Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Strawberry Jam

My Aunt Tut makes the best strawberry jam. I don't even like strawberries, (I know, gasp like everyone else who does when I say that....it's a texture thing ok?) but even I love her jam. White bread is transformed by this jam, I'm telling you. If possible, Rob loves this jam even more than I do or anyone else in our extended family for that matter. He could eat the stuff by the spoonful.  

Like a kid waiting for Christmas he has been waiting for the Upland Strawberry Festival so we can make jam. See, you can't make this jam with just any strawberries. They have to be the- straight-from-the-garden-fresh strawberries. The thing about this jam is that it's basically crushed strawberries, pure white sugar, and a pectin substance that gives it the jelly texture. That's all. 

So Saturday rolled around and we headed off to the Strawberry Festival in "downtown" Upland. Besides the strawberries it is a fun little festival with craft tents, people selling local honey, strawberry shortcakes, and of course the delicious (note sarcasm there) fair food such as deep fried vegetables. Does anyone else see an oxymoron there? 

We had the great priviledge of hosting our dear friends Noel & Ashley this weekend so they accompanied us to the festival with their delightful dog, Hagrid. 

Here we are on our way to the festival. Ash is planning to conquer the strawberry world as you can tell. 

On our way home from the festival with our strawberry loot. 

Ash carrying the cherry tomato plants I bought 

We got home and began the jam process. Thank goodness Ash was there to take pictures -- our hands were messy! It was a great, fun morning and as you can see, we made quite a lot of jam.

Strawberries waiting to be turned into yummy jam 

Ta-da! The finished product and one very happy Rob

We even had enough strawberries left for Rob to decide to make more jam on his morning off today. I came home to three more jars and a clean kitchen. What a husband! He has decided we must make it last as long as possible, so if you want your own jar....well, you might have to fight Rob for it, or go make your own. 

Oh and over the weekend we also went to Cincy for Rob's cousin Ross' high graduation party...Congrats Ross! 

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Ben Yoder Comes To Town

This past weekend my younger brother Ben flew from Pennsylvania to visit us. He had been living in Argentina since August so we really had not seen him since our wedding in June. He had been great about keeping up with us through email and phone calls while he was gone, but being together in person was so much better. We had a great time having him here until Sunda morning when we all went up to Fort Wayne where our other brother Luke is living for the summer. Ben stayed there until Tuesday and then flew home. 

The cool thing about Ben living abroad for 9 months was that he really grew up. And I can say, as an older sister you know, that when I freely admit that my little brother has grown up, well, that's saying something I guess. So he is still the Ben we knew before, only better and cooler and older. There's just this maturity about him and a different outlook on life that is great and I was glad to see. Cheers to you Benja. 

And here's some pictures of the fun stuff we did over the weekend: 

Ben (before he cut his Argentinean hair on Saturday) brought us a bottle of wine actually called Benjamin. He had backpacked this wine all the way from Argentina for us! It was excellent too. 

On Sunday Rob and I went to the wedding of Rachel Dodge & Eric Peterson in this beautiful bridal glen in Fort Wayne. (Not kidding, it was actually called a "bridal glen.") It was a beautiful ceremony. Rachel is the person we give credit to for introducing us so it was great to see her marry her soul mate too. 

The kiss! 

The reception was at a restored train station in downtown Fort Wayne. Rob joined the striped tie club there with Matt & Ben. 

Rob and I with the happy couple

So after the wedding, Logan (Luke's girlfriend) had her graduation party (thankfully also in Fort Wayne) so we got to spend some time with them later. All of the sibs (plus two additions!) together again at last

Clearly some people were a little partied out. Looks like Sunday afternoon nap time....

Monday, June 1, 2009

Dinner time at the B-Haus

Tonight for dinner we made a new dish that called for sauteing onions for a bit. Typically onions don't bother me, but they really bother Rob. I offered to do this part, but he was insistent and here is what we ended up with....

...Rob wearing his racquetball goggles while sauteing the onions.

Just another dinner at the B-haus residence. Goofiness served up for dinner as well as food. I love this innovative goofball.