Cooking and Gardening

Plum Jelly...yum, yum!

Around here it's kind of a hit and miss thing with plum trees, some years they make a lot of plums and some years they don't.  We don't have a plum tree so we depend on the kindness of neighbors to let us pick from theirs.  Well, Mrs. A had a great crop of plums year before last and we went and picked some.  I already had plum jelly and knew I wouldn't need any that year so I washed and boiled the plums (skin and all).  

After washing and boiling the plums I strained them in a colander, over a large stock pot, now when you do this you kind of have to push the juice and pulp through the colander in order to get as much juice as possible for your jelly.  Once this is done I take a piece of cheese cloth  and gradually pour the juice into the cheese cloth. I do this by placing the cheese cloth into a 4 cup glass measuring cup, lapping the cheesecloth over the sides, and pouring the juice into the cup.  I then pick up the cheesecloth and squeeze the juice through and then empty it into the boiler when it gets too full.  This will filter out most all of the pulp so you will have nice clear jelly.

Once I had done all of this I froze my juice in gallon ice cream buckets.  They have been sitting in the freezer and waiting for two summers!  Well, today was the day...I'm on my LAST jar of plum jelly, and I CANNOT run out of plum jelly :)!  I got the buckets out last night so the juice would be thawed and ready to make into jelly. 

First, I got my jars washed and ready and put my rings and lids on to boil in a separate boiler before anything...if I don't do this I'll forget to boil the lids and rings and then I'll be scrambling!

This is all of the stuff I used.

This is the recipe from the Sure-Jell box, but sometimes it helps if somebody shows you what to do...I had to be shown!  Heehee!

I measured out 13 cups of juice (I doubled the recipe and I still have some left).  I put this on the stove and began heating it up. While I was waiting on it to heat, I went ahead and measured out 9 cups of sugar in a separate bowl.  Next, I mixed, in a small bowl, 2 boxes of Sure-Jell and 1/2 cup of the sugar.

This is what the juice looks like when it's heating before anything is put in it.

As soon as the juice was hot I added Sure-Jell mixture.  Now if your juice hasn't been frozen and doesn't need heating you can just add the Sure-Jell and 1/2 cup of sugar immediately when you put the juice on the stove.   I add 1/2-1 TBSP of butter too, it cuts down on the foaming.  

This is what the juice looks like after the Sure-Jell mixture is added.  It darkens up considerably.

Let that all come to a rolling boil (a boil that won't stop bubbling when stirred).  Immediately add the remaining sugar, which is 8&1/2 more cups of sugar, stir sugar in and boil for another 1 minute.

As soon as your minute is up begin pouring the jelly into jars!  I usually put my jars on a cookie sheet, or something of the sort, so there's not such a big mess on the counter.  I also use a small 2 cup measuring cup to scoop and pour the jelly into the jars.  

I pour all of the jelly in the jars, then I use tongs to pick up the lids and rings and place them on the jars.

Sorry for the blurry picture!

The jars are REALLY hot so I use a pot holder to hold the jars while screwing the lids on with my other hand.  

Then I wipe off my jars (I HATE sticky jars) and just let them sit.  You should start to hear the tops on the jars pop as they seal!  You're all set to enjoy your batch of plum jelly, and let me tell you, you can't buy it like that in the store!!!!  

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great day and happy jelly making!

Fried Apple Pies and Colossians 3:23 

Last night JP and L (our 13 year old son) went coon hunting and while they were gone I fixed some fried apple pies!  Coon hunting is another story for another day!  Haha!

First I sliced and chopped the apples, I used 8 medium sized apples.  I sliced them with the apple slicer, JP showed me a neat trick, if you'll cut off the top and bottom of the apple where it will sit level on the counter top and the apple slicer will sit level on the top of the apple it's much easier to slice!  (At this point he hadn't left yet, very soon after this he abandoned me to finish the task alone!:(  )

After I sliced and chopped the apples I put them in a pot on the stove with about 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, and 2-3 TBSP of cinnamon.  I turned them on low on the stove and let them cook down, then mashed them up with a potato masher.

While they were cooking I mixed up my dough.  3 cups of plain flour, about 3/4 cup of Crisco and enough milk to make a gooey dough.  You don't want your dough firm and smooth yet.  

After making the dough I sprinkle flour on the counter and grab a handful of dough, first I roll it in flour so it won't stick to my hands or the roller and place it on the counter (in the flour that I sprinkled out).  Then I roll it out to about 1/8 inch thick using my handy-dandy Pampered Chef roller.  I use a small desert plate or saucer, place it face down on the rolled out dough and cut around it.

Then I spoon about 2 TBSP of the cooked apples onto the cut out dough.

After spooning on the apples fold over the dough and seal the edges with a fork.

 Now they're ready to fry!  I had my oil heating while I was making the dough and it was hot by the time I was finished making the first few pies.

I used Canola oil (trying to keep it healthy...yeah, right!) for frying the pies. Don't turn your heat all the way up, it will burn your oil and in turn burn your pies...and that's just nasty!  

Fry each side to a golden brown.  I sprinkled mine with powdered sugar (because I love powdered sugar  and I could put it on just about anything...it's a definite weakness of mine!) and then we ate them.  Well, I ate one right away, JP and L were still gone hunting, but they got theirs when they got home :)

Summer is almost over and I won't be frying pies at 9:00 at night for much longer, I'll be in the bed.  But for now, it's all good! 

***THOUGHT FOR THE DAY***

Colossians 3:23 And whatsoever ye  do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men...

What does that have to do with fried pies? Nothing really, other than when we do a task, don't do it begrudgingly, do it with your whole heart and do it for the Lord, not to please men or to be patted on the back. 

I didn't mind making fried pies last night...but some things I do mind doing, and truthfully, the things I do mind doing I don't always do them with the best attitude.  I forget that verse ALOT!  Sometimes I think, am I the only one who can do this or am I the only one who is able to do that or why can't someone else take care of that?  That is certainly not the attitude to have when it comes to service.  We have been put here for a purpose and that is to point people to Christ. If we aren't doing that then we are not fulfilling the reason the Lord has put us here.

Does that mean we have to do EVERYTHING that we are asked to do? I don't believe it does, but the things that the Lord has called us to do, even if they become monotonous or boring, we must continue doing those things in Jesus name with JOY!  Let's encourage each other and finish the tasks that the Lord has given us here on this Earth!

We see those signs in stores that say "Service with a Smile," well, that is my goal..."Serving the Lord with a smile."

The Lord has just laid that verse on my heart the past couple of days and I thought I would share!

Lots of Love and Thanks for stopping by again today!