My Annual Oven Tribulations (Revisited)

Long-time readers of this blog may remember my months-long ordeal with a faulty oven and the subsequent tortures of trying to have it replaced with one that worked, all culminating in an emergency call to the local fire department. Well, nothing that dramatic has transpired since, thank goodness, but I did have a setback in my farmers' market preparations this week. Halfway through baking two more loaves of the zucchini-carrot bread, I ran out of propane for the range! And right before the long weekend, naturally! So I had to run the half-baked loaves over to the neighbor's house to use his oven (bless his heart!). After that, I baked two pans of brownies. I was going to give up on the rest of the things that I wanted to make for the market, but the city court judge in town comes by my booth every week to buy a blueberry pie for her husband and brownies for herself. And since I wasn't going to be able to do any pies this week, I figured she'd throw me in the clink if I didn't at least have the brownies for her!

But this did not solve the problem of how to make the pepper jelly that is my bestseller week in and week out at the market. And I'll be danged if I was gonna haul all the canning stuff over to the neighbor's! So I decided to try cooking the jam on the infamous hot plate that I got for nine bucks at the Wal-Mart on the last go-round with the oven. It did fine cooking the jam, but I didn't think it would support the weight of the canner once it was filled with water and the jars. So I thought I might try using the sideburner on my old BBQ grill. And guess what? It worked like a charm! It seemed to come to the boil faster, and I also didn't have to heat up the kitchen with a big bubbling cauldron. I should have thought of this long ago! And in another burst of creativity (desperation?), I used the simmering canner as a double boiler to melt the chocolate for the brownies, propping the metal bowl on top of the steaming kettle full of jars while they were being sterilized.
Am I not extremely clever and resourceful?? Tee hee. Where there's a will, the determined canner will find a way! In fact, I just made a third batch of the wonderful Annie's Salsa using the hot-plate-and-grill canning method yesterday (bringing my seasonal total to 22 pints, for those keeping count). I may never go back to using the stove, even after we get a propane fill-up! ;-)