How do you store winter bedding?

This is about half the pile that I shrunk. It doesn't include a queen-size
 comforter, pillow and 2 large bath sheets

In past years, my closet has become the receptacle for all items needing storage, including winter bedding and guest pillows. I don't need to explain just how much room extra pillows and poufy comforters take up!

This year -- no more! I take back my closets and insist the assorted off-season linens live elsewhere!

One teensy-weensy problem. This stuff won't fit anywhere else, not in it's current state.

So, while talking with a friend on Sunday about cleaning out closets (her's had become the receptacle for her grown children's dolls, games, childhood books and school papers), she suggested I try the vacuum bags that you fill with stuff, then suck the air out with your vacuum. I'd seen these before, but didn't know if they really worked all that well. She assured me that they worked well for her and one of her grown daughters. Ziploc Space Bag is the product.

I picked up a set of these bags from Bed, Bath and Beyond (using a 20% off coupon -- they have coupons in the mail and magazines on a regular basis), brought them home and began stuffing away with blankets, flannel sheets, comforters, duvet cover and shams, king-size mattress pad, guest pillows, and even a couple of nice guest bath towels.

And yes, they really did shrink the size of my pile, by about 1/3 to 1/2. I did discover that I got the maximum shrinkage with the poufier items, like comforters and pillows. Heavy, dense items, like flannel sheets didn't shrink as much, as they already lie fairly flat.

All the bedding, fleece lap throws and towels in 4 space bags

The end result -- I now have been able to get the winter bedding out of my closet and stacked neatly on the top shelf of a hall closet, where before all that had fit was one comforter and 1 pillow.

And, can I tell you a secret? I actually thought this was a fun afternoon. I got a thrill watching all that stuff get shrunk down into tidy, little slabs.

Some tips for using these bags:

• Lay the bag out flat on the floor and just in front of the opening, begin your pile of items to go into the bag, taking into account that your pile needs to be a few inches less in width and length than the bag.
• Fold long and flat. You don't want a bunch of small bundles, but one large mass of layers.

• Slide the pile into the bag all in one shot, and don't overfill. The zipper will pull if you fill above the line near the top edge of the bag.
• After the pile is in the bag, stand the bag on end and shake the items down into the bag a little.
• Run your fingers or the zipper pull along the tracks several times. The zipper pull itself does not work very well, and I had to use my fingers to pinch the zipper closed, and slide the pull back and forth, pinching as I went. (The zipper pull is so flimsy that it flew off the bag on first zip. It's easy to get back on, but almost pointless, as it doesn't work very well.)
• These bags can tear, rendering them useless (of course, I imagine mine will someday be covered with duct tape to cover up gashes, holes and wear spots), so store them away from sharp objects, like a nail sticking out of a closet wall.
• The bags are reusable, but the area that I think will be most likely to fail is right around the vacuum hole and gasket. When opening and closing the vacuum port, hold the surrounding plastic bag in place, with your fingers on the edge of the vacuum port itself, to reduce the possibility of the port tearing away from the bag.
• Your vacuum hose may not fit onto the port exactly (mine didn't). No worries. Just press the vacuum hose up against the port, it will still work just fine.

How and where do you store your winter bedding in the off-season? Have you been blessed with a house with a lot of storage? Or is your situation much like mine, where the family has accumulated more stuff than you have closet space?

There was a bonus benefit. This got me to clean out and organize my closet. I realized that I do indeed have a lot of clothes. I've just gotten into a rut and haven't worn many of the items. 

How to make fruit jello from real fruit or juice

When we begin to tire of some of the fruit we grow in abundance here in the gardens, I look to alternate ways to prepare fruit. Gelatin is an easy, keep-the-kitchen-cool way to make a wholesome, light and delicious dessert. And all it takes is some unflavored gelatin (in the packets or in bulk) and the fruit or juice (plus sugar and lemon juice to taste).

Some suggestions if using whole fruits:

berries, very ripe peaches, nectarines or plums

Some suggestions if using juice:
grape, white grape juice, apple, blueberry, cranberry or any combination of juices 

Using unflavored gelatin is a two-step process.
1) The first step involves separating and softening the gelatin granules. This is achieved by softening the gelatin in cold liquid.

2) The second step actually dissolves the gelatin. Dissolving gelatin requires a hot liquid. If you try to skip the first step, you will wind up with lumps of gelatin in your finished product.

(You may be wondering how you can only follow the second step with packaged jello mixes. Combining gelatin granules with sugar, (as is found in boxed jello), is another way to separate the granules. But as these instructions here concern making jello with minimal added sugar, this won't work well for us.)

To make jello with whole fruit, I use:

4 cups of fresh or frozen fruit (today's jello is made with 3 cups of frozen wild blackberries and a 1 cup of fresh strawberries)
2 packets  (or 2 tablespoons) of unflavored gelatin
sugar (2 to 4 tablespoons, to taste)
lemon juice (1 tablespoon, to taste)
water (to bring the pureed mixture up to 1 quart)

Begin with about 1 quart of berries, or whole fruit, peeled and cut into chunks.

Puree berries/fruit in a food processor or blender, until smooth.

This is 4 cups of pureed blackberries, strawberries, water,
sugar and lemon juice

Measure, and add lemon juice and sugar, to taste. Add water to bring puree up to 4 cups.

In a medium bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 1 cup of cold fruit puree. Allow to stand for about 5-10 minutes (in my experience, softening the gelatin requires a bit more time in fruit puree than in juice alone).

Stir into the puree, making sure to break up any clusters of granules (this prevents gelatin lumps in the finished product). You should have something resembling a paste at this point.

Microwave, or heat on the stove, the remaining 3 cups of puree, until bubbling. (This takes about 4 minutes in our microwave.)

Slowly pour 1/3 of the hot mixture over the bowl of cold, gelatin mixture, while stirring constantly. Now pour the small bowl of gelatin/puree into the large hot container of puree and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved, about 2 minutes.

Pour into serving cups or dishes. I like to use these pretty, little Italian canning jars. But fruit saucers and custard cups are also just the right size.

Chill for about 4 hours.

This makes 8  1/2-cup portions.

Add-ins:
Adding softened cream cheese, or silken tofu, to the jello, just before pouring into serving dishes makes a creamy jello dessert. For amounts, reduce the total fruit puree, lemon juice, sugar and water to 3 1/2 cups, total (this will likely mean not adding any water, or just a little). Add 6 to 8 oz of softened cream cheese, or pureed silken tofu to the gelatin/puree mixture, just before spooning into dessert dishes. You can run the entire mixture through a food processor or blender to thoroughly combine, as needed. I make my Creamy Rhubarb Mousse Jello (link to recipe) by adding cream cheese to the rhubarb gelatin.

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This is simply bottled cranberry juice cocktail and gelatin

To make jello using fruit juice (bottled, frozen concentrate or fresh), I use:

4 cups of fruit juice
2 packets or 2 tablespoons of unflavored gelatin
(**optional -- sugar, 1-2 tablespoons, lemon juice, 1-2 teaspoons, all to taste)

In a medium bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 1 cup of cold juice. Allow to soften 2 minutes. Stir.

Bring 3 cups of fruit juice to a boil, on the stove or in the microwave. Slowly pour hot juice over softened gelatin, stirring constantly, until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Add optional sugar and lemon juice, to taste, stirring until sugar is dissolved.

Pour into single serving cups or dishes. Chill for 4 hours.

Add-ins:
You can add chunks of fruit, canned or fresh, chopped nuts, mini-marshmallows, whatever sounds fun! Simply pre-chill the full bowl of gelatin for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until thickened, but not set, and stir in the extras. Now spoon into individual dishes, and continue chilling until set.

Pure and fresh, a real fruit gelatin dessert, minus the artificial colors, and artificial flavors.


**Real fruit juice jello will not be nearly as sweet as boxed jello. It's a lot like comparing Kool-Aid drink powders to real fruit juice. I like the refreshing, less-sweet taste of just juice and gelatin. But if you or your family are used to the commercial jello, you may be more pleased with the addition of lemon juice and sugar. You are still cutting out the excess sugar, additives, artificial flavorings and colorings from the boxed varieties.

About the fruits that cause gelatin to not set:

Some fresh fruits contain enzymes which impair gelatin's setting ability. These include fresh figs, papaya, mango, pineapple, prickly pear and kiwi. With exception to the kiwi, you can mediate the enzymes effect on gelatin by boiling these fruits for 5 minutes, before adding to gelatin. Heating the fruit pieces denatures the enzymes, allowing gelatin to set. That is why canned pineapple works in a jello salad, but fresh pineapple does not. The canned pineapple has been processed with heat, denaturing the enzymes.

Likewise, you can use canned/bottled or processed, frozen pineapple, mango, fig or papaya juice to make fruit juice jello, as it's been heat treated. There's a popular jello salad recipe that uses lime jello and canned pineapple juice, for example. The canned pineapple juice works, because it's been heat-treated for canning.

So, avoid kiwi in jello salads. If you want to use fresh pineapple, mango, papaya, prickly pear or fig, you need to boil the fruits or juices for 5 minutes (per the instructions on the Knox website).