CANNING!

I was feeling at loose ends last week, and so I thought I'd can some stuff.  I thought (briefly) about going to pick-my-own, but realized that was just too expensive and time-consuming.  Since I am short on both time and money, I decided to can whatever was on-sale at the local produce market. 

Just to get this off my chest;
1) by buying not-specifically organic produce, I realize that I am probably upping our ingestion of pesticides and whatnot this way, but I can barely afford groceries un-organically, so...
2) I am also willing to use Sure-Jell/Certo pectin - which I'm sure has the canning purists shaking their heads and tsk-ing- but I don't have the time to make three-day jam, nor do I have access to crab apples, etc. etc. etc. (rant over)

I made so many things!  Not all turned out as I would have hoped, but I'm feeling very tired and very proud of myself.  Fig Jam was not at all like I expected - I never used them before, but the black figs were on sale and turned into the prettiest, yummy pink jam.  Cantaloupe Jam, on the other hand, didn't even go into jars because I don't really like cantaloupes (I know, I know-why did I make it? Cantaloupes were on sale! and with all the spices in the jam, I thought it might taste better than it did.).  I have a few interested people at work who will get 1-cup versions of it in disposable containers.  I was iffy about the Peach-Papaya Jam (the papaya smelled very unusual to me) but once it was cooked, it was great.  Strawberry-Jalapeno Jam on cottage cheese was fabulous.

I have an overall complaint about recipes that call for a "package" of pectin.  "Dry" or "liquid" are very key words to just leave out, as they are NOT interchangeable!  I also had a recipe that called for 8 cups of washed, hulled strawberries, but never mentioned cutting/crushing/slicing them and boy, they sure should have been - I guess she assumed readers would magically know that?!?  I've learned that blogs, like people, can't all be trusted at face value.  Some folks only post things they've actually made, and are careful about copying the recipe accurately.  Other people - not so much, I guess.

Once I've inventories the contents of the jars, I'll post (CAREFULLY, I promise!) the recipes for the ones that worked best.

Reading on a Reader

I have a Sony Reader, and I really like it.  It was a special gift from a friend, and it saves my sanity while I'm waiting for one thing or another (a grumpy teenager, mostly).  I have no extra money for books, and the local library leaves something to be desired.  I am particular about what I put inside my head, and so I prefer older books.  The Reader is perfect for this, since I can download more free books than I can ever read from either Project Gutenberg or Google Books (public domain books).  I am currently reading Robinson Crusoe because of a comment I heard on Moody Radio.  I've even managed to get some John Piper books and Classic Christian Books Online and Christian PDF Books etc.  I also found that Calibre was a very helpful tool for getting stuff from .pdf to the ePub format that makes for better reading.  I already have a little over 800 books lurking in the shadows of my hard drive, just waiting for the miraculous day when I have time to really read.  That's another reason I prefer the Reader, because I don't like the constant contact of the Kindle with the internet, and I don't like the idea of storing my stuff on their server.  (This is the same reason I prefer my MP3 player over an I-pod; which my son heartily disagrees with!)

Day (night) one

As if I don't have enough turmoil in my life, I'm now going to add blogging!

I made a wonderful cake called Blueberry Boy Bait a little while ago, and while it was very good (I had two pieces, just to make sure), I couldn't resist adding a few more berries than the recipe called for and they nearly all sank to the bottom, despite being tossed with a bit of flour first. Tempting to turn it upside down, but then the nice crunchy cinnamon-sugar top would be on the bottom. My newest goal will be to trim things down to something sized for one or two people. As it is, the folks at work are going to get a tasty surprise tomorrow.