Canning Success. I Guess.

A big chunk of Christmas is now taken care of. The second batch of apple/pear butter was much more successful. However, I am unable to keep my stove at a low enough simmer so I have to turn it off and give it an extra stir periodically so it doesn't bubble to enthusiastically. This would be fine if it didn't have a tendency to blorp a lot and make a big mess. And spit scalding brown liquid IN MY EYE. It's gonna be a cranky Christmas, I can just feel it.

From somebody much more organized. I got about a dozen jars of this size as I made two separate batches that were both small enough to do in my Dutch oven. They will probably just get a nice ribbon and a little label pasted on and be good to gift.

However, peppermint bark is thankfully pretty much idiotproof. I will post a recipe as soon as I make a batch and remember all the things I always mean to write down. I am so lazy I tend to gift this in a ziploc bag with ribbon tied around it. But I assume everyone else eats it as fast as we do so I figure it's not a big deal.