Yogurt and Jam

I love the sound of canning lids popping in the background. It is so fulfilling to know that it worked! It's funny, when I met Andy I told him I would never can, just wasn't my thing, no fricken way, and now I find it fulfilling? Wow, how the times have changed! Seriously though, canning is hard work, it takes allot of prep time, it's hot, it's messy, but in the end you come out with a jar of something you grew, you washed, you trimmed and then preserved to eat later. There was one day last fall where it really hit me how cool it was, for dinner that night I made green beans that I had canned a few months before, a roast from an elk that Andy had hunted and whole wheat rolls that I had kneaded and let rise all day, it was very cool to be able to say that we had produced the entire meal. The girls are at the stage where they still love to help me, and I take advantage of that, even though it is a ginormous pain in my butt to let them help, I know that in the long run it is so awesome, and I try to remember that the day will come when they will help me because they have to, not because they want to, someday they won't fight over who's stool is closer to me. Last summer we pitted and froze tons of cherries, and now that the cherry trees are starting to bloom again I figured I should use up whats left of them out of the freezer before this years come in, and since we were short on jam I thought that would be perfect. Cherry Jam might be the most delicious stuff ever! and the girls enjoyed watching the jars boil, simple pleasures.
































Another thing I made today was yogurt! I found an awesome crockpot blog that had a recipe for crockpot yogurt!! I know, sounds weird, but it works! It took all day but I now have a gallon of organic yogurt in my fridge!!

















Those were my two exciting things today, the weather was beautiful, I took the kids to the park, met a friend for lunch, went grocery shopping and squeezed in a quick workout after dinner. Oh, dinner tonight was Turkey on the BBQ with lemon pepper seasoning, Veggies and Quinoa!