Jelly Time!

Red peppers -- Love them! Red pepper jelly -- yummy! Making some treats for the holidays -- win-win. 

Not sure if I've ever done a recipe with such little effort and such high return on the satisfaction scale -- well, perhaps the Christmas Skor bar squares that are incredibly easy--but what made this session so rewarding was that Julia did most of it herself to make gifts for her teachers and daycare supervisors.

This recipe for red pepper jelly came to me from my good friend, Angela. Over the years, we've done many crafting projects, shared in the delight of crafting media studies exams that only the two of us really appreciated, and reveled in the wonder of Supperworks together. Last week, she and I did our whirlwind jelly session (I think there is a proper term for this activity -- putting up preserves -- why up?) on American Thanksgiving eve. 

My heart aches a little each US Thanksgiving, now knowing from her what a HUGE! event it is in the states for families, and here she is in Canada, often doing parent-teacher interviews on Thanksgiving or digging out from the first snow of the season.  This year interviews were earlier and real snow has not come yet to this part of country, so I was happy that we were going to celebrate with little homespun activity.

Julia was excited when she saw all the jars come home, gleaming in their red yumminess and asked if she could help make some, so we kicked off the season yesterday making a batch of jelly and a tray of the Skor squares. EASY I'm telling you -- here are the must-know steps.

Step one - wear a red shirt to match the peppers.

Step 2 - Hold on tight to that lid!

Step 3 - keep stirring and stirring while you sing songs from

The Sound of Music.

Step 4 - make sure your pinky finger is raised as you fill the jars.

Step 5 - snuggle proudly with your little red babies.