My Big Manly Betty Crocker

Geoff has always been great in the kitchen. He likes to cook- even though he doesn't do it often, he is really good at it. Growing up he was always helping his Mom in the kitchen, and from what I hear, his Mom was always in the kitchen! There were 9 kids in a combined family and she pretty much made a lot of great food- from scratch! Some of our family favorites are her recipes I now make. He makes awesome candy at Christmas time, and he gets really excited to get in the kitchen, crank the Christmas carol's and cook long into the night. His candy is fantastic and he makes so much, we have to get a loan to pay for the ingredients every year! Well, he is on a canning/bottling kick right now and it is going to be great. He first made strawberry jelly a few nights ago. (Isn't it pretty -that is it in the picture) It is delish and he was pretty glad he had success at his first (as a grown-up) canning experience. The next day, he made strawberry freezer jam, which I haven't tried yet, but it looks yummy. Today we bought 2 bushels (boxes, whatever the correct term is)of pears, 2 boxes peaches, a box of tomato's, 27 pounds ohicken, 12 packages of hot dogs (we are trying one of our fave dinners to see if it will bottle good), 16 pounds of butter, and a partridge in a pear tree! Sounds like I have a great week ahead of me. Geoff is going to help me and he is actually kind of happy to get it all going. He has rambled off a huge list of everything he wants to try and it sounds like we will have quite an awesome supply of "whatever we need" in our food storage. Isn't he great, love him!! Wish us luck and happy canning!