Hey!  Sorry I missed the whole month of March without checking in here... I have a great excuse if you want to hear it.  I got sidetracked from my jelly making by a hunt for the perfect sourdough bread recipe... because without bread you have no need for jelly or jam.   So I am closing in on that perfect bread and should be back to the jelly making real soon!   I am also still adding new designs to my store for those of you who are looking for the perfect canning label, or maybe you need a new apron or a recipe binder?  Visit my store HERE Check out the cool new recipe spiral notebooks I have added recently with more to come!  and don't forget to share my blog with your friends or family who love to can jelly!  Buy it Here

So you might have spent some time browsing the recipes on this blog and thinking... what would I do with all that jelly if I did make it?  Two things:  There is no such thing as too much jelly, (that is my motto). You have to learn to think outside of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich box.  There are so many ways to enjoy jelly, so many things to put it on.  The French put it on croissants. You can put some on a bagel, but don't tell any New Yorkers about it! The British are famous for scones and jam, a tea time favorite. Southerners are known for buttermilk biscuits, butter and peach jelly. Nobody doesn't like a jelly doughnut or long john. Native Americans eat fry bread and jelly. Mexicans eat strawberry jelly in tamales. Mint jelly is good on lamb and pork. Cranberry jelly and chutney make turkey something special. Try some of your favorite flavor jelly on your oatmeal. I like peach and apple on mine. In a pinch some cream cheese and...

Today I am just posting a pure personal anecdote that you may or may not find interesting but I thought it would be fun to share this little bit of insight with you. If you have ever browsed in my shop The Jelly Jar you have surely seen many of the custom products have the name Penelope on them as a sample placeholder for you to change to your own name. I want to share the back story to why I use that name. First of all when choosing a sample placeholder name you need one that is long enough to work for many different lengths of names so that the buyer doesn't run out of space on the template if they have a really long name like Anastasia or Genevieve. Penelope works well for this purpose. Secondly you need a name that is pretty aesthetically and Penelope  fits that bill also. But while these are important, Penelope is not a random choice of a sample name for me. Penelope (Fitzpatrick) Potter was my sister in law and very good friend. She was an avid canning enthusiast a...