i don't really have much to announce before i head off to edmonton for the week, except TRAFIKMAGASINET:



because i love everything about it.

see y'all on the flipside!

big thankies and respeck to my beautiful sister-in-law nicole for getting me hooked on the making of preserves. she recently gifted us a KILLER peach raspberry champagne jam, that's absolutely stunning on toast. ohh baby.

when i was last in upstate new york, i was fortunate enough to find a stand at the ithaca farmer's market selling prunus cerasifera, or cherry plums. these plums are, not surprisingly, about the size of a cherry and have an intense, sweet-tart flavour. what's really special about them, though, is their incredibly high pectin content, making them a natural choice for preserves. it's quite a laborious process separating all the plums from their tiny stones, but the sparkling, jewel-like tart red jelly you're left with is well worth the effort.



thus:

plum jelly

1 pint cherry plums, washed and pitted
6 tablespoons sugar

combine plums and sugar over medium heat, stirring to disolve sugar. simmer, stirring occasionally, until plums have cooked down to a uniform shade of bright red and a thick, jelled consistency. as jam is approaching readiness, prepare three 60 ml jars by sterilizing under hot water. spoon jam into prepared jars with a small funnel, seal jars and place in a heavy stock pot such that they are covered by at least one inch with water. boil for ten minutes, then remove jars carefully with tongs and place on paper towels. if jars have properly sealed, you will hear a "pop" sound shortly after they are removed from the water, and the top of the jar will not move when pressed. since this produces rather a small batch, you may skip the jar-boiling canning steps if you wish, and simply eat the jelly within 2-3 weeks. (chances are that it won't last that long regardless; i for one have been quite greedily having second helpings of toast every morning since our sudden influx of homemade preserves.)

*also: for an extra-special and very comforting autumnal treat, try adding just a teensy hint of cinnamon while the jelly is cooking.

moving on from last entry's self-pitying emofest, i now have an even more urgent, even more pressing matter to attend to.

and that's my pants.

namely: coloured jeans. gosh, i love them. basic blue's all well and fabulous, i guess, but i confess to owning about 1548797898346 pairs of black skinnies, each slightly different from one another and each designed to suit a specific sartorial situation. i've also strayed slightly from the ubergothness (and yes they ARE goth, seeing as i remember all this flouncy black stuff when it was cool the first time, thankyouverymuch. emo? i'd rather have the bubonic plague. but i digress.) of the black skinnies and gone so far as to purchase pairs in a subdued mustard yellow and white. (i've also since managed to stain them both.)

my point is, i'm having trouble deciding what other colours to introduce into my wardrobe of pants of craziness. turquoise? bubblegum? eggplant? seafoam green, perhaps? i saw a pair of red jeans that looked pretty fantabulous


(kind of like this)


but i also clearly recall owning red jeans when i was in about third grade and thinking back then that they were the most wicked awesome things ever. :|

when i was a youngster, i recall that all my wacky trousers all came with hideously outlandish and over-embellished faux-leather belts. i never wore them. i don't know why they insisted on including them with every pair of pants. they gathered dust until one day in probably sixth grade, i decided to try and sell them off to some of the neighbourhood folks in a garage sale.

all i earned that day was a sunburn.