Archive | Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom Series

making jam in my bread maker

August 17, 2012 at 5:26 pm

I have many fond memories of the delicious homemade bread my mom made in our bread maker during my childhood. For our first anniversary, our four parents got together and bought us a very wonderful gift: a Cuisinart bread maker. Of course during the time of our first anniversary, Elliott and I were living in a studio apartment on Capitol Hill. So, sadly, our bread maker sat in the downstairs storage room the entire time we lived there.

Soon after our boxes were unpacked here in Sicily, I pulled my beautiful bread maker into the daylight. Shortly thereafter I stopped buying sandwich bread and have been making almost all our bread since early this spring.* I even convinced a friend of mine to buy the same bread maker.

(*I do recommend keeping an emergency loaf of sandwich bread in the freezer for that time that you run out of flour or milk or–gasp–just forget… and your husband has no sandwich the next morning for his lunch!)

Anyway, to get to the point, my nifty bread maker also has a jam setting. I started using it with strawberries this spring and have been jamming every fruit in season ever since (so far, cherries, peaches, and apricots). The entire process takes about 20 minutes to set up, then the bread maker works for 1.5 hours, and then you slide your jam into a jar and… you’re done! No sweating over the stove, no fiddling to get your canning jars to work, no huge messes or sticky pots. Here is what I do:

First of all, assemble your ingredients. It’s a short list: a few apricots, a box of pectin, one lemon, and some sugar. Cut up 2 cups of apricots into chunks and slide them into the bread maker pan.

Squeeze a tablespoon of lemon over the apricots.

Dust half of a box of pectin over the fruit. Let it sit for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, enjoy your beautiful daughter. She has assumed her usual position for whenever I am cooking or baking anything: right in the middle of my kitchen counter.

The recipe calls for 1.25 cups of sugar “or to taste.” I prefer my jam on the tart side, so I put in only 3/4 of a cup of sugar.

Then snap the pan into the bread maker and program it for the jam cycle. The bread maker uses the paddle in the middle of the pan to mix the jam and uses extra high heat to bring the fruit up to the proper temperature. After 1.5 hours, you have fresh jam! I put mine in recycled jars since I will just keep it in the fridge or freezer until we eat it; I would need brand new canning jars if I wanted to keep it for any length of time at room temperature. It will keep in the fridge for up to 6 weeks or in the freezer for… well, I assume a really long time.

Come on over and I’ll put some homemade jam on some homemade toasted bread for your breakfast!

5 :: in Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom Series, eat this

bathtime in Burke

June 19, 2012 at 12:56 pm

Today wasn’t my greatest day as a mother. At 8am this morning I rushed my little girl out the door, carpooling with Elliott on his way to work, so that I could get errands done before my weekly women’s Bible study. I dragged Lena from the library to the commissary to the post office. Unfortunately I didn’t do my research and missed the fact that today all the moms and kids were not at Bible study… they were at a playground 20 minutes away! This all dawned on me when I took Lena to the nursery to drop her off and it was a dark, empty nursery. Lena toddled around pulling out her favorite toys off the shelves while I scrolled through emails on my phone, realized my mistake, and groaned.

Lena and I drove home, Lena weeping in the back seat, hot and exhausted and hungry. Little Lena, I’m so sorry for pushing you beyond your limits, for not giving you a nap when you needed one, for not checking my emails beforehand and seeing where we needed to be and when! I’m sorry, too, for not being able to nurse you before your nap once we got home. I know that’s what you still want before you sleep, but you’re growing up, little one, and you can’t always drink Mama’s milk.

In the midst of feeling rather in the dumps about my mothering/scheduling abilities, my sister-in-law Jess sent these wonderful photos from our trip home to Virginia. She took them right after I got Lena out of her bath. Sweet memories and a dear family. Love that covers a multitude of sins!

2 :: in Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom Series, motherhood

bathtime in Burke

June 19, 2012 at 11:56 am

2 :: in Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom Series, motherhood

under the weather

April 19, 2012 at 12:19 pm

Lena and I tried to take a smiling picture to send to her daddy this morning, but it was kind of difficult for her to perk up into a grin. She’s had a low-grade fever for over 24 hours now, a fever which first came to my attention yesterday when she took a five hour nap. Epic. This morning she also threw up all her breakfast and medicine all over both of us. Anyway, now that her mama is aware what her hot forehead and general droopiness indicate, we’re learning that grape-flavored infant Tylenol is kinda yummy and have been reading stacks of books, snuggling in bed (unusual for this typically non-snuggling baby), and taking it easy for a few days.

Elliott and I are hoping little L can kick this thing, because she and I leave on Saturday morning for the States. (Elliott has a mandatory work conference and so can’t come with us.) We’ll be home for my dear friend Abi’s wedding… such a cause for celebration! However, I’ve already been dreading the solo plane flight with an active 12-month-old who doesn’t like to sleep. What will I do with a sick 12-month-old?

Prayers and advice would be appreciated right now. Also, friends, if you’ll be around the D.C. area these next couple weeks, let me know. Lena and I would love to see you!

xoxo

8 :: in Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom Series, Lena, motherhood, travel

under the weather

April 19, 2012 at 11:19 am

Prayers and advice would be appreciated right now. Also, friends, if you’ll be around the D.C. area these next couple weeks, let me know. Lena and I would love to see you!

xoxo