Yep, I pulled the canner back out.

So this move is deciding to take its time, keeping me in limbo and afraid to do anything.  Yesterday I decided to go ahead and can something anyway.  Namely because I was given some pears and really couldn't see letting them go to waste (yes, it's still warm enough here for pears!).  I also had gotten a good deal on a large thing of pomegranate juice.  Then there was all the last peppers from the garden that needed to be put up.....  Well you get the idea.

First up is the pepper relish, there is no set recipe for this but I did write down what I did last year:

Pepper relish

2 medium onions, copped fine in the processor and dumped in the big bowl
4 medium carrots, done the same way
I think I had 30 jalepenos and 50 habaneros, not sure but chopped up the same and tossed in the bowl
2 tbsp dried basil
2 tbsp dried oregano
3 tbsp fresh garlic
4 dried tsen-tein chillies
4 dried cayenne peppers
Buzz the last 5 things in the processor with about a cup of apple cider vinegar until the dried chillies look like red pepper flakes and dump in the bowl, add 2 tsp salt and stir together.  Add more apple cider vinegar if needed and let marinate over night in the fridge. Next morning heat the mix, boil for 5 minutes and pack into jars adding apple cider vinegar if needed.  Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes.

This year I only had jalapenos and dried new mexico chilies and I decided to let it marinate for a few days.  I landed 9 pints:

 

Then there was the pears....  about half were a bit more soft than I like for canning in chunks so I made juice.  Then I combined with the pomegranate juice, it was almost 50/50.  Then I made jelly.
4.5 cups juice (pomegranate and pear)
3 cups sugar
1 pkg no sugar needed pectin

Bring juice to a boil, add pectin, boil 1 minute, add sugar, boil 3 minutes, ladle into jars and process in water bath for 10 minutes.

I ended up with 10-12 ounce jars, 4-6 ounce jars and 7 half pint jars:

Today I've processed 6 pints of pears that were given to me last night.  They were just peeled/cored and chunked up with a light syrup, no picture as they are still in the water bath.  And I found a bunch of tomatoes in the scratch and dent cart for dirt cheap.  Made 9 quarts of chopped tomatoes.

Now back to the sewing portion of this long wait to get moved.............

Open Season

It's that time again.  Opening day of hunting season.  The little town I live in has been gearing up for it all week.  Cars, RV's, trucks, vans, off road vehicles coming in from sates all over, proudly displaying their gun racks fully loaded with rifles.  Locals everywhere signing up for the Big Buck Contest, paying through the nose for hunting licenses, and setting their kids up with cool gear for their very first hunts. 
It's a right of passage here in Central Texas and this little county is the hunting mecca, or so I've been told.  Hotels, all 2 of them, are full.  Restaurants are busy and the stores, all what, 5 of them are bustling.  The county population has practically quadrupled.
Not that I mind or anything.  I'd be willing to go hunting if I had someplace to put a whole deer or 3 or whatever my limit is.  It's just, well, I FORGOT it was Opening Day Saturday when I ventured out mid-morning today wearing my tie-dye frog jacket.  Boy did I stick out like a sore thumb in a sea of camo or what?  Hunters bringing in their morning kills to the forestry service's Deer Check Point near the dollar store gave me odd looks.  I was even asked if I was afraid I'd be mistaken for a deer.
So with the town full to nearly capacity and me not wanting to cause blindness in the hunters while they had their lunch I came back home and started laundry.  Well, what else does one do on Opening Day if not hunting and drinking?
I also finished up the 2 quilts I had sent out to be quilted, I mentioned them here. 
The first one up was started 2007 I think, I finally put the thing together in 2009 and put it away until I could find fabric I liked for a backing.  Here's the final product from a Slash a Stash pattern given to me back in 2007:

And that backing I finally found, a really interesting Batik.  The lady who did the long arm quilting, Heart of Texas Quilting, tried out a Santa theme in the quilting, you might be able to catch a hint of it on the back:

Now the other one, the one where nothing was matching per-say?  Well, get ready, it's a bit different.....

See?  Like I said, it doesn't all go together but it works.  At least for me it does, and I'm not the type of person to care if my socks match.  And the backing:

I also started work on another tablecloth, sort of an odd take on a kaleidoscope pattern.  But you'll have to wait until later to see it.