Busy, busy day

I had some peaches in my fridge that HAD to be taken care of today, so out they came.  I tasted one and even though I love sour things, and can even eat a lemon without flinching, when it comes to peaches, I want them sweet and juicy, and dripping down my chin.  Since these were not sweet, I decided to make syrup.  Usually it doesn’t take much sugar to make a fruit syrup, since usually the fruit contains enough natural sugar itself.  These needed extra sugar. Okay, so I do as much of my cooking as I can in my crock pot.  I also love my food processor.  And to keep the peaches from turning dark I cut them up and put them in water with lemon juice.  Sounds yummy already, right?  NOT!

What you see here is the syrup after I added the simple syrup of water and sugar.  I used the lemon water and added the sugar to that and brought it to a boil so the sugar would melt, then poured it in the peach puree, turned the crock pot on high, and let it cook most of the day.  That shiny stuff around it is a liner.  I’ll admit it–I hate washing dishes.  Have to keep these hands beautiful, ya know?  A few tastes later told me the sugar content was fine, and it just needed to cook down to a syrupy texture.  Now let’s see if I can get the after picture in here in the right place.  I’m betting I can’t. I guess I lost that bet.  Good thing I didn’t put any money against myself, huh?  So, I got 8 half pint jars and 2 pint jars, plus one salsa jar I had saved because I just can’t bring myself to throw glass jars away.  That one is in the fridge to be used immediately.  If I had known there would be that much I would have prepped another pint jar, but whoda thunk it?

I’m a little bit more confident now about my ability to add pictures where I want them, so in a minute I’ll add another one.  I grated the last bar of soap in the homemade laundry detergent I started making last week, and mentioned to Gina that all I needed now were jars to put it in. She knows my record when it comes to dropping things, so she suggested I put it in freezer bags.  That way when I drop one, and I probably will drop one, I won’t break any glass and cut my feet.  I may be teetering on the edge of the grave, but I still like to go barefoot at home.  And I’ve broken a lot of dishes, and imbedded a lot of glass in those bare feet, so this is an ingenious idea.  I knew there was a good reason to send that little girl to college.  Isn’t she smart?

After I got my detergent bagged, and my syrup was still cooking, I watched TV for a change.  I very seldom do that, but today I wanted to knit for a while, and I needed something going on in the background while I knitted.  I’ve been making ruffled scarves for several months to donate to my Alma Mater for their annual picnic, and some I’ll keep for myself and some might show up as Christmas gifts, but I still have a lot more to make.  It gets addictive after a while.  I’ve even sold a few of them.  Back to the subject now.  I made three of them while I watched some really old TV shows from the ’50’s, ’60’s, and maybe the ’70’s.  Some were black and white — the shows, not the scarves, and some were the early color.  A few even broke in the middle.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, er, I mean apartment, everything was finished up and I celebrated by having some bread, butter and peach syrup for dinner.  That fairy hasn’t put anything ready to eat in my refrigerator yet!  I do have some ingredients out to start making summer sausage in a few days, after it all thaws.  And after I find the recipe again.  Until then though, I’ll have to break down and actually cook something tomorrow.

A.

 

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