In the Kitchen - When LIfe Gives You.....

I did not plan for this morning to be spent in the kitchen.  I intended on weaving my second rug.  But plans change quickly, don't they?  I have never been one to turn down opportunity when it knocks on my door.  That is just what happened.

This morning after taking Journey to school, I made a quick stop at Fareway for a few things.. just a few.  As I walked past the produce isle, I spied a white paper bag with "99 cents" written on the handle.  That is a sure way to cause me to detour or double-take at least!  In the bag was a whole bunch of pears!  Lots.. I would say at least 3 pounds of them.  They were past their selling prime but just about at their eating prime, I would say.  I like them nice and ripe and juicy.

Not only did I spy this one bag, there were three more of it's little friends.  Total of 4 bags of pears there as if they had my name on them.  I put two in the cart and wrestled with myself about organic versus non-organic, as these were not organic pears, but just conventional.  Then I decided that while we do try to stay as organic as possible, we don't buy organic jams and jellies, nor do we buy organic fruit cups for Journey's home lunches....  so the bags won and soon I found all 4 bags of pears had jumped in my cart.  So what, maybe a total of 12 - 15 pounds of pears?  The activities of my morning had now changed and I found myself home about 8:30 with the loot.

After some quick "googling", I decided to make pear preserves, canned pears, and dehydrated pears out of my 4 bags, so I then got to washing and peeling.

Oh My Goodness.. it felt like hours of peeling pears when I realized I was only 1/2 way through my supply.  I had the canning pot on to boil, had washed 15 canning jars and lids, had a pot for the jam and a pot for the blanching of the pears going.  I literally peeled and cleaned pears until after 10am.

I am really tired of pears.  I have learned a new "diet" trick.  COOK alot.. when I am busy cooking it, I usually don't want to eat it.  Funny how that works, except with cookies.  There is nothing that compares to eating that first warm cookie right out of the oven.  I consider it a responsibility so I always do the first testing before my family tries them.

So the pear production?  Here are some on the dehydrator:

Pears are one of those fruits that suffer from turning brown in the air.  I did soak these in diluted lemon juice but they are still turning... the bananas do the same thing.  Oh well, they still taste good.

I also made my first batch of jam.. just boiled the pears until mushy and added pectin.  (I think I added too much and it will set up like a rock but it tasted good).  I added some stevia and honey to sweeten it and it made 6 little jelly jars full.

Then I left the rest of the pears quartered and boiled them for 2 minutes before canning 7 more pint jars of pears for later.  I think Journey will like these in her lunch instead of store bought when we don't readily have fresh fruit for her.

All in all, the last cans came out of the water bath at about noon, but I think I did really good with a $4.00 purchase... and Mike got fresh jam on homemade wheat bread for lunch today.  Happy Anniversary Honey!!