Dominique ait fait le confiture de cassis
(le premier fois)
(je m'excuse, je n'ai dire Francaise il ya six ans!)
(je m'excuse, je n'ai dire Francaise il ya six ans!)
Since it took me fifteen minutes to construct one very poorly written sentence in French, we will proceed in English. Dominique is reviewing the Ball Blue Book (nearly everyone's first canning book. Notice how happy she looks?
Black currents make a beautiful sauce. I want lipstick in that color.
Max over-sees the out door canning facility and amuses Dominique who looks so damn cute in this outfit I would be seething with green envy if it weren't for the fact that she's also such a fun and sweet friend. Instead of being jealous, I've decided to enjoy her outfit vicariously! I'm not sure why but she reminds me of Sophia Lauren in "It Started In Naples".
I love these steamy shots because they really capture the nature of all canning projects conducted in the summer (which most are): hot, sweaty, steamy, and hard (work). It sounds so dirty, huh? This was a g-rated event, folks!
Though this was Dominique's first canning adventure, she looks like she's been doing it for her whole life. Yep, like Lisa-she's a natural.
Dominique made twenty one jars of black currant sauce. The most irresistable part of canning is the moment you load these jars into your pantry. You have proof of your productiveness, you have the means to prevent scurvy in the coming winter months (always a major plus!), and when your husband announces (without prior warning) that his boss is coming to dinner with the missus and you need to impress them in order for his career to progress...you can whip out a jar of your gorgeous currant sauce and serve it in a fancy dish to be spooned over baguettes with creme fraiche. Voila! Steven not only doesn't get fired, he gets invited to play golf with the chosen few at Hearst Berry Farms. Plus, he realizes how having Dominique stay home makes his life so much lusher than those men whose wives are never home because they're running Fortune 500 companies. Hello...money is no substitution for home canned black currant sauce.
(Note to "Swifty": c'mon, admit it, your bachelor friends never thought marriage was any great shakes til they saw you living the lush life with Dominique making you comfortable at home and keeping your house tidy...you lucky bastard!)
The hardest part of making the currant sauce was de-stemming the berries. You have to remove both the stems and the blossom end. These berries are small. It took us about three hours to de-stem sixteen cups of them. Dominique felt a little guilty because she imagined I felt burdened by the work when in fact, I thoroughly enjoyed myself! It's great to sit around for three hours getting your hands dirty talking to a good friend. No really, any one else who's done this knows I speak the truth. It's as good as a quilting circle. (How would I know anyway, I've never been part of a sewing circle? If it wasn't fun and satisfying then people would never have done them, right?)
The rest of the process was pretty straight forward. When I moved here I was worried I wasn't going to have a canning friend and I was really sad to have left behind my two super close canning pals; Chelsea and Sharon. While no one can replace the friends I now live twelve hours away from...I'm so happy that I have two really good friends to can with here!
Next up on the canning front: PICKLING!
(seriously, how do I get the spell check function to work while writing in Blogger? I click on the icon and nothing happens.)
(Note to "Swifty": c'mon, admit it, your bachelor friends never thought marriage was any great shakes til they saw you living the lush life with Dominique making you comfortable at home and keeping your house tidy...you lucky bastard!)
The hardest part of making the currant sauce was de-stemming the berries. You have to remove both the stems and the blossom end. These berries are small. It took us about three hours to de-stem sixteen cups of them. Dominique felt a little guilty because she imagined I felt burdened by the work when in fact, I thoroughly enjoyed myself! It's great to sit around for three hours getting your hands dirty talking to a good friend. No really, any one else who's done this knows I speak the truth. It's as good as a quilting circle. (How would I know anyway, I've never been part of a sewing circle? If it wasn't fun and satisfying then people would never have done them, right?)
The rest of the process was pretty straight forward. When I moved here I was worried I wasn't going to have a canning friend and I was really sad to have left behind my two super close canning pals; Chelsea and Sharon. While no one can replace the friends I now live twelve hours away from...I'm so happy that I have two really good friends to can with here!
Next up on the canning front: PICKLING!
(seriously, how do I get the spell check function to work while writing in Blogger? I click on the icon and nothing happens.)