Adventures in canning

The canning inspiration bug has hit me hard.  And there is only 1 person/blog to blame... Dig this chick.  I think I may actually have a girl crush on her.  She is like that super cool senior that is so pulled together and hip and can do no wrong, while you are sporting stringy hair and the ugly pale brown corduroys that you mom makes you wear.

Anyways, I digress.  Back to the canning adventure.  So after reading Nici's blog, I was inspired to try my hand at peach butter.  White peaches were on sale for 58 cents a pound...awesome!  Oh yeh, I got some plums too.  But more on that later. After packing up the mini cooper with peaches, dusting off my huge stock pot, and giving myself a "you can do this" pep talk, I fired up the gas stove and got to work.

First I hot flashed the peaches in boiling water, followed by an ice bath, in order to easily remove the skins.  Then I removed the pits and threw the peaches into a pot.  So far so good.  I am feeling confident.  Then you are supposed to bring to boil and add sugar.  I added a little extra something too... lavender.  Anyways, after it boils, you bring the heat down to a simmer and let the peaches cook for 10 minutes, puree them, and then let them cook for an hour or so more.  So I did all this, but at an hour, my peaches were still very runny.  Delicious, but runny.  So I turned up the heat and let cook for another hour and a half.  I finally got a good consistency.

But holy smack, the house was hot and both Little B and I were sweating like crazy.  And I am not talking about a little bit of cute perspiration.  Oh no, we were disgusting.  Note to self, canning is rough business in the Texas heat.  And the kitchen... well that looked like a peach tornado hit it.  Little B probably had little pieces of pureed peach in her hair.  But hey, at least she smelled good and had something delicious to munch on while watching her mom make a total mess. 

So we wrapped up the job... sterilized the jars, loaded them up with peach buttery goodness, and put them into the boiling water canner.  I felt so proud as I heard each of the lids pop signaling canning success.

Look at these beauties.  I am so excited.  I feel like I has just been initiated into a super-exclusive, kick-ass canning club.  Maybe my stringy hair isn't so stringy today.  And those brown corduroy pants, well, maybe I actually look pretty fabulous after all.