Strawberry Jam {forever}

When I say strawberry jam, it comes out to the tune of "Strawberry Fields Forever" I just can't help it. The Beatles possess my mind.

Now your thinking it that way aren't you.

For the bridal shower I hosted last week, {which I am completely overwhelmed with the amount of interest in, Thank you so much people of the internet! I love you!} I gave strawberry jam as favors to my lovely guests.

In this post, I will show you how I made the jam, and how I decorated them. 

They were super cute.

Especially when they were all lined up ^^^like so.

I love things all lined up. I really do.

This was actually my first time making jam. Growing up, my mother made various types of jams; but I had yet to participate in such activity. 

Armed with a couple flats of overripe strawberries, several boxes of jars, pounds of sugar and my mamma at my side; the adventure began.

Shopping List for this project:

canning jars, with sealable lids

overripe strawberries, tops removed

granulated sugar

Sure-Jell Pectin

The jars I bought were half-pints from Wal-Mart, made by their own MainStays brand.

I decided on these jars, because first of all they were cheaper; but also because I am not particularly fond of that quilt print on the other jars of that size. 

If you want to make less jam though, get the Kerr jelly jars; which are like 4oz's or something.

To see the instructions, and correct measurements; go to Sure-Jells site right here.

But here is the basic rundown:

Core out all the strawberries, and either mash with potato masher or lightly pulse in food processor. (don't puree it!)

Measure it out into a large measuring bowl. 

In case you were wondering, I did not suddenly get married. That is my madres beautiful hand.

Pour berries into saucepan, and pour in pectin. Bring to a rolling boil, pour in sugar, bring back to a boil  and pour into jars. 

Voila! 

You have jam!

Boil in a canner, then lay those hot-potaut jars out to cool.

In a row. because things in rows are cool, remember.

That one jar needs to move a little more to the left. You have no idea how much its bothering me right now.

OCD much?

Anyway...

Repeat this process several times, until you have all your jars filled and strawberries gone. I think we ended up doing like five or six batches to fill about forty jars. (each batch filled seven half-pint jars)

So let them all cool down completely, stare at the beauty of them for awhile; then its time to decorate.

To make these little jimmer-jammers super cute, I stuck on a label sticker, covered them in fabric, tied them with twine, and attached a tag.

The labels were super simple, and just stated the type of jam and the date it was made. I apparently did not take a photo of that, but here is the jpg of it:

To cover the ugly gold jar lids, I used a floral fabric to match the rose theme, and cut them into circles. I believe they ended up as a four and half or so circle. (I just cut a demo with paper around the jar, until I found a size I liked.) To keep them from raveling, I cut the circles out with pinking shears.

The pink floral fabric came as two fat quarters, which I found and fell in love with--but it was not enough to cover all forty jars, so I found the white fabric which is pretty similar. Each half yard made twenty circles.

The most difficult part of this whole shebang honestly, was tying the fabric onto the jars.

Silly, I know.

But it was some tough stuff.

I ended up putting a rubber band around the fabric, then tying the twine over it. It worked pretty well, when the rubber band wasn't flying off into my face. 

Battle wounds, ya know.

The mini spoons, as I mentioned before are from Ivana's Gifts N' things on Etsy. The owner of the shop is so sweet, and the price was amazing. I will definitely be buying from her shop again, in the future.

Fun Fact: I can never spell definitely. I have to look it up every time. Its weird, really.

The tags, my sister whipped up and printed out on butcher paper; to give it a little bit of a rustic feel.

They say "spread a little love" and the name of the bride and groom on the bottom. The tags are two and a half inches tall, and fit the jars perfectly.

So my friends, that is that.

I will continue to post some more tidbits about the partay, as the week progresses.

Again, thank you so much for the love and support! I really am so overwhelmed with the amount of visits to my site, concerning this party.

Its really giving me an itch for another one. Party fever they call it.

To see more of my party inspirations, and a bunch of other stuff...follow me on thee Pinterest.

As always....Enjoy!

Food Find Friday:: Enjoy Life Decadent Bars

Yay! A Food Find Friday! You guys have been missing them, huh? ;)

Well, my loves-I have a brand new find for you today. A product that has barely even hit shelves, one that I have been drooling over ever since the day I first heard the news of their arrival.

What is this product you ask?

Why, its Enjoy Life Foods new Decadent Bars!

This new product from Enjoy Life, is a delicious chewy bar drizzled in chocolate, and as they say: "made with 100% decadence". 

Tagline a little cheezy, I know. But they are pretty delectable.

As with all of their products, these bars are made free of the eight common allergens: wheat, dairy, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, fish and shellfish. They are also verified non-GMO, made in a dedicated allergen safe facility, and contain no artificial ingredients. 

Do you understand why I love them so much now?

These decadent snack bars, come in four flavors.

Cherry Cobbler, S'mores, Chocolate Sunbutter, and Cinnamon Bun.

And as with the chewy bars before them, they come five in a box. Which I may just never understand...{please just add one more! Make it an even six!}

I take my job on this blog, very seriously. And although difficult at times, I must sacrifice for the people. Today, I am going to a great sacrifice of eating all these bars.

Somehow, I will find a way to manage...

Lets break 'em down:

First to the plate, 

{guess what? you don't actually need a plate to eat these! whoa.}

are the S'mores bars:

I love s'mores. They make me happy.

This bar? It also makes me happy.

When eating the S'mores bar, you are greeted with a chocolatey flavor, and lots of crunch.

In each bite, you will discover the brands wonderful mini chocolate chips, as well as some crunchy rice cereal. 

The even cooler part of these bars? They also have chunks of EL's Vanilla Honey Graham cookie.

The S'mores bar is a bit of a recycling ground for the delicious. Enjoy Life used a mixture of their product strengths, to create a new treat. Very innovative, if you ask me.

But back to the bar:

From the chocolate drizzle, the chips, the cookies, and the marshmallow "flavorettes" as they call them, this bar hits the s'mores spot.

It also hits the chocolate spot, which is a spot that often needs hitting 'round here. 

Now, the Cinnamon Bun Decadent bar.

At first glance of all the bars, I would have thought this flavor would have been my favorite.

I mean, I love chocolate and all, but a cinnamon bun! yummy-roo.

But while I found this bar good, It was certainly not my favorite. (not my least favorite either, though!}

This Cinnamon Bun bar, appears as a regular, allergy filled cereal bar. You would assume, without seeing the box-that it would have a old timing man in a blue hat on the front, you know the kind.

But alas, it is not! 

However, it does sure taste like breakfast; which is fine by me. I like breakfast.

After taking a bite, your mouth will be treated to the flavors of cinnamon and orange. As you go on, you'll discover bits of apple and raisins. 

It also has rice crisps in it, but has a much softer feel to it than the s'mores bar.

So does it taste like a cinnamon bun, fresh from the mall kiosk?

No.

But it does taste like a warm bowl of breakfast oatmeal.

So if your into that, this bar is for you! 

I certainly liked this bar, but would have liked it a lot better had the orange flavor been a little more subtle. but thats just me--I am very sensitive to those kind of things.

Forward and onward, 

to the

Cherry Cobbler Decadent bar.

Now heres where I get a little lost en route to flavortown. 

This bar is certainly my least favorite of the four flavors.

The flavor profile to this bar is pretty simple to that of its namesake. Tart cherries, with an essence of cinnamon and cloves.

To me, it tastes a bit like potpourri infused cough syrup.

To another taste tester (I like to make these tastings a family affair) it was their favorite of the bunch, and reminded them of Christmas.

Moral of the story: to each their own.

Just because it was not my fave, does not mean it won't be yours!

Moving on.

Chocolate Sunbutter Decadent bar.

This little fella, was my favorite.

It is chocolate heaven with a side of nutty goodness, wrapped up in more chocolate.

As with all the bars, it has a base of rice crisps, quinoa flakes, and various gf flours to enhance the texture.

This bar also has cocoa and sunflower butter added to it, for a perfect storm of chewy, chocolatey and nutty.

The sunbutter is actually pretty subtle in the bar, so that its mostly chocolate with just a hint of nut.

I like it.

So my friends, that was another Food Find Friday!

and it was another delicious product from Enjoy Life Foods.

Who's suprised? Not me, that's for sure.

I love that I can always count on Enjoy Life to have a delicious snack for me to eat without worry of the dreaded contamination.

I can also always count on them to have super cute bar codes.

See:

Look through my other Enjoy Life Foods product reviews to spot other cute barcodes. Every product has a different one :)

Also, go out and get some of these bars!

Try them out for yourselves, and let me know what you think!

Do you agree with my opinions, or are you the complete opposite?

{I sent a special care package of bars to my allergy ridden nephew/sous chef to test on his vacation this week. I'll let you know the opinions of a 10year old on this product, as soon as I hear them}

Enjoy!

and thank you for tuning in to another carina show :)

**while the products reviewed today where provided for testing, no monetary compensation was provided. The opinions on this sight are wholly my own without further influence.

Beauty and The Beast Inspired Bridal Shower

So last Saturday, my sister Julie and I, hosted a bridal shower for my sister Adriaana-who is getting married next month. {ahh!}

Said sister, has been thoroughly obsessed with The Beauty and the Beast {Disney, cartoon version of course.} her entire life.

Naturally, this seemed like a good theme for the "all about her" party. There are bits and pieces of inspiration from the movie, such as roses, books and tea cups. I also made macarons, because they are French; as supposedly the movie takes place in France-even thou there is not a French accent in sight. 

Here is the invitation, (sorry about all the blurred out parts-privacy, ya know.)which was designed by my sister Julie, with a little creative help from me. {Meaning, I told her what I liked and didn't like. I am good at that.) We printed them out at Costco, which gave them beautiful photo quality, and I backed them with parchment style cardstock so that it wouldn't look just like a photo. 

 For favors, me and my mom made homemade strawberry jam, and covered the tops with floral fabric, twine, and a wooden spoon. The spoons can be found on Etsy, here. They were the perfect size for the jars (half-pint, from Walmart Mainstay brand) and were an amazing deal. ($3.49 for 50!)

 My momma, all my sisters, and me. We are a super good looking group, huh?

All in All, The party was a super success. The decor was beautiful, the weather was perfect,  the food was great, and the company was fantastic. I got tons of compliments on the invitations, the party, and even the music was apparently super awesome. Just let me gloat for a minute, alright? I barely slept all last week, I deserve it ;)