Cooking: Strawberry Jam
This week, I made a batch of basic strawberry jam, following
the directions on the Sure-Jell box. I
grew up on homemade jam, and am now pretty picky about what jams I eat. I specifically avoid commercially made jams
that use corn syrup, because it just doesn’t taste right.
This batch came out fantastically, and part of that was due
to the ingredients. A recipe of jam
consists of fruit, sugar and pectin (what makes the jam thicken); because jam
has so few ingredients, it is important that each one is high quality. The strawberries that I used for this jam are
of the Chandler variety, grown primarily here in California; they are
specifically bred for flavor, rather than sweetness or stability during shipping,
as many commercial varieties have been. The
sweetness of the berries doesn’t matter so much in jam, because jam has plenty
of sugar, but the intense berry flavor makes for a great jam.
So far, we’ve eaten over half a pint jar! Glad we have three more.
Jake and the Neverland Pirates Fan Art
Let me preface this by saying that I am no artist. Sometimes, though, this happens:
That image came about because my two older children consistently call Izzy and Cubby from Jake and the Neverland Pirates “Dizzy” and “Chubby”. I thought it would be fun to illustrate the characters that way. I'm pretty pleased with it, considering that I couldn't find my nice Staedler or Sharpie pens, and had to use the world's worst pen. Check out the full-size version here (I suggest using it as a coloring page -- my kids loved coloring this in!).
Okay, so this is pretty geeky. My husband and I are gamers, and I don’t mean that in the mainstream “we play video games” sort of way (though we do that, too) – no, we play pen and paper role playing games, table top war gaming, and have played collectable card games.
This brings me to Zombie Orpheus’ newest film, The
Gamers: Hands of Fate. A sequel to The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, my
husband and I actually contributed to the Kickstarter fund for it (we’re
getting miniatures! Yeah!). Dorkness
Rising was the story of how players’ relationships change over the course of a
role playing game adventure, and this new film is a continuation of that, with
more of an emphasis on collectable card games.
Dorkness Rising was an absolutely brilliant piece of work, and is much
quoted by my immediate gamer friends and family. While I haven’t seen Hands of Fate yet (due
to work schedules), I am totally watching it tomorrow. The film does have adult language in it, so
be mindful of that if you have children or are otherwise particular.
Through August 31st, you can watch the film in full here (click "Stream for free"). Enjoy. :D
