Sunday, July 8, 2012

July 8th - Summer Bounty & an anniversary, too

Yesterday was our 5th wedding anniversary.  It was a quiet day & since it was Saturday - off to the Farmer's Market I went.  This week I was disappointed that there weren't any "new" fruits, but I'd seen a recipe in the Ball Blue Book for Blueberry Currant jam & when the "honey" lady had red currants again -- I bought a couple of boxes.  Making anything with currants seems to always involve cooking & putting through the food mill.  In the past my food mill was pulled off the shelf in the basement for 3 specific things - applesauce, tomatoes for sauce & for pureeing the cottage cheese in the cheesecake recipe that I make.  Now my food mill is getting extra work because of the red currants.  The recipe said that the yield was 2 pints.  Since I make jam in 1/2 pint containers I wasn't going to go through that muh work to make just 4 jars.  Doubling was the path I took [& I NEVER double jam recipes].  This recipe had you cook the blueberries with a little water, cook the currants with a little water, send the currants/juice through the food mill & add to the blues & cook some more.  Finally - time to add the sugar & ................. cook for 20 more minutes while stirring so it doesn't stick/scorch.  This recipe has no added pectin so you're really cooking off all that water you added at the beginning.  My double recipe took 40 minutes of stirrring, but the jam is lovely.  I'm not sure how many palates will taste the currants, but I  know that the juice is in there.
My friend that learned how to make strawberry jam on Friday was making blueberry jelly on Friday night.  I've never made jelly - I like the pieces of fruit, but she has requests for jellies & off she went.  I know that she's planning for Xmas gifts - wouldn't you love to receive jelly when it's cold outside & you can close your eyes & taste the summer blueberries on your toast?  What a GREAT gift.
This morning I'm headed up to my scraproom to finish up 2 travel journals that are on their way to Iceland via California ;-)  I made several travel journals when we went on our transatlantic cruise last year & one of the women has asked me to make them for her daughter's trip next week.  I wanted to finish them earlier, but between work & jam-making here I am.  They are so much fun to make & I can say that when I look back at the one that I completed during our trip [the goal here is to bring it wih you & finish it as you go - at the very most ~> adding photos after you get back, but not recreating the trip afterwards].  For me - it's more about the silly little things that happen that I record at the time.  If I waited - I'd forget about the individual events.
Soooo - another busy day.  Time for the first cup off coffee ...

2 comments:

  1. Hi Kim,
    I just love your blogs as they are so full of excitement on what you are going to be doing next or where you will go... I live each day like this too i love to meet new people and talk with them as you learn a lot about life that way. do you by chance know Mary Cassidy from MA?

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  2. Mary Cassidy from Mass. is one of my best friends. She is our youngest daughter's godmother ;-) Small world. Thanks for your kind words. I was hesitant about blogging since I have such trouble uploading photos, but I always have LOTS to chat about & decided to at least get some words out there. The pics will eventually get there ~ Have a wonderful week!

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