Recovering slowly...

...from an intensive week and a half of canning, drying, preserving etc. Unfortunately this coincided with hot and humid weather, so I was essentially sweating nonstop, taking time out to shower and go to work, pick up the kids, and then return to the stove. But the results are beyond satisfying: jars and jars of dried apples, peach salsa, tomato sauce, smoked tomato puree, nectarine chutney, pickled beets. What a thrill. The beets are particularly delicious -- I adapted from Rick's Picks, which I'd tasted at the Union Square Greenmarket. I used half white vinegar and half lemon juice for the pickling liquid, and then put a strip of lemon peel and a sprig of rosemary in each jar before adding the liquid and canning. I cannot express how delicious these are.

Less thrilling was the outcome of K's sweater. I finally finished seaming it on last night as we were watching the Emmys (a complete waste of time; I don't understand my love of awards shows, since they so often disappoint. Even -- dare I say it? -- the Oscars), and had K try it on. The sleeves were perfect, which had been my major worry about it, but the body was about 5 inches too short. I have no idea how this happened, but it was hilarious when K tried it on and it hung jauntily at mid-rib. After I recovered from uproarious laughter, I had to come up with a solution that did not include undoing the whole thing, which would have been much too discouraging. So now I have had to pick up stitches from the bottom cast-on row, something I've never done before, and knit down. It actually looks fine, and is not a significant amount of work, but I had really hoped to be finished with it yesterday. My hope is to have completed it by the end of this week, which seems manageable, before The Knitting Ladies convene next Monday.

Canning and Reeling

My oh my, this week is turning into a maelstrom of activity (interrupted by a nasty stomach bug that interfered significantly with my ability to even face the kitchen). We went apple and peach picking on Labor Day, and I bought two cases of tomatoes at bargain basement prices at a farm stand. So far I've turned out nectarine chutney, eleven jars of applesauce, dried tomatoes and dried apples. Friday will be tomato sauce day -- hot, sweaty, but supremely satisfying. We also seem to have a lot of eggs from our CSA egg share, so I'm thinking Eve's Pudding (maybe with peaches instead of apples) with custard for the weekend. Yum.

I know I've been a very inconsistent blog lady, but I'm hoping that will change....