Twyla's Pear Delight

     A couple days ago I said I was going to prep, cook, and can the pears we bought last Friday.   Well, I did just that - right on schedule, too.  But, I never followed up with the recipe as promised. So, here it is:

Pear Delight on Moshe's homemade bread!

                 Twyla's Pear Delight
         (named by my hubby, Moshe)
                  7 pounds fresh pears
                  1 Orange
                  2 Cups Raisins
                  1 Cup Goji Berries
                  6 Cups sugar
              1 and1/2Tablespoons each:   Cinnamon,       
 Nutmeg, Cloves,  and Allspice
                   1 and 1/2 teaspoons Ginger
                   1 Cup Vinegar

     Preheat oven to 200 or 250 degrees;  place jars in oven to heat while making the pear mixture.  (This is THE  BEST  WAY to have your jars nice and hot for canning!)  Also, start heating your water  in your canner so that it is ready for water-bath canning when you need it.
     Wash pears. Cut into quarters and remove cores and any bad spots. Cut orange into quarters. Process all of this in food processor; place in large cooking pot.  Add all remaining ingredients.  Cook on medium heat, allow to come to boil, then simmer for forty minutes.
      Fill hot jars with boiling pear mixture; apply lids; and, process in boiling water bath for 25 minutes.
      Makes  approx. 8 pints.

Close-up of Fabulous bread w Pear Delight

  Shalom,
           Y'all -
                 
                    Twyla

Canning Planning

     Whew! I feel almost completely human today - almost completely over my cold and eye infection.  Still need to take the antibiotic eyedrops a couple more days, and go back to the doctor Tuesday. Eye infections are not something to mess around with! 
     Haven't had much to say the past few days.  Haven't done a whole lot, either.  Sometimes I think a cold is the worst kind of illness.  You just don't feel good enough to do anything other than the very basics.  Then, when you start feeling better, there's a lot of catching up to do. Today I caught up on the laundry, cleaned the kitchen real good, and did all the floors - sweeping, mopping, vacuuming.  Tomorrow I hope to catch up on  food prep.

a few jars of Summer's bounty

      Which brings me to todays' topic: planning canning/ canning planning.  I have all the jars and the ingredients lined up on the breakfast room table, ready to make some wonderful minced pear relish tomorrow.  I made a batch of it about a month ago, and it was dee-lish!! I've been looking for more pears ever since... finally found  a few more pounds of them a couple days ago, so will make it, can it, label it, and shelf it in the morning.  Now, I'm not talking about the pears you buy in the grocery store. I don't want 'em sprayed with pesticides, and  waxed to prevent bruising.  Not driven across the country and stored  for weeks before arriving in the store. No.  I'm talking about locally-grown, organic, IMPERFECT pears... the kind that make PERFECTLY delicious preserves.   Maybe tomorrow I'll share the recipe and  some photos.  This recipe is so good it'll make you wanna' slap your Mamma!
                                         Shalom Y'all - Twyla
   

Busy, but Blessed

One of my watercolors...

     Wow.  I can hardly believe it's Thursday already.  Where did the time go?
     Okay; Tuesday was my birthday, and I was gone almost all day.  Among other things, Moshe and I went out for a late lunch.  We went to a wonderful local restaurant.  Even though we live up in the mountains, "ten miles from nowhere", there is a REAL restaurant in our little town, with a REAL chef, and REAL food - everything made on location.  Wonderful. We savored every bite and every moment. We even brought home a doggie bag for Moxie and salad greens for the chickens.
     Wednesday was a trip to the Farmer's Market.  It's about a thirty-minute drive one way.  We purchased more apples, sorghum syrup, and Jerusalem artichokes.  On the way home we stopped at a roadside stand "to get an onion", and came home with a fifty pound bag of them.  I also have a big basket of local pears that a neighbor gave us over the weekend...
     Soooo... today is definitely a food prep/canning/drying/freezing kind of day. I'm going to plug in the portable CD player and sing along as I work.  Moshe has a big list of chores, too. Lots of projects for building more storage shelves, fixing a leaky toilet valve, finishing the shelves for our dehydrator.  Life is always busy and interesting around here.
     I have the best husband in the world. Are we perfect? No. Absolutley not. But, we are a great team. When we have a problem, we talk it out, work it out. We are committed to each other. As Moshe said yesterday, "We have our problems just like everyone else, but, I took my wedding vows seriously."
     Busy but blessed.  That's me.
                                                         Shalom y'all - Twyla

Moshe & Me... dressed up silly for a birthday party