In Our Lovely Deseret

Another hot day today and I was determined to do one more batch of jelly. Currently I'm waiting for the water bath to boil and once my latest batch of preserves is preserved, I will put this project aside for a while. I'm out of jars anyway and not ready to purchase more at retail price. Maybe I need to hit the thrift shops and look for jars. Lots of people don't know what do to with jars when they are done with them.

Well, if you were given the contents as a gift, you can return the jar to the giver in hopes that they will fill it again with something yummy and give it back to you. If you bought jars thinking you would get into food preservation and your garden wasn't the success you had hoped for and buy commercially produced product is more your style, I'll take the jars. (proof is in my garage--when aunt carol bonde moved to st. george she gave me all of her quart jars--most of them are still out there--i have to figure out Christmas gifts for everyone that can fit in a quart jar--clever packaging, yes?)

Then there are the jars that will take standard canning lid that you buy spaghetti sauce in. There's also a great jar that Mrs. Richardson's ice cream topping comes in. I think it's about 12 ounces, a great size for jam.

Anyway, I made honey-lemon jelly today. One more step to making my food
storage edible.

(brigham young envisioned the state of deseret reaching the ocean here in sunny so cal)

Back to Work!

I've been off work since last Wednesday. When I left, negotiations on our new contract (yes, we are a union hospital) were underway. Depending who you talked to we were either close to an agreement or getting ready for a strike vote.

We have a contract. I guess I have a job for a few more years.

(thanks florence)

Creativity

Today I created.

I made some conserve. (never knew what conserve was exactly - apparently it must be more than one fruit, contain citrus of some sort and nuts) It was a recipe I found that uses dried fruit of all sorts, an orange, toasted almonds and is spiced with cardamom. (fell in love with cardamom in portland recently - got some cardamom vanilla ice cream - wow) The taste I had was quite, well, tasty.

I also made some jelly from Tropical Punch
Kool-aid. I know that's cheating but it is fun and after all, jams and jellies are mostly sugar anyway.

I find it satisfying to hear the "pings" as each jar seals.

(guess i know what everybody is getting for Christmas)

OUCH!

When good underwires go bad.

(i guess i need to buy some new underthings)

Wooo-Hooo!!

I've got a follower!!

(doesn't take much to get me through the day)

It's October

Last year I raised $250.00 at work for UNICEF during the month of October. I brought candy and asked for loose change.

This year I have started early. Another nurse brought in leftover candy from her daughter's birthday party and I used it to start this year's campaign. This year I added sodas that I buy on sale and use coupons for. A can of soda is a bargain for a donation of 50 cents. Today was Pepsi products buy 2 twelve packs and get 3 free! Such a deal!

(eating junk food so a child in a 3rd world country can get a nutritious meal, what a concept)

Vice President

All this talk of "would you want Sarah Palin as President?" has got me reflecting on who has been our vice president in the past.

In my lifetime we have had:

Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Spiro Agnew, Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller, Walter Mondale, George Bush, Dan Quayle, Al Gore, Dick Cheney.

Would I want any of these as President? At the time I voted for them, I thought so.

Over the past several years I have visited many of the Presidential Libraries. It has given me some prespective on who some of these men were. We always know more in hindsight. It is not always easy to know what to think now.