Weekend Canning Report

The red sauerkraut we started about two months ago was ready to can. Since we had the hot water canner all set up, we also decided to make guava jam, something I had been intending to do for the past week with a bagful of pineapple guavas generously given to us by friends. All of this started around 9 PM on a Sunday, so it was a late night canning extravaganza!

The boy and I have a good canning rhythm now. One person can lift the jars while the other one readies the funnel. One person fills the cans as the other person digs into the simmering water for the lids. Our first attempts were miserable because even with two of us we felt like we needed a more hands. Getting more thermometers has helped, too.

The pineapple guava jam is delicious! I had my doubts as it seemed to take forever to get to the gelling point and I was worried that the long cooking time would dilute the fruit taste and result in guava caramel, but I dipped a spoon into some of the uncanned jam this morning and my worries went down as easy as the jam. Washing, cutting, and scooping out the flesh was such a chore that I would have choked down the jam even if it was nasty, but thankfully no forcing down the gullet is necessary.

Now, my crock is empty and I am trying to figure out what will inhabit it next. Kim chi sounds awfully appealing, except for the fact that I'm entirely sketched out by the addition of seafood to the cabbage mixture. Plus, I'm worried that subsequent batches of sauerkraut will taste like kim chi many generations later.

I made a few Internet inspired recipes this weekend, too. These baked sweet potato fries were good, but definitely not as good as their deep friend or skillet fried cousins. I thought that the 20 additional minutes on a low oven temperature sounded like a promising way to achieve a crispy outside, but my fries were still soggy. I also tried this "just like Starbucks" pumpkin spice latte, and while it wasn't just like Starbucks, it was good. It would have been better if I didn't run out of vanilla extract. Surprisingly, the pumpkin pulp did not make for a grainy coffee, even though I was using a whisk and not a blender to assemble my drink. Adding a couple tablespoons of pumpkin pulp also made me really full after drinking my cup of joe. I guess that's one way to get fiber into your diet!