I am a Canner.... Not

One day I was talking to my girl Cristan on the phone. We were chatting about our usual "friend" stuff when she started telling me about how awesome she is because she learned to "can" fruit. She had been taught by a friend down in the tiny town where she lives. I told her that I would love to learn how to do that someday.... to which she replied "I'm coming up there tomorrow, I'll pick you up some fruit and we'll do it, okay?" She's such a good friend. She forces me to be "homemakerish" ;)

I was a bit nervous, you see, I've talked about my many challenges before, one of which is being a "normal" homemaker and that includes anything in that venue. I was talking to my mom later that day and I told her about the canning thing. She knew I had been wanting to make some freezer jam (but I can't do it by myself, I'd probably blow-up my kitchen!) so she offered to come over and help me do that while we were canning and we'd get it all done in one day.

So the next day we (we as in- my mom and Cris) did it. We canned peaches and made strawberry freezer jam. And the only things that went wrong were my fault including, but not limited to:

- unknowingly putting the wrong amount of strawberries into the blender, and then actually using that for a batch.

-putting the pectin into the bowl of sugar instead of into the bowl of blended strawberries.

-dumping a whole package of pectin into a bowl of strawberries instead of "stirring it in slowly"

-In all the confusion going on in my kitchen, I started mixing the sugar into a bowl of berries that wasn't ready, instead of the other bowl of berries that WAS ready (okay, my mom actually did this, but I'm sure it was my fault somehow...)

-I put a batch of peaches in the boiling water to blanch and then forgot about them. When I remembered to take them out, they were pretty much mush. Of course, I still used them.

Needless to say, it was a pretty hilarious morning. I'm so glad my mom and Cristan are patient enough with me and allow my "homemaker challenged" self become more experienced.

Aren't you all proud of me? I think you should be. :)