Is Four Pounds Enough for a Batch of Jam?

The strawberry patch is starting to produce some nice berries. These were picked on Saturday and weighed over four pounds.
I picked out the best ones to make freezer jam with but only needed about 1 pound (2 cups of crushed berries) to go with 4 cups of sugar and one box of pectin. That made 5 cups of jam. (Not pictured.)

I still had about 3 pounds of strawberries left, so we thought a few seconds to figure out tasty ways to use the leftovers. I put them on cereal and ate them whole, but the tastiest way to have them was sliced with sugar on them and then cream poured on top. It was really, really good. This is what it looked like.

By Monday evening, there were no leftovers. Tuesday morning, I picked about five more pounds of berries. Tuesday evening I made another batch of jam. They are supposed to sit for 24 hours at room temperature to “firm up” before refrigerating or freezing. Since they were supposed to sit out anyway, I had Mom take 5 containers to Utah to share. Joseph and I could not eat all of the leftovers fast enough so I washed and froze some of them.

Tonight, I will pick more and possibly make another batch of jam. If things go according to plan, I will take more jam to Utah to share in 2 weeks. Obviously, I will need to check my bag with way over 3 ounces of jam.

Hopefully, we will continue to get strawberries for a while, but I am concerned that the squirrels have found them. I saw two very fat squirrels having breakfast in the berry patch when I went to work this morning. I guess “sharing” takes on a new meaning.

Spring is all the way here now

When I took photos of flowers in our yard in mid March, I also took a picture of the front of our house.
Seven weeks later, in the first week of May I captured the same view, except there is a lot more green.

The trees are growing lots of leaves and the grass is growing about 5 inches a week thanks to recent fertilizer and lots of rain. The back yard is getting pretty green now.

Another early May event is the ripening of the strawberries. We have picked about 10 so far, but will have hundreds next week and will be freezing them and making freezer jam in two weeks. Here is one of the first ones ripe. They are much tastier than the ones in the store.

Shrimp Tacos with Mango Salsa for Mother's Day

About a year ago, I asked Mom what she wanted for dinner one Saturday and she said that she would like shrimp tacos with mango salsa. We had never had that before, so a new recipe needed to be created. I have had lots of experience cooking shrimp, but I had never even tried to make mango salsa. I thought about what flavors I wanted to have in this new creation and thought about what else I wanted to add to the mangos to make salsa and then I made it. It turned out really good, so we had it again one or two additional times and I documented the salsa recipe.

On Saturday, Mom and I were talking about what she might like to have for a Mother’s Day meals. She decided that Belgian waffles with fresh strawberries and whipped cream was her breakfast choice. No argument from Joseph. For dinner, Mom asked for shrimp tacos with mango salsa. Again, no argument from Joseph. The tacos were quite tasty. I had a request for a posting of the recipe, so here it is. This is enough for 3 hungry people.

Mango Salsa:
½ can or about 7 oz of diced tomatoes with zesty green chilies – finely chopped or pureed
Juice from 1 two inch lime.
1 tomatillo (1.5 inch diameter) finely chopped
½ tsp chili powder
1 or 2 slices of jalapeno – finely chopped (optional)
1 mango pealed and cut into small pieces (1/8 inch cubes ideal)

Taco Ingredients:
Corn tortillas fried in oil until slightly crunchy, chewy and yet still flexible.
1 lb of shrimp cut into ½ inch chunks and cooked in juice from 1 lemon with salt and pepper to taste
2 avocados cut into chunks or made into guacamole
Left over rice fried in a little butter or olive oil and teriyaki sauce
1 can black beans – rinsed
Diced fresh tomatoes
Chopped lettuce
Shredded cheese
Sliced olives
Lime or lemon wedges to squeeze into taco
Sour cream

Here are some close up photos of the salsa and the shrimp.
Here is Mom with the ingredients before we ate.

We did not have any left over rice to make into fried rice, so it is not pictured. I also forgot the olives this time. In spite of missing two ingredients, the tacos were still very tasty. Here are my first two tacos before I ate them.
It occurred to me that as long as we are dicing tomatoes anyway, the canned diced tomatoes with green chilies could be made with fresh tomatoes and canned green chilies. Salt and pepper should be added to taste.

We also had the Belgen waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast. For desert, we had home made vanilla ice cream and home made magic shell.
It was a sweet start and end to a wonderful Mother’s Day.