Canned Laughter

I‘m often asked what the difference is between fruit spreads. What makes a jelly a jelly and not a jam? Is a preserve the same thing as a fruit butter? Here is a quick guide to fruit spreads to make your shopping easier and hopefully inspire you to make one at home.

Jelly: The Queen of [...]

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Easter is over, you were careful to keep the children’s Easter eggs refrigerated for safety, and now you have four dozen gorgeous Easter Eggs in your fridge.  How in the world are you going to be able to use them all before they go bad?* Before you sigh thinking of endless egg salad sandwich lunches, [...]

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Pie Pumpkins.  Sugar Pumpkins.  Baby Pumpkins.  Field Pumpkins.  Bush Pumpkins.  Luxury Pumpkins. Buckskin Pumpkins.  Whatever you call them, now is the time to get your hands on sweet little baking pumpkins before they disappear again.  Below are two ways to save that fresh fall goodness.
Canning Pumpkin
UPDATED!
From the University of GA:
Canning pumpkin butter or mashed or [...]

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Although the cherry tomatoes in my garden have been producing fabulously, the regular tomatoes haven’t given me a single fruit.  At this point all I can do is fantasize about putting up yummy whole tomatoes.  So, for those of you who are more fortunate, here’s a quick tutorial on putting up summer ‘maters.
There are three [...]

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When it comes to eggs, I am persnickety about freshness and I hope you are, too.  According to the CDC, “Salmonella enteritidis silently infects the ovaries of healthy appearing hens and contaminates the eggs before the shells are formed.”  That means there is no way of knowing if that perfectly formed completely intact egg with [...]

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I love my food processor.
When the very first one came out I HAD to have it.  Do you remember the siren’s call of La Machine…whirr… La Machine…Whirr!…La Machine by Moulinex?  They were ghastly expensive, but my parents gave in and bought me one for my seventeenth birthday.  Ooo La La!  It was amazing!  I’m [...]

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You’ve followed all the instructions and your hot jars are sitting picturesquely on a thick dishtowel awaiting their final touches. What do you do now?  Absolutely nothing!  After processing, leave your jars untouched for 12 hours.  I mean it ladies, no picking them up to admire, no swirling them about and absolutely no tightening of the [...]

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Whoo! It’s hot and dry here but there are cool things happening.
First, Giveaways!

Ree is giving away You’re Not The Only One- Intimate stories from the Internet edited by Sarah J Peach.  A very cool book for a very worthy cause. Enter at My Life As A Hotfessional.
Blissfully Domestic online magazine is giving away a great big [...]

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Spouse liked the Icicle Pickles I made for him back in May.  He liked the novelty of mustard pickles as a change but he really is tasting dill pickles now.  I was sort of hoping to put off making dillies since it is a hassel messing with slake lime or alum, and brineing for weeks, [...]

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I get lots of questions about what exactly do I can and how.  This week I’m going to try something new: a tip of the week for home preserving.  I figure with the cost of gas and groceries and the renewed popularity of green home Victory Gardens, we can all use tips on how to [...]

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