Not a total success...

Conditions at 5:15 am: clear, starry skies and 10'
Expected later: a mix of sun and cloud and 15'

Well our class last night was only a partial success. We made the grape jelly first and it turned out great. Our experiment with the apple/pear juice - not so much. Let's just say it will make a great syrup to put on pancakes or ice cream!  Obviously there was something added to the processed juice that prevented it from jelling in spite of having added more than the recipe called for. Not to worry. I told everyone at the start that it was an experiment. Guess they all can't be winners.

It was a funny kind of night last night. We were responsible for bringing things for the lunch and some forgot until the last minute.  Not to worry, everyone was well fed but because we knew we were going to be going out for the lunch break, something we don't usually do, it changed the feel of the class. Because we were doing something really simple, there wasn't a lot of involvement and everyone was content to just sit around and chat. That's not a bad thing. If nothing else, the evening is a night out. I brought in my blog book so the girls from last year could see the photos from the previous classes. They thought it was pretty neat and enjoyed looking through it. Of course it prompted all kinds of discussions as well. One of the girls told us that she was from Virginia but spent time in Washington state and then met her husband in Vancouver. He was in the reserves and after moving around from city to city in Canada the eventually settled in PEI, where her husband was originally from. When she told her grandmother, who lived in the states that she was going to PEI for a visit, the older woman commented that PEI was something she hadn't heard of in years. It turns out that her grandfather was originally from the island and she never knew. So when she and her husband finally arrived here,  they looked up the old place and actually found some distant relatives  she never knew she had. It's such a small world.

So even though our night wasn't a total cooking success, it was a fun, relaxing evening. Next week we're doing Mexican so hopefully it will be more successful.

Tonight I'm working at the store so the neighbours will need to come over to let the dog out. That seems to be working well.   Other than that, I have no further news. One of the girls in the class has a husband who is working out west so it was suggested she could do something like this for him to keep up with what's going on but it is a big commitment to keep it up every day.  I can't imagine how difficult it would be if you had kids to keep you busy.