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!

One more day!

I cannot believe tomorrow is Halloween! Last night Da'Hubby and I were not home to watch a Halloween movie, instead we played in a costume bowling tournament.

We were Superman and Supergirl! We did see a few other superheroes like Robin, Power Rangers, and Wonder Woman.

My niece showing off her muscles as Snow White. 

Hippy brother-in-law

And lastly sista-in-law as a wickd witch and her little ballerina.

We had so much fun! I whooped some hiney on the first game with 3 strikes in a row (turkey time). On game 2 I sucked it up pretty bad, I lost my super powers I guess. For the costume portion we lost the individual and the group awards, but hopefully next year we will smoke them guys. 

What have you been doing for Halloween this year?

Pumpkin Patches, Emus, and Jack-o-Lanterns Oh My

This weekend we pretty much lived at my parents house. All of my relatives were in town (from my Dad's side at least) and we thought we should carve pumpkins.

I had to get a picture with my little princess

Yes..we went to the same pumpkin patch two days in a row...we needed more pumpkins

How cute are my sister and cousin together?

Who doesn't want to ride in a wagon?

We have a rule, if you can carry the pumpkin to the register you can have it. Let's just say that was not her pumpkin.

Do child labor laws count if they want to do it? lol

Our hard work in picking out the pumpkins resulted in these beauties. 

Princess' Bobcat paw - Momma C's Cat on a fence, Aunt V's moon and star, Da 'Hubby's evil one, Mine is the flamer, and Aunt R had the witch on a broom 

Behind my Grandparents house there is a farm with horses, emus, deer and a duck who thinks he is a deer.

The Princess was a bit afraid of the emus.

We had a great weekend of family fun time. It was so nice to see my cousins and their babies, and my aunts. I cannot wait until Christmas for ALL of my family comes in. 

What do you do when your family comes to visit?

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?

Best Week Ever = Shark Week

I have been on WANELO way too much lately, I think it may have even surpassed Pinterest... well no but close.  Anywhooo I have been scouring the interwebs for fun Shark Week stuff and I am loving these goodies. 

If you click on the picture it brings you to the wanelo page for it with to where you can buy it. 

I am having a Farewell to Shark Week Party on the 10th for my sister and nieces. We are going to eat sharky foods, do shark crafts, and plot shark attacks while watching the shows. I wanted to do a premier party but some of the littles cannot handle to bloodiness, so I have to prescreen the shows. I am not mad about it though I get a double dose of SHARK WEEK!!!!  

Are you planning a Shark Week watching event? Do you watch 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?