The idea of meat loaf for dinner is an age-old blah dinner….
but there are many ways to liven it up a little.
Here is my way!
Meat Loaf Muffins with Mashed Potatoes and Cheese on top.
Put about a half a cup of meat mixture in a paper lined muffin tin. When they are done baking dolip a scoop of mashed potatoes on top and cover that with sliced cheddar cheese and some green onion. Stick it under the broiler until the cheese melts. There you have it, a meaty muffin for dinner.
This year the Chaos family has suffered greatly as we ran out of strawberry jam in January. Imagine the incredible hard ship that we all endured as we had to buy jam from the store.
I vow that I will not let that happen again this year.
This year I have 30 lbs of strawberries to make into jam. I feel like I cheated a little though, I ordered them through the local Rotary Club. The strawberries were washed, hulled, sliced and packed in their own juices. Huge time saver, and it cost less than buying two 15 lbs flat! And non of the work.
After making a batch of Strawberry Rhubarb with Certo, I found them way too sweet for our taste. They set well and will for sure get used up before next summer. But I am not sure that I will go that again.
Next I tried the Natural Summer Fruit Jam recipe from The Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. With this recipe you make your own pectin from Granny Smith apples and lemons. After making that into a sauce you add it to the berries along with sugar. When not using store-bought pectin the boiling time is substantially longer. It have to stay at a rolling boil for 20 minutes. Let me tell you, this batch is SO GOOD. I cannot wait to slather it over fresh bread.
Through out the summer and fall there will be much more canning happening up in here. I will post pictures and thoughts along the way. 
I have been so busy around here with projects that I have neglected to post on the days that I said I would. I think it will be worth it though. Some of the projects that are in the works are pretty good. If I do say so myself. The thing about a craft /DIY blog is that I have to complete the project before I can post about them. I’m sure you can imagine that it is a lot of work at times.
Anyway, I wanted to show you something I really love and use all the time.
It is a Salt Crock.
I got the crock from a little farmer’s market while visiting family in the Okanogan this summer. It was filled with honey from a local bee farmer.
After all the honey was used, (which didn’t take long around here) I cleaned it out and filled with Kosher Salt. If you do not already use Kosher salt I recommend you look into it. The granules are larger than the salt that would be in a shaker, but smaller than Pickling Salt. All of the cookies that I am making from the Martha Stewart Holiday Cookie Book call for Kosher Salt. It seemed strange to put such large pieces of salt in a baking recipe, but the results are really tasty.
The crock sits with the papper grinder right beside the stove and when I’m cooking I just grab a few pinches and sprinkle it over the food. 
If you don’t already have one, I really recommend you try it. If you are already using one, leave a comment and tell how much our love it.
A salt crock is a great way to make daily use of a piece of pottery. They can be used for other ideas such as a fruit bowl.
This bowl was a gift that was made by a very talented friend. You can see more of her work here. I also have my tomatoes sitting on my counter another piece.
