Another absence...

Its been almost officially a week since my last post. I apologize for the absence. Things have been more than a little hectic with Christmas fast approaching and we are still adjusting to my mother in law living with us. There is still no definite time line on that which makes things tough at times. I also have been dealing with some bad news from my 'home' in New Hampshire. As of today, actually 2 pieces of bad news. Its always hard to hear about family issues when you are so far away and feel like there is nothing you can do. So, I needed to take a little break.

I have been trying to be as productive as possible during my down time, however. My husband has tried to keep me occupied so we spent 3 consecutive nights making jelly.

Here are our little jars all lined up and ready to go.

We will be buying a pressure canner soon, but this one does just fine for our jellies.

This night, we made Mayhaw Jelly, which is actually a state food of Louisiana. (I just learned that today on Jeopardy) The great thing was that a friend of my husband's gave us the mayhaw juice, so that eliminated my least favorite step. But, we had 2 nights of making blueberry jelly. And, we still have a ton of frozen blueberries in the freezer. We ran out of jars, or we might still be canning.

Jelly making was our first attempt at canning and we have done really well. We are even planting extra tomatoes in our garden to try putting them up. We think we are up for the additional challenge.

Do you do any preserving? If so, what? Any tips you'd like to share?

I will be posting in the morning. I am trying to work on new recipes so hopefully I will be having more to share soon.

Happy Holidays!!!!!