{ Canning Tomato Jam }

I had such a busy day yesterday that I didn't even get a chance to come in and put up a post.  I'm so sorry, I fully intended to do so but time just got away from me.

My day today was equally full and busy and very productive as well.  Oh my goodness, I love a productive day.

I started my morning by stripping my bed, making a whole new fresh one, cleaning and organizing the bedroom, vacuumed and then carpet cleaned the whole room.  Love a clean and fresh bedroom, and lately I had been neglecting it a bit.  It's so important to have a little space for ourselves that we can retreat to, relax, and feel completely at ease, and for that to happen, I need my bedroom to be a soothing environment and not a chaos.

Ok it wasn't that bad, just needed to give my side tables some attention, needed a good vacuum and carpet clean and some dusting.  It's not like I had a royal mess in there, but it felt messy to me and it was getting on my last nerve, if truth be told.

After the bedroom, I made some phone calls, got the kids schooling taken care of, put in a refill for my birth control, then vacuumed both living rooms, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, started some laundry and straightened my hair......and all before 11am.  Pretty darn good if you ask me.

Once all of that was out of the way I was able to finally get down to what I really wanted to do, which was make some jam.

I had been wanting some of my greatgrandma's Tomato Jam, and had bought tomatoes last time I went grocery shopping, almost 2 weeks ago, but never got around to making it.

Love jam, love making jam, love canning in general so this was the perfect few hours for me.

Not only do I enjoy the whole process of canning and I am getting pretty excited just thinking about all the canning I want to do this spring and summer, but I also enjoy making family recipes and using tricks that have been passed on to me. 

Like peeling the tomatoes.  My greatgrandma always did it this way and that's how I learned.  She would make an X on the bottom of the tomatoes, place them all in a bowl and then pour boiling water over them and let them sit for a few minutes.  I would sit and watch her and she would let me peel them when they were cool enough to touch.

Doing this simple process today made me think of her and wish that she was with me at this moment, making jam.

Tomato and Apple Jam is one of my favorites.  Weird in a way, because growing up I absolutely detested tomatoes in any shape or form.  It wasn't until a few years ago that I started enjoying them.

But like I was saying, growing up I couldn't stand them, the only way I would go anywhere near them would be through the tomato jam.  My greatgrandma would slice me up two thick slices of bread, slather them with butter and them a good heaping of this jam, and I would lick my lips and go to town.

If you've never tried Tomato Jam, you may be surprised just how good it is.  It may sound a little strange but it's delicious.  If you want to try it for yourself, I do have a recipe on the food blog.

Canning is one of those things that may seem intimidating at first, and Lord knows I avoided it for such a long time.  I was terrified that I would mess things up....I had visions of exploding jars, and jam dripping off kitchen walls. 

Truth is, it's so easy to do if you just follow some simple directions and precautions, and the rewards are amazing.

Now my visions are more of a huge cellar room with wall to wall shelving filled with mason jars, filled with all sorts of bounty yumminess.  I may still do that one day, I mean we do have a cellar, or storm shelter, which would double up as a great larder.  One day....maybe.

I spent most of the afternoon between jars and funnels and the delicious aroma of cinnamon and apples and tomatoes. 

Late afternoon, we had a therapy appointment for Jasmine.  It was just a maintenance appointment, like a check up to see how she is doing, and she is doing extremely well.  It's been a huge change, like night and day from a few months ago where I honestly felt so lost and helpless. 

She has just one more appointment right before her graduation and then she's done completely.  So proud of my daughter for overcoming this huge obstacle in her life.  She still struggles with depression and anxiety, but she's learned to manage it without medication, and using the tools that her therapist instilled in her.

Anyway, because the appointment was late in the day, we picked up Little Caesars Pizza on the way home.  It had been years since I had it, there was never one near by in Arizona or second time around in Idaho.  Just glad there's a few in our area now, it's good pizza and it's inexpensive.

Now I'm going to finish up this post real quick and start on the Scheepjes CAL 2017.  Like I need another crochet project or CAL right?  Hahah 

But I can't help it, and I've been waiting for this project for a while so now that it's finally here, I am super excited to get going with it.