Cherry Jam

A-ha.  I did it.  I completed one of my July goals already!  Perhaps it was the embarrassment of not accomplishing any of my June goals ... whatever the reason, I took the cherries we had picked up while in the Okanagan this past long weekend and I made cherry jam from them.  The trip back Monday was quite hot and the cherries didn't fare well.  Out of an 18-lb box I only managed to save 3-lbs for the jam.  However, that gave me 7 1/2 250ml jars of lovely, sweet and slightly chunky jam.

To start, I couldn't find my canners.  I was also a little worried about using the old black-speckled enamel canners on the ceramic stovetop.  I decided I would go out and get a new stainless steel canner with a glass-top lid.  a 7 jar canner didn't sound too big ... although the box it came in was quite large.  When I got it home and opened it up I understood ... it was big.  Huge.  I had read that canners shouldn't exceed the ceramic stove top element by more than 1" on any side which meant my largest element, at 9" could take a canner of 11" across.  This stainless steel canner was 14", nearly 15" across!  Still, I thought as long as I left the canner aligned on one edge it could "hang" off the other side. (The worry of size has to do with heat build-up and either cracking the surface or damaging the element itself.)  I put the rack in, started pouring water in, and put the element on high.  Once it was full I put in the jars to be sterilized and placed the glass lid on.  It was nice to be able to see in without raising the lid.  This, unfortunately, made it easier to see that the water would never come to a boil.  It did get hot enough to sterilize the jars ... but no rolling boil.  So I hefted the thing over to the other side of the stove.  Ugh.

I had read some people used a regular stock pot and placed stones on the bottom (the rack normally used in a canner keeps the jars off the bottom and boiling water circulating around the jars which is required to heat the contents of the jars to the appropriate temperatures).  I went outside and picked out stones from around our front stoop.  I put them in my stock pot, rinsed them, and then boiled them in fresh water for 20 minutes to help sterilize them a bit (I wasn't sure where they had been, right?!).  Then I drained them off and put fresh water in, and set a light boil for the canning step.

Here you can see from left to right:  jam making (with pot behind warming the lids), stock pot with those rocks, and the big new stainless steel canner (big right?!).

I went through the rest of the recipe, making the jam, steaming the lids to soften the rim, and getting things ready for filling.  Once I had filled the jars, and placed lids on, I started putting them in the stock pot.  Another problem ... they tipped, they tottered ... they simply didn't want to stand up.  Those rocks weren't flat or stable at all.  I tried my best to keep them somewhat erect and proceeded to process them.  When I took them out and placed them on the counter they all popped nicely, but I did notice that the water looked pink.  The lids were definitely on properly, but I could see that some siphoning had occurred.  I thought about re-processing them, but read conflicting things about whether it was necessary or not.  The following day I tested the seals and they seemed impossible to pry off without a bottle opener.

Aren't they pretty?  I opened one to test the contents.  Verdict?  Goooood :)

Goals for July

After my complete failure over my June goals I'm scaling back considerably.  How about a balance between self-goals, and some around-the-house goals?

Goal #1 - I happened upon the Fast Diet while perusing the PBS shop.  I decided to do some Googling to see what others had to say about it.  Interesting ... the idea is to fast 2-3 times a week, but never back-to-back.  For instance, you might fast Monday and Thursday (or in my case, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).  On your fasting days you eat 500-600 per day.  The other days you eat normally - to figure out what "normal" is for you use the on-line calculator to figure out your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).  I'm on a fasting day today.  Since I've decided to jump start my diet with three days of fasting each week I've allowed myself 600 calories a day on my fasting days.  On my non-fasting days I'll incorporate exercising to up the calorie expenditure.  Between fasting and exercising I'm hoping to lose 1-2 pounds per week.  My Fast Diet experiment will be a self-goal.

Goal #2 - To finish two books I've been reading for a few weeks.  Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw is a great read.  I'm thoroughly enjoying it.  I love reading his views on food and the food industry.  Joel Bakan's Childhood Under Siege is a real eye-opener.  This book exposes how Big Business is targeting our children - making addicts and over-consummators out of them before they even start school.  It's making me really understand TV, video, electronic games, and toys.  I'm thinking hard when I let Walter use/watch them and talking to him on an ongoing basis so he can understand what Big Business is trying to do to him.  I don't expect him to fully understand immediately - it'll be an on-going process - but I think it's an important life lesson.  So another self-goal.

Goal #3 - The cute curtains I sewed for Walter when we lived in the townhouse just aren't cutting it anymore.  First, they are a little too narrow for his current bedroom.  Second, being predominantly yellow, they are letting in too much light.  This might be OK in the winter when it gets dark early, but right now in the peak of summer the long days are creating havoc on bedtime routines (who wants to go to bed when it's still light out, right?!).  I told him I wanted to make new curtains for his bedroom.  He immediately said he wanted frog curtains.  I'm sure I can find something.  If I can't get thick enough fabric, I can back the material to create enough thickness to create a darker window covering.  I'll also do some research to understand the principles of black-out curtains.  This is an around-the-house goal.

Goal #4 (how did I manage to get 4 goals???) - It's the height of fresh fruit and vegetables.  I'm going to do some canning.  Right now we have some cherries that don't have much time left on them ... cherries are notorious for going bad quickly.  I have two ideas for this:  1. Cherry Jam, and 2. Cherries in Light Syrup.  I'd also like to try canning tomatoes - sauce, salsa, and crushed.  This is another around-the-house goal.

To Start - Since I have some cherries in the house I'm going to start with Cherry Jam to try to get one goal checked off right away.  Tomorrow I'll shop for material for the curtains.

June Goals - Recap

My goals for June were obviously too much for me.  There was a lamp, curtains, garage sale/craiglisting, and a little crafty project.  I managed to do ... none.  :(

I started off OK - I sanded the lamp base to roughen up the shiny surface so that I could spray a new colour (white).  That went OK.  I then sprayed a thin primer coat to cover the beige colour.  I let that dry and sprayed a few thin coats of the new white colour.  That went fine.  I let it sit overnight and then tipped it sideways so that I could get the bottom and edge covered.  I let that dry and then stood it back up.  A sprayed another thin coat.  That's when I saw it.  A strange, crinkly spot.  Well, actually two crinkly spots.  I told Manuel about it and he immediately knew the cause.  I had touched the lamp with my hands.  Even though I thought my hands were clean he said the natural oils from my hands had transferred to the lamp and when I sprayed another coat the oil and paint created a funky crinkly look.  Which might be fine all over, but just too odd spots ... well, it looks bad.

This side looks OK.

However, when you turn it ...

Ugly crinkly paint.  So sad.  That failure burst my bubble and I put the project aside.

The rest of the goals just never happened.  What with Walter's birthday to organize, end of school events, and getting ready for a small trip to the Okanagan for Manuel's mothers 80th birthday ... I ran out of energy and time.

Bad me.  But that's life.