Flying home today. The wedding was beautiful, but I'm glad to return. I need to do some cleaning and baking and lounging at home.

I am seized by a nearly irresistable urge to bake chocolate chip cookies. And pumpkin tea bread. And cinnamon-raisin bread.

Must work from home, not bake from home.

Though, it only takes a few minutes to put a batch of dough or batter together, then you can work through email backlogs while it bakes...

A sweet, tart plum cobbler sounds really delicious...

Thou lookst so mvch lyk an aungel that the friares haue lefte the roome yn terror!


By my soule, thou art a verye mappe of helle. For thy face lyk the rivere Styx wil make me swere oothes neuer to be fforsworn, and thy embrace lyk the Lethe shal make me foryet al else, and lyk vnto the Flegeton thyn arse ys ON FYRE!


http://houseoffame.blogspot.com/2006/05/to-kalamazoo-wyth-love.html

I am perusing the BrikWars rules to see about getting the largest amount of mayhem, fun, and heroic feats from our lego knights and castles with the least rules to remember.

http://www.brikwars.com

If you have a bunch of lego people that would like to battle it out and die in ridiculous ways, you should join us at some point. Tea and cake being essential components of this plan, of course.

I have four pounds of lovely plums that I have prepped for spiced plum butter, which I will cook down and can when we get home from Heather's this evening.

If more free plums appear, I will make Chinese-style plum sauce. Mmmm, plums.

More peach salsa and spiced peach jam should also occur this weekend.

I think that Felicia Day is ridiculously cute.

I have not read any P.G. Wodehouse books. Should they be added to my to-read list for the fall? Or potentially not my cup of tea?

Speaking of tea, I am placing a Harney & Sons order this weekend. Getting a few pounds of my standby teas, so it will be free shipping. Let me know if you want to add some tea to the order and take advantage of the free shipping.

Amanda came over this evening, and peach canning ensued to great success.

6 quarts, 1 pint of peach pie filling (still processing)
7 pints peach salsa
7 half-pints spiced peach jam
3 pints, 7 half-pints, 1 shortie peach jam

2:49 AM: Kitchen clean, pie filling out, going to bed. There are six cups of unprocessed peaches in the refridgerator, I think I need to buy another box or two this weekend.

I picked up two boxes of peaches from Bill Pace fruit stand yesterday afternoon. 40 pounds may have been too small a purchase.

Tonight: peach chutney.

Tomorrow: Pie & Cobbler filling and/or jam.

Saturday: Peach salsa! And more jam if there are peaches left. Maybe the purchase of more peaches, then more jam and pie filling. Potentially more of the same on Sunday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32316148/ns/technology_and_science-games/

Now I want to play this.

Seven adults. 12 hours. 89 pints of Dilly Beans.

More to can tomorrow....

Second attempt at sparkly vampire cupcakes. White cake, with spiced cherry filling, white frosting, edible sparkles.

Bella cupcake, inedible due to atrociously flavored fleshy pink frosting. Now we know the real reason Edward didn't want to eat her.

Utterly content and happy right at this moment.

12 pints, 3 half pints

Stars - unsuccessful. Need to use smaller zucchini, cut thicker, with smallest star cutter. Elana & Chris' stars were a success using those parameters.

Elana and Chris produced an additional 21 pints and a half pint of zucchini pickles.

Once Dilly Beans are done (July 31) I'm starting to think we might not face a shortage of pickles this year. Of course, I have a pickled fig recipe that seems to be begging to be tested out of the 'Joy of Pickling'. And zucchini dill spears would be good. And a mixed vegetable pickle at the end of the season, though that is some months off. And Chris would like to try a tasty looking pickled mango recipe...

I need to make raspberry jam.

3 pints and 1 half pint

Underway...

12:54am: Four pints, one 4-oz. If it weren't so unbelievably good it wouldn't be worth the hours of effort, but it is.

10 half-pints

Thank you, once more, to Kathryn for organic vegetable procurement of two giant zucchinis.

When your garden produces too many zucchini this summer, they have a welcome home in my canner. In return you get a tasty jar of pickles.

10 pints, 2 half-pints

Thanks for the organic carrots Kathryn!

I am considering pickling some carrots this afternoon before going out to dinenr and having people over for tea and birthday cake. Kathryn bought more than she needed at the Yakima Fruit Stand over the weekend and I've been meaning to get to canning some since January. I can pickle carrots while I straighten the house, re-arrange some furniture, bake a cake, and shower and dress, right?

16 more pints of pickled beets, 6 of which are heart beets.

Next up: Asparagus if I can find some, raspberries, cherries, green beans, carrots, zucchini...