finished 2 things!

These are pickled peppers from my garden... 3 different kinds of hot peppers + 1 sweet green pepper. Recipe can be found here. Filled a half litre jar! awesome!

The baby blanket is going to be donated to afghans for Afghans ... used up all my partial skeins of wool for that one. The pattern can be found here - I cast on 6 sts instead of 5, making 12 pinwheel sections instead of 10, and it's about 36" across.

Red Pepper Jam

ingredients:
- 12 large red peppers, washed, seeds and cores removed
- 2 tblspns coarse salt
- 1.5 cups cider vinegar
- 0.5 cups water
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 lemon, quartered

process:

Pass peppers through food processor, then pour into a bowl and sprinkle in salt. Let stand for 4 hours.

Drain peppers well through a strainer (let drip for about 2 or 3 minutes). Place pulp in a pot with water, vinegar, and lemon. Simmer 20 minutes, then remove lemon.

Mix in sugar, and boil for approx 1 hour, until it thickens.

In the meantime, sterilize your jars: wash and dry jars, and place in an oven at 225 degrees farenheit for 30 minutes. Boil lids and caps for 10 minutes.

Pour jam into sterilized jars and seal.

Make sure there's no jam on the rim, so wipe away quickly in case of spillage. (This may be easier with 2 people - one person jarring, the other capping.)

I got this recipe from a friend of mine - she had served this jam over a brick of cream cheese, to spread on crackers, which tasted awesome. Tasting it, I would've never thought it was red peppers, because it tasted so sweet, it was almost like strawberries.

This was my first attempt at making preserves - I actually doubled the recipe, which is what you see pictured above. Same thing, just doubled. I ended up with 5 half-liter jars + 3 small jars + a teeny bit left over. The half liter jars will make good xmas gives come the holidays for the neighbors and friends. My mom and I made it together yesterday, and my brother and husband helped in putting it all into jars.

Now that I know how to make this recipe, and I know how it'll turn out, I'd make a couple changes for the next time I make it: I'd replace a quarter cup of the cider vinegar with balsamic vinegar, which I think would improve the taste, and I'd also add some Certo to thicken the jam a bit. Maybe even add a couple hot peppers in the mix, to spice it up a bit.

the rhubarb in my garden

My husband and I have been fortunate enough to move into a house that actually has a back yard ~ and for the 2 summers that we've so far had it, this coming summer being our third, there's been a bush of rhubarb that keeps coming up. It's been untouched, uneaten, and heaven only knows how it keeps growing because I haven't paid much attention to it, other than my constantly saying how I ought to make something with it.

So, this year I'm getting my butt in gear and I'm actually doing something about this rhubarb. (This is largely inspired by the fact that we're renovating our kitchen, and installing a brand new oven! whoot!)

I like the idea of making preserves. I grew up with my mother and grandmother making tons of preserves with fruit that grew in their gardens, and figure I ought to get myself taught on doing preserves too. And, garden-grown preserves always make awesome December-holiday gifts, right?

I've found already 4 different rhubarb-preserves recipes online. If anyone out there in blogland has a tried-and-true-favourite-family-rhubarb-preserve recipe, I'd love it if you could share it in the comments. :)

I'll be sure to post pictures of my progress when I get around to making a few jars!