I am not a big fan of cooking. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. I love eating, though. Unfortunately to eat, you must cook. I do enjoying baking, but probably because I like to eat what I bake! For me cooking dinner is often opening a can of Prego, cooking some spaghetti, making a salad out of premade salad mix and voila...dinner in 30 minutes. In the Fall, a friend (you know who you are :)) introduced me to the Pioneer Woman and I started making some "from scratch" recipes like chicken pot pie, cinnamon rolls and maple pecan scones. While this was somewhat fun, I gained 4 pounds in a month and quickly fell back to my old habits. Then, I checked out Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious cookbook and tried my hand at making vegetables purees in "brownies." In the past few weeks, I have had to become good friends with my kitchen. The best way to know what is in something is to make it yourself! So, after searching all of my hometown for pear jelly (one of the only jellies allowed in stage one when grapes, berries and oranges are eliminated), I finally decided to make my own. I bought some mason jars, tried to figure out how to make something gel and then was giddy like a school girl when I heard the "pop" of the jar sealing. The most fun was that my kids both enjoyed helping. My son learned to use a vegetable peeler and peeled the pears for me. He was so proud of himself. Almost as proud as I was that I was acutally able to do something like make jelly the old fashioned way. In the past few weeks, I've experimented with making my own pesto and homemade pizza crust, homemade chicken tenders and I've made batches and batches of pancakes to put in the freezer for school mornings. You can imagine my excitement when I found out that the Aunt Jemima pancake mix is approved. The amazing thing is how much better homemade food actually tastes, not just homebaked, but homemade. (The pizza was just so so, but everything else has been a big hit). When you make your own, your kitchen is messier, your dishwasher is fuller, but the end product can be what you want it to be...without the artificial stuff. Sometimes I even add a dash of flaxseed or sweet potatoes to the pancakes, but shhh... don't tell! And this week at least, it seems like it all might be worth it!
P.S. Ironically, tonight after two weeks of homemade meals, we ordered Papa Johns (non-official Feingold approved with no tomato sauce). Mama's Happy!
I don't know if you can use this or not, but Kitchen Kettle Village in Intercourse. Pa has a store (I think it might be of the same name) that does nothing but make a vast array of homemade jams and jellies. I've been there twice and they are yummy. It's Amish women who make them right there on site (you can watch them) but since its in a proper store its safety regulated vs if you were to buy it from a roadside stand. They don't have pear jelly, but they have scads of others if its something you wanted to consider. It certainly isn't over processed. Im going to try and give you the link to their jelly list here below, but itf it doesn't work you should still be able to locate them on line.
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