I can't put cupcakes in my canning jars. I am putting pear butter in my canning jars.

But once again, I love how my optimism at the beginning of a canning process gradually descends into chaos and cursing by the end of it, wherein I stare sadly at one, maybe two, jars of overprocessed, inedible, sugar laden goop. At the beginning, I have a heap of lovely looking produce and the belief that it will magically transform itself into infinitely preservable jars. And I always clean too many jars, believing that I will get a much larger yield than I actually will.

Today's casualty is the edge of my kitchen counter, where the formica has pulled away from the counter because of the pressure of my food mill clamped to it. I worked out a reasonable substitute, by clamping instead to my marble pastry board, but it was still a pretty untenable solution. And it's pretty clear I should have cooked down the pears much longer at the beginning, because I have more pear juice than pear sauce at this point.

Oh well, it's in the crockpot, and I refuse to bemoan my pear butter fate. It will be what it will be.

I don't want a cake or pie in a jar, because does it come out? Or do you have to eat it out of the jar?

Many happy returns, Raq and Kathy!

Huh, I just heard an ice cream truck playing Love Me Tender calliope-style. That's a new one on me.

Eta: I think you eat it out of the jar, Jesse. That's the only way I see it working.The lifehacker recipe looks like more of a cobbler or fool than cake to me, fwtw.

Also, good luck with the pears, Liese. Just keep cooking it, right?

Right? Keep cooking it down, at some point it should have the right consistency, yes? Even if that point is tomorrow?

sugar violets

WANT. The rest of the cake sounds lovely, but omg sugared violets.

Yes, even if that point is tomorrow. You'll have some delicious pear butter, which is better than none, right?

Sorry about the counter, that's a real bummer.

Right? Keep cooking it down, at some point it should have the right consistency, yes? Even if that point is tomorrow?

I don't see why not! (Note: I have never made pear butter.)

I think I'll be able to glue it back on, but you should have heard the cussing while I tried to unscrew the food mill, which is metal...and full of hot pears...without causing more damage to the countertop or spilling scalding pears everywhere.

Yeah, there has to be an arm rest for the right arm. And a good one!

See, I'm not so concerned about a right arm rest--I may be moving my arm around, sometimes on the wheel, sometimes on the radio, sometimes grabbing a drink. It's the LEFT rest that drives me nuts--some cars just have a weird bump in the door that is not sized at all correctly, or located correctly, and is just plain uncomfortable! That drives me nuts, as I like to hold the steering wheel while resting my left elbow.

now Dillo is having a fit because he decided he doesn't like lemon cake and we must not love him

Hah. When it's HIS celebration, he can have whatever flavor he wants.

Two funfetti cupcakes sounds delicious, and I am totally an addict--I bought four on Wednesday to celebrate passing the new job's exam. The plan was two for me, two for roomie. We each had one that night. And then she meant to bring one to work the next day, because she was going straight from there to the airport for a weekend trip...and she FORGOT. So there were two cupcakes that HAD to be eaten. So now I've had one each day for the past three days and I am seriously sugar-craving. Mm, sweet sugary frosting...