Monday, June 26, 2006

*jams!*

Two posts in less than 12 hours. Be still my heart. Actually, I'd settle for some sleep. See, when it gets fairly warm here (it was over 90 I think yesterday?), I have issues with sleeping. Add to this activities yesterday that raised the temp in my apartment by about ten degrees and, well. I went to sleep at 12:30 this morning, and woke up at 2:05am, never to get back to sleep. And unfortunately, I couldn't go crash out in the cooler room in the back, because my brother is here for a week or so, sleeping on the couch.

Some days, there is not enough coffee in all the world.

Anyway, here's what I was up to yesterday.

Has anyone who reads this actually had gooseberries? I haven't. I don't know what possessed me to buy two quarts of them at the farmer's market yesterday, except that I don't think I've ever actually seen them before in person. They're *fuzzy*! And plump and green and OMG tart! Note the spiffy new food processor (there's a blender part that goes on the base too...yay CostCo!), the first small batch and the rest waiting to visit The Blades of Smooshingness.

This is after I started processing the first batch. Canning is, in no real way shape or form a fast activity. Washing, stemming (is that an actual activity?), prepping the jars, and lids, etc. Anyway, after it was all said and done, I had seven half-pint jars here after their water bath.

It's a bit dark, considering how vibrantly green the berries were to start. I used the cane sugar you get at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's rather than bust open the enormous bag of granulated sugar I bought at the store yesterday. I'm not even really sure what this is going to taste like - I was so tired after a day filled with activities (not really by my choice...what is it with my siblings that they must GO GO GO all the time?) and dehydrating other fruits in Arthur, the new Excalibur food dehydrator, that I just wanted to get it done so I could sleep.

The irony, it burns.

Anyway. I was jammin' yesterday. And I will likely jam today, after I get some sleep. There's four quarts of strawberries slowly turning to ooze in my kitchen, and they need to be dealt with STAT.