Strawberry Jam

I decided to try making homemade strawberry jam this summer. It was an experiment that ended up turning out DELICIOUSLY! Ryan and I both loved it, and I ended up making a couple batches of strawberry jam and one of blueberry jam (which I gave away, and those people all loved it!). So here's basically how's it done. If you want to try it, just buy Sure Jell (it comes in little yellow boxes, and you can get it at Walmart) and follow the instructions!

You start by cutting up strawberries and putting them in the blender. (If I remember right, I ended up using 1 box of strawberries. Maybe a bit more or less.)

Blend them until they look about like this.

Put the strawberry goodness into a bowl, and pour in the sugar.

Then stir it until it looks about like this, and then I think it's supposed to sit for about 10 minutes.

Then you combine the Sure Jell (1 package) and water, and bring it to a boil.

Then you combine the Sure Jell/water combo with the strawberry/sugary goodness, and stir it.

Then you pour it into freezer safe containers, and let it sit out for 24 hours. Then you can refrigerate it and eat it, or you can freeze it for up to a year (if it lasts that long!!!).

This is delicious, amazing jam! I can't wait until next summer to make a lot more, so we can have it all throughout the year!

Our Honeymoon - Friday and Saturday

Friday morning we packed up our belongings, took some pictures of the cabin, and wrote in the guestbook (or whatever it is called). We drove down the mountain for the last time and headed back through the Smokies to make our way to Deal's Gap, which is the end/beginning of The Dragon. The Dragon is a very twisty, windy road that motorcyclists love to drive on (and cars too). Some motorcycles tip over with all of the turns (sad!). It was fun to go on (in a car, not a motorcycle!), and there were some pretty views.

Writing in the guestbook.

Where we ate lunch.

 

Then we drove to Knoxville, where we stayed Friday night. After much wandering around, we finally ate supper at the Mellow Mushroom (the least sketchy of many restaurants we went by). Then after several attempts, we finally found a real movie theater and watched Cars 2!

Like the decor? It's fitting.

We had talked about coming part way home between Saturday and Sunday, but we decided to just come all the way back. We drove through a crazy, but very short rainstorm in Indiana, but otherwise it was an uneventful trip home. We had turned off the GPS when we got to "familiar territory," but we turned it back on when we were just a few blocks away from our new home, so that we could hear, "Arriving at destination." :) And of course, my wonderful husband carried me over the threshold of our new home.

The End

Well, at least of our honeymoon stories. :)

Our Honeymoon - Thursday's Adventures

Thursday we decided to drive through the Smokey Mountains a bit. We stopped at some of the scenic overlooks and saw some beautiful views of the mountains! I'll put up a couple of the pictures to give you an idea of how pretty it was.

Funny story about one of the overlooks. We asked an older lady to take a picture of us by this sign, and we handed her the camera. She took the camera and started trying to look through the zoom/lense part sticking out the front! (Wouldn't you think she'd know not to look out the front even if it was a digital camera?!) We helped her turn it around, and miraculously, this is the good picture we got!

At one point, we walked up a rather steep path to a scenic overlook that had been built (and which kind of was shaped like a mushroom). On a clear day, one can see quite far out in the Smokies. We couldn't see incredibly far, but it was still fun to get four different views of the mountains.

The path up to the overlook crossed the Appalachian Trail.

Later int he day, we decided we wanted to see some more scenic views, so we headed down a scenic roadway. We then got to one point (a road off the main drive), where there was a gravel road that went off into the woods and a sign that read "Unimproved Gravel Road." We debated whether we should go down this unimproved gravel road or not, and eventually decided to do it. (It made us feel a little bit better that we had seen another car go down it while we were trying to decide.) It was reasonably flat, but gravel and very, very twisty and windy. Ryan's hope was to see some more bears since it was later afternoon/early evening when we were driving. I documented our little adventure with a few videos, which I will not bore you with. 

One view of the road.

We ended up driving on the road for an hour and twenty minutes. Our GPS only told us we were driving through the forest (not that we were even on a road!). We sadly did not see any bears, but only a bunny and a butterfly. Once we got off the unimproved gravel road, we were very glad to see a two lane road with yellow stripes!

We made our way back to the Pigeon Forge area, where we had a nice dinner at Olive Garden (despite our interesting waiter who called us "Lady" and "Man"). We then headed back to the cabin and watched a movie.

Butterfly Toast

Looking for something yummy, easy, and fun to eat with your kiddos? Check out these beautiful, tasty butterflies!

Butterfly Toast

Ingredients:
-Crescent Rolls
-Butter
-Broiler

Directions: Bake crescent rolls. Cut in half. Butter and place in broiler until toasted.

Notes: I'm sure you could do this other ways, such as with a toaster, and not just butter, etc. Use your imagine and have some fun!

*Thank you to my wonderful husband for this idea!