The marathon is over!

Let's start yesterday morning because yesterday was a good day too. As I mentioned, Ana picked me a bunch of guayaba as the kids weren't here. Yesterday and today I managed to add a few more so I had a really big bowl full. I went to the senior center and I took Otto with me. He had mentioned he would be interested in telling them stories so I sent him a message that I was going and if he was available I would be happy to take him along and he could talk to Janet. It turned out they knew each other and he is all set to come back one of their next gatherings. We had lots of fun with my little craft and two of my sewing ladies were there and reconfirmed we were meeting on Tuesday afternoon. I showed them the pictures Janet had posted on Facebook. After I dropped everything off at home I picked up strawberry yogurt for the Strawberry White Chocolate Cupcakes and headed all over town looking for cupcake papers. No luck, and I only have a few so I will just have to spray the pan. I also went to the pharmacy and was able to get the new drug in place of Metformin which seems to work really well.

At 3:00pm Johana showed up with a lovely thank you gift and one I declined. There is a shop in Paraiso that sells products right from the farm and she gave me a large chunk of butter. I am anxious to try it. It would be so nice not to cart it from the US. The gift I declined and told her to keep for herself was a small package of chocolate chips. I know they are very hard to find and this was about a 2oz package. Chocolate chips and coconut and butter and now bacon, Heather has kept me well stocked. Right now I have 2 72oz bags and 7 regular size bags of chocolate chips. I also have slabs or bricks of white chocolate and milk chocolate. I think I am in pretty good shape with chocolate. For the cupcakes I sliced some of the white chocolate and then cut it into little pieces. They also have chopped strawberries. I made an almond powered sugar glaze to drizzle on top and I gave her enough of the strawberries, chocolate, yogurt and frosting for another batch. We put the cupcakes in my cake carrier and she will give it back to me on Monday when she comes to Dora's for the Chocolate Coconut Balls cooking lesson.

Now today! I started with 4 loads of laundry which are still on the line as it has been raining this afternoon.

My marathon ended up being 8 fruits made into 3 different kinds of jelly. All the prep work actually took more time than the cooking. I did it on the table out on my porch. Guayaba and a couple cas because I was told I HAD to try it. So I did. Mango/strawberry with just a little lime juice and Papaya/pineapple with orange zest and juice and lime juice. Probably the worst is working with the mango. I may need to find another recipe. You steam the mango so they peel easy and come off the pit easy. But, you are working with a ball of mush. The rest are pretty easy.

Have I mentioned I had a big bowl of guayaba! It boils up a lot when you cook it so you can only fill the pot half full. I ended up with 3 pots of jelly. It takes 30 to 40 minutes once it reaches a boil and because my stove is little I can only do 2 big pots at a time. First was the papaya/pineapple and the mango/strawberry. No problem with the papaya/pineapple. I did that like the guayaba. The mango/strawberry is a little different. You start out with sugar water, bring it to 270 and then add the fruit and cook it a bit. Well, I was doing several things including trying to keep up with dishes in my little area and I looked over and it must have gone past and was now a hard crystal. Well, throw that away and try again. Thank heavens the fruit wasn't in there. This time I watched closer - yes I have a candy thermometer.  No problem this time. Next were 2 pots of guayaba and then the last pot of guayaba. Thanks to my friend, Kaye, I had lots of jars and containers which are now all full of jelly. I only got 3 jars of papaya/pineapple but it will be enough to taste and see if I should make it again. I am supposed to bring some of each to my official taste tester tonight. I told him he could be the taster if he loves everything but I was joking. I want him to be honest and if he doesn't like it I'll ask his mother.

I have to change clothes before I go out as I have jelly all over me and I'll have flies following me. Maybe even a shower! 

The craft was sun catchers. Wire with beads.

This is what a marathon looks like.

By the way I have been getting a few little tomatoes everyday.