Peach Jam Giveaway Results!

Thanks to all who participated, those jams all sound so delicious and you have all inspired me to make more jam!  I used Random.org to "choose" the winner, and the lucky winner is #5, HiLesha!  She loves blueberry jam!  Congrats to HiLesha, and I am so glad so many people participated in the giveaway! 

I love fruit!  No matter what the season, I love fruit.  My favorite fruit changes depending on what fruit is in season.  Right now I'm loving peaches!  I've gone peach picking at Bishop's Orchard twice in the last month, once with my sister and once with my friend Jac (who took these photos)!







The peaches are glorious right now!  They are the most beautiful color and so sweet! I've been eating a least two a day and I have enough peaches in the freezer for two peach crisps or pies.  We'll be able to have a little bit of summer when it's not so beautiful out! 

I've also made four batches of peach jam.  I am in love with this jam and have had it on toast every morning for the past week!  It also has a nice lemon flavor, which I adore.  Since I have 39 jars of peach jam in my basement, and Wednesday was the first day of school (my students are the best, by the way), I'm giving away one 4 ounce jar of my peach jam. 

The Giveaway:
To enter this giveaway, answer the following question in the Comments section of this post:

What is your favorite type of jam? 

One entry per person please.  The giveaway will close Wednesday at noon, EST! The winner will be randomly selected and announced Wednesday night.  Have a lovely weekend and Happy Labor Day!

Canning classes in CT

I love the website Food in Jars.  It's a great canning blog and her other recipes are fantastic as well.  She is having two canning classes in CT that I won't be able to attend, but I wanted to let people know about the classes.  Here's the info:

June 30: Spiced nectarine jam and dilly beans at the Greenwich Historical Society’s Vanderbilt Education Center in Greenwich, CT. 1 – 4 pm. Click here to register.
July 1: Rhubarb chutney canning class at the Coventry Regional Farmers’ Market in Coventry, CT. 2 – 4 pm. Click here to register.

Check them out! 

The last month

The month of March has been busy!  I'm directing the musical at my middle school, so although I've been crafting, canning and cooking, I've had no time to blog.  So here's an quick look into what I've been doing. 


First of all, I've been enjoying needle felting!  And I made these cute Pac Man ghosts:

I also made Mint Jelly for the Easter Lamb!  Mr. Pie Plate decided to add some green food coloring, so it's a very pretty emerald color!



I also made some lavender sachets from leftover quilting scraps for my aunt's birthday.  I used rice and lavender essential oil and just sewed it all up.  They are not perfect, but they smell wonderful and they are pretty cute!

Now I'm on to Easter Baking!  Enjoy your holiday!

Orange Ginger Marmalade

I love my husband!  So much that I threw him a New Haven Pizza Tasting party for his 30^th birthday last night(don’t worry, I’ll post the results soon)!  And my husband loves oranges.  Every year we buy a big box of oranges from a fundraiser and it is glorious!  Sometimes Chris eats 5 in a sitting... this might ruin dinner, but that's ok because he is never going to get scurvy.  This year we didn't go through the entire box of oranges.  Chris suggested I do something with these oranges and we both know what that means: canning!  Over the summer we got married in a barn and we drank out of mason jars.  You can see one here:

This meant that we had 160 mason jars in our possession.  Oranges and canning mean one thing: marmalade!   I went to one of my favorite websites: Foodinjars.com.  It is a great website and I have learned a lot about canning from Marisa.  I chose her Orange Ginger Jam and my neighbors Julie and Dave came over to partake in the canning experience.  As always we had a great time! 

 This was our final product!  Everything looks so pretty in jars!  If you are looking to try making marmalade, this one is fantastic!  The ginger and orange are so delicious together, I highly recommend it.  Here was our finished product: 

Have a great week and make this marmalade!