It's A Fall Thing...

Guess what time of the year it is? Prickly Pear Jelly time!!!! Last year Katie, Laura and I all had the idea to make some home-made gift baskets for Christmas presents. We chose a breakfast theme and made biscotti , hot coco, scone mix, peppermint marshmallows and what ended up being the home run of the gift, Prickly Pear jelly. We had no idea that is was going to be as popular as it was, our friends and co-workers told us they hoarded it like gold in their homes, only taking it out for extreme cravings and special occasions.
We decided since it was such a hit last year, we had to do it this year! So last weekend we all went up to my parent's house in the Hualapai Mountains (pronounced Wal-a-pie) to start our 2010 jam-making weekend. (Full Disclosure: I am using some photos from 2009 to show the process, we made such a large batch this year that by the time we got to juicing stage it was too dark outside to see.)

The first thing we have to do is pick the Prickly Pears, much easier said than done, because Prickly Pears grow on this:

Yes we totally harvest the fruit from Cacti. What great Arizona girls are we? We are able to harvest the fruit just a little down the mountain from where my parents live. While it is fun it can also be dangerous. Cacti have a way of sneaking up onto your ankles and tend to hurt, a lot. Katie yelled out this poetic piece during the harvest trip, "SON OF A NUTCRACKER!!!!!!"

We picked a ton of Prickly Pears this year. We wanted to make a nice big batch for our Christmas gifts and to have a little leftover for ourselves. It took us about an hour playing pioneer women, traipsing through the woods until we filled up our bucket. After washing the Prickly Pears you have to cook them for a couple hours.

This is where the incredible color starts to form. The water you boil them in turns the most amazing shade of pink/purply/red ever. I don't even think I know a name of a color to describe it! We cooked two ways this year. There were two pots on the stove and then a giant pot we cooked outside on a propane stove contraption that we use for deep-frying our Thanksgiving turkey.

How cute is Laura? After the Prickly Pears are cooked down, the real process starts. If you haven't figured it out by the name of the fruit or Katie's cursing, Prickly Pears have prickles on them. Since we love all our friends and this isn't Nightmare Before Christmas, we spend a good chunk of the time sifting the pulp and stickers out. The first step is to chop up the whole pears into smaller pieces.

Once they are nice and chopped up we place them into a food mill to get as much juice out as possible.

This part is fun and messy! We then take the juice from under the food mill and begin the straining process.

The process is very time consuming and it takes all of us working a couple hours straight to get it done. We don't mind though. It is fun to chat with my sisters and my mother. Many times the conversation turns to if we think we could make it should the world suffer some major disaster and we lost all modern technology. Consensus is if there are no Zombies or Mutant creatures, yes. Otherwise, Jesus take us now!

The juice goes twice through a strainer and finally through a cheese cloth. This way all you are left with is a delicious, syrupy Prickly Pear Juice. The next steps are pretty generic in jelly making. You add your sweetener and pectin, bottle them up and can away. We ended up with about 52 jars of Prickly Pear Jelly!
I love this time of the year because it really is the starting off point to our Holiday Season. Our next event is our "McLarty-Jaramillo Annual Fall Festival Weekend." This includes all the fun October activities we love like carving pumpkins, a ghost tour and a visit to Schnepf Farms. When my sisters get married there are going to be a few more hyphens in the title though!

Even though Phoenix is suffering a heat wave, I am so ready for fall time. I pulled out my first Halloween decorations and can't wait for the cooler weather. This Holiday Season will be my first one as a married lady and I am actually hosting Christmas at my house! Luckily my family and my in-laws are wonderful people who would be happy if all I made was pizza and salad. As for the Christmas baskets this year, you are just going to have to wait and see what the theme is!

Happy Fall!
-Mrs.J

Gleekin' Out

If you don't know I am OBSESSED with Glee. From the moment I watched the series premiere I knew it was meant to be. This show is A-mazing.



I think if you did chorus in high school, this show tugs at your heart strings. Even though when I did choir my junior and senior year of high school there was not that much drama involved, it still brings back memories. Must be the same reason I love High School Musical so much.

Anyways last week was the season premiere of Glee and I knew I had to something special to commemorate this occasion. So I invited some of my nearest and dearest over for Glee Party 2010.

I made us wonderful Glee style "hats" for the occasions and put together a Nacho Bar. Let me tell you this, a Nacho Bar is a great way to do food when you are throwing a party. Everything can be thrown together really quickly and doesn't break the bank.

I warmed up some nacho cheese in the crock pot, made some beef with taco seasoning and then set out all the fixings.

Don't they just look yummy? This was my sister Laura's creation. She is a wonderful Nacho maker.

Some of my best friends came over to enjoy the party.

Have you met my neighbors Nick and Sarah? If not you should because they pretty much are the most ballest neighbors anyone could have. It is really fun living next to couple who is your age.

This my friend Jessica and my sister Katie showing off the blue "slushees" we made for the party. Really they were just Pina Coladas with blue food coloring, but I don't think anyone was complaining!

This little gem in the photo with me is Randi. She seriously is like sunshine. If you are having a bad day, one call to Randi can turn your frown upside down.

 Finally the Mr. and Mrs. Todd was very good and wore his Glee hat all night long. I am so thankful that he indulges in some of my ideas. I could never have married a fuddy-duddie. He is never too cool for school and for that I am thankful.
After dinner we all sat down to watch the show, which was awesome. I had made some "Fauxstess Cupcakes" for desert. I didn't take any pictures because even though they tasted incredible, they didn't look as cute as I was hoping for. It was my first time making a ganache and it never really hardened since the temperature was still probably around 80 degrees in my house. I will make them again when it cools down and hopefully the finished product will come out looking better.
Here is what they were supposed to look like.

And here is the blog I got the recipe from. However, I did switch up the filling. I used the filling from an Oatmeal Pie recipe I make. It was much easier and I really love marshmallow so you can't go wrong.

All in all it was wonderful night with some wonderful people. We dined, drank and laughed the night away. I feel so very blessed for the people that I have in my life. Even the girls got in on the excitement of the Glee season premier. Honestly though, would it be a House of Jaramillo blog if I didn't mention my cats?

Nunu probably supports Vocal Adrenaline and was not wanting to be support the New Directions Glee Club.

and Scioscia just wanted to make sure she wasn't missing anything.

Don't forget all your Gleeks, the Brittany episode is one tonight!!!

-Mrs.J