Pickling peppers, making jelly

We got a few things done today that we wanted to accomplish without working ourselves to death. We had picked almost a bushel of peppers last evening and we planned to pickle some of them for Deb to take home. We had them in the salt water over night. For the 2 gallon of peppers you need 1 gallon of water and 1 1/2 cups salt.  This morning we drained and rinsed them and packed them into jars. While Deb packed the peppers I made the pickling solution. It consist of 10 cups vinegar, 2 cups water, 1/2 cup sugar and about 1 tablespoon chopped garlic if you like the garlic flavor. Heat to boiling and pour over peppers in the jars. Cap jars and they will seal. If you want you can water bath them to help with sealing, this would need 10 minutes for pint jars. I don't water bath.

We had picked wild plums earlier in the week to make jelly and I got as far as making the juice. We went back to the tree today and picked a few more plums to make a lil more juice as I didn't have quite enough. After straining the juice I had enough to make a batch of jelly and 1/2 cup left over. Plum jelly is one of Rodgers favorite jellies. It is a really pretty jelly once it is made.
Debs hubby Danny will be here tomorrow so I thought I might try to have some extra things cooked to feed everyone this weekend. So I have 2 pies in the oven, 1 apple and 1 cherry from the pie fillings I made and canned a couple years ago. They are sure smelling good. Am thinking they would be good with some ice cream.
Our weather is supposed to be really nice this weekend. Saturday day temps are posed to be mid 70's, and night time lows of high 40's. Just perfect for a get together with family and friends. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella