Monday Mess-Up Confess-Up

It's rose petal jelly...no, it's rose petal syrup...no, it's rose petal water...no, it's down the drain.

That's right. I totally messed up somehow on my jelly. I got up early Saturday morning and picked my roses for the jelly, pruning my rose bushes while I was at it. I came in and got started on the jelly. Somewhere between prepping my jars, supervising the boys' weedeating work, talking with the census worker, and fixing kiddie breakfasts, I did something wrong with the jelly.

It looked great, it smelled great, it had such a pretty color. I poured it in the jars. All the little tops popped like they're supposed to. Then I noticed that it wasn't as thick as I wanted. Later I consulted a canning expert (aka my mother-in-law). She said some things that don't have a lot of natural pectin require longer cooking. She suggested cooking it in the jars a little longer. The result, the runny jelly became pretty colored water. I think I cooked a little too long.

The moral of the story: Never promise jelly until you have said jelly already done and, never attempt jelly making on a Saturday morning. Never fear though, I'll try round two.

The weekend wasn't a total loss though. I did manage to put a big batch of pears in the freezer. And, I dabbled in being a bit creative. I was inspired by Sherry over at Blessings from our Nest. I added her great blog to my list of Favorite Things. You can link to it over on the right. I'm not a scrapbooker, but I do have some scrapbook supplies that I used to snazz up my PTO manual and customize Jack's notebook for school. We could only find white in the size he needed and I couldn't stand it being that plain. Thankfully we had some papers that were the school colors. I thought it turned out great.

The menus for the week:
Monday--Marinated Lemon Chicken, Garlic & Herb Pasta, Hidden Pear Salad, Rolls, Peas
Tuesday--Ham, Creamed Corn, Green Beans, Sliced Tomatoes, Rolls
Wednesday--French Toast, Sausage, Scrambled Eggs
Thursday--Cranberry Glazed Pork Loin, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Carrots with Honey
Friday--Chili Dogs, Macaroni & Cheese, Fresh Fruit
Saturday--Pizza
Sunday--Leftovers

I'll be back later today with the recipes...off to the pool.