Peaches galore!

So I survived canning peaches with my mom. It was actually kind of fun. We started early Saturday morning sanitizing all the jars, rings, and lids, then jumped right in to the peeling and slicing. For those of you who haven’t canned peaches before, it’s quite an interesting procss. First you put a bunch of peaches in boiling water to soften the peel, then you transfer them to ice water. This process makes the peels practically slip off the peach. Then you slice the peach right off the pit and into the jar. Once enough jars are full, you top them off with syrup (sugar & water mixture) and place the lids on the jars. Finally the jars are ready to go into a hot water bath and boil for 30 minutes. Then repeat until you are out of peaches.

A little over half way through, Adam stopped by and my mom tricked him into helping up peel and slice the peaches. Plus it was nice to have someone there to do all the heavy lifting! So the process was sped up quite a bit having extra help.

All the while I was canning inside, Simeon was working on fixing the fence in our back yard. It had recently started falling over and we were afraid the dogs would knock it down and escape. Sim’s dad, Steve, and brother, Jesse, came up to help him as well. Finally our fence was restored and all was happy.

You can check out pictures of both of our weekend adventures in the photo gallery. I also uploaded some other pictures from the previous week, including my birthday party, Ellie’s bee sting, and some other random stuff. Enjoy!

Attempting domestication

So last night Sim and I went to Sauvie Island Farms and picked about 110 lbs of peaches. Why on earth would we do something like that, you ask? Because this weekend I am going to attempt to learn how to can! My mother is coming over and she is going to teach me yet another thing I can do in the kitchen.

I grew up with my mom making everything that there was to make. She cooked, canned or froze just about everything possible. At any given time, we probably could have gone a year without leaving the house and never starve. As a result, I got really spoiled with great food. In fact, to this day I cannot eat store bought applesauce. Are you kidding me people? That’s not even close to what applesauce is suppose to taste like, let alone feel like. Gross!

Since I plan to one day have children, I want to learn how to do all the things my mother did for me. So this weekend, I am going to can peaches. I can assure you I will be taking some pictures and will have some great stories to tell on Monday! Check back then!

A re-cap

Ok, I have been so busy lately that I haven’t had any time to sit down and blog! Here is an update of the last few days:

Ellie is fine. She was stung by a bee. I took her to the vet and she is severely allergic to bees. If she had been a small dog, the sting very well could have killed her. Thank goodness for big dogs!

My birthday was a smashing success. We started off Friday night with a little pre-funk action. We had some friends over for food and drinks. I got a little more drunk than I planned, but its my party and I’ll drink if I want to! Then on the actual day, my mom came up to take me to breakfast. My sister and her cute kids dropped by and brought me my gift (thanks guys!). Then Sim, Adam and I all headed downtown to Waterfront Park to watch the Red Bull Flugtag. We met up with my friend, Kristin, from work and hung out until the heat and crowds were no longer bearable. Then we sought out Air Conditioning by catching an afternoon showing of M. Night Shamalan’s The Village. It was not what I expected, but not entirely disappointing. Finally, Simeon took me out to dinner at Romano’s Macaroni Grill. It was a lovely day.

Then to round out the weekend of festivities, my boss and his wife took Simeon and I out for lunch at his golf course country club. We ate out on the terrace and enjoyed the beautiful day. It was all very posh and very fun. Then I spent the rest of the day resting, recovering from all the sun/heat exposure. I don’t know why, but the sun zaps every last ounce of energy out of me.

Oh well, I am now back to work and can only look forward to next year’s birthday….the big 25! Look out!