Creating more work than is necessary...

A lovely view of the clouds last Monday evening

Studmuffin gave me a little talking to about making my life harder than it needs to be. However, I didn't hear him making those comments as he wolfed down his share of a totally from scratch pumpkin pie, right down to the fresh pumpkin!

So, here's the quick and dirty on my week, but let's skip the quick part because I'm really not so good at that!

It all started with a certain gentleman at our church asking me what committee I'd like to serve on at church...

"I'm already pretty committed on my time..."

"That's what they all say." Okay. I think he was joking...But I wasn't sure, and it took every ounce of my strength not to list every thing I do at the church. I refrained, because here's the deal: when I make a list it sounds really impressive, but the reality is, none of the things I do require huge amounts of time, but they do require faithfulness. So far, I can manage all of the things I do faithfully, but if I add one more thing, I'm not sure how well I could do any of them...

Wait! Let's rewind to last Thursday. I had a message to call the mother's day out director at our church about "something exciting we have going next Thursday." I hesitantly returned her call 2 days later...

"Hi! Sorry I'm slow to call back. I worked Thursday and Friday, and by the time I got around to calling in the evening I thought it was too late."

"Oh! I didn't realized you worked! I was wondering if you could help with our Thanksgiving feast for our MDO program next Thursday."

"No, I'll be at work that day...."

"Well, that's too bad, it's going to be lots of fun. Could you maybe bring a few pumpkin pies?"

And thus, the madness of my week began....

Self-inflicted madness as I could easily have said "no" and she would have been perfectly okay...But the truth is I love to bake. And I have a sin of pride about baking....

I refuse to take short cuts. No break apart cookies or ready made crusts will come out of this house!!! You see, those don't taste as good as from scratch because they are missing a very important ingredient: Love. Of course, I LOVE to bake, so if you HATE to bake, maybe you better stick to convenience...I'd hate to be responsible for baking such a strong emotion right into your cookies!

The problem is, once I get started baking I have a hard time stopping. I made a total of 8 pies totally from scratch this week. That just got my ball rolling faster and faster...

Monday evening's sunset.

I assembled the ingredients for Christmas cappuccino this afternoon, which only takes 5 minutes, but the sugar and caffeine rush sent me on a mad jelly spree....

My darn tomato plants went crazy in October. They barely produced enough for us to eat all summer, and then they decided to produce late in the season when they had no hope of maturing. My mom was here a few weeks ago and took home 2 brown paper sacks of green tomatoes. I told her to take them all. I refused to even look at them....

Then Monday came along, and the evening was beautiful and I made the mistake of wandering to the garden....

Where I saw thousands of green tomatoes waiting to be harvested....

One of my now dying tomato plants after we have already harvest 4 brown bags full of green tomatoes.

So I picked 2 brown paper sacks full....

While Holly kept growling at something in the pasture behind me......

I would hear something walking in the grass. She would growl. I'd stand up to look and I would see nothing....Except the momma cow a hundred yards away licking her brand new baby calf clean....Too, too precious. I have a whole different post on that little scene.

I would resume picking tomatoes (sidebar: we actually had a freeze last week, but apparently not weeding the garden was advantageous in that the grass that grew up around the tomatoes kept the vines along the ground from getting frost...) Pretty soon I'd hear the rustling in the grass, the dog would start to growl, every hair on my body would stand up...I'd stand up and look around. I could see nothing. Of course, you can tell by the pictures I took that evening it was nearly dark when I decided to begin this venture....


Anyway fast forward again to today after I drank 2 cups of cappuccino...

I did a google search on raspberry jelly made from green tomatoes (Mom had told me I could do this.) I looked through some recipes and sort of combined/tweaked them, and decided to plunge in today...




I actually used strawberry jello, as that is what I had in my pantry. I gotta say, it turned out pretty tasty! So, here's my quick and easy recipe for strawberry jam!

Strawberry Jam

5 cups pureed green tomatoes
4 cups granulated sugar
6 oz strawberry gelatin

Combine tomatoes and sugar in a large saucepan. Bring to boil over medium high heat. Cook for about 10 minutes. Stir in gelatin. Let simmer for 20 minutes longer and place in sterilized jars.

This recipe made about 3 pints for me. I expected it to make more .... Not sure why I had less unless the tomatoes cooked down more than I expected...

Here's another tip for you. Instead of using a hot water bath to seal your jars, you can keep your jars hot in the oven on a cookie sheet. Place the lids in a small pan and bring to a boil. Ladle the jam into your jar, place lid, making sure the rim is clean, screw on band and invert jar. You will soon hear a *ping.* This is your lid sealing! Turn jars right side up, and store until you are ready to eat, or share with your friends for Christmas gifts! If some of the jars don't seal, simply store them in your refrigerator and eat them first.