At least I heard the beautiful "ping" sound when these two itty bitty jars of honey-spiced oranges came out of the canning pot. I didn't aim to wait until 9:00 p.m. to start my first solo canning attempt in two years but the day sort of got away from me. Which was a surprise by itself* since I woke up at 6:00 a.m. - a full hour and a half before the rest of my household, including the baby - to start the crockpot for dinner and bake some applesauce muffins. My new rule for Sundays is to get up early and put something - anything - in the crockpot for dinner so that at least I know one dinner at the beginning of the week is covered (plus some lunches or another dinner in leftovers too). Tonight it was my famous red lentil vegetable soup (bless you, Dan, for being excited to eat the same things over and over) and it was really, really good. Even better when combined with that Summit Oktoberfest brew.Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, my day. That's how it's felt: a little scattered. At least I did make that soup and muffins (plus some mini-loaves of the same), run and empty the dishwasher twice, get two loads of laundry through while chattering from the cheap seats at hubby about how best to fold it all (he was oh-so-nice to help while I was nursing the babe but it's seriously difficult to fold anything right in this house unless you're me), take both kids to church and breakfast with the grandparents so Dan could stay home and get his work-work** done, keep my family generally happy by encouraging a trip to the coffeeshop*** and then some outdoors time cutting the lawn together (it takes four of us, apparently), bathe the little one (she doesn't scream anymore!), start some more laundry and then...finally...do that canning that I wanted to get to all weekend.
Two little jars of honey-spiced oranges that I don't even know how to eat but the recipe just sounded good. Don't they make smaller canning pots for these teeny loads? Or is it just assumed that you're always going to double, triple or quadruple the recipe? I'm so green.
Photos of the children follow. Good night.
_________________________* Should losing time as a parent still surprise me?
** work-work = Dan's work that he is required to do for pay by his employer, vs. all of the other work that always has to be done. It's best to differentiate the two, we've discovered.
***I just wanted another small-decaf-chocolate-cooler-no-whip-please, really.
2 comments:
Cute cute picture!! Love the footy one best of all!!!!
Hey..I think the honey spiced oranges look and sounds just great!!
I would love it if you posted the recipe for the lentil soup..sounds really good. I don't cook lentils nearly often enough. They are always a hit with most of the family (husband is the picky one!)
too. I use my crock pot like crazy on Sundays..and Thursdays since I have cubscouts here from 4 to 5pm..or later usually..and if I worked all day I am too worn out to START supper at that point..so it is a great invention...I bow to the woman who thought of it!!
Have a great week with those little cuties!!!
Catherine - a thousand kudos to you for even WANTING to can after such a busy day! We go back and forth about the practicality of canning if we don't have a full batch to fill the boiling pot of water. It's almost always worth it, even if for just 2 jars of beautiful goodness.
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