It's a good thing I don't make my living by blogging, right? I've neglected my blog page so I'm here to spruce it up and tell you what's been going on in our busy lives. The work week is the typical 9 to 5 week, dinner, showers blah blah blah, but come the weekend, it's really always something new with us. We do normally spend our weekends in the kitchen, where we love to be. Some people consider cooking and baking and creating culinary masterpieces work, but it's one of the best hobbies that we love and it's what we do most.
This weekend we took a little breather from the kitchen though. For good reason. Canning season is coming to a low, not that it ever really stops for us, but it's not as urgent as it was in the spring and summer. So we took a break this weekend and gladly babysat our oldest grandson, Hunter. Such a ball of energy this kid is. Hunter is approx 1.5 years old and just such a sweet boy. He likes to snuggle and share smooches with his grandparents, but that's when you can get him to sit still for 30 seconds. He certainly wore us out, but it was an absolute joy.
Yes, that smile can melt us quicker than chocolate in July. And just as sweet, (and sometimes sticky). His mother, my daughter Rikki, is an independent consultant for Jamberry Nails. That alone is another fun story I'll share soon and if you've never heard of Jamberry, I urge you to check it out at
rikkisue.jamberry.com. Anyway, she had a show to do in our area, which worked out great for us. She came in on Friday night. It was great to get home from work and see them here. We made dinner and then basically spent the night visiting and spending time together. Then Saturday we woke early and she was out the door to show off her goods. We were left to babysit for 8 hours.
When you're not use to chasing that energy any longer, it's a challenge, not that we didn't love it. In fact we can't wait to do it again. Running and laughing from one side of the house to the other until he finally sat down and slowly faded away for an afternoon nap while we watched The Box Trolls. That too I recommend if you haven't seen it. It was a great movie. Hunter fell asleep and I was still glued to the movie.
Eventually he woke up, we had a snack, mom showed up and then they were gone. It all went by so fast. Saturday evening after they left, it was quiet. Strangely quiet. And it was only one day that they were here. But things felt a tad empty and it wasn't until we woke up this morning to a dog hacking toilet water in my face when things felt back to normal again.
So today has been a fairly lazy day at home. We baked fresh bread, did laundry and took showers and then decided what we wanted for dinner. I've been craving pancakes for about a week now and since we had sausage, well, why not? So Shawn made sausage and I whipped up a batch of pancakes. The pancakes were pretty standard, made with Bisquick, but the syrup was very much not standard. A few months back, we had made a batch of peach syrup from the scraps and peels of peaches after we made peach butter. It's the perfect syrup consistency and when we used it on the pancakes, it really took them up a notch. So pancakes with peach syrup and sausage is what was on the menu tonight.
So as I sit here full and very much satisfied from a wonderful dinner, I felt it was worthy enough to share with you. When you're making jams from stone fruits, there is some waste. It seems awful to throw out the peels and scraps knowing there is so much flavor still in them. So take all of the peels and put in a pot. Barely cover them with water and boil down. I've seen recipes that vary in time. Some boil at a higher heat for less time, but I went with a lower heat and simmered for about an hour. Strain, and what you have left is yummy peach juice.
At this point, you can be done with the peach scraps, but really, you don't have to be. Peaches are one of the few things that even after you've tried to suck the juice out with this method, even the boiled down mash is still flavorful. It's perfectly fine to freeze the scraps after this boiling and use in smoothies or something similar. I've even seen people puree it and make fruit leathers.
So now we had 8 cups of juice. You'll need half of that in sugar. So in the crock pot went the 8 cups of peach juice and 4 cups of sugar. We let it cook all night. There is no secret as crock pots can really vary in degree. Cook it on low until it takes on the thickness of honey. I think ours cooked about 12 hours and it did literally look just like honey with a slightly more orange color. Put in half pints and water bath for 20 minutes. That's it. We labeled them up and put them on the shelf. Tonight, it made for the best tasting, gourmet-ish pancakes ever. As soon as we popped a lid off the smell of the peachy goodness hit the nose. Perfection. Let me know if you try it!
Until next time! Thanks for reading!
Penni
