September 2013 – A Window Into My World

I love that my last post was titled “No, I Didn’t Die.” And then I disappear. For about three weeks.

So maybe I didn’t die. But *apparently* I was abducted.

By whom or what I HAVE NO CLUE.

*lol*

So today I canned plum jam, made a crisp, marinated a roast for dinner, made a pumpkin spice latte knock-off, and…

And…

I don’t know. 🙂

Did you know that peeling plums will turn your fingers brown? At least it turned my fingers brown.

And I spent something like two and a half hours peeling little plums that were being so stubborn. They didn’t want let go of their skins. And I blanched the things!

So, here’s where it all starts.

(Listening to a song, and it just mentioned snow. And it made me get excited. Can’t wait till it snows!)

Mashed plums. That turned brown because I was going slow. (Welcome to my life.)

So after mashing them and measuring them, I dumped them in a pan and mixed in the calcium water, pectin, and sugar (that’s minus a few steps).

Next I filled some jars.

And then canned them.

Hey look! A pile of pits!

Then I still had about a cup and a half of plum smash goo. So I had to do something with it.

So I turned to what is becoming my favorite way to use up miscellaneous fruit: a crisp.

And I threw together a plum apple blueberry crisp. No one’s had any yet. So I have no idea how good it is. Or how good the plum jam is, because no one’s had any, because I canned all of it. Otherwise it would have been tried.

*Sidetracked!*

Back to the crisp.

And then I had to clean the kitchen.

Goodness.

But actually, I started cleaning the kitchen, then started dinner, played piano (not necessarily in that order), and cleaned up more.

But I also interrupted the cleaning to make a pumpkin spice latte.

Boy was it good!

(Note: I don’t necessarily know this website. Not vouching for everything on it, and not even everything on this page. Just love this recipe.)

It was SO GOOD!

I’m so excited – I’ll hopefully be posting an exciting (for me!) post tomorrow. So check back tomorrow to see it! Oh, and you may find a hint in this post! (And if you already know, don’t give it away!)

I made it through last week, and most of this week. Although this week’s been rough. Hopefully that won’t last any more than a few more days.

So, basically, I got everything canned last week that I wanted to can. With the exception of some tomatoes, which we ended up freezing, because I had been trying to do too much and had had a meltdown after several mishaps (lost 2 JARS to thermal cracking. TWO JARS! Man, that was tough). So, last week I canned 4 pints and 1 half-pint of salsa verde (which Dad declared good), 4 half pint and one 4 oz. jar of raspberry jelly. And 1 pint of pickled jalapenos (lost the half pint to thermal cracking). Plus whatever I ended up doing on Monday (see previous post).

I am tired and slightly under the weather (a blah mood), so not a long post tonight.

Over the past two days I have begun working on my piano arrangement of Owl City’s Good Time! It’s been pretty fun so far, but all I’m currently doing is figuring out chords and melody. Once I finish that, the real fun begins – the actual arranging. The chords appear to be basically the same throughout the whole song, and I have the first verse and chorus melody written out. I might post a recording of it when it’s done, if anyone’s interested. But that won’t be for awhile. 🙂

Well, I need to get myself off to bed (too many late nights + too many early mornings + too much sugar = one emotional and unhappy girl), so enjoy the photos.

Till next time!

~Allison