Signs of autumn

Deadlines loom. I should be writing. Instead, today was a baking/canning day. 

First on the menu: Red current jam. Finding red currents in the US is a rarity, so I went into full whining/pleading mode with Grey when I saw these beauties at the grocery store (Grey was actually sold when he saw the berries, but he was also curious to see how much of a spectacle I was willing to showcase to obtain them. Apparently, I did not disappoint).

Red currents are renown for being incredibly simple to make jam from, requiring no additional pectin. Considering I'm still a neophyte, this recipe did not disappoint. Stems and berries can be cooked with copious amounts of sugar and then strained through cheesecloth or processed through a food mill. Since we don't own a food mill and I wanted more of a jam, I separated the berries from the stems. Tedious work, but the outcomes is amazing.

While waiting for the berries to simmer, I set upon project #2: old-fashion apple dumplings.

A coworker brought a bunch of cooking apples to work, as his trees are yielding more fruit then he knows what to do with. Grey has fond memories as a child apple picking in Eastern Washington and I remember apples being a sure sign of autumn and the start of the school year. I spent a couple of hours sorting through recipes before I began, simply because I couldn't believe that some were calling for Mountain Dew.

This is clearly a first pass, as none of these babies are uniform in size or shape. Still, Grey's first response when entering the kitchen was "it smells like autumn," so I'm hoping I did something right.