WE HAVE JAM!!!

I bet this picture looks familiar.  That's because every single morning, we HAVE to sit on the couch together.  He follows me around like ... well ... a puppy dog until I sit down and he gets to snuggle.  I can't say NO. 

By 6:00 I was outside in the garden picking another batch of tomatoes.  Supply will dwindle now since the big winds we had on Saturday broke a couple of branches, in spite of the tomato cages.  It's interesting to note that the epsom salts are working.  These are the sweetest ones I've tasted since they began to ripen.

Then it was on to berry smashing.  Such a fun job!  If those look like whole berries in the bottom, they are.  I left two of the six baskets whole for texture.  The gloves work great, but apparently I needed one for my head.  Parts of my hair are now purple, along with red freckles all over my face.  

I measured a little better this time and dumped in two boxes of Sure-Jel, stirring like crazy before adding the sugar.  A boiling we will go over a gas burner, the heat of which cooked my right hand.  I quickly learned to stir left handed.

I could tell instantly that it was thicker ... not quite so runny ... and poured it into the jars.  That's when I brought out the BIG GUNS.  This is my pressure canner from back in the day.  It's cooked hundreds of cans of tuna and salmon from my days on the Northern California coast.  People would come to visit and ask for canned tuna and crab before they even said hello.

In this instance however, there's no pressure involved.  It's all just boiling water bath.  Twelve jars went in, and luckily twelve jars came out.

Let the popping begin!!  It began as soon as they hit the towel and finished in 30 minutes.  As they cool, the little bump in the lid snaps down, meaning they are sealed tightly.  Anyone who cans food, loves that sound.

Time for the taste test.  YUP ... it's jam alright ... and mighty tasty on a piece of Hero bread.  MUCH better than boysenberry syrup.  Unfortunately, I still have THREE more batches to make.  The jars should be delivered today.

That was followed up by air frying a rack of bacon.  I forgot how much this makes the house smell.  This morning it was grease city.

Good thing I like bacon and tomato tortillas.  That's mozzarella on the bottom since I needed to use it up.  Waste not, want not.  Along with salad since I had no cabbage.  Yup this is how I eat.  Whatever I can find in the fridge gets thrown on the pile.  I really do try to plan ahead, but it never seems to work out.

Dinner came quickly, mostly because I crashed on the couch.  Though it doesn't seem like a lot of work making jam, I guess it adds up.  Once again, dinner was what I could find in the fridge that was about to go bad.  That would be all the squash I have picked over the last two days.  

Someone mentioned barbecuing it.  I remember many moons ago on a diving expedition to Lake Tahoe, they barbecued zucchini.  YUM!  Of course I had no idea how to do it, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.  

I put a little oil on it, along with four different spices, to see which one I liked the best.  What a mess!  I'm guessing that first off, I had the heat a little too high, with too little oil because they stuck like glue.

Dinner is served!!  What a hot mess!!  A little meat would have been nice, but this filled me up.   The zucchini was terrific ... the yellow squash, not so much.  The centers were overdone and the ends tough to chew.  I'll have to come up with some other way to cook the yellows.

That was it for the day.  I fell exhausted into bed and slept reasonably well.  Today will be another whirlwind of jam making if the jars arrive in time.  I really need to get it done before the berries lose their flavor.

I'll be in the kitchen .........