Fruits of Our Labors

After all we have been doing the past few day, La Kid and I needed a break.  We took in the Angels vs. Texas game @ the Big A.  Yeah! the Angels won.

This pix doesn't do the cupcakes justice.

 These next photos are what else we were up to in the past few days.  La Kid made 200 cupcakes for the wedding and a 6-inch cake to all go on a cupcake stand.

The bride gave La Kid three brightly colored napkins and said she wanted the cupcakes to match.  They were dead on.  Not what I would have chosen, but then theirs was a carnival themed reception...

I played sous chef to La Kid.  Mainly washed and did the grunt work while she mixed, baked and piped all the cupcakes.

I was also busy with more summer canning.  I did a load of Bread & Butter Pickles, more Dills and a Peach Rhubarb Jam that I threw together.  No real recipe, just cut up the rhubarb and tossed with sugar, then let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours.  The sugar draws out the water, so by that time I had about 2 cups of liquid and rhubarb.  I then added some fruit fresh to the mixture.  I skinned the peaches after a 2-minute bath in boiling water and quick dip in ice water.  I hand chunked the peaches into the rhubarb mixture and tossed to coat the peaches as they were added.  I had probably 7-8 cups of fruit and liquid.  I used about 1 1/2 cups of sugar for the rhubarb and found I didn't need any more than that.  The peaches were sweet, so I began to bring the mixture to a boil for a few minutes, mashing everything together.  Since I was not going to add more sugar, I used Pomona Pectin with the jam.  I didn't want it to boil down to nothing, so I opted to use the pectin.  I follow the Pomona Pectin directions for Peach Jam and added the pectin with about 1/4 cup more sugar.  The jam has a very fruity peach flavor, not sickeningly sweet, like many jams.  The rhubarb added just enough tang to know something was in it, but you probably wouldn't be able to identify what it was.  It was an experiment.  I like it!