Kitchen Notes

Given all the preserves I made in the past year, and excluding the liberal use of sucanat and molasses in chutneys and other cooking, I'm actually surprised that it took me 13 months to use 50# of unrefined cane sugar.

I'm only using 3 cups of sugar in 8 cups of plum juice for this batch of jelly (my idea of low sugar - compared to equal parts sugar & juice in most recipes). Time to go buy another 50# bag!I'm still mulling over the gustatory logistics of plum jelly for 2009 - I have completed a batch of plum serrano, and here is what I am considering for the rest of the jelly, to be done in batches of 8 cups of juice:

• POP (plain ole plum)
• plum-habanero w/orange peel (chile filtered out, fine peel left in)
• plum lavender (a popular one last year)
• plum cinnamon-clove

Any suggestions or special requests?