Tuesday, July 28, 2009

I think I'll cross

a job at Smoothie King off my list of potential careers for when my kids are all grown up.

I spent about four hours snuggled up to a blender today making apricot jam and syrup.Last night I went with some friends to find some apricot trees. Together we picked about 7 grocery bags at least half full.
I went over to my friend's house to make the mess in her kitchen. ;) Thankfully there were many willing helping hands.First batch of syrup done, three to go. Not to mention 5 batches of jam. When I got home, I still had about two grocery bags full of apricots. I pulled out the blender and started chopping them up with the intention of putting them in the freezer for a later date. Hubby thought I was such a spoil sport for not running straight to the store to get more jars, sugar and sure-jel. He was ready to roll his sleeves and get to work but I was already tired of anything apricot. I dutifully kept cutting and chopping though.

By the numbers:
35lbs of sugar
70 cups of pureed apricots
8 boxes of sure jel
2 blenders blaring in our ears
4 extra large bowls for measuring
2 trusty spatulas for scraping
2 large pots for boiling
18 quarts of syrup
20 pints of jam
35 cups of pureed apricots still to use
2 tired moms
untold number of tired, cranky kids
2 drooling husbands waiting for anything apricot (willing to eat French Toast for supper just to have apricot syrup on top)
untold number of fingertips that look like dried apricots
1 cupboard stuffed full of filled jars
1 large bowl filled with unripened apricots
1 hubby willing to head out for more supplies to make more jam
Two big happy families!

4 comments:

jen said...

Looks delish!

jessica said...

you're just a smoooth operator!

skinner studio said...

Looks yummy!

We just got a boatload of apricots from my cousin, but we're just eating them - you are far more industrious!

able mabel said...

My husband commented as we were cleaning up round two of jam making, "Sweet, you're getting more domesticated! I'm hoping you keep it up rather than being just all artsy fartsy."

Little does he realize, I have those same ideas for him! I'm hoping he'll be the one to get into canning!!