last week of freedom?!?

It's been a few days, so I thought I'd give you all an update on the fun exciting things going on. Well, today was my last official work day of not working....I START MY NEW JOB ON MONDAY!!! I am so stoked to be working finally, although I have a lot of anxiety about how its going to go. But, I am super excited too!!

Here's a rundown of things I've been up to in my "last week of freedom":
1) Yogurt making! Attempt number two yielded great results.
Things I learned from this...my previous attempt to make yogurt in my crockpot is bunk. I was following this recipe but this time I got myself an inexpensive kitchen thermometer from the hardware store. What I found was that my crockpot was getting the milk barely over 120 degrees, and it needs to be heated to 185. So, I scratched that plan and threw it on the stove. And WOW how cool. When you heat milk, it pretty much just looks like milk the whole time...until it gets to 185....it starts frothing and all sorts of cool things. This is when you kill the heat, let the milk cool down to 110 and then add your starter (I used this sweet yogurt starter for this batch) and then put it in thermos or anything that is insulated overnight on your countertop. And voila! I had yogurt in the morning. I poured it all into separate ball jars (sterilized of course) and a few hours later in the fridge I had tasty yogurt. Homemade yogurt comes out a tad "runnier" than store bought....this is because homemade still has the whey in it (that is good for you....hence things like whey proteins and such) and commercial yogurts add all sorts of weird and awful things (like high fructose corn syrup and strange fruit) in it. You just mix it up and you're good to go. Plus, you can add whatever fresh fruit, extract (vanilla!), or granola you want. OR, it goes really well with your [Me] & Goji custom granola your bestie bought for you! It is SO good...but I realized I have insufficient containers for this process, so I need to get a larger thermos type contraption or just get a Yougurtherm.

2) Freezer Jam making! Friend Sue and I didn't do any canning last week as we said we were going to, but we did pick up some fresh strawberries. So, in lieu of getting all crazy with canning, I talked to my mom and got some advice from her, and went the route of making strawberry freezer jam. Mom: great suggestion, it is delicious! (by the way, I did end up using Splenda and it tastes great and firmed up well). Here is the progress pics of that adventure!





(you'll notice this last picture has the jam posing by the other most important items in my kitchen...the french press for 2-cup coffee making and my teapot which gets use multiple times a day....thanks mom!!)

So, everyone should make freezer jam! You can get these awesome little Ball plastic freezer jars in your grocery or online as can you get the freezer jam pectin.

The end product: I spent $6 of the jars/pectin and $5.50 (each, I bought one) a quart of strawberries and got 40 ounces of homemade jam. They can spend up to a year in the freezer and several weeks in your fridge. Lots of jam, locally grown, and now I am supplied until next year!

3) Identity found!!! My previous post that included pictures of mushrooms and other wild things got identified! The mushrooms were in fact chanterelles (agreed upon my three live source and one online friend, as well as guides online) and the other plant was Indian Pipe/Ghost Plant. One of my new faculty buddies here ID'ed both of them for me, and might go chanterelle picking with me soon. Yeah, that's right...I found a mushroom that goes for $22/pound in my grocery store!!! (dude, I need a dehydrator...)

4) Project completed! Though I was roughly eight months behind schedule, I finally finished my dad's Christmas 2008 present. A golf club sock, in Chicago Bears colors. I plan on someday making him a full set of these, since you can build in the stripes for the number of the club you are using! Moral of this story...get the next one on the needles to get it done for Christmas 2009!
I am now onto working on/finishing/working on more mom's delayed Christmas present, which is a much larger undertaking. I am hopeful that I can get it done for Christmas '09. The best part about these two projects, as well as the hats I made for my sister and brother in law is that they have elements and styles to them that require me to learn new stitches and ways of knitting....so its never a dull moment with my knitting (not that knitting is ever dull, though, its so much fun!!!). I really like that I am able to learn a lot about a craft that I've been watching my mom do all of my life. I can only hope I get to be as awesome of a knitter as her someday. In the meantime, I did manage to squeak out a coffee cup cozy for Marissa to keep her tea warm in the mornings and stop burning her hands. I think she likes it. She's already hinted at wanting something else with the yarn I made it in!

5) I think I had previously told you all that I have taken up the Couch to 5K podcast series and am learning how to run these days. Here are my sweet shoes I got based on Stephanie's diehard running advice:
Anyway, this program is pretty cool because it has you work slowly (over nine weeks) to doing a 5K (3 miles). The coolest part is the podcast that this guy made....he was turning 40 and decided he wanted to do a 5K, so he took his DJ skills and made a great podcast from it. I run on Mondays-Wednesdays-Saturdays. Pretty cool, eh? Well, I feel like I am going to die, and I can't finish the tiny intervals he has setup so far, but at least I am off my butt and exercising right? The best part about all of this? I fell down the stairs the other day! I was stupid and kept my shoes on when I walked into my apartment, and then went to go drop something off my my door and my wet running shoes completely gave out and I tumbled butt first down 5 stairs. Needless to say, I have a beautiful array of pinks, purples, yellows, and blues on my kidneys, buttcheeks, and a great lump on my head too. I hope there is more positive running karma in my future!


Today I finally got a DeLorme Maine atlas book, which will keep me all mapped out with the nationwide atlas Marissa got me as a "congrats!" gift a while back. I have been asking people where to go bass fishing around here, and were to find freshwater vs. saltwater, and everyone kept telling me to get the state atlas and go from there. So, I found one at the local True Value hardware store, went online and got my fishing license, scoped out some spots on the map, picked up a couple rods and some tackle from the storage unit and out I went! I found one good spot on a lake, threw my lure a couple of times, and caught a VERY small pickerel. He got off the hook before I could land him, which is just fine with me cuz I don't really like toothy fish. But, hey, the cool thing was that I found a TON of wild raspberry bushes right in this area, and its right by a public boat launch.
Then of course my fun was cut short by...you guessed it....rain!


OOh, I also got my birth certificate and my passport photo back in the mail today, so hopefully that means my passport card is soon to arrive too. In the meantime, check out this super cute passport photo of mine! That smile says "bring on New Brunswick" all over it!

Oh, and just in case you missed Betty the Cat, here's she is reading the paper:
I think this is where she wishes she was a Hemingway cat and had thumbs to turn the pages.

Well more updates to come in a couple of days....probably after my first day of work on Monday!!!! Any words of encouragement and excitement welcome!