Granola bars and a creative explosion.

First off, the broth from yesterday? Has all been bottled and processed. Total? 10 quart jars and 11 pint jars. No joke. And that's the processed amount; I used one pint jar last night, and I actually had a bunch more I could have processed. But how much broth does a girl need? I won't have to boil anything for a while.

Last night, I made granola bars. The recipe can be found here. In lieu of their nuts and fruits, I used raisins, dried cranberries, and chopped almonds. I added more than they recommended of the dried fruits, mostly because I wanted the bars to be moist, and I added a bit more honey. Because I didn't have rice syrup, I just took some warm water and put sugar in it to make a high concentration sugar syrup. That worked just fine.

You really DO NEED TO LET THEM COOL DOWN. I was impatient and transferred the drying pile to a drying rack, splitting the perfect square in half. Drat.

I just used the half square as a way to cut it though, so it ended up working ok. But seriously, wait till the thing dries.

I greased the pan with olive oil spray; parchment paper just doesn't like me. Olive oil spray worked wonderfully.

Final product:


YUM!!!
Yesterday, I was waiting for my broth to process (I wanted to go outside, but I don't feel comfortable going outside with a pressure canner on high and at 15 pressure...eek!), so I made up some sample jewelry pendants. I had some scrapbook paper, so I used that.
This picture better shows the high-level gloss that is on each one.
I also experimented with some organza I had and made two pretty flower pins. I used beads in the center for the stamen.

Finally, when I could turn my stove off, I went outside and made 6 planter beds. So much fun. My gardener guy comes tomorrow, so we'll get to fill up the beds! Much work to be done tonight.... I am so excited at the prospect of planting my onions and potatoes this weekend.