Free Printable - Canning Labels round up

via Sweet Preservation

I spent a couple fruitful (pun intended) hours this afternoon making some raspberry jam. Official Taster (now, Mr. Official Taster!) and I went to the Ballard Farmers' Market this weekend, and came home with a half flat of fresh, organic raspberries. Among other things. lots and lots of other things.

via How About Orange

Anyway, I thought other people might be getting in the canning swing of things about this time of summer, so I found a few places where you can download some free labels if you want to fancify your jars for gift giving or just for fun. Also see how I made my own!

via Wendolonia

Both the Sweet Preservation link and Wendolonia link have multiple designs available. If you simply do a search for "free printable canning label," lots and lots of options will appear at your fingertips.

What are you preserving this summer?

Rainbow Salad - vegan & gluten free

Once in a (very great) while, it truly feels like summer here in the Pacific Northwest. On those days, I move away from pastas and risottos and towards light, fresh, and cool summer suppers. A big salad fits that description perfectly, but to elevate plain old salad, I decided to go for a rainbow (sensing a theme?). Plus, it's said that eating by color is a healthy way to go.

That, and rainbows make everything more fun.

Rainbow Salad
spinach, or other salad greens
pomegranate seeds
dried cranberries
tomatoes, chopped
carrots, chopped
orange or yellow pepper, chopped
cored avocado, chopped
extra firm tofu, drained and fried

Start with a bed of spinach and then simply arrange your fruits and veggies in rainbow order and top with your favorite dressing.

There's lots and lots of possible variations here...beans come in lots of colors, as do peppers and tomatoes. If you like blueberries (I don't) then you can work in blue, and beets, eggplant, cabbage, or onions can be your purple. Hard boiled eggs can also fill the yellow slot, and nuts would be a nice addition as well.