My Excuse

I have to apologize because my blog was lacking in new posts last week. This is why:


Oh yes, and this is also why:

And that is just Wednesday's batch of jam! My freezer is now full of about a year's worth of lovely strawberry jam. Have you ever tried making strawberry freezer jam? It's easy and it is so delicious. However, the fruit-to-sugar ratio is quite shocking:


Yes, that's 2 cups of mashed strawberries and 4 cups of sugar. Oh, but my goodness is it so yummy. I love a spoon or two of this jam over a scoop of vanilla ice cream. (For my strawberry jam recipe, I just follow the one that comes in the package of Sure-Jell pectin. Click here for recipe)

My reason for this post is to share with you one of my favorite tools. Last year when I was making strawberry jam, I discovered that a grapefruit spoon is perfect for removing the stems from the berries. I used to use a small paring knife, but now this is my weapon of choice. It's simple, dishwasher safe, already in my utensil drawer, and it won't give me a nasty cut if I'm not paying close attention to what I'm doing.

My Favorite Kitchen Tool

I'm back. Sorry everyone, I had to take a week off. I was battling sickness, and then out of town for a funeral.

In one of my recipes for this week (Quesadillas) I mention a food chopper. Some of you may be quite familiar with the food chopper, but if not, here's a picture. Disclaimer: I got this picture off the Pampered Chef website, I did not take it myself :-)

This handy little food chopper is one of my all-time favorite kitchen tools. At one point I had two of them so there would always be a clean one for me to use. I use it to dice onions (my hands don't smell!) to dice cooked chicken (see quesadilla recipe) and to make my taco beef look just like Taco Bell's (the way taco meat should look, according to Mr. Dinner's on Me.) It also removes hard water stains from your kitchen sink. Not really, but it's almost that wonderful.

Pampered Chef is not the only place to find these. I've also seen them at other stores that sell kitchen supplies. Maybe hint to your hubbies that it would make a fabulous Mother's Day gift.

Post is over. I'm off to watch the much-anticipated Heroes. Have a great week everyone!