Let me explain . . .

For the past three years I have created an “advent” calendar with my photos on Facebook.   The first year was just various Christmas related quotes.   Last year was verses from the Bible relating to the Christmas story.   This year I decided to create the calendar using Christmas and holiday songs. 

I decided that the last few days before Christmas that all of my posts would be using songs about the birth of Christ and not the Santa Claus and other seasonal fare . . . but then I went to church on Sunday—

Sitting in front of us was the cutest toddler.   She was wiggly and not cooperating at all with sitting still during the service.   She had some toy that had little pieces that kept “dropping” on the floor.   Dan picked one up that rolled under their pew towards us.   One stayed on the floor.   I don’t know what toy it was, but the round piece looked like the old fashioned Christmas candy that Mom would stuff in our stockings.   You know the kind—the ones that are a disk with a flower or Christmas tree in the center?  They usually come with hard ribbon candy.

So, I should have been listening to the choir, but I started thinking of one of my favorite non-church Christmas songs, “Hard Candy Christmas” by Dolly Parton.  As my mind wandered, I decided I would do an advent day with “Hard Candy Christmas” as the song.

Fast forward to last night.   I look up the lyrics as I try to decide if I want to venture out and buy some hard candy for my photograph.   AND THEN I READ THE LYRICS!  I guess I never listened close enough . . .but “I’ll get drunk on apple wine.”    Wait a minute!  I have apple wine.   Really—real apple wine.

I love apple wine.  Years ago my friend Michelle Ellison and I visited a winery in Old Town Spring north of Houston.   They had a spiced apple wine I became infatuated with.   It tasted like hard cider should (which really, when you read the description of fruit wines, they are truly ciders).   For all my snob friends,  I like sweet tea, too.   Just for the record. 

In the years since this first discovery of apple wine, I’ve tried and sampled it all over the U.S.   I use it in making my apple wine jelly (oh yum).   Last fall we decided to go wine sampling with our friends Ralph and Mary Swatzell.  We found an Apple Pie Wine at Stone Hill Winery in Branson.  It is just like that spiced wine I tasted and fell in love with so many years ago.

And now you know why a bottle of wine ended up in my advent calendar this year!

   Ho Ho Ho and Cheers!

City Slickers, Wine Glasses and Canning Jars

A few nights ago I decided I wanted to photograph a Kansas sunset with a wineglass on a fence post.  When a wine glass is filled with a clear liquid, the image in the distance is reflected upside down--making a dramatic photograph.

Our sunsets on the prairie are spectacular.   Bright shades of blues, oranges, corals, pinks and yellows.  Oh, this was going to be awesome!   So, I convinced my husband to jump in the jeep with me and take off for this adventure.   I grabbed my wine glass and a canning jar full of water.

A couple of things I didn't think out:

 First:   I had the wrong type of wine glass.   The globe should be CLEAR.   Mine had "lines" or waves in the glass. 

Second:  Fencepost tops aren't flat.   Some are metal and hollow (luckily I discovered this BEFORE I let go of the wine glass).  Others are metal with cement that mounds on top.  The rest are lumpy.

Nevertheless, I persevered.   I had Dan stop at the perfect hilltop with a beautiful vista and the perfect fence post.   He stayed in the car and played "Candy Crush"--his new obsession on his cell phone.  Stepping out of the jeep and into the tall grass between the road and the fence, I suddenly remembered my friend, Cathy Roberts, saying it was warm enough now for snakes to be out.  And ticks.

As I poured the water into the wine glass from the canning jar, I was able to balance the glass precariously on the top of the post.   Not quite the reflection I was wanting--but a nice effect at any rate.  I decided to move to another post.  I set my camera down on the ground as I turned to retrieve the canning jar and pour the water back into it.   As I poured, I turned and my foot sank into a hole.  My first thought was:

SNAKE HOLE!

The wine glass went up in the air one way, the canning jar the other--and water down the front of me.

Jumping out quickly & yelling, I grabbed my camera (still dry!!), the wine glass and canning jar with a quarter cup of water left.   Dan was blissfully looking at his phone.   That night when we returned home, he picked up the wine glass from the kitchen counter and said, "Did you know this was cracked?  Wonder how that happened?"  Seriously!

And so, I don't have a lovely wine glass sunset...but probably more appropriately for Kansas--I have a canning jar evening!  Give me some moonshine!

Cheers!

Jelly Making, Grandma and A Glass of Wine

August…hot summers in Kansas…at the Farm…one window air conditioner…and Grandma is making jelly.    My Grandma Ruby made the best jellies and jams.   My memory of her making them in the kitchen at the Farm is so clear.   As I make my jelly and jams, I like to think she is smiling down at me, knowing when it looked like I was more interested in the book I was reading or getting out of doing my chores, I was actually learning from her and now continuing her legacy.

I love the term “putting up” used in connection with preserving/canning foods.  It sounds domestic (and I don’t mean that in a “Susie Homemaker” way, but a “taking care of family” and “providing.”   I always think of the pioneer housewife, after a morning of picking a bushel of tomatoes, “putting up” the jars of canned tomatoes, tomato preserves, etc.—and sitting down in the evening looking at her efforts cooling on the table).

I am struck by the similarities and the differences of Grandma “putting up” the jelly and me doing the same.   Grandma’s bounty was either picked (by Grandpa and the grandkids, probably) or exchanged with a neighbor (her peaches for their cucumbers).   I sent Dan to the store for a bushel of Porter peaches.

Grandma would take her bowl of fruit to the living room to cut it up as she watched her “shows” (soap operas).   My cousins and I would be on the floor at her feet playing with paper dolls or reading one of the many volumes of “Reader’s Digest Condensed Books” that was always found on the bookshelf.   I prepare my fruit after work at the kitchen sink, peering over the breakfast bar as I watch the latest episode of “Duck Dynasty.”

The first time I made jelly, Dan was in college in La Grande, Oregon.   We were so broke we couldn’t afford much in the way of Christmas gifts for our family.  Our landlord had planted a cherry tree in the yard of each of his duplexes.   The tenants were allowed to pick all they wanted.   They were the most beautiful cherries.  Dan and I picked and picked and picked.   We could not afford a good cherry pitter, so we bought this little one-at-a-time pitter.   You would center one cherry into the center, press down and out came the pit.  One.cherry.at.a.time.   I still have that pitter—wouldn’t trade it for anything.  Dan attended school during the day while I worked at the Juvenile Department at the County Courthouse and then he worked at night as a jailer at the Courthouse.   Often our paths crossed at the on the Courthouse steps.   During that week of “pitting cherries,”  I remember we would give each other reports of how far we had progressed:   “Ten Cups!”  “Only two cups tonight!”  That was the BEST cherry preserves ever made.  After I “put up” jar after jar of the preserves, I would often go to the basement pantry to just stare at the beautiful glowing ruby jars.   I don’t know if the recipients appreciated the gifts of jelly, but I don’t think I have since ever made a gift that had as much love and effort put into the making as those cherry preserves.

So fast forward 39 years and here I am “putting up” peaches.   This time my jelly and jams have a twist that happened from a lucky experiment.   Last year as I was making grape jelly, I did not have enough “juice”—BUT I did have some open sweet Texas red wine.  Hmmm.   Yep, I did it!  Just poured that wine into the measuring cup.   The result was very, very tasty.     So, on a trip to Missouri (where you can find many wineries with “country” or “non-grape” fruit wines), I purchased some inexpensive peach wine.  

The "Juice"

Here’s my “Peach Wine Jelly” recipe:

Peach pits…yes, peach pits.   Save them as you cut up your peaches.   Leave a little “meat” on the pits.   Simmer them for about 30 minutes in several cups of water.  (I was making two batches, so I used about 8 cups of water).   Strain into a bowl.  

2 cups “peach pit” juice

2 ½ cups peach wine

3 cups sugar

1 pkg. Sure Jel (I use the “for less or no sugar” kind) Pectin

Follow the directions on the box of pectin for making the jelly.

For my “Peach Wine Jelly-Jam” recipe (it is kinda jammy and kinda jelly):

In a large Pyrex measuring cup (4 cup), I place about 6 finely chopped, peeled peaches.   (Actually, I prepare my fruit & freeze it.   It is easier to chop the semi-thawed peaches that way, and I can make the jelly when I want and not feel as pressured to do it all at one time…but that’s another story).   Pour the peach wine over the peaches to the 4 cup mark.   Now add ½ cup more wine (the recipe calls for 4 ½ cups prepared fruit).

3 cups sugar

1 pkg. Sure Jel (again, I use the “for less or no sugar” kind) Pectin

Follow the directions on the box of pectin for making the jam.

Oh yes—you should have a little wine left over.   Put it in the freezer to chill as you start the jelly making process.   As soon as the jars of jelly are cooling, sit down, put your feet up and finish that bottle! 

Mix your pectin with a 1/4 cup of the measured sugar

Hint:  Keep a bowl of sudsy water in the sink to "quick wash" hands and spoons, etc.

Organization and prep--makes life easier

Stir, stir, stir. (I use a BIG pot so I won't make a mess)

Water Bath...almost finished!



Now relax!



DONE! 



Initial Preparations...Peach "juice" and Peach wine!