The jam-making machine is back online!

...with some assistance from the IBH, of course.

Picked up 8 packs of beautiful blackberries, and a lapful of black velvet apricots on the last trip to the farmer's market. Decided they might blend together nicely, and be complemented with a touch of warm spice... time to experiment!

The blackberries...

Popped one in my mouth and decided I did NOT like blackberry seeds, so just about killed myself separating the juice and pulp from the skins and seeds. I'm sure there is an easy way to do this, but could not think of one for the life of me, so basically forced them through a sieve with a spoon. Pretty darn primitive.

Some lovely puree of black velvet apricots...

Swirl them together in my treasured Le Creuset pot...

Add lemon juice for acidity and the calcium water that is Part I of the Pomona's Pectin process. Bring to a boil, stir in sugar with Part II of Pomona's Pectin, taste, add more sugar as needed, add cinnamon and nutmeg to taste, test for gelling, pour into hot sanitized jars, process in boiling water, seal... then leave the jars on your counter so you can caress them lovingly each time you pass by (and make all the people who visit your home jealous).

Cannot wait to start cracking into these.

Summer

I'm not a huge fan of heat, but there is something deliciously languid about long summer days. You can almost pretend you're a kid looking at three months of uninhibited freedom when you still have several hours of daylight left after a full workday. We try to make it down to the community pool a few times each week. Rachel's been practicing her crab crawl.

Sushi

Growing up in the Deep South, I had zero exposure to sushi and zero desire to ever try it. The idea of raw fish was just too "icky" for me. After moving to California, I gave it a try and decided it was fabulous, fabulous stuff. It's amazing how much your environment can shape your attitudes about things. Makes you wonder how we might be different under different circumstances. Anyway, we went out to sushi last night, chasing after a sense of normalcy that has been a little too rare of late.



Mmm. Good.

Carrots on sticks

Sometimes you just need things to look forward to in order to keep yourself moving forward. We had to push out our honeymoon to Costa Rica, but haven't given up on it yet; can't wait to take in sights like this.

And as consolation for having to push it out in the first place, a couple nights here:


It all makes it so much more bearable.