Peanuuuuuuut, peanut butter... JELLY!

Ok, in this case, JAM! So Boy Shirt #2 is under works, and has one sleeve. But this, this jam here, is what's been occupying my hours of late! Somehow we ended up with a flat of strawberries and most of a flat of raspberries. Well, I know exactly how we "ended up" with them... I couldn't resist the roadside stand on the edge of town selling strawberries. And DH and DS went raspberry picking on Sunday while SIL-to-be and I shopped for wedding supplies. But we'll get to that part later.

Jam. Oh sweet jam. Raspberry jam. Strawberry jam. Strawberry freezer jam. More strawberry freezer jam. Low-sugar raspberry jam (that was the result of "oh dear god, we're out of sugar"). It's all delicious. So good. And so plentiful. Either all three of you readers will be getting some for Christmas, or I will have eaten approximately 10,000 grams of sugar by then.

And that one lone greenish jar? Oh sweet goodness of rhubarb from my garden. Words can't say how disappointed I was when it cooked down to just one and a half sad little jars. It's a food of my childhood, that rhubarb sauce. I remember the first time I made it myself, sometime in college, using store-bought rhubarb. I was so startled to see the crisp pinky red stalks turn such a sickly shade of green that I called my dad. He's the one who I always remember making the rhubarb sauce, and between being highly educated in the sciences and astonishingly good at making up answers, I knew he would tell me why it looked like I ruined it. The somewhat sheepish answer: food coloring! I was stunned and felt more than a little deceived that he'd tinted our childhood food.

But now having a somewhat picky eater of my own, I completely understand making food appeal to the masses. Nonetheless I left this batch of rhubarb unadulterated. I'm likely to be the only one in the house eating it anyway. Regardless of color. And that's ok with me. ;)