Granny's Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Bad Labor Day Weekend

Ever have one of those weekends where everything that can go wrong does?  I was practically giddy Friday at work, anticipating a long holiday weekend of canning some favorite recipes.  I had corn "juice" in the freezer and frozen strawberries in the freezer.  For sure, I was going to make some corn cob jelly and strawberry jam.  :)

In high school, I loved the poems of Robert Burns, particularly "To A Mouse."  And the words (anglicized) haunt me still...
"But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!"

And so went my weekend.  Saturday one thing after another kept coming up and at the end of the day, I had not even begun to can.  I did manage to pick up some lovely cherries and some jalapenos at the market. "No worries," I said to myself - I still have two full days.

Sunday morning there was major communication confusion in the house and I was in a state of frustration.  But by late morning, I was in the kitchen, ready for a little canning therapy.  I put my corn "juice" in the pot, added the pectin, and began to bring it to temperature.  While it was heating up, I began adding water to a pot for heating the jars and water bathing the final product.  The pot doesn't fit under the faucet, so I was filling it quart jarful by quart jarful.  On the last jar of water, I poured it into my pan of corn juice instead of the water bathing pot.  ARGH! Disaster! 




I considered possibilities to remedy the situation, but in the end poured it down the drain (barely holding back the tears).  Undaunted, I immediately went to the freezer and pull out 5 cups of blueberries.  I put them in a pot with the recipe amounts of water and lemon juice.  I chopped up jalapeno peppers and put them in another pot with the recipe amounts of vinegar.  I've made jalapeno/blueberry jelly many times, so this was a no brainer.  Unless this is the weekend you have become the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz (no brain).  I used powdered pectin on auto-pilot without thinking about it.  I should have noticed when the directions told me to add sugar first, then pectin that it called for liquid pectin.  So following the recipe, I made 6 lovely 1/2 pints of jalapeno/blueberry SYRUP!


 
I decided to call it a day and try again Monday.  By golly, I WOULD successfully can something yummy this weekend!  My daughter came over Sunday with these huge, gorgeous brown turkey figs.  So Monday morning I went and bought some figs (as if I didn't already have enough produce to process).  Fig jam CANNOT be messed up and I was in serious need of some canning happiness.  Fortunately, all went well and I ended up with 9 half-pints of yummy Mixed Fruit Fig Jam by late Monday morning.

Encouraged by this success, I made something my friend has been harassing me to try for about a year - Bacon Jam.  It sounded disgusting the first time I heard her say it, but the curiosity grew on me.  So I made Bacon Jam (a pressure canner product, not a water bath product).

 


I modified several recipes, which all asked for these ingredients in varying amounts.  It makes a bacon spread, which was yummy on biscuits with either white cheddar or with grape jam.  It was a big hit at work and I brought home a jar all but licked clean!

Bacon Jam

2 lb bacon

2 lg onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, minced

4 Tbsp brown sugar

2/3 c (decaffeinated) coffee

½ c apple cider vinegar

1/3 c maple syrup

·         Cut bacon in 1” strips. Cook until crisp. Crumble and set aside. Cook onion and garlic in bacon fat until translucent, then drain.  Combine all ingredients in pan.  Simmer until the liquid is reduced. As bacon and onions are spooned into hot, prepared jars, tilt spoon to pour off excess liquid. Cooled jars will have bacon grease solidified in top of jar.  To serve, heat jar (without lid) in microwave for 30 seconds.  Grease is easily removed with a spoon prior to serving.

·
Pressure can in 1/2 pint jars at 10 lbs for 75 minutes.

FYI - My sweet hubby loved the jalapeno/blueberry syrup on jalapeno poppers and drizzled over cornbread.  So Granny's Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Bad Labor Day Weekend turned out okay after all.  No matter how long you can and jam, no matter how many times you've made a recipe - stuff happens.  Try not to get too worked up.  Just pull some more produce out and try again. :)  Happy Canning!