I made apple jelly last night.

I had found a recipe for it in perhaps my favorite recipe book: Home Made by Sandra Oddo. This book has saved my pride more than once. You see, I have the will of a wet noodle when it comes to fresh, local produce. I typically buy enough to feed a small army. Occasionally, Dan has asked me what I plan to do with all the produce I just brought home. My answer involves listing several childhood recipes, blindly certain that I will use it all and might even need more. Then, I start to root through my traditional recipe books and am slightly unnerved that all the recipes only call for 1 or 2 pieces. I’m staring down pounds of the stuff. Home Made has a wide selection of recipes for getting rid of a lot of produce in one fell swoop.

Admittedly, I did not follow Oddo’s recipe for Apple Jelly. Instead, I cheated. I used pectin. It’s so fool-proof that it hardly makes sense not to use it. After 10 minutes of processing in my canning pot, the jelly was done.

My next stove, if I can ever bear to part with this oldy-but-goody, will have an area large enough for my canning pot. Right now, the pot straddles two burners. Worse, it has stained the white coating. I’ve tried everything to get it off. How the original owner managed to keep the stove in immaculate condition and I ruin it in a short 3 years is beyond me.

On a personal note, I’ll be out of town for the next few days. Dan and I are headed down to Talbott, TN. Unfortunately, his grandfather passed away earlier this week. 

Don’t forget to root for the Phillies. Game 1 starts tonight!