Southern Family Tradition - Mayhaw Jelly Recipe

Living in the South, there are a few traditions that we hold sacred my favorite is making jelly. I got a call on Friday from my grandpa saying he had 2 gallons of mayhaw and needed to get rid of them. I took the fruit over to Momma Bear's house and we whipped up some delicious mayhaw jelly. (For you non-southerners this is the wiki page for mayhaw and the Louisiana Mayhaw Association page )

Preparing your Mayhaw for juice

First you need to wash and make sure you have no stick and leaves in your mayhaw, than throw them in a pot with a little bit of water so they do not stick while cooking - ( less than 1/4 c water - very little) once they are a bit tender it is time to mash.

We just used a potato masher since you just want to break the berries to get the liquid out. Once you have it looking about like the picture it is time to squeeze out the liquid. Some people use a cheese cloth and squeeze it out that way. We used a wire mesh strainer and a spoon to force as much liquid out as possible. And I liquid came out THICK! After the 2 gallons we had about 4 cups of a thick syrup, we added 4 cups of water to thin it out for our juice and were about to make 2 batches of the recipe below.

Ingredients

4 cups of mayhaw juice
1 box of pectin (I used the Yellow box Sure jell)
5 cups of sugar
7-ish pint jars with lids and rings

• Clean and sterilize lids, rings and jars
• Add the juice to a thick bottom pot 
• Stir in the pectin and continue to stir until it comes to a boil
• once at a rapid boil add in the sugar

• continue to stir until it comes to a rapid boil 
• Stir for a minute and a half than remove from heat 
• Skim foam off quickly
• Ladle mixture into hot sterilized jar leaving a 1/4th inch from the top
• Clean rim, and seal with lids
• Water bath for 10 minutes

We made 2 batches with 14 jars total and enough for tasting.

Fresh jelly on warm toast - Cannot be beat!

If you are new to canning or are wanting to learn more, there are plenty of books out there. The Ball website is a great resource, they have this helpful PDF. 

Canning and preserving is a great way to keep your harvest longer but if done incorrectly can make you really sick, so please do your research and keep yourself safe.  

Are you into canning? If so I would love to hear what you make!

Shark Week is officially over (for this year)

Well it is true, Shark Week has ended. My ladies and I are sad it is over but we sure did enjoy our end of Shark Week Party!

We had Shark Teeth, Gold Fish, Rainbow Fish, Octopi, and Chum Punch 

We had arts and crafts

Had Sharks decorating the house

Ate some "octopus and shrimp pasta" and watched shark shows in a cardboard house

Found underwater shark pictures

Had some snuggley time and said good bye to shark week for another year

Do you celebrate Shark Week?

Photo Catch-up

I am not done reading my book for this week yet because I have been busy! But I have been having fun! Here is a photo dump of what I have been up to for the past month and a half.

 

Eating some Pink Panther - Makin Faces @ a masquerade murder mystery party - Being photobombed  

Posing in my old prom dress - Coors now has fun facts!! - Playing with my food (gummy sharks)

I couldn't open my package! - Snap chattin my food - Mexibell peppers burn like habenero in your eye

Evil Eye Burner! - Waiting for my ride - Being ripped off by cracker jacks

My hair doing whatever it wants - Playing game with the family - Da Hubby sweeping off the roof

Flaying pinecone-roof ball - Vintage game at shop near my office - Talking C3PO at the same place 

Decorated vacationing programmers office - Munched on a sprinkly donut - Snacking with pals at work

Snap Chatting with brother - Had the baby sister join in on the fun - Frost mug for steak trade 

Cake fight payback - result from cake fight @ sisters graduation party

Snap Chatting my big/little cousin

And yes I have become completely addicted to snap chat! I am always sending pictures to my little brother. He is 16 and just got his first job and he has the sweetest girlfriend, so I like to check on him to see if he is being good during the day by snapchatting. Plus I get to make silly faces! Da Hubby is no longer effected by my faces. 

So what have y'all been up to?

Woopies Daisy

I cannot believe it has been 2 months since this happened! I have been enjoying my newly-wedded-ness (a new word I just made up) I have meant to pop in to say hi and update y'all on how my life has been but let's be honest I was being LAZY. If you follow me on Instagram @boc_bocnbows  , than you know I am still alive. 

Well this is what I have been up to lately:

 

Visited my princess, ate batman and took selfies while being photobombed

 

Learned magnets stick to braces, played giant jenga, and had some tastey shakes from sonic

 Played Magic, made brown e's (brownies) for April Fools day, and decorated my mantle
 

 Found a lucky clover, had a lunch date with my cousin, and went to Monster University (AKA the movie theater had this decoration that I had to play with.)

 

 I Went to the Darkside, watched Da Hubby play games at Chuch E Cheese, and rocked some party hats

 

Painted my nails for Easter twice, and enjoyed watching a water balloon fight

Passed my teaching test! Now I need to teach. 

  

Started a fairy garden, almost went into a sugar coma from these cupcakes and had to bury my baby Taco :(

Celebrated 'May the 4th be with you' and devoured tons of crawfish

So tell me what have y'all been up to during my hiatus?