Vanilla Peach Lemon Abundance

My 4th canning venture went pretty well.  Justin was away, so Kate came over for Chinese food, wine and to keep me company in the kitchen.

Peeling peaches was easier than I expected, just a little boiling water bath, then a plunge into ice water and....

gasp!  Naked peaches!  They kind of looked like big egg yolks.

Pitting them went well too, I guess they were just ripe enough.

Kate and I chatted and caught up while we sterilized the jars

and filled them up with the sliced peaches.  I loved the laughter in the kitchen as we looked at our old high school yearbook -- we've known each other since kindergarten after all!

Then just a little piece of vanilla bean in each jar, processing in the boiling water and the vanilla permeated the syrup quite nicely.  Mila observed and supervised of course.

Next up, zesting some lemons

and thus, yup, you guessed it: naked lemons!  And lots of butter and some sugar.

For a quick dessert from Canning for a New Generation, I broiled some of the vanilla peaches with some whipped cream and demerara sugar.

Kate even brought birthday presents!  Lovely hand-painted tiles for JOY, HOPE, LOVE and WISH with pink wine and a hand-stamped and punched card.  She knows how much I love the thoughtfulness of handmade gifts, especially when they're pink!

And Justin got home safely from his trip to Seattle, bringing back this beautiful Curtis Steiner necklace of black garnet, copper and mother of pearl.  Such good taste he has...

We've built up quite a canned collection: there's the raspberry jam from a previous post, but the strawberry and sour cherry preserves are long gone.  So I thought we'd be all set and stocked up for the coming autumn...

and then this morning my genius pastry chef friend Eric gave me some of his grape jam, still warm from the kitchen.

Such good, seasonal fun, can't wait for my next canning project!