Saturday, August 25, 2012

PB&J




When we first moved to Krasnodar from Moscow, we thought we had arrived in another country.  It was balmy and bright and we saw flowers and fruit trees and even a palm tree here and there.  
And the grapevines... at the entrance to every home.  
Such a stark difference to the concrete and dark days of the north.  
We thought we would never tire of free fruit at every turn...

Well, I can say after living in 4 different homes in this city and "harvesting" plums, cherries, apples, pears, peaches, apricots, gooseberries, and now grapes... 
It is a blessing and a curse. 
The excitement of making jam, sugar-free and oh! so sugary, for the first time ever...   The guilt of doing nothing and seeing it rot on the ground or overeaten by my dogs...   

I think the season is finally coming to an end and I just may have to stay inside to avoid the "tsk, tsk"of the neighbors.  
I have done all I can.


My process got pretty messy when I realized that I did things a little out of order... 
I needed the skins back after straining the juice since I didn't have any pectin for the jam.  
Those pesky seeds really stick to everything!

It was fun to tell the girls how when I was young, grape jam was all you ever ate with your peanut butter.  I honestly don't think they had ever tasted it before which helped when they awarded it the title of Best Grape Jam EVER! 

Check out this Peanut Butter Bread to go along with it...  a bubble-busting world-shattering thick creamy recipe so jammy it'll rock your socks off. A Purple Mayhem that will leave you hungover without sending you to the ER. Sounds like paradise, eh?
(Description compliments of newly returned camper, Madi Hayes)

2 comments:

Jennifer Broberg said...

So sad, all that fruit gone to waste. HA! Just kidding, you did a great job! You know I don't have guilt over grapes souring. Done it plenty of times!

Unknown said...

You crack me up! Little do you know, you are my inspiration when the guilt gets me down... people before projects. I just say, "Jenn would never let these grapes (pears, apricots, zucchini) tell her what to do!"

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