Oh, the agony of de feet...and de hand...and de back....
Been fooling with fruit and vegetables today.
Netted 13 cute little half-pint jars of peach jam (laced with Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey), and as many jars of blackberry jelly. The blackberry jelly might not set. Operator error. Technical malfunction.
Note to the unsuspecting: When you're using Sure-Jell fruit pectin, the Sure-Jell goes in at the beginning of the cooking process; you boil it, and the sugar goes in at the end. When you're using Certo, it's the other way around; the sugar goes in first, and the Certo goes in at the end. This reversal in procedure is not immediately obvious from casual glances at the instructions on both products.
I cannot yet vouch for what happens when you discover this after you've already added one pack of Certo to a double batch, then added the sugar, boiled it, then added the other pack of Certo at the end. Right now, it's looking like I might end up with blackberry syrup instead of jelly, but let's give it a couple of weeks before we call it.
Another note to the unsuspecting: just because your big pan holds a double batch of peach jam without boiling over doesn't mean it'll hold a double batch of blackberry jelly without boiling over.
I started and ended this day with green beans. Picked them this morning - almost a whole water-bath canner full. Took me two hours. When I put the last batch of jelly in the canner, I started working on the beans. It took me another two hours to wash and snap them. I would have liked to have canned them tonight, but that would take another hour, and I just ain't got it in me.
While I worked in the kitchen today, The Husband assumed responsibility for the grouting of the shower tile. We'd bought two bags of grout. About halfway through the job, he opened the second bag and while mixing it noticed that it seemed to be a slightly different color. He checked the labels, and, sure enough, we'd bought two different colors instead of two of the same color. It was about 5 p.m. when he made this discovery. It would take an hour to get more, and he'd be plumb out of the mood (read "plumb stove up") by the time he'd get back with it. We agreed that we should just STOP for the day, clean ourselves up, go get the grout, and take ourselves to dinner.
But I left the kitchen a mess. We set about cleaning it up when we got home. Pots and pans piled as high in the sink as they could pile. Sticky purple stuff everywhere from when the double batch of blackberry jelly boiled over. Wiped up all that mess, and turned around, and there sat the green beans. "No way," I said to them. "I'll deal with your butts tomorrow." I picked up the big old pan they were in and took it to the refrigerator...and, of course, the refrigerator was way too full to accommodate the pan, which meant we had to clean off a shelf, all the way to the fur-lined containers in the back.
The Husband is now in his recliner, washing down ibuprofen tablets with beer, icing down his carpal tunnel hand after his encounter with the grout float. Tomorrow night, after he grouts his way down to the floor, he'll probably need ice on his knees, too.
As for me, I'm going to bed, if I can walk the 14 steps it'll take to get there.
P.S. - The shower is looking good. Another month, and we'll have this thing licked. ;)
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