I've got some catching up to do!

   Holy Cow! Time really can get away from you... New goal [posting every night is impossible at the moment] I'm going to try and post every other night, that seems a little more achievable. First item of business, the "sun" roasted tomatoes project. Note that sun is in parentheses as my husband said that oven and sun are not interchangeable... I did some research and it looks like the ones in the grocery stores aren't exactly sun dried either so if they can use the term then so can I! 
   The tomatoes took about 16 hours at 200 degrees. Next time I'll be quartering them instead of halving to see if it speeds up the process. I haven't used them yet as I'm still researching what I want to do with them. Pasta sauce, rub on roasted meat, baked in bread; there are too many possibilities but I'll be making a decision soon. In the meantime here is a picture of how they turned out after 16 hours in the oven. 

   College football has started up and is seeming to take up a lot more of my time than usual. I promised my baby brother [who is on a LDS mission in Puerto Rico] that I would stay up on sports for him so I took in 3 games over the course of 4 days. Thursday night was the U of U vs Pitt and sadly I passed out during the 3rd quarter. I was later woken by my husband to learn that the U won in overtime [Yippee!] Saturday was BYU vs Washington [BYU won, Woot!] and Monday night was Boise State vs Virgina Tech. Boise State won and added more fuel to the BCS busting fire! The past two Monday night's dinners have been pork nachos. I guess it's our game night meal plus nachos are one of Doug's favorites.

   Tuesday was my first attempt at using the cabbage! I chose to try out the recipe for fried cabbage that Grandma Rose gave me. Anything that is fried in bacon grease should be edible...She said to just fry up some bacon and toss in some onions and then put in the sliced cabbage. She mentioned that adding some caraway would be good if I had it. I didn't have caraway so I made do without it but will be picking some up next time I'm at the grocery store. It was about the time that I got everything in the pan that I realized I had no idea at what point the cabbage would be done... Was it just a quick saute or should the cabbage be slightly wilted or all the way to mush. I called Grandma only to find that she was out at a baby shower. Uncle Korey came to my rescue as he had cooked the recipe and said it needed to cook till the cabbage was slightly caramelized. I could hear Grandpa Doyle in the background questioning my willingness to take Korey at his word. So I asked a few more questions and felt confident that Korey knew what he was talking about [Grandpa did get me to think twice about it though, lol]
  Now, looking at the pictures it's pretty obvious I wasn't completely committed to the full cabbage experience. There is just as much bacon as there is cabbage. I'm shaking my own finger at myself since I ended up really enjoying the cabbage and wished there was more of it and less of the bacon. I 'll be doing this recipe again with a few adjustments; 1. I will use thin sliced bacon instead of think sliced. The pieces were cumbersome and hard to chew.  2. I will use more cabbage! I was completely surprised by how sweet it was. 3. I'll throw in the caraway that Grandma suggested.

Tonight I was a slacker wife in the dinner department and made Doug a Totino's pizza.  I do have a good excuse though! I made my first batch of jam! Strawberry-Nectarine [using up stuff from the co-op basket] jam to be precise. I came right home and started on the jam thinking it would take an hour to complete, so a really good dinner would follow. Well, it would of been an hour if I hadn't of struggled with peeling and coring the nectarines... I'm going to do some research because I had to of been doing something wrong. I'm going to confess that it took me an hour to do 8 nectarines... I even did the trick of scoring the nectarines and putting them in boiling water and then moving them to ice water to make it easier peel.

Eventually I got the nectarines all peeled and torn into pieces [pretty segments were out of the question]. I'm not a fan of big chunks of fruit so despite the warning from the pectin package I put the nectarines and strawberries in the food processor for a few pulses. I'm a fan of the jam jelly hybrid with tiny pieces of fruit. This was freezer jam not cooked jam just in case anyone was wondering. I asked many family members and experienced canners and they all said it was the best way for me to start out. Now I have 8 pretty little jars of what will hopefully be delicious jam. I was a little concerned about the white foam that formed but my mom assured me that it was fine and if I really wanted to I could skim it off but she thought it was bothersome and not necessary. The jam is now sitting on the counter for 24 hours at room temperature [that's what the instructions said] and then it will head to freezers and refrigerators across the Wasatch Front [After a full panel taste test has been completed] ... The stuff I got on my fingers tasted good so I have high hopes.