Long hot days of summer

It's been a while since I blogged, it's been over 30 degrees Celsius for more days than I can count and we don't have air conditioning in the bedroom. When you're sleeping and you're cold, you can always add another blanket, but when it's so hot you're sweating like mad lying there, there's not much you can do. Thankfully last night and today we finally have some rain and a more livable temperature of  low 20's.

Of course during the hot weather I decide to make jam; I guess I really didn't have much of a choice given that we picked the fruit when it was ripe and it needed to be used pretty quickly. It's my first attempt at making jam and I'm quite proud of the results! So far, I've made a sugar-free strawberry jam, a strawberry margarita jam and a red raspberry jam. Just check out the luscious colour on the raspberry jam:

Raspberry is my hubby's favourite, I'm sure he won't be giving too many of these away! I was thinking that homemade jam would be a great Christmas present to give to people this year, that way I don't have to start baking a month and a half in advance (like I did last year with giant shortbreads).

This Saturday apparently there is a Cherry Festival in Kitchener at Cherry Park, I've never been (nor heard about it until recently), but I think I will check it out after work. Here is the link:

Cherry Festival in Kitchener

I think I might go back to where we normally pick fruit on Sunday and see if their black raspberries are ready. I'm thinking besides jam, I might try making a raspberry liqueur. Chambord is too expensive to justify buying, although the bottle is pretty neat looking.