A good start.....

....to the season. Last night I decided to finally make the blueberry jam. I know that you all are probably tired of seeing and reading about blueberries so this is the last post for a while I promise. Well.....at least until we go back again. :)

Night productivity

I get bored at night sometimes. I am a night owl but there are some nights when there really isn't that much to do. Tonight was one of those nights. So what did I do? I made grape jelly using this recipe. I processed it in my water bath canner to make it shelf stable and now I have 4 jars of grape jelly just waiting for hungry little munchkins. I love the feeling that comes with making your own food. ( Even if this recipe was kinda cheating.)

Canning bread

I decided tonight that nothing was going to stop me from making the canned quick bread. So I bought the few things I needed that I didn't have and set to work. My neighbor came over and we made them after the kids were down. Originally I was going to make the pumpkin version but that fell through when I realized the store sold her a can of pumpkin that expired last summer. So we did the cranberry version instead. I haven't tasted them yet but they sealed perfectly!!

We really enjoyed making them and plan on doing many more in the near future. I found the post here and followed her link to the original post. I LOVE finding stuff like this online.

ETA: We tasted a jar this morning and it was great! The kids ate a whole jar of it for breakfast.

Breakfast

:Toast with homemade blueberry jelly:

As I am typing this the kids are asking for seconds. I think that is the seal of approval. :)

YIPPEE!!

I am tickled pink to share this post with you. Yesterday I did something that I never thought I would actually learn to do. Not only did I learn it....I rocked it. So what did I do that makes me so giddy with happiness?? I CANNED!!! That is right people. I made and preserved food. Can I get a WAHOO!?! My friend called me the other day and asked if I wanted to make blueberry jelly with her. I have not been to the blueberry farm yet so she said I could just give her some back when I go.

I of course accepted and so off the kids and I went. They played and we made jelly and looked through my friends master canning book. In the end we made blueberry jelly, apple cinnamon syrup and plum jelly. They turned out fantastic. The plum jelly had been made the other day and we knew it was great so we made some more. It was already about 9:00p.m when we got the plum out of the pot and it still had to cool. It is an hour drive home for us so my friend gave me her half pints of already done plum jelly to take home instead of waiting 3 hours for the new to cool.

Blueberry jelly in the beginning stages.


Blueberry jelly cooling.



Everything that we made yesterday.

My half of the goods. 3 blueberry jelly pint jars, 3 syrup pint jars and 4 half pint plum jelly jars. Serious goodness.

I still cannot believe that we did it! We have BIG plans for the summer. Now the problem is that I do not think I can eat these. They are way too pretty. Oh and the blueberry jelly is so good that I caught Macie with her whole hand in a jar we had open with a little leftover that did not make it to canning. It really is that good. She was licking it off her hand because she could not find a spoon. :)