First, to answer a question about the canned peaches in the last missive-

I tried to scald and peel one peach. It was a bloody mess, like you warned. I got out my peeler and did it the old-fashioned way. I then sliced around the peaches, making slices that had to be gently peeled or pried off the pit. I made a medium syrup using 1 cup of honey for 1 cup of the sugar called for in the recipe. Before canning, I did take a slice or two that would not fit in the jar, (snort), and tasted them. drool... about covers it.

Pictured below are the hats I have finished so far. I hope to have my holiday prezzies finished in time this year.


This little jester hat is for baby Magnus, A's new grandson. I used kitchen cotton for easy washing.

The next three hats are all for my step-granddaughter who loves strange and fun hats almost as much as she loves all of her bracelets. All the hats were knit from patterns off the web.

I loved the fish hat pattern. It is silly, fun and still useful.

Another fun hat for her is the Invader Zim GIR hat. The colors are not showing as vivid as they really are for some reason. The eyeballs were a booger to get right when attaching them to the hat.

The last hat in peach, her favorite color, is using a pattern modeled after a hat used in the Twilight movies. (I have never seen them.) The pattern used a charcoal-colored yarn in chunky. I went for one of the girl's favorite colors instead.

Pictured below is the locally-grown meat I bought on sale and canned recently. I cooked the meats to medium-well before canning in a sauce or broth.


The quart to the left is two chunked chicken breasts in a chicken broth with organic tomato sauce. The next two quarts are filled with meatballs with minced onion in a mixture of beef broth, organic tomato sauce and red wine. The last three pints have stew meat in a beef broth. I added halved garlic cloves and whole peppercorns to the jars before canning.I will only have to open a jar, dump them into a pot that includes whatever veggies we want, add a bit more broth or juice and warm.

I am starting on some hand warmers next. I am still clueless what to make for a 9 year old boy. I will figure it out, I suppose.

Yesterday, we stopped at The Peach Man, a tent housing locally-grown fruits and veggies, grabbing some banana wax peppers. I put them in a pickling mixture with lots of extra garlic cloves in them. They are pickling in the fridge right now. Himself said to not bother canning them fully. He will eat them fast enough to make it a waste of stove-time.

Have a good week!