adventures in canning

Any person who may have seen me in my kitchen the week before I went to Ireland would think that I was crazy.  Among all of the other things I needed to do to get ready, I decided I also needed to use up almost all of my produce so that I didn’t end up throwing anything away.

One of the ways I used up things quickly was by making homemade drink syrups to freeze (like these).

Another way was to use up leftovers and veggies in calzones (like these).

The third way was to do some canning.  It may sound crazy to get into something like that with so little time, but it is actually easy to preserve in very little time.  Small batch all the way.  (disclaimer:  I am certain jams would take much longer, but fruits in some juices or liquor…super fast).  Now, I am supper excited to try these in a cocktail.  My husband had a Manhattan in Toronto a couple of months back, and it was garnished with an AMAZING candied, maraschino, soaked cherry of some kind and I have made it my mission to try and recreate it.  Thank goodness I have POUNDS of frozen cherries to experiment more with!

I found a recipe for Amaretto Cherries at My Kitchen Addiction, committed myself to using up my cherries, and in no time I was done.  I did even smaller batch (two jars) and it worked out quite nicely.