It is much warmer here this morning, 54° compared to 43° yesterday. The high is supposed to be around 70°.
The question now is what on earth was I thinking........way too many beans.
After cooking the cores and peelings until they were soft, I drained all the juice from them using my hands to gently press in the colander. I ended up with 7 cups of juice, exactly what the jelly recipe calls for.
I did use some old pectin just because I had it, but I don't think I would have needed it. It sure speeds up the process though.
I pressed the remaining mass through my food mill and got 48 oz. of nice sauce or pulp. I used an equal amount of sugar and added some cinnamon and cloves and began cooking it down in the much used maslin pan. I probably reduced it by half.
I decided to make the jelly even though it was getting pretty late in the day.
Here is what I ended up with from the 'waste' of the peels apples:
Yesterday turned out to be a very long day.
First I researched and found that the vanilla beans store the longest in an air-tight container in a cool, dark place.
I realized that the came in a vacuum sealed bag so I did the same thing. I used the Food Saver and froze 12 beans to a pack. I bought so many because of the price break and the fact that I had points on my Amazon credit card that paid for the entire order. I didn't even know I was accumulating points....what fun!
The question now is what on earth was I thinking........way too many beans.
After cooking the cores and peelings until they were soft, I drained all the juice from them using my hands to gently press in the colander. I ended up with 7 cups of juice, exactly what the jelly recipe calls for.
I did use some old pectin just because I had it, but I don't think I would have needed it. It sure speeds up the process though.
I pressed the remaining mass through my food mill and got 48 oz. of nice sauce or pulp. I used an equal amount of sugar and added some cinnamon and cloves and began cooking it down in the much used maslin pan. I probably reduced it by half.
I decided to make the jelly even though it was getting pretty late in the day.
Here is what I ended up with from the 'waste' of the peels apples:
Right in the middle of the jelly-making, our new neighbor stopped by to see if a stray cat that had wandered to their place and stayed was one of ours.We invited her in and she followed me into the kitchen. I wish you could have seen the mess! If you have ever canned or make jelly, you know what I mean.
She sat down and stayed for two hours....she's a talker and so am I and sometimes DH, so we enjoyed it.
I didn't even care about me mess but it was distracting trying to finish the jelly! I ened up with not sealing a few jars and will store it in the extra fridge.
It was 8 PM when she left. Her husband actually drove up looking for her! She is maybe a little younger than our daughter and has the charm of the South. I didn't notice an accent though. Maybe not far enough south.
They are from Raleigh, NC. but she grew up in Maryland.
I did a cursory cleanup and quit for the day.
