Rose Petal Jelly

No, no–I’d never heard of such a thing either. But the idea intrigued me.

A sweet, delicate jelly with the essence of…roses. It sounded so like something the ladies would eat on teeny, tiny toast corners in Pride and Prejudice that, well, I couldn’t help myself. Absolutely had to try it.

Here’s how it works:

Ingredients

4 cups rose petals

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 pkg. pectin

4 cups white sugar

Stroll right out to the yard and carefully pluck about 4 cups of rose petals from the poor, unsuspecting bushes. Trust me, they’ll get over it.

Rinse them off, you know, just to make sure that petals are the only thing in the basket–if you get my drift.

Boil the petals in 4 cups of hot water—your house will smell incredible! Strain out the petals reserving all the liquid. Isn’t it amazing how ugly and colorless the sad little petals are now?

Add enough water to make four cups of juice again. It’s an interesting cider color…but just wait.

Next add 1/4 cup lemon just and watch what happens. The juice turns a lovely shade of pink–much prettier than it looks here.  Amazing!

Stir in 1 package of pectin till perfectly blended.

Now then, cook over medium heat until it does that rolling boil thing. Now add 4 cups of white sugar stirring till dissolved and bring it all back to a rolling boil again. Watch it carefully because it needs to boil for about 15 minutes to reach it’s setting point–but it can bubble over real easily. We know this, so if you don’t want to spend the afternoon scrubbing jelly out from under the stove burner—stay near by.

With a small strainer, remove the foam from the top.

Pour into tiny, little hot, clean jars and seal.

Scurry off now, and make some crumpets. Elizabeth Bennet will be stopping by.

{ hee hee }

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Rose Petal Jelly
 
Ingredients
  • 4 cups rose petals
  • ¼ cup lemon juice
  • 1 pkg. pectin
  • 4 cups white sugar
Instructions
  1. Pick about 4 cups of rose petals from the bushes. Rinse them.
  2. Boil the petals in 4 cups of hot water.
  3. Strain out the petals reserving all the liquid.
  4. Add enough water to make four cups of juice again.
  5. Next add ¼ cup lemon juice.
  6. Stir in 1 package of pectin till perfectly blended.
  7. Cook over medium heat to a rolling boil.
  8. Add 4 cups of white sugar stirring till dissolved and bring it all back to a rolling boil again.
  9. Watch it carefully because it needs to boil for about 15 minutes to reach it’s setting point.
  10. With a small strainer, remove the foam from the top.
  11. Pour into tiny little hot, clean jars and seal.

Great Pumpkin Ready…

so to speak.

Look at this photo very carefully. What’s wrong with this picture? Well, other than the fact that it’s a bit blurry–what else is really, REally wrong here? Hmmmm?

Ha! There now. That’s much better.

Daney-boy has told me many times that his favorite memory in the world was when he was little and and came home from school to find the house all decorated for Halloween…just like magic! He missed it even when he was far, far away in Lithuania.

Oh, but now look this direction. Tsk…tsk. Positively dreadful.

Just a few subtle changes…here and there. Would you like to see them up close? Okkkk…try not to be too frightened. {snicker, snicker}

Oh, yeah…

Halloween, Andersonian style…

…the Next Generation.

So Much Autumn

Even though our gorgeous mountains are a bit slow to completely change into their autumn colors, still, there is plenty of evidence that Autumn is weaving all around us.

There are the blue skies that turn into sudden hail storms…

and the crab apples to pick.

Warm “Big  Hunk” hats turning up in the shop…

and juice to make.

Ominous thunder clouds rolling in…


and jam to set.

Cozy reading buddies…

and caramel popcorn to gobble up.

Family reading club books to hide away with…

and a million bottles to store.

Crabby-grape jelly to taste test…

and sweet folks to snuggle with.

So you see, late leaves or not…

we still have tons of hope.

 

{Follow Him}

 

None of us is perfect yet. But we can have frequent assurance that we are following along the way. He leads us, and He beckons for us to follow Him.”

-Henry B. Eyring

Co-op

A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from our lives.

A simple, special, extraordinary moment.

A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you are inspired to do the same–leave us a link in the comments.

Happy Autumn weekend my friends.