Adventures with Grape Juice

So are you curious as to why I haven't blogged in so long? Well, you should be if you are reading this now. Here is the low down on my blogging absence. One, the Scout Master went out of town last week and took the laptop with him. Then I couldn't find the whatchamacallit that adapts the memory card from my camera into a USB thingy so that I could up load photos (and let's be honest what is a post with out a photo). Also....well you get the picture about my computer knowledge (or lack thereof).

I was kinda busy too having my fist adventure in canning grape juice. I sent my little laundry basket with a friend and it came back chalk full of fragrant smelling, delicious tasting concord grapes from a Welch's grape supplier. When my friend got home I went over and she showed me how to use a steamer juicer and how to can it. Easy right? Right! Well, maybe if I weren't sometimes inflicted with uncontrollable bouts of clumsiness. Although, I am not sure that what happened can really be construed as my fault. But we'll get to that in a minute.

Here are the beautiful grapes.

In the steamer.

My set up.

Okay so it is about 8:30 Thursday night (the 15th). And I have just finished my first batch of juice. It went off without a hitch. I was very well pleased with myself for the timing of the whole thing (the kid were in bed when the timer went off and it was time to fill the jars, even the washing machine had hit the heated dry just right for have the jars ready). I was feeling so good that I started another batch which would start and end with my guilty pleasure on Thursday nights (Grey's Anatomy). Tomorrow morning is Emma's mini mall, where we have decided to make these decoupaged clothes pin magnets. So I was working on those and watching Grey's when half way through the program I come up stairs to check on the grapes. The whole upstairs smelled so wonderful. I see however that some of the juice has spurted out of the steamer. Humm....only water should have come from where that did. I check and at only half way through there is so much juice that it has over flowed into the water basin. Oh, no. I don't even have my jars and lids ready and I am covered in glue. Okay, I put the jars in the oven and start the lids to boil and turn down the grapes. Wash the glue off my hands and hurry back to the stove. I fill up one jar, then a second, and then start on my third when I hear a funny popping noise. No, it wasn't the jars sealing. It was that second jar cracking! The whole way around the bottom of the jar has cracked off and juice is leaking out everywhere. No, I didn't have a towel down....lesson learned. THE HARD WAY!!

Disaster of all disasters.....juice is down between the oven and the cabinet and also down between the cabinet and the fridge. OH, MY GOODNESS!!

The stove pulled out. And part of the
disaster. If you look closely you can see
behind the stove.

Both the fridge and the stove pulled out.

It too me what seemed like forever and two phone calls later (on to the Scout Master telling him how lucky he was that he wasn't home right now, and one to my mother who I knew would help me see the funny in this) I got the mess cleaned up by about 1AM. But I couldn't even go to bed because I had to finish the mini mall magnets, I couldn't let her down.


I got up this morning with about 3 hours sleep under my belt. Got Emma off to school and then started all over again on the juice. This time with double steamers. I am hoping that made me brave and not just stupid!

Note the towel now on the cabinet.

The very beautiful bottles of juice. This is only half
of what I did.

Earlier this morning I had showed Emma how to set up her store and showed her all the magnets that I had made. I pointed out my favorite, it had pink polka dot paper and a big pink button with a pink and sliver bow in the middle of the button. She went off to school so happy. When she came home she told me all about how her magnets went so fast off her table and that everyone thought they were so cute (yes, I made boy ones with Lighting McQueen on them) and how she sold out. She showed me all of the things that she had bought with her money and then said she had something for me. She was so sweet. She had bought something for everyone in the family and only one thing for herself. Anyway, she brings me my present and it is my favorite magnet. She said she put that one up on her sign as the display and told everyone not to touch it. The best part is that she wrote a little note with xoxoxo's all on it and clipped it inside the magnet. I smiled and my heart was warmed. Sometimes she can be so sweet!