Yesterday was all cooking all the time or else shopping for cooking. In the morning I made a small batch of cherry preserves. The cherries are just storebought because I missed the very brief picking season this year (only one week) but I wanted to practice for next year. I loosely followed this except that I did chop all my cherries small, I added the zest and juice of a lime,  I cooked to 220F after adding my sugar and added a splash of Grand Marnier instead of his Kirsch or almond extract. I water bath processed them for 10 minutes. After I was done I remembered this delicious topping for ice cream I like to make that’s cherries, red wine, lemon zest and basil and wonder if I can come up with a preserves based on that combo next year?

It was also time to make more taco meat for Daniel’s quesadillas. He goes through about a pound a week and I cook up 2 pound batches, divide and freeze them. A few months ago Penzeys sent a free jar of their southwest seasoning and got me hooked on yet another of their blends. It’s easy enough to mix myself but oh so convenient to just dump in a couple tablespoons of this after I drain the fat. Since I use it so often, I caved and bought the tall jar.