Marinara Sauce

For Labor Day I got to spend the day at my Mom's house, using her kitchen to can the jelly from the last post and make and can this marinara sauce.

I do not like red sauce.  Ask anyone at Papa Murphy's Pizza.  I always go for the garlic sauce.  If it has red sauce, I put as little as I can on it.  When I made this the first time, I made it because I had some fresh tomatoes and needed to use them up.  Everything else I always have on hand so in it all went.

Amazing!!!  We ate it on pasta, pizza and used it for a dip.  So good.  I decided there and then that I would can it when I got my tomatoes from my garden this year.  I had to get a little help from my in-laws garden to, I had given away too many tomatoes.

Look at all I came home with.  I still have another batch of jelly I'm going to make and some birthday cake baking to do tonight.  Can't wait to have all this for the winter.

Mint Jalapeno Jelly

Can I say that I'm super excited to try this today!  This is the first time I have made something out of my own garden.

I have never been a fan of hot foods.  Just didn't like that burning sensation in my mouth.  So the first time I was offered Jalapeno Jelly I refused.  Did not sound good at all.  Could not believe that someone would make jelly out of jalapeno's.

Then I caved and tried a bit.  Ended up eating half a jar by myself.

If you have never tried this, you must at least try it once.  On a cracker, with a bit of cream cheese.

The website I got the recipe from had these other idea's to use the jelly with.


1. on toast
2. as a glaze for chicken and pork chops
3. as a condiment for lamb
4. on a cold meat sandwich, especially post-Thanksgiving turkey
5. as a de-glazing sauce
6. on brie cheese baked in a puff pastry crust
7. peanut butter and jelly sandwich
8. on a grilled cheese sandwich
9. on vanilla ice cream
10. on steamed carrots
11. as a dip for won tons
12. as a dip for grilled sausage bites
13. on warm biscuits with breakfast
14. glaze for chicken wings
15. spread on cornbread
16. with cream cheese on a bagel
17. on pancakes
18. on a Dutch Baby (see earlier post)
19. in hot tea
20. put into the center of cupcakes
21. mixed with greek yogurt as a vegetable dip
22. on top of cheesecake
23. as a glaze for shrimp
24. between layers of a chocolate cake
25. and right off the spoon

Now I have a ton of ideas to use mine for.  Good thing I'm making more. :0)

Peaches

This weekend was full of peaches.  I wish I had more pictures to document what really happened at my house this weekend.  It all started Friday morning.

My good friend and neighbor Dani,  agreed to go help me pick peaches from Jenny's mom's house.  Now.  Let me explain about these peaches.  They are the only peaches I will eat.  I Crave these peaches from about May on.  I can not buy peaches at the store.  They are just gross.  I LIVE for these peaches.  My mother calls me a peach snob because of these peaches.  I really am.  None others will do.

This is where the picture should have come in.  There is just one tree but it was full.  In a little over an hour we had the tree clean.  Another picture of the back of my car full of peaches would have been good but again, I'm a loser and didn't take one.  I'm pretty sure we walked away with 5 to 6 bushels of peaches.

We took the afternoon off to do some of our own things but by 3, Dani was over with her kids and we were peaching.  By 11 o'clock at night we had 28 quarts of canned peaches, 16 pints and 2 half pints of peach jam.  And we still had nearly 2 bushels left.

Sunday morning we did 14 quarts more of peaches, 11 pints and 11 half pints of jam.  We froze about 10 cups of peaches and we gave a ton away.  We also threw a lot away.  We were very done with the worms.

And I'm not done.  I have enough peaches to do 8 more jars of jam.  So in total we did 42 quarts of peaches, 35 pints of jam and 13 half pints of jam.  We also did 4 pints of peachsauce.  We just mashed up peaches, added a little sugar and canned them.  Dani's daughter loved it.

I am defiantly Not taking the whole tree next year.  Maybe just a bushel.