The Apple Days

Yes, there were more than one. Apples are by far the stickiest and messiest of all the fruits I have done. Love them, but wow, are they a job to get done. Tawna was the first to start the apple marathon and did not have good luck. This was the third year we have had issues with the jars boiling out and not sealing. Very disappointing after so much work. She stopped after 2 boxes (thank goodness). I went to Shar's the next day and sought the help of their resident canning guru and got her tried and true recipe for pie apples. We gathered up the stuff we would need and went to Taya's house next to see how the new recipe would work. Like night and day. So much better, I actually decided maybe I would do pie apples again this year. I just had to do my little opera voice with a “Ohhhhhhhhh! Yeahhhhhhhh!” It's amazing the things that can make your day.

We spent a day (and part of an evening) at Taya's getting her four boxes done. Tawna had 2 more boxes to do, and Jade had 2 also. We went to Tawna's on Monday and did her's and Jades amid half day school (what's up with that anyway?) and Jade's issues with the apple peeler. It didn't matter what she did, the apples hated her that day and would not behave. Taya was our turbo peeler and I think could set a world record. I should have done a little video, it was pretty funny to watch. Between the four of us, we got them into jars, processed and they all sealed! EVERY ONE OF THEM! Pure bliss.





As I was under strict orders not to take pics of Tawna and Taya, I only have their hands at work. Jade was ready for work, so I could take her pics without to much protest. Silly girls, you always look good. Apples or not. I was going to do my four boxes at the cabin, but as usual my plans went awry. I am loading them in the truck today to take back to the valley for yet another fun day of apples at Taya's again. Thanks girls, I'll bring lunch!

What is Long, Skinny and Green?

No, not the witch on my header. Green Beans of course. Taya got some at the market and wanted to can them. We did. It got me all excited to do them instead of just talking about it, so I went and bought a bushel, (minus about 5 pounds) and Grumpy and I canned them on Saturday while we listened to General Conference. He said it is the first time in a long time he made it through both sessions without falling asleep. Busy hands are a great way to keep the eyes open to listen to all the great talks that were given. I always try and have a project or two planned for General Conference. It works out great.



We, meaning Jade, Jeff, me and Grumpy did 3 boxes of pears during the Sunday sessions. We were like a well oiled kitchen crew. Jeff and Jade were the “Edward Scissorhands” that did all the peeling. Ryker called it skinning the pears. He's been on a hunting trip or two. Grumpy and sometimes Jade did the coring and de-seeding. My job was to pack the jars and keep the canners going, the lids and the syrup hot and a wipe down for the sticky counters once in a while. We were awesome. 3 boxes in 6 hours. Not bad. Now I have to quit just talking about carrots, potatoes, corn and more meat and just get it done. Maybe right after the apple marathon that will start soon. Maybe.

Taya and Jade's Adventures in Jam!

Apricots from Utah found their way into our kitchens this year. They were big, beautiful and oh so sweet. Taya and Jade were up for making some jam for their pantries, so despite the heat and “break dancing” in Richard and Stacie's front lawn, we made jam. A couple of days after picking up the fruit, Jade was going over to help Stacie with something and walked across the front lawn. She found a little pothole and down she went. A pretty painful experience. Fortunately she was teaching nails at school that night so she could prop her foot up and keep ice on it.



We did the jam in two sessions as we couldn't get our schedules to mesh, so I helped with the standing up part of the canning for Jade while she did what she could sitting down. Taya came over the next night and she pretty much did hers with just some coaching on my part. Each girl got 19 pints of delicious jam and Taya took home a few to eat. Not bad.

Jordyn's Jam

I know, yet more jam. Jordyn had a sleep over and we had fun making some strawberry jam for her to take home to her family. She stemmed the berries, combined the ingredients to start cooking, measured all the sugar (and there's a lot) and then stirred the jam on the stove for awhile. I took over for awhile so she could sit down for a few minutes. When the jam was done cooking, she ladled the jars full and we got them ready to process. She learned a lot and I had fun just being in the kitchen with her. She is the proud canner of 11 and 1/2 pints of really yummy fresh strawberry jam. Yay Jordyn!



Two years ago she was a huge help when we were doing peaches and tomatoes. I hope she continues to enjoy the kitchen, she is a girl of many talents and she will be a great cook. Quite the student too, so she is good at many things. She was nice to go to Taya's house today to watch Emerson while Taya took Madison and Lauren to see Spiderwick at the Summer Fun Movie Day. I hadn't seen it before, so was pleasantly surprised. Some of the little ones were a little scared though. It was really funny to hear their comments all through the movie.



After the movie I went with Papa to his eye surgery appointment. He did really well and the nurse said everything was very normal with no surprises. He will be a couple of weeks recovering and then will get the other eye done.

I am washing pint jars so I can do some more apricot jam and try out some plum jam. I even got some blueberries to do a couple of jars. I have done them before, but don't really use many blueberries. They are so good in muffins of course, but I don't bake as much as I used to. I know corn is available now as well as green beans and always carrots. They are on my list. Meanwhile, I think “gourmet” hot dogs are on the menu for tonight. It's hard to beat a good hot dog with green chiles on it.

If You Had Asked Me…

If you had asked me even two years ago about bottling jam, I would have said “Heck No”. (I edited for the blog) I am here to say, Never, say Never. After learning to do strawberry jam with Tracy, I have decided it is not only fun, but so easy. I thought it was a lot of work, so never wanted to try it before. Jam is really easy, and I actually like it. I'm not much of a jam eater, but have learned to appreciate the home canned varieties. I was in the kitchen last night getting ready to cook the last batch of Apricot jam and get the jars in to process when Grumpy comes in with the camera. He wanted me to pose with the finished jars that were cooling, so I did. He then comes over, gives me a kiss and says, “You have gone crazy you know!” I know I say, but it makes me feel good to learn to do this and then have the food on the shelf. He gave me a look that at best can be described as “skeptical”, but hey, one man's insanity is another man's therapy. (Or something to that effect). Insanity is contagious as I have done jam with almost everyone in the family at this point. I think it is great. I love that we have fun, get to spend time together and get food in the process. Jacque and Gramma H. have been over to do strawberries and it was good to see them. Jennifer has done strawberries for her and Robert and helped me get going on my Apricot jam last night. Jade and Tawna have a good supply of strawberry jam now, and are looking forward to doing some other flavors, and Taya was the recipient of some of my learning jars. She was busy potty training her Lauren, so I did some canning for her and her family. Potty training is the pits. I know Stacie has an anniversay trip coming up, so I'll have to wait to get her into the kitchen for jam. I have so many things I want to learn to can. We are just learning more with every project. So for now, the insanity/therapy continues.

Good Bye to April…Hello May!

April has been a long month somehow. Not my favorite month this year, although lots of great things happened. Tawna and Nathan celebrated their 15th Anniversary, and managed a cruise to mark the event. They had a great time but I have yet to hear much about it as I haven't had a good talk with Tawna since they got back. Taya and Kevin celebrated their 4th year together. They have had eventful years so I am hoping their lives will calm a bit and they can have a little more peace. We had Easter, birthdays, baptisms, ball games, spring sings and parties. Jamie and Summer have begun a new business, R.B. and his partners are starting a new subsidiary in their business and Robert is striving to do more and more with his. There were the everyday things too. The memory of Nana's last time with us. As I was over at Tracy's learning to make strawberry jam we talked a little bit about our last weeks and months with our Mom. While it is true that if we had known then, what we know now we would have made different decisions, there are no real regrets about the decisions we did make. There is some comfort in knowing we always try to do our best for our families. The time we spend with each other is precious and we need to remember that when we make those everyday choices and endeavor to keep a good balance. Making the jam was a fun day spent with Tracy. I so enjoyed the conversation, and the help to learn how to do such delicious jam. I secretly call Tracy a domestic goddess now as she has learned to do even more wonderful things in the kitchen. I think we are all domestic goddesses as we learn how to do things that will help our families live better, healthier lives. I was so inspired I made even more jam a week later. We may never run out of strawberry jam. I hope she will post her process on Nana's blog so we will have it in the eventual book. Below is one jar of many, and I can't wait to help any of my girls that want to learn. Jade made beautiful bread yesterday, so homemade bread with fresh canned strawberry jam is our treat this week.



April has been both happy and sad and I am glad to bid it farewell. Here's looking forward to May and the many things that will bring for sure. Anyone up for making some jam?

What's That Noise?

I am hearing strange things in the night. Not Emersyn crying though. I was sitting watching TV the other night, and it was fairly late. All of a sudden I hear a loud metallic pop. I thought, wow, that's what a jar sounds like when it is sealing, but a lot louder. I go in to look at the jars of pinto beans I had canned earlier that day, and all was well. They had "pinged” long ago. I glanced over at the jars on the counter that had been done the day before and there it was. I have never heard a jar “un-ping”! The lid was no longer sealed and so the jar of beans was discarded. (Not the jar of course, just the beans). A first for me, so I guess I will be even more careful when washing off the jars after canning. Sometimes the bands are hard to unscrew, so I will be using tap water to soften the bands from now on when doing beans. I don't like noises in the night, especially ones that mess with my food canning. Jade made chili the other night using things we have canned. She used pinto beans, a pint of hamburger, a quart of tomato mix, a fresh onion and some cheese from the fridge. It was really good chili, and nice to eat from the pantry. I hope Tracy will put her delicious white chili on Nana's blog - it too is made from the pantry and is so good. Okay, the last of Tawna's 2 dozen jars of beans are out of the canner. Good night!

Things I Did Today. Being Positive.

Today I got up early today and waited for the Cox repairman to come and figure out why the phones and my TV upstairs is not working. He came about 8:30 and got his exercise in going up and down all the stairs from the basement up to the upstairs to get it all working the way it should. He was really nice. Tawna, Jade and I had started our applesauce project before he left and we threatened to put him to work. He said he had already done his applesauce duty for some friends. They invited him over for drinks and before he knew it he was doing applesauce. See what happens when you mix drinking with home canning projects?

We got the three boxes of apples sauced and into 12 quart containers. We got that mess cleaned up and started to fill and process the applesauce into quart jars for canning. it is 5:30 and we just took the last of 34 jars out of the canners. I guess we have two more boxes of Jonagolds to sauce tomorrow, then 2 boxes of Granny Smith/Red Delicious for pie apples to do. Then the apples are done for a while. Feels good to have that much done.

I went to the cannery the other day to do potato flakes, sugar, black beans, and some other stuff last week. It was fun to work in their new facility and feel like I was doing something to help others. I think I will feel even more productive when I get there on time next time. I got lost and had to call the Bishop's Storehouse for directions. Even as late as I was, I loved being able to go and do labels on the sugar cans.

Now it's time for Pizza and cleaning out the Toy Hauler. Tonight the bed will feel extra good. Maybe tomorrow I can manage doing something with my washed and simply air dried hair that is really scary. Maybe even put real clothes on instead of house dress and no bra. Focusing on the positive, productive things. Tomorrow is another day.

Going Short. Very Short.

I love short hair. It's just so much easier for me, and we all know I love easier. I love the look of long hair, but can't stand the upkeep. At this point in my life I'm just too lazy to want to do it all. I like to get up and go with very little effort. Jade took pity on me today and gave a new look. My hair grows really fast and has gotten way out of control. I'm terrible at getting it cut and colored in a timely fashion. I just keep putting it off until I feel and look like a shaggy dog. No one to blame but myself. She says we aren't finished yet, so I will wait to post my new image. All I know is, I'm already cooler and have less hair in my face. Yay.

A big Thanks to Tracy and Jade for coming to help me can the last four boxes of tomatoes today. After the marathon applesauce day monday I had to take tuesday off. My back was in complete rebellion, so gave in and didn't push it yesterday. Today we got all the tomatoes done for a count of 28 quarts. I had one that didn't seal, (I hate it when that happens), so I decided to make tomato bisque out of it. I got a recipe online and used that for a base. I sort of improvised a bit and told the gang at dinner to critique. Not too bad for a first try, so will work on it a little and refine. I love tomato bisque, so hopefully can get it right. We had grilled cheese sandwiches with it and no one went away from dinner hungry. After a little break at the dunes this weekend, we'll be doing more applesauce next week. A couple more projects after that and the canning goes on hold until after the holidays. I've so enjoyed the company of Tracy and my girls during all this preserving. That has been a most pleasant benefit to all the work involved.

Now off to bed before I can't get up in the morning. Oh, it's already morning. I better sleep fast.

Fruit of the Vine

The tomato mix of onions, garlic, italian parsley, green peppers and celery in Tracy's jars. I omitted the the green peppers and celery from mine because I wanted to use them for soup and chile and I don't put green peppers or celery in either. I can't wait to try it out on something. Thanks Leslie for your recipe and Tracy for sharing.

You live…you learn!

It's Saturday. I have been canning food all week. I get a phone call this morning and Tracy says to me that we may have to process our tomato/veggie mix jars that we put up on Wednesday. In our current state of learn as you go we have learned that when you mix other vegetables with tomatoes you have to process them differently. Tomatoes usually just require a steam canner or a water bath method. Since we don't know how to do the water bath we used the steam canners. Apparently the other veggies we added are not the same, so into the pressure canners all the jars will go today, and then we can feel good about them…again. I am still loving all this canning so I'm thinking there is something seriously wrong with me. Or maybe some of the attraction is spending so much time with my daughters and my sister and that is an excellent benefit. Whatever it is, I am having a lot of fun bottling food this year and actually looking forward to the weeks ahead of more peaches, tomatoes, pears and maybe even apples. My husband may want to buy stock in a jar company. 

Now I have to get the pantry cleaned out and that doesn't sound like nearly as much fun. Tsk, Tsk. Thanks Tracy for continuing to read and going online to find out about the safeguards. Now we will get down to the task of fixing the tomato mix and it will still be awesome.

Everything is just peachy

Peaches are everywhere. Got jars, got peaches, got ’em canned for the pantry. I love seeing the “fruits of my labor” on the pantry shelf. Of course the farmers that grew them get a little credit. After smooshing through the first two boxes with Grumpy, I was kind of dreading the last two boxes. I've always done the following process:

• Wash the peaches
  
• Fill a stockpot with water to blanch the peaches (this loosens the skin so it comes off easily.)
  
• Dump into cold water
  
• Cut the peaches in half so we can pull out the pit and scrape out where the pit was.
  
• Put them into the solution of whitening so they don't go brown
  
• Rinse them and put them in a container with a lid
  
• Prepare the jars and a light sugar syrup
  
• Fill the jars
  
• Wipe the rims, put on the lids
  
• Process the jars in the canner
  

The problem was getting the pits out this year. Even though we have the freestone variety, the pits were just not coming out without smooshing the peaches all up. My brother Bob suggested we cut them in half before we blanched them so we could twist them off the pit (like you do on avocados). Duh. Why didn't I think of that? Wow. I can't even tell you how much easier that was. When you cut them first, pit them and then blanch them you don't have to do any scraping, there's no smooshing and you get beautiful halves. After blanching the skins just about fall off. So wonderful. I actually enjoyed the last two boxes and am looking forward to tomatoes next week. Out of four 32 lb. boxes I have 55 quarts. Enough for a quart a week for a year with a few more to add to a cobbler now and then. Makes for a beautiful pantry. Out to Taya's next week to do a few for her and Tawna's pantries. Stacie is really good with all this too - she and Tawna helped me so much last year. We'll have to get hers done next week too so she can really enjoy her cruise. We even muddled through a lot of apples last year. Not my favorite. I'll have to see if Bobby has any ideas to make apples easier. I love working on this stuff. Good times.