Today was canning day. In the morning I prepared Christmas Pepper Jelly from the book Putting Up by Steve Dowdney (I found it here). The ingredients are pictured above, but I ended up doubling the recipe and instead of using red pepper flakes I used one quarter of a hot pepper (don’t ask me which one – I just know it was red, the size of one of the green peppers above!). It came out delicious, with a hint of pepper as opposed to super hot as I think it would have turned out had I used 2 tablespoons of red pepper flakes.
The green peppers are from the garden on my deck. I think I may be making green pepper jelly next as I have a few more growing.
Next, my friend Sue gave me a bunch of tomatoes from her garden. Since they were very ripe there was no way we could eat them quickly. So, I made tomato marmalade. The boys and I have been breathing air filled with cloves and allspice all afternoon. How sweet!
I don’t know about you but when I spend the day canning I don’t feel like cooking dinner. I have peeled, chopped, stirred, washed dishes a couple of times, cleaned the counter…
Sapphire is looking at me as if she were grateful she does not depend on my cooking to get her dinner. Kids are happy they will get pizza tonight.
In the meantime, within 24 hours both the pepper jelly and the tomato marmalade jars will be ready to be decorated. I will get to play with fabric again!
