Home Ec 101....

We have had fun this fall spending some time with our special friends, the E's who are teaching us how to can fruits. The girls have time together in the kitchen while the little boys and their friend I are busy doing 'boy things'....Our first project was making jam~

We learned that with jam precision is key both with the amount of ingredients used and the time you boil the fruit! A good lesson for my girl who loves to cook but isn't so keen on reading the directions completely first!! Thankfully there were no mishaps...Mrs. E was there to keep that from happening :)

We made peach and strawberry jam and it was so delicious!!!

Ready to boil...

Hot, hot jars of jam out of the canner and ready to cool on the counter~

A few weeks later, our next project was applesauce....

My smart shopping friend purchased all these apples for $10!!

How grateful I am for enthusiastic kitchen helpers. The girls spent at least an hour helping to scrub and slice apples...of course they were able to put aside book work so that's always a nice motivator!!

Getting ready for the E's...

Now the fun part...using the food mill to mash the cooked apples~

Thank goodness for eager hands ...

and many workers!!

The boys and the littlest E took a brief turn milling but quickly concluded Legos were more fun!!

Getting them ready for boiling...

Boiled and ready to cool...

A job well done...what a sense of accomplishment to have all of this to show for a few hours of labor!! We will enjoy the fruits of our labor all winter long :)

I am so grateful for friends who I can glean from and make memories with!!