County Fair

Yesterday was our county fair parade and Madison asked me to ride with her on her dance studios float, so of course I HAD to. LOL My tail bone is so sore today. DH gave me a massage last night and that helped tremendously, along with 3 ibuprofin. After the parade, I took Maddie to meet Andrea at the fair. She (Mads) was soooo looking forward to riding the Sizzler. I told her not to throw up!

Madison also had her first fair entry this year. She asked me last year when I won some ribbons at the fair, if she could enter this year and I told her sure. So she kept reminding me over the past year that she wanted to make something to put in the fair. She decided that she wanted to make peach jam, so when the peaches started getting ripe, I took her to the farmer's market and let her pick out her peaches. She did everything herself, with minimal help from me. The only thing I really didn't let her do was pour the jam into the jars and seal them. So how did she do??? She won a second place (red) ribbon!!!!!!!!!! I am so proud of her and she wants to make tomato sauce next year to enter. I think I've created a monster. LOL

Here is the recipe we used for her jam:

Spiced Wine Peach Jam

1/2 c. golden raisins
1/3 c. dry red wine or juice (pineapple or orange juice can be substituted)
4 c. finely chopped peaches (5 or 6 medium peaches)
3 T. lemon juice
1 box dry fruit pectin
5 c. granulated sugar
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground allspice

Bring raisins and wine to a boil in small saucepan, remove from heat, drain and discard liquid.

Combine raisins, peaches, lemon juice and pectin in a very large stainless steel or enamal saucepan. Bring to boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Add sugar and return to full boil and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in cinnamon and allspice.

Ladle into hot jars and **process for 10 minutes in hot water bath.

Makes about 6 cups.

**NOTE: I did NOT process in the water bath. I never do when I can. My mom never did and I learned from her. I have found that when the food item is boiling hot and you put it in HOT jars with heated lids, as the food cools, it seals itself. I always check the next day and if any jars haven't sealed, I promptly put those in the frig and use them first. PLEASE, do not follow my example if you are not comfortable doing so. Do as I say and not as I do!

This recipe came from The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving 2nd edition by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard.

I love this book!