A Chain of Love: Jelly and a Facial

Grandma called me the other day to let me know that her bunch grapes are ready for the picking. Of course, I jumped right on that! I enjoyed spending time picking the fruit with my Grandma and visiting with Granddaddy.

Because I'm planning a nice lil' summer road trip with my bestestest, I'm kinda on a time crunch to get these grapes cleaned, crushed, and canned. I've literally spent ALL day washing, sanitizing, filling, and sealing these jars. And as the timer now sounds with the last wave of readied jellies, I can finally kick back and relax. (Last wave for the day, anyways. Tomorrow's another day.)

For those of you who care nothing about the how-to's of canning, I'll give you this little lil' home skin remedy to hopefully motivate you to try canning on your own. Using a cotton ball, I swabbed olive oil on my face. I let my face marinate in it all day while I stood over the hot stove with steaming boilers. While the steam helps open pores, the olive oil's rich moisturizers nourish my skin. It's like spending the day at a spa!

How to Prepare Jars before Making Jelly:

(a) Wash jars and lids in hot, soapy water.
(b) Put open jars in large pot and cover with water. Make sure water is 1-2 inches above tops of jars. Bring to a boil. Boil for ten minutes.
(c) Jars and lids need to be hot when they are filled with jelly. Do not boil lids of jars--just boil the jars.

How to Make Super-Delicious Grape Jelly:

1. You will need 3 1/2 pounds of grapes. I don't know the particular type of grape I used--I just know it is some sort of bunch grape. These are pretty much the only kind that grow well in Alabama's hot and humid climate.
*Note: You will also need 7 cups of sugar, 1 packet of Sure Jell, and 8 canning jars.**

2. Remove stems and bad grapes.

3. Thoroughly wash grapes.

4. Crush grapes in a thick-bottomed sauce pan. This step is lots of fun! I crushed using my hands and then used a potato-smasher.

5. Add 1 1/2 cups of water to crushed grapes and bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

6. Extract juice using one of the following: jelly bag, cheese cloth, pillow case, mill cloth. I got a big mixing boil and put a colander on top of it. Then I put mill cloth in the colander. Pour crushed grapes into the mill cloth and let drain into the bowl.

7. Because I did these six steps at night, I put the juice in the fridge overnight. You don't necessarily have to do this if you want to make the day out of canning. It does, however, help with tartaric crystals. (I'm not completely sure what those are, but I know they're a bad thing when it comes to canning.)

8. Measure out exactly 7 cups of sugar and set aside. Do not skip this step thinking you'll have time to do it later.

9. Pour exactly 5 cups of juice into sauce pan. Add packet of Sure Jell and 1/2 tspn of butter or margarine (to help reduce foaming). Bring to a rolling boil stirring constantly.. (A rolling boil is when the mixture continues to boil while you stir.)