No one ever believes me… not until now. Now I have proof.

And for you family members who think there might be a better shot from our photo shoot, feel free to look through the slideshow or click through to my flickr stream (where you can download them and print them if you like!)

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

This time, though, Oakley decided to kick it 3D-style. She did this totally on her own, and gave it to me… Pretty awesome.

*Note: After attending a canning class last Saturday at our local Ag Expo where I missed the hallway for the classroom and ended up being mesmerized by a calf-roping competition in the arena before remembering why I was there in the first place (much like this post!), I’m sure I’ll go to hell for sharing this unapproved canning method. But, hey, it works for me - as does this non-traditional jam-making technique. By macerating strawberries in sugar overnight and then cooking the syrup, not the berries, for the bulk of the time you get soft-set preserves with big berry chunks and distinct fresh-strawberry flavor. Delicious on toast, biscuits, pancakes, PBJ’s, yogurt, ice cream, or just straight off the spoon! It’s like summer in a jar.

Strawberry Preserves

adapted from Mes Confitures The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber, The Good Stuff Cookbook by Helen Witty, and Dixie’s advice on Chowhound

Although this method takes 3 days, the hands-on cooking time is actually quite short. Yes, there are faster ways, but I prefer this method because it better preserves the fresh taste and texture of the strawberries.

• 2 1/2 pounds (1.1 kg) strawberries, or 2 1/4 pounds (1 kg) net, after hulling
• 4 - 4 1/4cups (800-850 g) granulated sugar (use the smaller amount if your berries are very ripe)
  juice of 1 1/2 lemons (for pectin and to bring out flavor)

Rinse, dry, and hull the strawberries. Half or quarter large berries and leave small berries whole. Macerate the strawberries with the lemon juice and sugar in a ceramic, glass, or stainless steel bowl in the refrigerator overnight, covered. Stir them gently a few times if you think of it so that all the sugar dissolves.

Skim off any foam and stir the preserves gently from time to time for 5 minutes, to prevent the fruit from floating in the jars. Ladle the preserves into hot, clean half-pint canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. (To sterilize the jars and lids, I place them in a 225°F oven for 5 minutes.) Wipe off the tops of the jars with a paper towel dipped in boiling water to ensure that no drips get in the way of the seal. I then seal the jars by the inversion method - immediately turning the hot jars upside down on a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Then I flip them right side up and wait to hear the “ping!” to know they’ve sealed.

Faux Bisquick

• 2 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 big pinch of kosher salt
• 1 big pinch of sugar

The Other Stuff

• 10 oz of cheese
• 1 pound of sausage

How you do it…

• Preheat the oven to 375°
• Whisk the faux Bisquick to combine
• Grate the cheese (fresh grated, please) and drop it into the faux Bisquick

• Use your hands to coat the cheese with the powder

• Add the sausage (this part is, well, a little gross)
• Use your hands to mix it all up thoroughly. Push, mush, squish, do whatever it takes.
• If it’s totally dry, you may want to add up to 4 cap-fulls of canola oil (compensates for the shortening missing when using homemade Bisquick)

• Roll up little balls, less than an inch each and lay them out on…

• A wire rack in a sheet pan, ideally with some foil in between to spare the dish boy some effort.
• Bake for 20 minutes (or so, use your eyes) and then broil for a couple of minutes as well.

Bobby Flay has a show on The Food Network in which he travels the country challenging various cooks to make their favorite dish in a competition with him.

A couple of days ago, Angie suggested that sharing Oakley’s hula hooping skills wouldn’t be enough… We needed to provide some context… We need to know from whence she got her skills.

And so, the Hula Hoop Throwdown was born. Was I ready for a throwdown? Yes I was.

Note: My favorite part is where Oakley starts walking around with the hoop… it starts hitting the wall on the stairs, and she doesn’t even care! She just keeps going!

The fact that Ravenwood is already overpopulated and headed for a collection of Learning Cottages is interesting. This quote, even more so…

The rep indicated the county is looking for land/site for a new high school in the northeast part of the county, perhaps by the 2011 school year, but obviously no promises, and there did not seem to be great conviction this would occur.

Personally, I wouldn’t have guessed that an additional high school would go in the northeast corner of the county. But, I’m somewhat uninformed. While this is certainly no guarantee, it is an indication that it’s a possibility. And the time frame is well within the realm of my kids.

Truth be told, I wouldn’t be thrilled or crushed if a new one came along that affected my kids’ destination… but I suspect a few of the folks I live near would be.

I took about 60 pictures of the whole path across the bars… enjoy it below…

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Many families would run right out and buy some ant traps, or call in the exterminator. In fact, I had some ant traps in my hand at Target, but we decided to trust the “internet” on this one.

Jonathan Hatch provided the recipe, and I have to say, it’s worked for us!

• 1 cup hot tap water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons of Borax

Mix it up, soak some cotton balls in it, and throw the balls wherever you see the ant trails. They eat up the sugar, get a load of the Borax, and take it back home with them. Success (so far).

How great is that? A detergent as a pesticide…

Kale Chips

• Bunch of kale - any variety
• Olive oil (about 3 tablespoons, this is not one to measure!)
• Apple cider vinegar (about 1 tablespoon)
• Coarse salt, such as sea salt or kosher

Possible Variations (of which we’ve tried none):

• Omit the vinegar
• Add minced garlic
• Add red pepper flakes
• Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds before serving

Strawberry Shortcake

Shortcakes
the shortcake part of this recipe is adapted from the Butter Biscuits in The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

makes 9 shortcakes

Why use White Lily flour? Well, ’cause my Mama told me to and as every Southern cook knows, it really does produce the lightest and fluffiest biscuits. But, if like Beranbaum, you live outside the Mason-Dixon Line and can’t find it, all-purpose flour can be substituted or for the closest mimic, Beranbaum says to use:

1. Chill the butter. Cut the butter into small bits. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or freeze for 10 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven. Place a baking stone or baking sheet on the middle rack and then preheat the oven to 375 degrees F 20 minutes before baking.

3. Mix the dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour (and the baking powder and salt if not using self-rising flour), sugar, and zest (if using). Add the butter, and with your fingertips, press it into the flour to make small pieces that resemble coarse meal.

Press the egg yolks through a fine mesh strainer into the flour mixture, and whisk to distribute them evenly. Stir in the cream just until the flour is moistened and the dough starts to come together so you can form it into a ball with your hands. Empty it on to a lightly floured counter and knead it a few times until it develops a little elasticity and feels smooth. Dust the dough lightly with flour if it feels a little sticky, and pat or roll it 3/4 inch thick (the shape doesn’t matter).

Why add hard-boiled egg yolks? Since they’re high in fat but low in moisture, they add richness without toughening the dough. Beranbaum writes that they, along with the butter, “give the most extraordinary golden color, velvety texture, and pleasing flavor.” I agree!

4. Shape the dough. Dip a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter into flour before each cut and cut cleanly through the dough, lifting out the cutter without twisting it so that the edges are straight and for the maximum rise. Knead the dough scraps briefly so they won’t get tough, pat or roll out, and cut out more biscuits.

For biscuits with soft sides, place the biscuits almost touching on the baking sheet lined with Silpat or parchment. For crisp sides, place them 1 inch apart. Brush off any excess flour. For a crisp top, brush with melted butter (or cream) and sprinkle lightly with sugar.

5. Bake the biscuits. Place the biscuits in the oven on the hot baking stone or baking sheet, raise the temperature to 400 degrees F, and bake for 5 minutes. Lower the temperature to 375 degrees and continue baking for 10-15 minutes or until golden.

Strawberry Filling:

• lots of strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and quartered
• sugar, to taste depending on how sweet your berries are
• splash of freshly squeezed lemon or orange juice, optional

While the biscuits are baking, mash up about 1/3 of berries with a potato masher. Add remaining berries, sugar, and juice (if using) and let macerate.

Lightly Sweetened Whipped Cream:

• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup of heavy cream

Chill bowl and beaters in the freezer for at least 20 minutes. Then combine all ingredients and beat until soft peaks form.

For Shortcake Assembly:

Split each shortcake in half. Spoon loads of macerated strawberries and a generous dollop of whipped cream over bottom half. Place top on and dig in!

Variation for Peach Shortcake:
Add 2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger (1 ounce/28 grams) to the flour mixture and add 1 tablespoon (1/3 ounce/17 grams) grated fresh ginger when adding the liquid.

My reward for embracing women?

Tell me that’s not awesome!

We went out on the front porch this morning after church and busted out the self-timer function on the camera. This one can be set to burst one or many shots. The chronology of the shots is really fun, I think.

First off, the serious, proper, straight picture.

I love this picture for the reactions from the girls. Oakley is in awe… the romantic. Lindy is so enchanted she’s actually trying to participate via her pucker. And Aspen is just embarrassed to the point of laughter.

Things quickly degenerated into this… And for those of you keeping score, I do think Aspen has just busted out the international symbol for “call me”.

And then, “the photographer” must have said something like, “Tim, have you really imagined what life will be like in about nine years?”

Truth be told, I’m not all that scared, but I do think that’s about the funniest face I’ve conjured in quite a while…

First off, I have four different devices that can capture video right now. Yes, four. I know it’s a little ridiculous.

• Canon PowerShot SD880 IS, a point and shoot still camera that captures video. [sample]
• Flip Mino HD, a pocket sized HD camera. [sample]
• Sony HDR-SR7, an HD camera from Sony that can take stills, but is fundamentally a video camera. No, it doesn’t cost what Amazon says it does… it’s been replaced by something newer and cheaper. Perhaps this is a collectors’ edition price. [sample]
• Canon T1i DSLR with video. This is our primary camera for taking “beautiful pictures”, and it’s also capable of taking high definition video. No sample here, because I haven’t done recorded any yet because it has a fatal flaw.

So, if you’re thinking about buying a video camera, you have to decide what you want it to do! I’ll run through what I have pointing out pros and cons.

• Canon SD880IS
  • Pros
    • Small package (fits in my pocket)
    • Decent video
    • <$300 (so I’m a bit more cavalier with where I’ll take it)
    • Also takes pictures!
  • Cons
    • Video is not HD
    • Zoom and low light performance are somewhat limited
• Flip Mino HD
  • Pros
    • HD video
    • Small
    • Simple
    • <$200
  • Cons
    • Video is just OK for HD
    • Shake can be a problem
    • Complete zoom failure
    • Simply doesn’t function for recording children’s performances, one of my important tasks
• Sony
  • Pros
    • Beautiful video
    • Zoom and low light performance
  • Cons
    • It’s pretty big… like, it needs a bag
    • It’s a separate device, so you have to decide to take it somewhere, which doesn’t happen a lot.
    • Cost
• SLR
  • Pros
    • Cool concept
    • You can use lenses
    • It’s biggish, but in some sense it’s small, cause it’s part of a camera you should have with you anyhow.
  • Cons
    • AUTO FOCUS FAILURE. It basically doesn’t autofocus other than for one moment. This is a complete failure in my mind. Fortunately I love this camera for what it does with stills, but the video is lame.
    • Cost

Questions I would ask you…

• Do you know how you’re going to “deal” with the video?
• Will you post it straight to youtube? Will you edit it?
• Do you know what high def is? Especially when it’s on the web?
• Do you need to zoom? Or are you part of the “scene” anyhow?

What I would probably tell you to buy, without having any idea who you are…

I think I’d suggest either the Flip Mino HD or the old school Flip Mino (assuming you can’t do what you need to with your existing point and shoot camera). These cameras come in at really reasonable prices and would allow you to see if you’re the kind of person who will actually do video. Even as techy and into my girls as I am, I have to make myself do it! This will serve as a test.

If you know that shows recorded from distance are important to you, or you love high quality video, then you get into a different set of camcorders… something along the lines of my Sony. At that point, I would definitely be thinking HD, and I would go with SD based memory instead of the hard drive I have. Memory is so cheap and you can have plenty of it along (although your battery is almost always your limiting factor).

Another telling piece of information… if I could have but one of these devices, it would be the DSLR camera, even though video on it stinks. I wouldn’t even use the video then, choosing instead to take beautiful stills. If I could have one expensive device and one cheap one, I would go with the expensive SLR and the cheap video, again, because the stills have to be beautiful. Any two devices? The SLR and the nice video camera… these days, I’m feeling like if I’m going to bother with video, it better be worth watching… hence the fact that the last 4 posted videos are all from the Sony.

Lastly, if you have questions, ask them. Obviously I’ve played with a bunch of options here. If you see me and you want to mess with something, just ask. I’m happy to show you how it works and let you know what I think.

So, whether you care about Angie’s family or not, I would encourage you to go check her out. You can start with this great post about dirty summers and really little snakes.