'My Christmas Gifts' 2009

The special gifts I made this year for my friends is festive cranberry sauce.

It is pretty, it is hard to stay out of, and it is easy to make.

My recipe calls for 8 cups of cranberries. I buy the bags of fresh ones when they are on sale and freeze them if there isn't time to put them up when I buy them.

So, you can use fresh or freshly frozen berries.

It is important to go through the bags of berries to discard the overripe/underripe ones.

By the time you have done this you have about 2 cups. It takes 4 bags for this recipe.

While I sort through the berries I bring 4 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar to a boil on a meduim high setting. Boil for about 5 minutes.

I use evaporated cane juice crystals because they are a kind of sugar that has not been bleached or processed to the point of losing the molasses.

When the water/sugar concoction has boiled for 5 minutes, add the 8 cups of fresh cranberries. Do not stir. You can see that I made the mistake of stirring and have foam to deal with. I don't mind it a bit, but you don't want to give foam away as a gift! The berries boil on meduim high until most of them have split their skins. You can hear the 'popping' as they do this while you putter around the kitchen with this activity. It takes about 10 minutes for this part.

You can see beside the cranberries a small saucepan with 7 lids and screw caps. I've washed them and am boiling them for about 5 minutes in about 3 inches of water. In the oven are 7 clean jars in a pan with about an inch of water at 220 degrees for 20 minutes.

When the berries are ready, fill the jars, wipe the rims clean with a damp cloth, place lids and screw caps on, and process for 10 minutes.

I use a steamer canner rather than a boiling water bath because it take much less time. I've used this steamer canner since we lived in Misery (Missouri, to some) in the 80's, so I know it is a time-saving way to process many foods.

Voila! Here is the finished product with labels for whom they are to be given.

My DH loves this stuff, putting it on pound cake for dessert if we haven't had chicken for dinner. He would eat it right out of the jar if I'd let him!

MaryJane Butters and I have it Goin' On!

I'm in love;

...in love with MaryJane Butters! She and I are kindred spirits.

She's an older woman who bought 5 acres at the end of a road out of Moscow, Idaho. She supports herself by making good things to sell. She's written a book I'm reading and taking notes from called:

MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook

for the farmgirl in all of us

I'd been bemoaning the fact that I don't have a farm yet, a goat to milk, chickens that give me eggs. Then in dawned on me the other day as I was putting 4 gallon jars of home-made granola away, making and canning a load of applepie filling for the winter, and rustling up some applesauce in small jars for Christmas gifts that: I AM a farmgirl.

Oh, the bread machine was going while I canned too. It was making a loaf of whole wheat bread from wheat I'd ground myself. After all that my sweet daughter-in-law gave me a plate of sushi, which I usually make myself too. Don't you love the little orchid she placed

for presentation?

Just before dinner I went out and harvested my garlic, for I am a farmgirl.

The Martha Stewart part of the farmgirl in me planted red zinnias to complement the green squash plants with the yellow blossoms.

And what about the presentation of purple salvia and this new yellow plant for the farmgirl in all of us?

I think I am living the farmgirl routine pretty well.

I've subscribed to MaryJane's magazine and given a gift subscription to my little sisty who introduced us.

Rachel, my dear friend, and I will visit MaryJane's farm next month.

For the farmgirls in all of us, stay tuned; I'll fill you in.

AND! Rachel has even written an article for MaryJane's magazine!