I’ve was given lots of free plums and peaches this summer so I thought it would be best to turn them into fruit jam.

Homemade peach and plum jam on top of sour dough bread.

Jam is really easy to make and I should have made some a long time ago.  Now I’m thinking blackberries and pineapple would make delicious jam.

There are lots of online tutorial on how to make jam. So I’ll just include a little tutorial here.

These are the basic steps:

1. Clean the fruit. For peaches with fuzzy skin, be sure to remove them.  Chop up the fruits, but little chunks of fruit are tasty too.  I got about 3 cups of peaches and 1 cup of plums.

2.  Add 1/2 cup of water, 2 tbs of lemon juice.  Cook in a pot and stir well.

3.  Add sugar to you liking.  I added about 1 cup because the plums were really sour.  I also added some powder pectin to my jam.  I didn’t follow the direction on the package because it required too much sugar.

4.  While it’s cooking, clean your jam jars.  Sterilized them by immersing both jars and lids in hot boiling water for a few minutes.

5.  Scoop the cooked jams into jars.   Since these are not done with the water bath canning process, I refrigerate my jam to be safe.

Homemade jam is also a great addition to homemade yogurt!  Steps to making yogurt found here.

I rarely write editorial or opinion pieces. Once in a while some things are worth the mention. In this case it’s the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony.

Ever since I was a kid I loved watching the Olympics, especially the “Parade of Nations”. I loved seeing the smiling faces of people from all around the world. My favorite was always Andorra, the tiny county with a cute name that sits between France and Spain.

But most of all I looked forward to seeing the athletes from Laos. Being that our family left the country when I was only a year old, I have no real memory of the country. So it was always exciting to see our country being represented.

My mom and I was happily anticipating the entrance, only to see less than 10 seconds of airtime. Or was it less than 5 seconds? Anyway, if you blinked, you would have missed Laos. I think there were maybe 5 people walking out with the flag. But it went by so fast I couldn’t even count. That didn’t seem fair as other nations with even fewer athletes got more airtime.

This is so disappointing for a game that is meant to bring the world together. The only good part was when Bob Costas said something like, “Here is Laos, but the people pronounce it Lao with the “s” being silent.” At least he had something useful to mention.

As for the opening ceremony itself. That too was the most tedious thing ever. Robert Bianco of USA TODAY sums it up much better than me.

Maybe the British have their own humor, but the whole thing felt like a bad play you got dragged into attending. Or more similar to drinking flat soda.

Especially with dancing NHS (National Health Services) nurses and doctors. And they are suppose to be real hospital workers too. Later on I couldn’t tell if the story was related to Harry Potter or Peter Pan. Definitely nothing like the Beijing ceremony. Nothing can be better than 2,008 synchronize .

Another thing, since Laos was barely mentioned in the Parade Nations I had to go online to get more info. I found this from the UK Telegraph:

“No athlete has ever gone further than the first round of any Olympic competition.”

I know Laos has never won any medals. And I accept that.

“The country’s history in six words: Obliterated during ‘Nam. Tourists still impressed.”

And to person who is most likely trying to funny and sarcastic… well you are not funny! Let me just tell you a bit more about our country.

Tourist like Laos because Laos is still a country with many natural and beautiful landscapes. People greet each other with smiles and forgiveness is not far. The people my parent knew and left behind were some of the most generous and kind people they ever met.

It’s true that Laos was heavily bomb, but we were not “obliterated”. The “secret” bombings were done high up in the mountains near the Vietnam border. Our capital city was unharmed. Maybe you need to remember what happened to England in World War II:

“Between 7 September 1940 and 16 May 1941 there were major raids (attacks in which more than 100 tonnes of high explosives were dropped) on 16 British cities: London was attacked 71 times London. Bombs were dropped by the Luftwaffe for 57 consecutive nights. More than one million London houses were destroyed or damaged, and more than 40,000 civilians were killed, almost half of them in London.”

Thankfully England persevered despite the bombings. And the war was over, the Germans lost. Still many people were killed.

Laos may be a small country but it is growing in it’s own way. And many Laotians are now scattered around the globe because of the Vietnam War. A war that our country did not want to be in. We wanted to remain neutral, but no thanks to the U.S.

Now the country still has “bombies” that are still left buried in the mountains. But I am not one to live in the past. And I hope to see the day when people from all over the world can live in peace. Because when we are up in space, looking down on Earth, we can see that we all belong to one planet.

Side note: Even if I don’t find the current Lao flag very appealing, at least the Lao athletes are proud to be Laotians and took the effort to participate in the Olympics. At least be nice enough to give them some airtime. I am so disappointed at this point, I don’t even care to hear about anything related to the Olympic.

Zinnias are some of my favorite summertime flowers. These were grown in mom’s backyard garden.

Lilliput zinnia in red.

Pink zinnia with some yellow mixed in.

Bright pink hibiscus now blooming in late July. The patio get lots of sun and these flowers just love it.

Large blooming pink tropical hibiscus.

It’s a bit too warm to think about wool scarfs and cowls.  But I wanted to test out this sock yarn made with superwash wool.  Superwash wool is nice because it’s machine washable and dryer safe.

The yarn was a bit stretchy but it’s also soft. This sock yarn was found at Yarndogs. This was another fun and quick knit.

Superwash wool means that the wool yarn has gone through a special process in production.  This process will prevent the wool from shrinking when being agitated in the washing machine.

And I’m sure we’ve all know what it’s like to accidentally wash and shrink that favorite wool sweater.

With modern convenience like a washing machine, most people don’t like to hand wash their clothing or accessories. Although some delicate items are still best hand washing using gentle soap, preferably handmade soap.

Note:  The pattern I used was the same as the ruffle scarf except I sew the ends together to form a circle. And now it’s a cowl!

Even with the summer heat wave we’ve had, I had no problem knitting with wool yarn. Then again maybe it’s because this is a silk blend yarn so it wasn’t too bad.

I’ve never knitted with silk & wool blend before and it is incredibly fun. The tension was just right and once you get the rhythm going it’s very difficult to put down.

This is mostly the back side of the scarf. It’s a ruffle scarf and I think would be perfect for cooler autumn days.

Knitted with Poem Yarns Wool 75%, Silk 25% Available at Noble Knits. “Wisdom Yarn’s Poems Collection, Poems Silk. Like the other Poem yarn, Poems Silk features beautiful color changes that gently stripe as you knit.”

It looks much prettier shown here. Photo by Universal Yarns. The pattern can be found here. The DanDoh Scarf is a quick knit using only 1 ball of yarn.

Definitely one of the most enjoyable yarns I’ve ever knitted into a scarf. A nice quick knit for gift giving so I’m thinking this would make a great gift for the holidays.

Since the beginning of this year, strange things have been happening in nature. From birds falling off the sky to dolphins found dead on Peruvian beaches.

Photo by Susan Scott, 2012 Hawaii News Now

In Hawaii this week, strange purple little creatures have been found washed ashore along sandy beaches. They’ve been getting reports of the pea-sized crabs from Kahala to Ala Moana.

Beach goers describe it like little purple berries that look good enough to eat. Of the thousands of little purple crabs washed up in the surf, many of them are dead. Some that are alive are being kept to study at Waikiki Aquarium.

Norton Chan, a biologist at Waikiki Aquarium think they are some type of crabs still in the larvae stage. Scientist still aren’t sure what type of crab since they’ve never seen anything like it. Waikiki Aquarium officials are saving some and hoping to keep them alive long enough to see how they grow. Maybe they will grow to be big purple crabs.

And exactly what caused them to wash ashore is a mystery. Dr. Andrew Rossiter, director of thinks it “Could be storms although we haven’t had any, it could be a flux of warm or cold water coming in but I don’t have any signs of that either. It could be some kind of pollution, but if it was pollution it would have affected other species as well. So we really don’t know,”

Another possible reason, a biologist with the Department of Land and Natural Resources speculates that when the seas get rough, air bubbles can get caught in the crab’s carapace (shell) and they cannot dive so they get caught in the tides and wash up on shore.

Poor little baby crabs, makes me wonder if this has anything to do with last year’s nuclear disaster in Japan. Whatever the reason, it goes to show we have to take good care of our ocean. There are many neat life forms and gems that we have yet to come across. So let’s hope we can keep it clean and pristine.

This summer, I’ve been using this glycolic facial cleanser from derma e. Since I’m not a fan of the glycolic acid peel, I thought this would be a more natural and gentler way to exfoliate my skin.

Skin care experts recommend using glycolic acid when your skin starts to show signs of aging such as fine lines or brown marks.

The glycolic acid helps shed the old dull cells and unclogs pores. Even those with no signs of aging yet but have dry skin or acne prone skin can benefit from using glycolic acid.

Glycolic acid is usually derived from sugar cane. This facial cleanser also has other botanical ingredients such as papaya and horsetail extract.

The reason I like derma e’s cleanser is because it has marine plant extracts of Spirulina and Seaweed. Those are some of my favorite ingredients to add to handmade facial soap too.

Spirulina is an algae that also help detoxifies and is rich in antioxidant agents. It brings many vitamins and trace elements to benefit the skin.

After using for several weeks now, I’ve noticed that my skin does seem brighter and even my eyes look less tired. Of course that could just be sleep related!

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Zucchini are one of my favorite summer squash. Also referred to as courgette and can grow to a meter in length. But it’s usually harvested before that and can be found at the local market.

They are suppose to be one of the easiest plants to grow. But it hasn’t been that way for mom’s backyard garden. So she stopped growing them.

To our surprise a zucchini plant was found growing in her pumpkin patch. There was only 2 zucchini on the vine, but they are still really fat and cute. I’ve never seen them in this shape, probably because I’m so used to the ones that sell at the store.

These must have been hiding out for a while as they seem rather old. The seeds are pretty large and were tossed before cooking.

There are endless ways to cook them, from tempera, vegetable lasagna to muffins and cake. Since I’m not much of a cook I decided to just add them to veggie stir-fry, tossed into pasta, and also lightly steamed eaten with chili sauce.

The Poughkeepsie Farm Project adds;

“Zucchini is delicious grilled, or as a supplement to any casserole because it absorbs flavors well. Like cucumber, zucchini is a wonderful weight loss food. In addition, nutrients in zucchini have cancer prevention, eyesight, and cholesterol reducing benefits. You can even eat zucchini blossoms, which are a colorful and decorative addition to any plate.”

Other recipe ideas include zucchini cake. Instead of fish cakes, think of the veggie version. See recipe and instructions at The Pioneer Women. Looks delicious!

If you are lucky enough to live in the Southwest or even western U.S. (or any hot & dry area) you may find these prickly pears growing in the wild. Or in my case, I found these at the grocery store for about 25 cents each.

If collecting them in the wild there will be lots of small, almost invisible spiky thorns. So be sure to wear leather gloves and handle it carefully. After harvesting, put the fruits into an open flame and burn off the spikes. Then wash and clean.

Here I’ll show you how to prepare them.

Cut out a little bit off the top and bottom section of the fruit. Then cut length wise into the thick skin.

Peel off the skin. Here’s a photo of how they grow on the cactus.

Slice and it’s ready to eat. Prickly pears have lots of seeds! The grocer told me it was perfectly safe to eat the seeds. It may be safe, but it was as hard as pebbles. The best way to eat them is probably to blend into a juice and strain out the seeds.

Also referred to as “cactus pear”. I prefer the red or purple ones but these green ones are just as good. The taste and smells is very much like Honeydew. It’s very sweet. The amazing part about these fruits is that it doesn’t require any refrigeration and is still very cooling to eat. I think it has to do with the thick succulent outer skin.

They are also full of potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, vitamin A, in the form of beta-carotene and vitamin C. Lots of antioxidants, which is good in helping prevent cancer and wrinkles. So next time you see these fruits, don’t fear! Just give them a try.

First released in 2010.. music video is nice. All the kids around the world are out being kids and having fun.

A little bio on K’naan from Wiki:

“Keinan Abdi Warsame (Somalia in 1978) is a Somali Canadian poet, rapper, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. K’naan spent his childhood in Mogadishu and lived there during the Somali Civil War, which began in 1991. His name, Keinan, means “traveler” in Somali. Besides hip-hop, K’naan’s sound is influenced by elements of Somali music, Ethio-jazz and world music. He is also involved in various philanthropic initiatives.”

Like many refugees, he’s been through a tough journey. Nice to see he’s doing well and using his songs to tell about his experiences.

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