This free back to school checklist printable is perfect to help you make the most of the rest of summer and get ready for back to school.
I personally do not want to be thinking about back to school already. Last week (Which was still JUNE) our local Target was already putting out the school supplies. They didn't even wait till after 4th of July!! The truth of the matter is we are less than a month away from the local public school being back in session (The local public schools start Aug 1st). Even our homeschool co-op starts back on Aug 9th. Boo... So I put together this back to school checklist so that you can make the most of what's left of the summer.
This checklist is available free to all my mailing list subscribers this month. Want to get yours? Sign up Here! Already a subscriber? Check your inbox for yours!
This is my grandmother's old fashion strawberry jam recipe that's been passed down through generations. It's a great recipe for beginner canners.
I've always enjoyed canning each season. This year I wanted to try my grandmother's old fashion strawberry jam recipe. I had always been afraid to try it. I've been told that if you don't do everything JUST right, it might not set up. Fortunately, it's super simple and easy to do everything 'just right'. I had a copy of my grandmother's recipe that my great aunt had typed up on a typewriter. It was so basic I had to have my mother 'translate it'. The original recipe read: "1 pkg berries, 5 cup water. Cook... 5 cups juice, 1 pkg surjel, 7cups sugar. boil juice add surjel. boil. add sugar boil 3 min." Needless to say, I needed a little more instruction than that (Not to mention how much Grammarly hates the above recipe. LOL). Fortunately for you, the FULL instructions are below ;)
Ingredients
1pt. Strawberries (Or other berries if you'd like a different flavor)
(FYI: I made a quad batch, so the pictures below may not look like the same quantity as yours)
1. Prepare your jars by boiling or running through the dishwasher. Full instructional here.
2. Remove the stems from Strawberries. (I just cut the tops off to remove the less than ripe areas.)
3. Put the water and berries in a pot and boil until the berries easily fall apart The strawberries will lose a lot of their color and look almost light pink, but the water will be bright red. Optional: You can use a potato smasher to smash the berries a little bit so you don't have chunks int your strawberry jam.
4. Add Sure-jell and boil about 2 min.
5. Add Sugar 1 cup at a time and stir between cups. Boil an additional 3 min. A thin "film" of jelly should form on your spoon after you've stirred. This means it'll set.
6. Funnel into jars and fill them to about 1/4" from the rim. My MUST have canning tool is the canning funnel from Ball.While that is an affiliate link, I was kicking myself in the tush for not getting mine sooner and highly recommend it!!
7. There are technically 3 ways to 'finish' the jars.
Boil lids, then close jars and let them seal as they cool. (I love to hear the 'pop' as they seal)
Personally, my family has always used option #3. As long as the jars seal you can store them in a cool place for 12-24 months.
I wanted to see just how much making my own jam/jelly would save our family. Little Lady eats a lot of PB&Js. This recipe cost me about $1/jar if prepared during strawberry season (less if you already have jars and are just reusing them). In our area, strawberry jam is between $2.50 and $4. So I figured I can save ~$50+ per batch. Plus don't get me started on the preservatives you're not adding. ;) I hope you enjoy my grandmother's old fashion strawberry jam as much as I have over the years.
This recipe can also be used with Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, just about any fruit/berry you want.
*Make sure you work on a cookie sheet so you don't get salt and food coloring everywhere.*
1.Using the white glue, 'draw' fireworks. The trick to this is to not use straight lines: otherwise, it looks like a funny snowflake.
2. Cover in salt and shake off the excess.
3. Using the eyedropper, color the salt with food coloring. I like using the eyedropper as you don't have to worry about brushing away too much salt. (If I had this to do over I would dilute the food coloring a little so it's not so dark.)
4. Here's my extra step: Since the eye dropper method left these super wet and dark, we sprinkled some salt over the painted fireworks then GENTLY shook off the excess.
That made the finished product perfect!!
All 3 of my kids (ages 3-13) enjoyed this project. Rosey Posey even asked to do more. (OMG! My teenager enjoyed spending time with me!!)
You can use all sorts of colors on your firework salt art. As you can see we went with a patriotic theme, but these are even more gorgeous with all sorts of colors. And the salt gives the firework salt art an extra sparkle that I would have never expected from something I put on my potatoes.
Anyone else used such a strange art medium?
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