Hey, folks — hope you…

Hey, folks -- hope you had a good weekend. Mine was mixed -- on the one hand, Anand was up three times Saturday night, and I got maybe three hours of sleep total. Argh. On the other hand, I got to use a birthday gift card from my sisters to take a cooking class at Flavour, a local school. I've been lusting after their classes for a while, but haven't been able to afford their prices. Gift cards fix that. :-)

I took a four hour canning and preserving class, during which time we made:

• strawberry jam
• green pepper jelly
• jarred whole tomatoes
• pickled green beans
• bread-and-butter pickles

It was fun, and not nearly as difficult as I expected. The dishwasher helps a lot with sterilizing; I can't imagine how hot it must have been in ye olde days, boiling all that stuff before you even get to can it. And they make clever tongs and things now that make it easier to lift heavy hot bottles out of boiling water. Mostly, I feel reasonably confident now that I can do this without giving my family, friends and relatives botulism, which was my main concern. I might even invest fifty dollars in canning supplies; I can see some holiday gifts on the horizon. I'm sure my family will enjoy the reprieve from knitwear. :-)