I am REALLY REALLY proud of myself. I made jelly last night. Mason-type jars, two-part lids, boiling-water processed and all! And it set up! And it tastes wonderful! And I’m just so tickled!!

My grandmother canned like a fiend. She and my grandfather had a small farm — a few acres of fruits and vegetables grown mostly for personal use but they’d sell the surplus at a roadside stand. So everything got canned (my mouth still waters at the memory of her peach-peeling pies).

Home canning is something of a lost art these days. I know I am completely intimidated by the idea of poisoning my family and friends. But when I stumbled across a recipe for wine jelly over at America’s Test Kitchen Feed, I got to thinking, maybe I **can** do this (no pun intended). So I did a bunch of reading. I bought some jars, a canning kit, the Ball Blue Book. I lurked on the web. I identified a bottle of wine. And finally, last night, I carved out some time to Make Some Wine Jelly.

Which allowed me, this morning, to eat some with cornbread:

I’m imagining this spread on cream cheese on a bagel. Or served with bacon-and-blue-cheese biscuits. Or slathered on a round of warm brie. Oh my — sounds like I need to get baking!

This was my first batch, so consider this a brag post   I am such a newbie at this that I can’t in good conscience tell you HOW to do it, but the DEFINITIVE source for home canning instructions is the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning [this is the 2009 version — not sure if a newer one is available].