General Conference - Sunday Sessions

I have to confess that I slacked on documenting my notes immediately after the sessions on Sunday -- Why?? Well, I was busy canning peaches that had been picked, and my DH was sweet enough to offer to help this weekend while he was home from work. So we washed, cut off the bad spots, steamed them for a few minutes per batch, and then peeled the skins, and removed the pit, and then sliced the peaches. I went through all the work of sterilizing the jars, and lids etc... and then filling the canner with water, and filling the jars with peaches followed by the syrup and then processed them. We managed to do two batches of peaches, 9 quart jars the first go around and then 10 the second go around, followed by 5 pints of Peach Jam.

And the story doesn't end there, we still have MORE peaches in the garage that we're going to bottle as well. And if you're wondering where I get my peaches from, I get them for FREE!! From my In laws peach orchard they have. It's been really nice the last three summers, since they moved to Utah.

But I did grasp a few thoughts from conference that I wanted to write down now. The first one being that I need to strive for Unity in my relationships with others especially those in my family and more importantly my spouse. Secondly that I need to make sure that I remain a virtous woman, that the things which are sacred to me, need to remain sacred and not misused or spoken lightly of. I also LOVED President Monson's talk on Change. That life changes and we need to live in the moment now, and not wish it away. Something I have been known to be GUILTY off. But hopefully from now on, will be better about living in the NOW!! He said that all too soon that as parents we'll miss the piles of laundry, and the noise from the children and long for those days to be back. So I've vowed to enjoy every moment and focus on creating memories with and for my children.

And of course, lots of talks on missionary work, and keeping our faith during our struggles. There is definately a lot of wisdom and reminders that were given that I never want to forget. I can hardly wait to be able to digest these talks more in depth when they are in the Ensign.

This is how my garden grew.

Well this is what our backyard used to look like!!! We decided this year that we would trun it into a garden or at least some of it. And even the tree on the far right of the picture isn't there anymore. Just another shot from the back side of the yard looking toward the house.
This is what it started looking like when we first planted our garden, back in May. Now this is what it looks like as of a few weeks ago. Those are mostly tomato plants with one zucchini at the far right of the picture in the front. We also have a few watermelons going, and some cucumbers. ((although they didn't do well at all, but the tomatoes DID!!))

Just to give an idea of how tall the plants were getting. I was on my knees to take the picture. We've enjoyed the tomatoes we've been getting off from our plants this year, and hopefully next year we'll be better at placing the plants -- and we'll have to figure out how to get rid of SNAILS AND GRASSHOPPERS!!!

RASPBERRY - PEACH "NO CHUNKS OF FRUIT" JAM

Oh my gosh, I just made the best jam that I think I've ever tasted!!! My in-laws have a small peach orchard on their property and we love to go and pick our own peaches. But in order to prevent the peaches from rotting, we need to either cut them up and freeze them, but we quickly run out of freezer space, or make some jam. Which is what I decided to do.

This is a Raspberry - Peach "No chunks of Fruit" Jam !!!!

We used a vegetable peeler to peel the skins off the peaches, pitted and sliced them. When I had about 4 1/2 - 5 cups of sliced peaches I put them into the "Blender". I then took a pint of raspberries and washed them off and stuck them in the "Blender" as well. I pretty much "pureed" them -- mainly because I don't like eating gigantic hunks of fruit in my jams, so I made sure to eliminate that.

After blending, I put them into a saucepan and added a mixture containing 1 box of Sure Jell fruit Pectin in the PINK BOX, with 1 cup of sugar and grabbed a second small bowl to measure out two more cups of sugar, which I sat aside.

I used a canner that I was able to borrow from a neighbor who was kind enough to lend it to me. I had 12 ounce jars with lids and rings. I washed the jars with hot soapy water and placed the lids in a separate saucepan and poured hot boiling water over them until I was ready to place them on top of the jars.

With the mixture of peaches, raspberries, fruit pectin, and 1 cup of sugar I also added 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Stir this until it boils at which time you add the rest of the sugar and I used a whisk to make sure there weren't any clumps in tact in the pot. Once you add the rest of the sugar bring the mixture to a roiling boil -- one that will not go away when stirred. And while constantly stirring to prevent scorching, boil this for 1 minute.

When the 1 minute is up than remove from the heat and "stove" and let it set for 1- 5 minutes. Skim the foam off the top of the jam, and then use hot water from the sink to get the jars hot before you ladle the mixture into the jars. When the jam is inside the jars wipe the rim and threads of any jam that would prevent a good seal. Then place a flat lid ( one that was in the hot boiling water) on the jar and then screw on a ring to help hold it in place. When you have used up all of the jam, and put all the lids on and the jars are wiped clean then place in a water bath to process for 10 minutes.

When the 10 minutes is up then remove the jars of jam from the water bath onto a towel or cooling rack to allow air circulation all around the jar. Wait till the jars cool off and check the lids for a seal, if you push on the lid with your finger and it "pops" then the jar didn't seal and that or those bottles will need to be refrigerated, the other jars as long as the jar sealed may be stored in the pantry for up to 1 year.

I had so much doing this recipe -- now I have the biggest mess to clean up !!! But I've been rinsing and washing as I've waited for the second batch to process.

So here are the stats on the total amounts of food ingredients used in making two batches of "NO CHUNKS OF FRUIT" JAM

Peaches 10 - 11 pounds
Raspberries 2 pints
Lemon Juice 2 Tablespoons
Sure Jell - 2 Boxes ( The PINK One) It's for lower to No Sugar recipes.
Sugar 6 cups

Total Yield: 8 - 12 ounce jars

We're getting a jump start on Christmas Gifts this year.
Sad thing is -- I used all the fruit pectin (2 boxes) and we still have a ton of peaches to use!! Guess I'll have to acquire more pectin in order to make more jam and then I'll have to get more raspberries also.

I tasted a bit of this and WOW!!! It's good tasting stuff!!

If you like peaches and you like raspberries this is a combination sure to win over your taste buds.

And you might be wondering with 5 kids -- how on earth did I have time for this? Because it did take more than an hour to do, but maybe because I am an amateur and didn't really have any clue as to the whole process. Well my kids were all in bed, and yes I'm missing out on some precious beauty sleep, so I'd better go get in there and sleep before I don't get any tonight.

I highly recommend trying this if you aren't afraid to try new things. This gets 5 out of 5 stars with me, now all I need to do is make some home made bread and have home made jam and bread together.