Can the first commenter post the recipe for those brandy-spiced peaches? They sound amazing. This is my second summer of canning, just jams and an indian tomato chutney. I always loved getting jars of jams from both my grandmas. They used that layer of wax to preserve it, which seems to have fallen out of favor, but I always loved peeling off the chunk of wax.

I’ve been making pasta at least weekly for the past couple of years and I always use the rule of 1/2 cup of flour and one egg per person, assuming pasta is the main course. I usually end up working in some more flour as I’m kneading so that it isn’t sticky, but that’s a good general guideline for starting and makes it easy to scale up or down.

I started making jams last summer and this summer I’ve gotten lazy - I no longer do a water bath, but just flip them upside down. If I had a proper canning pot, I’d still do it, but I only have a 7-quart Le Creuset, and it’s a pain to get jars in there. So, hopefully they won’t go moldy. It’s really fun though.

Do you have any recipes for your jam or juice? I get currants in my CSA box and never know what to do with them. I want to love them, they are so pretty!

I make sugar cookies every year, but I am going to try this lemon icing next year because the icing is always my least favorite part about eating them. Thanks!

I will definitely try these, if not for Christmas, then later on. I am all for less sweet cookies, too.

These sound delicious, but the picture is not super clear to me. I don’t quite get how the slashing and forming into a crescent is supposed to work.

Ooh, this looks so good. I love spicy cakes.