Monday, October 3, 2011

Vanilla Peach Lemon Abundance

My 4th canning venture went pretty well.  Justin was away, so Kate came over for Chinese food, wine and to keep me company in the kitchen.
Peeling peaches was easier than I expected, just a little boiling water bath, then a plunge into ice water and....
gasp!  Naked peaches!  They kind of looked like big egg yolks.







Pitting them went well too, I guess they were just ripe enough.

Kate and I chatted and caught up while we sterilized the jars
and filled them up with the sliced peaches.  I loved the laughter in the kitchen as we looked at our old high school yearbook -- we've known each other since kindergarten after all!
Then just a little piece of vanilla bean in each jar, processing in the boiling water and the vanilla permeated the syrup quite nicely.  Mila observed and supervised of course.
Next up, zesting some lemons
and thus, yup, you guessed it: naked lemons!  And lots of butter and some sugar.
For a quick dessert from Canning for a New Generation, I broiled some of the vanilla peaches with some whipped cream and demerara sugar.
Kate even brought birthday presents!  Lovely hand-painted tiles for JOY, HOPE, LOVE and WISH with pink wine and a hand-stamped and punched card.  She knows how much I love the thoughtfulness of handmade gifts, especially when they're pink!
And Justin got home safely from his trip to Seattle, bringing back this beautiful Curtis Steiner necklace of black garnet, copper and mother of pearl.  Such good taste he has...
We've built up quite a canned collection: there's the raspberry jam from a previous post, but the strawberry and sour cherry preserves are long gone.  So I thought we'd be all set and stocked up for the coming autumn...
and then this morning my genius pastry chef friend Eric gave me some of his grape jam, still warm from the kitchen.
Such good, seasonal fun, can't wait for my next canning project!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

This is looks so cool! I loved that you got to do this with Kate. Chatting about old memories, and making some ones new are the best times. Sxxx

Content Director - Strong Female Leaders said...

Good God you are are talented. I will NEVER think of making those.

BTW, read about your friend's trip to Seattle. I love it when visitors rave about my town :O)

Rachel said...

sounds like such a fun night in the kitchen! The necklace is quite gorgeous and the curd looks delicious! I dont think I would have the patience for that lol

-rachel w k
rwkrafts.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Such a beautiful recap of a fun night! That dessert was delicious & we're still enjoying the yummy goodie bag you gave me :-)

p.s. the naked peaches make me laugh

la domestique said...

You've been busy! This post is too cute. We just finished the last jar of cherry jam, and we're on to the apple butter I made last week. Lemon curd is one of my most favorite things, especially in January when meyer lemons are available. Yum. Thanks for sharing!

Craftiness NOW said...

thanks, everyone!! really it is SO easy, don't be afraid! i can't cook a thing and i can do this :-)

trishie said...

Looks great! hehe, naked peaches and lemons...that just totally made me giggle. i'm so mature.

smallburst said...

I've been telling myself to can fruits for years and have yet to do it. It just sound hard to make but you make it look so easy. Maybe I'll finally get around to doing it (fingers crossed).

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