Out of the Mouths of Men

Today has been a fun and interesting day so far. The husband and I woke up early today at 7:30 a.m. (I know it is sacrilegious to be up that early on a Saturday) and went out to breakfast and did some shopping.

Because it was so early, Kevin has said so many different things that are amusing that I thought I would share:

Standing in line at Giant Eagle:

"There is no reason for her to be holding those two kittens in the photo." (Talking about Vanessa Hudgens on the cover of Glamour magazine.)

"Hey. I want you to feel my foot; it's dented." (Said as we waited in line as he proceeded to take his flip-flop off and place his foot on the cart handle.)

"If we could just stick a cork in both ends, and they could just be cuddly, it would be perfect." (Said after buying 60 cans of cat food that were on sale.)

At home:

"The next pet we get will be a baby." (Said after scooping the cat litter box.)

These are just a few gems of wisdom that Kev decided to share with me. I hope you can apply these to your own life and benefit from the wisdom of a 70 year-old stuck in a 27 year-old's body.

Get Yourself Into a Jam

One and a half pounds of cherries and three sticky and covered cabinets later, I finally have four jars of tangy and sweet cherry jelly. I had made strawberry preserves about three years ago, but this year was my first attempt at making a jelly.

Just like any good jam or jelly, you need to start out with some fruit. Because I had some cherries left over from a crock pot meal I made the other day and because I loved the taste of some cherry jelly our friends brought us back from Canada, I thought I would give it a shot with cherries.

Of course, before you start anything, you will want to clean and remove the stems of your cherries. (You don't want your family and friends to get sick because your career as a jelly maker would be pretty short lived.)

After cleaning the cherries, you will have to go through the biggest pain of the whole process: pitting the cherries.

There are a few different ways to doing this. If you are really into torturing yourself, you can grab a knife and risk your limbs by digging the seeds out by hand.

Or if you have no patience or tolerance of pain, like me, then you will need to get a cherry pitter. If you live in my area, good luck at finding one because it is almost near impossible.

However, by chance I can across this adorable little guy at Giant Eagle called "The Cherry Chomper."

Even though he was $9.99 I couldn't resist him because he was so adorable (plus I think it is funny that when he is covered in cherry juice he looks like a happy, giddy mass murder.)

This little guy made pitting the cherries so easy. I would just place a cherry into his mouth, slam on his head, and the pit would fall down into his tummy. When he was full, I would just remove his head and dump out the seeds. (Now that I am typing this, making jelly sounds like a very violent process.)

Not all members of the household were happy with the cherry chomper. Some people were a little upset because the slamming sound that he makes was disturbing some one's nap on top of the cabinets.

The next step is to take the pitted cherries and turn them into smooth and silky cherry juice. Some people use a food mill, others mash the cherries through a strainer or cheesecloth, but thanks to our addiction to infomericals, I was able to use our Jack LaLanne Power Juicer.

If you are going to use a juicer, which is the easiest route in my opinion, check each cherry to make sure the seeds have been taken out. If you don't, the seed can damage your juicer by denting the blades.

Once you have checked for pits, shove the cherries down the shoot and watch the juice flow out.

My 1.5 pounds of cherries made almost three cups of juice. You will get varying amounts depending on your method of juice extraction.

Pour your juice into a sauce pan and add your pectin. There are all types of pectin that are available. I choose a no sugar added pectin so I could cut down on the calories in my jelly. There are regular pectins that require you to add sugar as a binding agent.

Once you add your pectin, you need to turn the stove on high and constantly stir the juice and pectin mixture. Once the mixture reaches a boil that can't be stirred down, you will want to add your sugar or sugar substitute and continue to stir at full boil for one minute. (For my almost three cups of juice, I added 1 cup of Splenda. If you are working with sour cherries you might want to add 1.5 cups.)

After the one minute is up, switch off the burner and pour the jelly into the jars. You will want to leave a little bit of head space by not filling the jar up to capacity. Take a small spatula and run it along the inside of the jar to release air bubbles. Wipe any excess jelly from the rim and outside of the jar and place the lid on top and thread the ring.

One thing to keep in mind, is to keep your jar in a warm place before filling. If they are too cold, the heat from the jelly can cause them to crack. Some people recommend keeping them warm in a dishwasher, but since our dishwasher is apparently a "fire hazard" I filled our sink with hot water and kept the jars there.

Once the jars are filled and capped, you will need to put them into a hot water bath to seal them. In a large stock pot, add enough water to cover the jars and then set to boil. Before, lowering the jars into the hot water bath, make sure there is something on the bottom of the pot to prevent the jars from touching it. This could also cause the jars to crack. I solved this problem by picking up a Ball home canning starter kit. The kit comes with this awesome green basket contraption that you put the jars into and then drop it in the pot.

Put the jars into the hot boiling water and let them hang out in the water for approximately five minutes and then lift them out of the water, and let them sit somewhere for no less then 12 hours so the jelly can gel.

After the 12 hours are up, dig in and prepare for a sweet and slightly tangy flavor explosion!

A Change is Going to Come

I have been thinking long and hard about my blog.

After some considerable thought, I found a few different ways to make the blog more useful and to help streamline the content.

First of all, I am sure you have noticed that it looks a little different. I thought a new cosmetic change would help jazz things up a little bit. Plus, I think the banner really exemplifies what a "daring domesticate" really is. She can be a mother, a wife or girlfriend, a great friend and just a fun loving gal.

Second, I have noticed that my recent posts about couponing and saving money have not exactly fit into the niche of this blog. Because of this I am going to be starting a separate coupon blog next week. This way I can focus more on my domesticated endeavors on this blog. Once I have the new blog setup I will post the new link on here.

Also, I will be creating Facebook pages for both blogs where I will primarily be posting all of my blog links.

In addition to everything going on, I am going to be planning some giveaways to coincide with my new Facebook page, so you will want to keep an eye out for those.

Finally, I want to thank everyone that has ever wandered onto my humble little spot on the web. Words can't express my gratitude.

Coupons for this week

Want to get a sneak peek of what coupons will be in the paper on Sunday?
Then click here to get a look at the goods.

Some of my favorites include:

$1/2 Cheerios Cereals (Original, Honey Nut, Berry Burst, Frosted, Fruit, MultiGrain, Apple Cinnamon, Yogurt Burst, Oat Cluster, Banana Nut or Chocolate Cheerios)

$1/1 Danimals Smoothie 6pk, Smoothie 12pk, Crush Cup 4pk or Coolision 6pk.(8/18)

B1G1 – Buy (1) Purina Friskies Cat Treats (Any Size/Variety), Get (1) Purina Friskies Cat Treats Free (Any Size/Variety; Up To $1.85) x10/17


Happy Clipping!

What did you win today

This morning I went to my Weight Watchers (WW) meeting.

First of all, I am sooooo very happy that they have added morning meeting times. It was starting to get hard to not eat all day long and then cram myself full of food when I get home from my meeting.

Now I just have to be hungry for a little while and then eat like a normal person when I get home.

Anyway, our leader talked about "non-scale victories" today. These are the little things that you accomplish that make you feel better about yourself.

This got me thinking, how many times do we stop and give ourselves a little pat on the back for doing well. Not just in weight loss, but in life in general.

When I was younger, I was taught by my parents to be very humble about things and to be a gracious winner.

I am not saying that people should be arrogant or claim their victories from the rooftops (nobody loves a braggart) but the occasional pat on the back for a job well done is deserved and needed.

So, take time today to really think about all of the little things that you have accomplished.
For me, my victory today is that I have been keeping up on this blog pretty regularly. (Hey, I take my victories where I can get them!)

If you love Schadenfreude, then you should read this

I had in mind to write a great blog post about my weekend. How it was great, I got one of my items crossed off my summer bucket list and how I made pickles for the first time.

But, after the Sunday and early morning Monday I had, I just don't have the energy or heart to put into one of those blogs right now.

I am upset, sad and downright mad.

It all started off when I was scouring through the Sunday paper for my coupons and I came across the Parade magazine section. I had heard that you can get coupons here, so I decided to take a look.

While I was perusing the pages, I came across a full page ad that was explaining a huge recall of Maytag dishwashers (1.7 million to be exact).

Now we have had our dishwasher for almost three years, and we haven't had a problem with it. But now Maytag is saying that the dishwasher can catch on fire and not to use it.

So the wonderful company of Maytag has some options for their consumers who are going to have to deal with this issue.

When I called the help line, the woman on the other end of the phone told me that my options were to either schedule an appointment to have one of their repair people come out and look at it, free of charge, or get a $150 to $200 credit toward a new dishwasher.

The woman asked me if I would like the model numbers that would apply towards the credit and I said yes because I like to keep all my options open.

After I got off the phone and saw that the cheapest qualifying dishwasher was at least $500, I decided to schedule a time to have the repair done instead.

When I filled out all of my information, the form on the Website kept saying there was an error and I would have to check back later.

I gave up and thought I would check on it in the morning, when I got an email saying that my packet of paperwork for the rebate would be arriving in the mail. What packet of paperwork?!

So, the woman I talked to on the phone thought that I definitely wanted the rebate, and blocked me from being able to have the repair.

Now we have to go through the whole thing all over again and tell them that we want the repair instead of buying a new piece of junk dishwasher from them.

The whole Sunday/Monday morning fiasco got even worse when Kev, who had to work the early shift this morning, called me at 2am to tell me that someone had broken into our Jeep and stole our portable XM radio.

Apparently they cut the wires and just took it.

Kev called the police and they said to call back when he (Kev) is home so a trooper can come out and talk with him.

Great. Not only do we have to go through all of the police stuff, and then the insurance stuff, but we need to call XM and report it stolen and have the service cut off.

The thing that bothers me is that I never thought something like this would have happened where we live.

Our little town is quiet and full of senior citizens. Kev grew up across the street and they never had a problem like this. I would have expected something like this to happen in our old neighborhood, which was a whole lot shadier with a lot more domestic disputes in the middle of the road and amorous meetings in cars in front of our house.

Because my husband called me at 2am and shared this information, I was not able to get back to sleep because I was worried someone was going to break into our house. (I know it might sound a little ridiculous, but at 2am it was very rational.)

So here I sit, over five hours later, and I am still fuming.

I don't know if the police will be able to do anything about it or not. But, as the old saying goes, "what goes around comes around."

Unfortunately for this thief, you can't escape karma.

Hopefully after I am more rested and in a better mood, I will have a wrap up about my weekend.

So, I might be in love....

After dinner yesterday, I was surfing around the Internet looking for some new recipes to try out when I stumbled upon something called "Zoku Quick Pop Maker."

I am now officially in love with it.

I am not really a Popsicle type of girl. I always went straight for the fudge bars and ice cream, but since I have been on Weight Watchers, I can really see the benefit of having one of these in our house.

This nifty little gadget says you can have fresh, homemade, beautiful Popsicle in seven to nine minutes. They said it works off of the same principle as an ice cream maker, where you freeze the unit overnight, take it out of the freezer and just pour your concoctions into the molds and wait with baited breath for a few minutes while your Popsicles form.

You can also make my favorite, pudding pops (Bill Cosby would be so proud) by making the pudding mix and then pouring it into the molds.

What really got me, was how beautiful the Popsicle look. There are different layers and even ginormous pieces of fruit just suspended in the sugar water goodness.

The only thing that is holding me back from swiping our credit card is the price. I just have a hard time shelling out $49.95 for a Popsicle maker. Maybe I will just buy the Ice Pops Cookbook for $15 and try my luck at the traditional, old fashioned plastic molds that you stick in the freezer and wait an eternity for them to harden.

Have any of you tried the Zoku? What is your favorite Popsicle recipe?