What I did for love

I decided to skip canning this year. I didn't do any peaches or pears. Ordering time came. I reflected upon my feelings and the stock of canned goods I already had and didn't order any.

Then came the apples. I only eat applesauce about once a year when it's hot and I smother gingerbread with it so I didn't feel qualified to make this decision on my own. I said to the Mr. "I'm not canning any peaches or pears this year, but do you think I should do some applesauce?" His response was a trance like "mmm, applesauce..."

That is how I came to spend the past two weeks in the process of making, recovering from, avoiding and then making applesauce again. It was really only three batches but the recovering and avoiding steps are quite lengthy. That's how the whole thing got stretched to two weeks.

Below are jars from each of the three batches. Batch one on the left took the longest to cook because the pot was so dang full, thus it's the darkest shade of brown. Batch two went a lot quicker because I used a third fewer apples so it cooked faster. Plus I could stir it more easily. Batch three was actually bigger than batch one but I cooked down one load of apples before adding more so the pot was never quite so brimful as it was with batch one. That meant it cooked a little faster and didn't get quite as brown.

This is one of my favorite jars. (There's one somewhere that I like better, it probably has peaches in it right now) The jars I started out with came form The Mr's grandma. Back in the day she used to do all of my canning. Every Christmas we'd get a case of peaches and a case of pears. Then we gave the jars back and she'd fill them again the next fall.

One year I filled the jars myself rather than giving them back and that was the end of that glorious arrangement. I wonder if she'd still be doing it for me if I hadn't stopped bringing back the jars?

Anyway, thanks to Grandma I have a few jars that are a lot older than the rest. This is one of them.

I like how it stands head and shoulders above the rest. From where I sit now I can see it popping up above the others on the table. If that jar were a person it would wear red shoes and carry a magenta handbag...at the same time.

I like folks like that.

Anyway, get ready for the big finish. And If you don't mind, please imagine that I sound like Lea Michelle as I sing it. Here we go.

Won't Forget,

Can't regret,

What I did for love...

What I did for love...

What I did for Love!

What I did. for. LOVE!