups watermelon puree (make sure you remove the seeds before you blend)
5 cups of sugar (less if your watermelon is SUPER sweet)
6 Tbsp of lemon juice
1 packet of powdered pectin (I most certainly needed more to make a jelly)


*when cutting your watermelon, the smaller your pieces the easier they are puree. You can strain your puree if you so choose. I didnt want any of the white seeds that are super duper slippery and I cant pick them up with my fat fingers so I said screw it and I just sieved it! TMI?

1. In a large non-reactive pot pour watermelon puree, sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a full boil and let it boil until the temperature reaches 220 degrees. That should take about 15-30 minutes. 
2. Remove from heat and pour into already processed jars. Put lids and rings on jars and process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. 
3. Once jars are cool enough to handle move to a draft free place and let cool overnight. 
4. Will keep in a cool dark place for up to 1 year.

Today was a country cooking day!

One of the biggest things that I miss from living in England is the open air markets or farmers markets that they had on a almost daily basis. England was great at supporting the local farmers in that every good sized town had a market or farm stand or the lady with a table sitting outside her house with homemade preserves and a small basket when people put in the money for goods purchased. Yes they still relied on the honor system there. And from the looks of repeat farm stands people were honorable!


Today my friend Em asked me to go with her to the Abilene Farmers Market. OF COURSE! It was my first market in over 6 months. I was super excited. It was the size of a small town weekday market in England but OH THE FUN of being able to support local farmers and families. 


Later I will post what I made with my market finds, peaches is the only clue you get!

One of my favorite blogs is The Country Cook 
Today without thinking about it I was fiddling in the kitchen. First I made watermelon jelly, and if that sets the way it is supposed to I will post that up. After that was canned and cooling I thought 'well lets just keep this going.' So on to 7-UP cake. 

Now I LOVE 7-UP cake and have always gotten it from the Commissary or bakery, I have never tried to make it myself. BUT Brandie has ALWAYS given me such fabulous recipes that I just had to try hers.

It looks phenomenal doesnt it? Well since I can tell you it tastes BETTER than it looks! 

It is a super easy cake that you will be able to make over and over again. 

Ingredients:

1 box, Yellow cake mix

1 box, 3.4 oz instant lemon pudding

1 1/2 cups 7-up

4 eggs

3/4 cup Canola oil

Icing:

2 cups Confectioners sugar

 1 TBSP Lemon Juice (bottled works just as well as fresh)

1-2 TBSP Milk


Pre-heat oven to 325°F.
Spray a 10-inch bundt cake pan with baking spray. (The one with flour in it)
In a medium bowl combine all cake ingriedients and mix thoroughly.
Pour batter into prepared bundt pan.
Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely in the pan. 
Remove onto serving dish.
PREPARE ICING:
In a small bowl combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice. Add milk slowly while mixing to desired consistency. 
Pour icing over cake and serve!

YUMMY!

And how was this a country cooking kind of day? Well I made Spasagna for dinner. I am telling you Ms. Brandie is AWESOME! 
 

Posts and the lack there of...

How long has it been?
One year?
Two?
How ever long; it has BEEN to long. What I know is I have a stalker. I see from my page view count that my stalker visits me almost every day. I welcome you stalker! :-) You should introduce yourself and we should get to know each other.

Much has happened in the months I have left you all behind. MUCH!

I have moved half way around the world. As many of you know I lived on RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom for 7 years. I cant say I loved EVERY minute of it but I did enjoy living there a great deal. I have enjoyed every opportunity that the wonderful Air Force has given me and my family throughout these last 20 years. BUT it was time to come back to America. Or in the words of my dear Alivia, Americer.

We had been away from the good ol' USA for over 11 years and it was no longer conducive to my calling myself an American for me to live outside of the United States. (That and I really really really really missed shopping at Target for my everyday products) Don't get me wrong I have a LIST, a BIG LIST,  of what I am missing from the places I have lived in but we will get into that another day.

We now live, in my Hubs words, YEE HAW Texas. My husband got orders to Dyess AFB. I have to admit that I was NOT happy to be coming here. I had not heard many nice things about living in Abilene. But I have to tell you all....THEY WERE WRONG! Though Dyess AFB is rather bleak and dreary. And the people that work on the base for the most part are negative and bitchy, Abilene is WONDERFUL, and I do not use that phrase very often.

In the few months we five have lived here, (5 meaning Delilah, Josh, Myself, Shadow and Patches), I have experienced so many wonderful things that I have never in my entire military affiliated life had ever experienced. I have been blown away by the kindness, the appreciation that the people of Abilene show the military members of Dyess AFB.

A few weeks ago I was driving off base early one morning. I saw a HUGE group of people standing right outside the base. The first thing that came to my mind was, "freaken fantastic! Another group of stupid M*&%^&^ F^^%$@##$% protesting SOMETHING ELSE!"
As I got closer I rolled down my window so that I could hear what the stupid M*&%^&^ F^^%$@##$% were actually saying. I was also able to read the signs. I took a picture but it came out awful.

Outside Dyess AFB 11 April 2012

When I was able to read the signs they said, "good job" and the M*&%^&^ F^^%$@##$%^* were yelling "thank you!"
I felt awful and ashamed for thinking the things I thought about them. In my defense all I have EVER seen is negativity towards the military.
To say the least, it brought me to tears.  Their kindness made me feel so wonderful and proud to live in this town. I am usually VERY proud of my hubs but this just made me feel so good. I cannot begin to describe the feeling of warmth I felt.


This past weekend we were invited to the "Worlds largest Barbeque".
Every year, for the past 47 years, the Abilene civic center has sponsored the Worlds Largest Barbeque. At least 3,000 people attend every year. Food is served to Active duty military, Guard, Reserve and their families. And let me tell you, the food is WONDERFUL. My daughter could not get enough of the sausage, I LOVED the coleslaw, and I hate coleslaw, and my hubs LOVED the BBQ sauce.

In the speeches given by those who organized it they were quoted as the reason they did this was, "Just to say thank you, thank you for what you do every day, thank you for your service and your sacrifices, we get all our volunteers and they pull together this one day a year and we have folks come out and say thank you by feeding them barbecue and catering to them."

As we were leaving the Worlds Largest Barbeque we were handed a flyer. A flyer for a zoo event next month. COMPLETELY free for all military and their families to include lunch.
I cannot get over the generosity of this city. I cannot help but ponder maybe staying here even after we retire.

I know this post has nothing to do with baking or cooking with Mrs. Baker but it was HOPEFULLY my jump back in. I do miss you all.

I will see you soon stalker! And everyone else!! ;-)