The Week in Review

So.  I bought a computer – yay!!!  I started hunting online this past weekend and narrowing down my choices in my price range.  I found one on Amazon I kind of liked the looks of and another at bestbuy.com.  Even though I had kind of a rotten experience last time with Best Buy online, they really did seem to have some competitive pricing.  On Sunday I decided to run to the actual store so I could lay my hands on the computers before deciding what to buy.  I figured the prices in the store would be higher, but they were the same as online.  And I noticed one in the store that I hadn’t looked at (because it was $30 over my target price).  It really looked good to me, and I made Matt go online and read the reviews.  We agreed the little bit over our intended budget would be worth it for this machine.  So I bought it.  Then I decided on the way home to call our computer guy and see if I could drop it off with him for some initial clean-up and streamlining.  He basically took off all the trial programs and other fluff I didn’t need.  He also fixed it so that not everything needs to load up when the computer is turned on so it starts up very fast and runs like a top.  And he went ahead and installed common programs I’d need (iTunes, Open Office, etc.). Even though I didn’t get it for real until today, it was totally worth the few days Mel had it – I’m very pleased!  For the record (because someday I will want to remember), I have an HP 17.3" Pavilion Laptop - 4GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive with an AMD A6 quad core processor.  And so far, I loooooove it.  

Now on to what I’ve been doing to keep busy without a computer (besides watching season after season of Bones).

Strawberries were a good price at Kroger so I ended up buying three 2lb packages to “put up.”

Most of this activity happened in the evening so the light is terrible.  Even when it’s not night though, the light is pretty iffy in the kitchen.  It makes me want to knock a wall out.

With one of the containers I made a sort of jam.  I say “sort of” because I used waaaaaaaayyyyyy less sugar than normal jam.  It’s more of a fruit spread.  I believe I added 1/2 cup sucanat to what ended up being just over 4 cups mashed strawberries.

I put them in the freezer to store.  The spread definitely tastes more like strawberries than sugar, but it’s very nice on pancakes, and I think it will be lovely with peanut butter on sandwiches.

With another box I cooked and pureed (with my immersion blender!) the strawberries to make fruit leather.  I didn’t take pics of the whole process (bad light), but I’m going to post all the steps anyway.  I de-stemmed and chopped up all the strawberries:

Then I put them in a pot and used a potato masher to get some juices going.  I added not quite two tablespoons of local honey to sweeten them a bit.  I cooked the mix on medium-medium low until they were very soft and looked, well… cooked.  I used my immersion blender to get a smooth puree, which I poured onto a Silpat-lined cookie sheet.  (I’m pretty sure parchment paper would also work but I think it might need to be greased.  Most recipes online actually used heavy-duty plastic wrap but I didn’t like that idea.)  I spread it around as evenly as possible with a spatula.

Then I put it in my oven at the lowest setting (which was 170 degrees F).  {Most recipes say to leave it for 6-8 hours like this.}  I thought that was actually too warm so I cracked the door of the oven open.  And due to the timing of when I started I could just leave it for 6-8 hours without getting up at 1 or 2 in the morning.  So I improvised.  I turned off the oven when we went to bed and closed the door.  When Matt got up, he turned it on again for about an hour and a half before shutting it off and leaving the tray in there.

This is what I woke up to:

It peeled off the Silpat very easily and I trimmed it into rectangles and rolled them up.  I think they may have ended up a wee bit over-done, but the kids still think they’re a great treat!

I took pictures of the jar out in the living room where the light is actually kind of nice.

I had some models too.  :)

I think I’ll stop here and call this “Part One.”  Part Two will have to wait until tomorrow.  The post is quite long enough.