Friday Finds: The Mason Jar

 

Fair enough. I didn't "just" find Mason jars. As a matter of fact, I started using large-mouth Mason jars years ago after I purchased a vacuum sealer that had a jar attachment. With it, you could fill a large-mouthed Mason jar with anything (liquid, dry good, etc) and then suck all the air out, keeping the contents fresher, longer.


However, once I had a box of various sizes of Mason jars in the house, I managed to find a LOT of uses for them.


Besides the obvious - storage of food items - I use Mason jars for decorating (vases, tea light holders), storing non-food things (craft items, dog treats, seeds for the garden, nails/screws/washers), planting (terrarium, seed/plant starting), and sometimes even to eat or drink out of. Here's a great list of Mason jar ideas.

And my favorite Mason jar-related Friday Find is this:

The "Cuppow" - why didn't I think of this??

The Cuppow turns an ordinary canning jar into a travel mug. It's a decidedly hipster-looking thing to be drinking out of a Mason jar (and the website does everything possible to support its hipster appeal - just check out the photos. LOL) But a good idea shouldn't be shunted because of silly marketing or possible connection to the most current fashion trend. You do not have to grow 1920's facial hair or wear retro glasses in order to enjoy the elegant simplicity of this product. And best of all, it's pretty cheap!

So, let's raise a Mason jar and toast the mind that came up with this brilliant idea.

- Alex

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is in full-force at the Ooo! Shiny! country house.

Pumpkin goo.

Soaking seeds in saltwater....mmmm.

Yesterday was full with pumpkin carving, pumpkin seed preparing, and tiny apple pie making. Yes, tiny apple pies.

Yummy and cute!

Have you seen these apple pie's made in 4oz mason jars around the interwebs lately? I have no idea where the concept originated, but it is really cool. I had to bring a preschool snack for their Halloween party today so I thought I'd give these a whirl.

How cute are these 4oz mason jars?

As I mentioned above, there are many tutorials out there on how to make these small bits of heaven. I think that this one from the Our Best Bites Blog is particularly good.

Cut the apple pieces smaller than usual for the little pies.

I used my tried and true apple pie filling recipe (below) and the Crisco pie crust recipe. They turned out delicious. I will definitely be doing this again!

Apple Pie Filling

5 apples (I prefer tart)

3/4 cups sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1-1/2 tablespoons Penzy's "Baking Spice"

Half a lemon

Peel and slice apples to desired thickness (generally I cut mine for a regular pie at about 1/4" thick). Squeeze the juice of half of a lemon over the apples to coat. Mix the flour, sugar, and spice together in a bowl and then pour over the apples and stir. There is a reason for the expression "easy as apple pie".

I will snack on one of these cuties tonight when I am watching scary movies after the kids go to bed...bwwaaahhh!!!! Happy Halloween all!
–Cassandra

Sweet-Tart

Lately it seems like the entire blogosphere has been taken over by posts about strawberry and rhubarb. Totally understandable. Everyone gets so excited about the advent of summer that we can't keep a lid on our trips to the farmer's market or the blooming peonies in our yards. I know here in the Midwest we have a precious few months of pure summer, so we hold them dear.

Lilacs at the Madison Farmer's Market.

And this isn't even a crowded day.

So, I'm going to add to the many posts about strawberry and rhubarb...

This weekend I did something new - I made jelly (strawberry-rhubarb, of course!) Now, many of you are probably seasoned jelly-making veterans but  I'm a complete newbie. My only resource was my cousin Julie who has a thimbleful of knowledge on this subject so she invited me over to help with the sweet, sticky mess.

This is the brand we chose to run with.

We followed the directions for cooked jam by the trusted experts at the Sure Jell company. Since neither Julie nor I are particularly good at math, deciphering the ratios of the fruit to pectin caused a little bit of heartache, but we didn't let that stop us. (I am the queen of "eyeballing" it, btw.) I don't really have a recipe to share with you since, like I said, we just followed the instructions on the box but I can tell you that one of the modifications we made to the original recipe was to not add the butter. It seemed arbitrary and in the end our finished product was just fine without it.

Cutting up pints and pints of strawberries.

Cooking down rhubarb until it became mush.

The other recipe alteration we made was to cut way back on the sugar because we were trying to achieve a jelly that is a little bit more tart. I think we added half the amount that was called for on the box.

Skimming, skimming, and more foam skimming.

 Neither of us has a proper canning pot with a basket (I am going to remedy that shortly) so we made "freezer jelly". That means that, once the jars are filled and cooled, they were popped into the freezer - except for one that went in the fridge for immediate use. And wow! It is seriously tasty! Sweet, tart and curiously fresh tasting compared to store-bought jelly.

Jars of goodness waiting to be frozen.

The effort was enough of a success that I now have the jelly-making bug. I would really, really, like to try this again - and get better at it. Since this adventure, I have been browsing for recipes on the web and dreaming about all sorts of flavors. Overall, the process was pretty easy and yet it helped satisfy that "pioneer" urge I get to make things from scratch.

–Cassandra (aka Half Pint)