First up, pressure canning! I've always been interested in canning, but I was thinking more soups, chilis and stews rather than jams and jellies. When you make soups and stews yourself, they are just so much better for you - you can do low salt and lower fat - and know everything that is in there. But, in order to can 'low acid' foods like that, you need a pressure canner. I wasn't sure that I wanted to make an investment like that, but I finally took the leap. And what a success it was.
I made baked beans from scratch (which I'd never done before either). Those alone took me a total of 11 hours (thankfully not an attended 11 hours! but soaking the beans, and then cooking). Then, you need to prepare the cans (pretty much just throw them in the dishwasher) and finally do the actual canning. I found it takes a bit of fussing to get the pressure right in the can, but I have an electric stove. I'm guessing it would be a heck of a lot easier with gas heat. Anyway a total success.
Last night, I was having trouble sleeping. Besides making baked beans, I started obsessing about starting a lace project. After winding up a hand of Lorna's Lace and then some Claudia hand painted 100% silk... and then admittedly casting on for JunoRegina with that Claudia silk.... I came to my senses and picked up the Cabled Wrap. The one that has been a WIP for almost a year now:
I'm probably over 60% done with this... I need to just finish it! It's Blue Sky Alpaca.... soft and wonderful, and I know I will love wearing it when it's done.
Knit on!
3 comments:
what a lovely cable that is. You can prepare the jars in the dishwasher? Man, why didn't I know that before? I could have been making pickles all this time!
I used to can jams, mostly blueberry and blackberry. I didn't know that about the jars either; I always boil them.
That is a beautiful wrap, and I love the color (it's just red enough for me).
I agree you are totalling missing your true calling of being a stay at home housewife. Well that might just change once you have little ones running around. Your canning looks pretty good, so does the cable wrap.
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