How Sweet It Is!

Inspired by the pure deliciousness of some freezer jam that Beth brought to Michigan with her, I decided to make some myself, and since it is amusing for my three loyal readers to occasionally glimpse my kitchen shenanigans, I decided to share this little project with you-all.

Many thanks to Granny for providing little jelly jars for my experiment.

Below you will see the supplies.

 

 

And now, below, you will see the reason why I will never make this particular type of freezer jam again. That, my loyal readers, is 5.5 cups of sugar. 

 

 

I may be preparing to make a deadly refined-sugar poisonous treat, but at least I have a fancy spatula, as you can see below. 

 

 

Here is a close-up of a standard pectin pack. Before attempting my freezer jam, I had never before seen pectin, nor did I know what it was. Turns out it's a collection of "partial methyl esters of polygalacturonic acid," so your guess is as good as mine. 

 

 

And below...rewind to me smoooshing all the antioxidants out of my blueberries so they could be eaten by the 5.5 cups of refined sugar...

 

 

And finally, after mixing together those three ingredients and performing an ancient alchemical jelly dance...the happy result! 6.5 containers of SUPERDELICIOUS blueberry freezer jam! Great news! I ate a tablespoon on some zuchini bread, and I am proud to announce that at no point in time did I keel over dead. :)

 

 

Merry Christmas to five of my associates (I plan to keep 1 jar for myself and have already consumed the 1/2 jar): here's some diabetes in a jelly jar.

 

Lucky for everyone, there is a better way. There is a special brand of pectin you can buy which allows you to make the same amount of jam using just ONE CUP of RAW HONEY! Wooohooo!

 

By way of advertisement, I will also announce that I have pledged my loyalty to the producer of what will be my favorite honey for the duration of my stay in Northwest Indiana: Panos Farms in Michigan City. Regardless of whatever dirt you have on the Panos clan and any shady dealings they might be involved in, their honey won me over and I refuse to use anything else as long as I have access to it.

 

So. After my Blueberry Jam of Death has been consumed, I will make another batch, likely of a different flavor, to share with you here. Something for you to look forward to.

Oh, for the love...

Pictured below is the day's take:

Are you kidding me? The text is centered again? I should re-name my blog a 2nd time and call it "Centered Text." Anyway, as you can see it wasn't much, but it was honestly more than I expected. I ate only the Ferro Rocher (or whatever) and disposed of the rest, ever mindful of the Legend of the Poison Cupcake.

VD (yeah, I said it again) is a good day to examine the fourth chapter of National Geographic's brain special, "The Emotional Brain." This is the final chapter I will cover. The 5th chapter, "The Aging Brain" is not something that interests me, as I already know that our brains start preparing for death as soon as they reach maturity around the age of 24. Borrowed time, indeed. So, back to the emotions. 

There are only six, according to the scientists quoted in the booklet. They are fear, anger, sadness, joy, surprise, and disgust. An interesting factoid is that humans have what is called an "impact bias" by which we imagine events happening and predict that our reactions will be far more intense and long-lasting than they really are. The booklet also says that we humans underestimate our own resilience. 

On the joy front, 60% of people's predisposition toward joy is genetic (nature). The rest is born of our experiences (nurture). Things that increase happiness include: strong ties to family and friends. Charitable actions. Here's one of Miss Gokey's favorite quotables, verified in...well, blue and yellow text: EXPERIENCES MAKE US HAPPIER THAN POSSESSIONS DO. 

Miss Gokey always uses this as an excuse to take a trip instead of buying furniture, and I totally agree. Finally, older people tend to be more satisfied with their lives than younger people. 

Despite all of these happy facts, the brain, says Nat Geo, has a definite negativity bias. This is apparently evolutionary. We still feel a primal need to protect our family from a looming woolly mammoth. 

The booklet does go into love, but mostly lists the chemicals and brain regions it affects. Nothing good for your VD reading. So, that, over the course of several weeks, has been your brain. Enjoy it while you can, before a zombie comes to make it her/his lunch. 

I have a load of laundry to finish and new episode of Supernatural to enjoy. Although there is a piece of mail I keep waiting for that refuses to arrive (I called to check this afternoon, and it's going to be another two weeks yet), I did get something good in the mail today. If you don't know what it is, you just haven't been paying attention. 

Hopefully my Granny got something good in the mail today, too, from me. Today is her birthday, may it be a fun, productive, and memorable one filled with the kind of joy that lights up both sides of the brain.