Winter Canning and Baking

It has been 44 days since I last posted. In a nutshell, this is what I have been doing:

Driving husband to appointments: 3 days (incl. carpal tunnel surgery)
Driving myself to appointments: 3 days
Driving myself to get a massage: 3 days (much better than the dentist)
Getting together with friends/family: 10 days
Spending time with grandchildren: 12 days
Canning: 5 days

As you can see, few days lacked some sort of project or activity. Some days had two, but I try to limit myself to one project/activity per day: I am no longer 30 years old and brimming with ambition and energy.

I enjoy canning in the winter, when I don't mind heating up the kitchen. And if it gets too warm, I only need to open the door for a few minutes. A neighbor gave me some syrup/juice left from hot packing peaches and pears last summer. I put it all into the freezer, and now I have turned it all into jelly.


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The first batch of peach jelly.

Last fall I froze many pounds of tomatoes; I didn't have the time or the energy to can them at the time. I have a little more energy now, so I have made a large batch of spaghetti sauce and a batch of salsa. Many more tomatoes remain in the freezer, so I will be making more tomato products in the future.


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The spaghetti sauce project.


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The salsa project.

Other kitchen activities have taken place, some including grandchildren, or made for them.


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Snickerdoodle Spritz

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Candy Cane Cookies (not baked yet)

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Nut Goodie Bars

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Gingerbread Men (and Teddy Bears)

Today I kept the oven busy again:


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Sausage Cheese Puffs.


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Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I also tried out a crockpot recipe for Quinoa Squash Soup. I didn't get a decent photo of it, but it was very tasty, in my opinion. My husband, however, found the texture and flavor unappealing. It was similar to the Autumn Squash Soup served at Panera, but not quite the same.

And that is largely what I have been doing for the last six weeks. The remainder is not nearly as interesting, so I will leave those parts out of this post.

All photos taken on my Android phone.

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And here I was thinking that you were sitting on your arse doing nothing!:)

That'll be the day!

No wonder you have been absent with all those activities. Canning in the winter when one has more time is awesome. You got a lot accomplished so far. I have tons of hot peppers that I should put into hot sauce; one of these days. lol

You got a lot more canning done in the heat of summer than I did, so I don't suppose your freezer is as full of vegetables awaiting your attention as mine is.

You are right, my freezers are for meat, fish, and frozen veggies, but also all my hubbies sweets. lol

My husband is diabetic so I have to be careful about sweets, but he would be delighted if there were more in the freezer!

Ah, that would be too tempting for him, for sure! Too many sweets never good for insulin resistance.

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Thank you!

Wow quite impressive well-done ♥️

Thank you. It wasn't all done at once, but it does look like a lot when I put all the pictures into one post.

You been busy in the home or with family, good enough reason to take a break from a keyboard.

Agree with cooking in cooler months one tends to relax and have more fun planning, summer is more for outdoors in your region I would imagine.

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Most people spend a great deal of time outdoors here in the summer. I am usually inside by 10:00 a.m. because after that it's too warm for me.

Summer we hardly go out due to heat, when we were able to walk on the beach it was 7am to 9am, fully understand!