JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE ALL THE WAAAAY.
I swear I’m not going to scream at you this entire post. BUT, we have one week left until Christmas and I’m sorry but the situation is getting mighty serious. All caps serious.
First of all, where are you on your shopping? Like, on a scale from 1 to 10. Tell me. It’s good for my blood pressure. Unless you’re below a 5, then forget we ever spoke.
Secondly, I c.a.n.n.o.t. get over this ultra cool cookbook that Shaina just released. Every single thing is in a JAR. A freaking jar. And not just mason jars. Jars in all kinds of shapes and sizes and personalities and cuteness and it’s basically a really good time for your eyeballs.
Aaaaand I’m giving one away!
The book, not a jar.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE. (In my head I sound like Sally Struthers. “Do you wanna make more money? Of course, we all do!”)
Check it: not only will one lucky reader win a SIGNED copy of the cookbook, but Shaina is also going to throw in a jar of her famous Monster Cookie Mix, THE HOLIDAY EDITION. Jeah.
I’m going to ask you a question here in a smidge, and alls ya gotta der is answer in the comments, and bam, you’re entered. However, if you don’t feel like getting all willy nilly with a giveaway, you can skedaddle straight up over to a Target store! OR a World Market, local bookstores, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.
Ha-bam, bam, boom.
Okay, what’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever put in a jar? Insects? Strange food? Retainer from 8th grade? Hit me.
*And of course, you can always score more entries by following me on the Facebooks, the Twitters, the Instagrams and the Pinterests and letting me know. Coo? Coo.
*Also! This giveaway is for U.S. and Canadian residents only, please and sorry. I’ll pick a winner and announce it this Thursday morning, the 20th, so that Shaina has time to get you your stuff. But if you’re traveling for the holidays it’s totally okay, you guys can work it out. Something will work. I’m not even going to worry about it. I’m also going to stop talking now.
Spiced Hot Chocolate Mix:
(straight from Desserts In Jars, although I simply cut the recipe in half)
What it took for 2 (12 oz) mason jars:
* 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
* 1 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
* 2 tsp cornstarch
* 2 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 small pinch cayenne pepper
Sift all of the ingredients into a large bowl. Spoon the mix into the jars. Top with mini marshmallows (or her awesome marshmallow recipe that I was too scared to try!). Close ze lid and you’re seriously set.
Oh! You can also attach little instruction cards to the jars if you plan on giving them away. They could say this, (straight from her book): “Spoon 1/4 cup of mix into a mug. Heat 1 cup of milk until hot but not boiling. Pour the milk over the cocoa mix while stirring or whisking. Top with marshmallows, duders.”
Okay she didn’t say duders.
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for my friends birthday we made her a jar with small momentos of memories or things she liked! not food related, but jars can be used for anything!
Fireflies! (or lightning bugs as I called them then…I was young) I used to love catching them with my friends at camp and then putting them into a jar to watch all their little lights fly around inside.
Weirdest thing I ever put in a jar is chia seeds. It’s normal in Cali, but weird for a Texas girl!
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The weirdest thing I ever put in a jar? Our dogs’ puppy teeth when I found them on the floor……don’t even ask me why……seemed like a good idea at the time!
OK, it technically wasn’t a jar-jar, but a pill jar (bottle, whatever). But – we did call it the “Gross Out Jar!” When we were little, my cousins and I would collect grody things like teeth we lost, my dad’s toenails when they fell off, the occasional used cigarette butt we found, and put them in the jar. I have no idea why…
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Overnight oats! I still think it is weird how it works but it is oh so yummy!
I haven’t put anything weird in jars, of course that is all a personal opinion isn’t it. However we put the following things in jars on a regular basis:
toads, frogs, lizards, teeth, leaves, mud, snow, candles, lightning bugs, worms, plants, assorted foods and drinks.
I like to put leftovers in jars.
Bacon Grease ~ I guess it isn’t super strange but it looks kinda gross!
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Nothing wierd but pickled bacon is that wierd
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You’re awesome! Thanks for sharing this recipe!!
bacon grease!
Toner…I recently dropped my top down the sink and I had a jar handy so my toner (astringent) is now in a jar!
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Growing up in the country we always had all sorts of bugs in jars.
I don’t know about weirdest, but i think iced tea tastes better out of a mason jar. Also, beer tastes better out of a mason jar!
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Well, when I took biology lab courses in college, I had to put pig fetuses in jars. I’m really sorry I had to go there, but you asked. In case it’s unclear I would FAR PREFER desserts.
Weirdest thing…oh gosh. Loose teeth that fell out, retainers, bugs, and many more
I wouldn’t say it is weird but I put leftovers in jars sometimes to keep in the fridge, especially leftover soups.
love mason jars for just about anything!! i’ve received cocoa with marshmallows, salsa, cookie starters, and other various goodies from students. my favorite memory is the fireflies as a kid. making holes in the top so they could breathe and then releasing them before i went to bed. love your website bev….and merry christmas and happy new year to you and your family.
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Bugs, all sorts of bugs, trying to create a habitat for them. Let them go after awhile
The strangest thing I ever put in a jar was a black widow spider that we found dangling in our garage.
Don’t know about weird, but we always put our lightning bugs in jars. We’d let them go the same night so they wouldn’t die.
WINE! I read in Cooks Illustrated that it helps prevent the wine from oxidizing. You have to fill it all the way up to the top but it works.
Spiced Plum Jam – I realize jam in itself is not weird. It is the fact that I made it and canned it on my own.
Lightening bugs.
Ginger vodka! Not weird at all…I guess I’m not too adventurous with my jar usage
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I haven’t really put anything weird in a jar, but growing up my mom would save all of my and my sisters’ baby teeth. Actually, she probably has them. It toe thus and think it’s creepy but actually it’s not. Trust me.
When we were little my sister and I went through a phase where we made so many of those sand art things in jars. You know the brightly colored sand layered together. I think my mom still has them out at her house.
Sorry, I don’t think I’ve done a lot of weird things with jars
A blue snail when I was 6. I though it was my pet and I loved it. Only I forgot to poke holes in the top….
Wisdom teeth
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My dog’s puppy teeth.
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I keep a bit of beach sand with beach air after vacation to remind me of my favorite place every year. I know it is in my head but the thought of that beach air makes me smile on those yucky winter days.
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I’ve put little tiny frogs in jars before. (not for many years tho)
I put sprout seeds in a jar and grow them in the jar. The first time I did it, I thought it was weird, but now I just think it’s delicious!
Hmmmm I suppose the weirdest thing I’ve ever put in a jar is probably insects, like you said. Lady bugs, lightening bugs, butterflies, etc. Possibly a frog too. I was quite the nature kid growing up
For our Halloween decorations at the annual Trunk or Treat event at church, our group did Harry Potter. Each of our cars was a different house, so for the Slytherin house, there were a bunch of different “potion” ingredients in jars. By far the weirdest and grossest thing we jarred was slivered hot dogs and refried beans– to look like dirt and worms! I did not enjoy cleaning that mess up.
I put snow in a jar and tried to freeze it.
Probably not too strange but oatmeal in a jar!
I had a jar filled with layered sand sitting on my dresser all through high school.
When I was little, I saved all my baby teeth in a small jar. In fact, I think my Mom still has the jar.
I recently got my tonsils removed and I placed them in a really pretty glass jam jar. The jar is made for canning and has a really pretty fruit and floral bouquet design on the side. The jar is now sitting on my window sill. Luckily, I am not grossed out by body parts but I am sure if anyone looks closely they will freak out!
Used to put in pet worms as a child
I used to put lightening bugs in jars…didn’t all kids?
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This recipe sounds perfect. Recently I made one(from pinterest) and it had white chocolate chips added to it, but I think it was almost tooooo sweet, if that is possible. I’ll be trying this, and thanks!
I don’t think I’ve ever put anything weird in a jar… craft supplies maybe? Like puff balls and pipe cleaners.
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Hmmm. Pickled tomatoes? Blueberry-basil jam? Feeling rather conventional about my use of jars right now…
I recently was trying to clean some pennies, so I popped them into a jar with some soap to soak and ended up growing some mushrooms in 2 days…weird but fun
Lightning bugs in a jar when we were little in Ohio
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As a kid we used to catch fireflys and put them in jars. About as weird as it gets now is every year my husband and I make homemade blackberry jam for friends, neighbors, and co-workers. We started out with 4 oz jars, but had too many poor souls returning their jars and begging for more, So we have moved on to 8 and 16 “ouncers” (depending on how much we like ya!)
It’s not super weird, but I have homemade hot oil hair treatment in a jar right now.
My AWFUL sixth grade computer teacher had a zero-tolerance policy for chewing gum in her class, and if she caught you chewing it, you had to spit it into her “gum jar”. It was the most disgusting thing in the world, and she wouldn’t let you use your hands so you had to put your face really close to all the chewed gum in order to spit it out.
Have I said too much?!
Needless to say, it only took one time for me to learn. I now try to associate jars with nice things like sweet southern tea, fresh picked flowers, and homemade jam….
Thanks for the amazing giveaway and have a very happy holidays! Cheers!
Brit
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Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever put anything weird in a jar…
Just the normal extra potpourri, masala powders for cooking, sweet wrappers when I was little, seeds on cotton to grow and marbles
Some type of food? I’m not very exciting.
Bacon grease. Yum. Thanks for the chance to win! xo.
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It’s funny you should say bugs….Cause when I was in college, one of my roommates was taking an Ornithology class, and was required to collect as many different kinds of bugs as possible for his midterm. So anytime we found a new insect in our apartment, he’d make us put it in a jar and then put it in the freezer so that it’d die but wouldn’t get squished.
Best. roommates. ever. for dealing with that grossness!
Buttons!! Remember when grandmas always had a jar full of buttons??
I follow you on the Facebooks, the Pinterest, and the Instagram – unfortunately I am not on the Twitters. Hnnn…weirdest thing in a jar….Legos? Is that weird? I had a BIG jar that I kept Legos in for awhile when I was younger. Or crayons….also had a big jar for that too. I guess I’m not that weird. >_<
Excluding all the gross things I had to “collect” as a nurse…(I won’t go further), I would say all my fishing lures and tackle. My daughter has a shelf above her desk that holds jars from the underside of it. The lid is attached to the board and inside the individual jars hold her paper clips, rubber bands, etc. All she has to do to get them is unscrew the jar from the underside of the shelf. Easy and no mess.
plain old pennies, no other change, just pennies. my grandson has marbles in a mason jar
So you asked for weird, right!? This is a visual, not an actual.
I used to work sales support for a major manufacturer one of my outside sales guys used to discribe Florida summer weather as “Frog in a jar hot”. It left a mark, but I totally get how hot that is…
well…teeth. yes, i still have my baby teeth in a little baby jar. kind of gross now, but I guess my mom thought it was something i’d really wish I had as an adult
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I really did keep my retainer in a jar. I was the kid who always lost it… In the grass, sand, ocean, trash, you name it. So I had a bright orange retainer that I kept in a jar. Yep!
Thanks for sharing this recipe!
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i honestly don’t think i’ve ever put anything weeeird in a jar…
Small screws and nails, things for hanging pictures.
I prefer to serve Gin & Tonics in good ole’ mason jars so nothing weird goes in them, cause who really wants to drink out of a jar that had fly poop in it the day before.
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I hope I win this cookbook! True story – when I was 5 I brought a cocoon of a pray-n-mantis (spelling?) in a jar with holes at the top. It never would open, so after several days we decided to leave the top off one night. The next day the classroom was FILLED with these baby bugs. The teacher had to sweep them out. Not a good idea!
I already have the book but I just wanted to stop by to say how cute these are! They would really make the perfect hostess gifts!
What goes into a jar? Everything!
Canning; screws, nails, household bits and pieces – ’cause we’re going to need them one day; makeup, & brushes w/o the lid; DIY projects – skincare, gifts like this Hot Chocolate, all kinds of mixes for cooking and baking; potpourri and candles; leftovers; kitchen cooking & baking supplies; any beverage to be frozen; garden & pool supplies; extra paint for touchups; gift certificates; etc.
As a child – worms for fishing, and pollywogs.
Yup, everything! There’s always a jar big enough!!
(The lids are handy too!)
The kids’ drinking straws
Catapillar hoping it would turn into a butterfly!
When I was a kid I was obsessed with cicada shells. You know the dried up ones you find on tree trunks and on the ground. The ones with the big beedy eyes. Anyway no idea why bit I LOVED these. So I filled an entire (big) jar with them and sent it halfway across the country to my grandmother. She said she loved it. Ha! Looking back I wish I knew what she really thought of it.
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Crickets. My older brother used to make me catch them to feed his lizards…eww
I think the most weird is “nothing”!! I was organizing the pantry on the weekend and found all these jars that were empty and was like, what am I doing collecting empty jars??
So this book will like the perfect answer for it!!
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It’s not really strange in the south but I used to put lightening bugs in a jar as a kid. Poke holes in the lid for air.
The weirdest thing I’ve ever put in a jar was… oatmeal. It seemed like a perfectly adorable on-the-go breakfast idea, but when it came time to eat, it was a nightmare. Oatmeal covered hands. I stick with bowls from now on.
The weirdest thing I have put in a jar is probably not super weird, but I keep my cotton balls and my q-tips in jars, separate jars of course because they look awesome in there, and it keeps them fresh and pretty on my shelf in the bathroom.
When I was a kid we always put lightening bugs in a jar. Now I use jars for left overs and for dry ingredients I want to keep fresh and bug free.
After I used the store-bought baby food, I pureed my own and stored it in the old jars.
Hahaha, awesome prompt. This cookbook looks awesome! I can’t think of anything too weird, but i do have a large jar full of corks in my kitchen. Pinterest has turned me into a cork project fiend…. I can’t get enough!
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Well, I’m a tiny bit ashamed to say this. But I used to keep my baby teeth in a little jar. I have no idea why I wanted to do so. Or what happened to them. Presumably, my mom got rid of them.
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I remember putting a spider in a jar once when I was young to watch it in fascination as it slowly died….I think I ended up throwing it away before seeing it die, haha. Thanks for the chance to win!
Beach sand and ocean water. I would collect it whenw e were at our cabin on the beach, then back at home I would sit and stare at it wishing I were back at the beach.
The weirdest thing I have put in a jar is probably a tarantula. They are fun to look at when they can’t jump
The weirdest thing I ever put in a jar was frog eggs and watched them hatch into tadpoles!
I put a small black snake in a jar and took it inside the house, and let me tell you, don’t show it to your Mother. Can you guess I was a Tom Girl, It was all spiders and snakes for me.
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I used to have a jar for stray buttons, one for cool labels from clothes, several with pretty rocks. The most memorable jar in my life wasn’t mine. I was probably 8 or 9 and had gone to the beach with another family. Their boys put a crab in a jar and tossed it into the waves, and it completely ruined my day because because I could imagine the frightened crab trying to escape and slowly dying. I cried buckets for it when I got home. So . . . My jar memories are rather mixed!
Oh . . . And we are now connected on twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook. And I am definitely needing to make the poblano recipe. Looks yum!
we use jars to collect tadpoles and baby fish to look at before releasing them. My kids love it
I have a lovely jar of bacon grease sitting on my counter at this very moment.
Hello, first time poster, long-time follower, but who doesn’t want a desserts in jars book,
Scrolling through some of the replies I see this has been mentioned already, but when I was home this past Thanksgiving, I discovered my mother still has my baby teeth in a jar..in some sort of questionable possibly formaldehyde-type preservative liquid, sitting there all in public like on the tv stand…mooey gross. I’m an archaeologist though, so my medium of storage tends to be plastic bags, mostly bits of pointy rocks, a broken ceramic sherd here or there, the usual.
Love reading all your recipes and stories, happy holidays!
We once collected scorpions and were keeping them in a jar…I’d say that’s pretty weird.
You hit the nail on the head when you said insects. We once trapped a giant, weird beetle in a jar. This beetle looked like the thing Pumba was hunting down in The Lion King.
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More and more I use jars for everything. I store rice and pasta, brown sugar, and powdered. I make jelly and marmalade, and preserved lemons. I use it in the laundry room for lost items, and I have made a mini first aid kit, and a mini sewing kit for emergencies. Not weird, but utilitarian. Oh, and I use non-canning jars for my fresh herbs, and sprouting basil. I just saw a project where a woman made a snow globe from an olive jar as a place-card for a dinner party . Who knew it could be so cute.
A frog i found in our swimming pool when i was a kid
There was the pond water project in 8th grade and also the brine shrimp experiment. Both of those went in jars.
Bacon grease!
When I was a kid, I filled up a jar with ladybugs. When I opened the jar, they all flew out at me at I about had a heart attack!
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I don’t think I’ve ever put anything weird in jars. Maybe my pet rat?
Contacts. Yes…I’d drop them in a small mason jar with some solution and in the morning play an annoying guessing game of which one goes in the right eye and which one goes in the left eye. I wouldn’t recommend it.
caterpillars!
When I was in Brownie Scouts we made terrariums in glass jars. I’d say that’s the strangest thing I’ve put in one, dirt, a worm and some tiny plants.
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Love this! And it would make a great gift!
I think the weirdest thing I have put in a jar is lightening bugs. I know. OUT OF CONTROL!
Umm…urine…(sorry,it is true!)
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That would probably be soup…or salad in a jar!
The weirdest thing I ever put in a jar was a huge stick bug as a little girl! It had fallen on my face!
I always put my homemade salad dressings in jars. I guess that’s not weird, though.
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Um… long ago, my brother and his friends (I was just an innocent observer, ‘course) put earwigs in some empty jars with Elmer’s Glue. I don’t know why…those poor little things!!! Thanks for bringing up THAT memory, hahaha. I have to email him now
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Just found you on Tastespotting. This looks delicious : ) Weirdest thing? For a few years I kept a jar full of the shiny tin foil wrappers from the chocolate eggs you eat at Easter. ‘Cause they looked pretty and sparkled : )
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Strangest thing I ever put in a jar…a carrot in grade 5, to watch it decompose and grow mold. It was pretty grody.
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Strangest thing…hair ties…
The weirdest thing? I guess lightning bugs, but I think that’s normal for a kid
I follow you on pinterest now! The weirdest thing I’d put in jars were crabs and perriwinkles. When my mom would bring me to the beach as a kid, I’d scoop up sea creatures in the tidal pool, put them in a jar or bucket, and stick them in our cooler…yes our lunch cooler. my mom got pretty annoyed with that!
Lightening bugs!
Once, a long time ago, I put a dead scorpion in a jar for science class!
dog crap. dont judge meh. haha the vet needed a sample.