Stephanie Struckus' photostream

I have a huge apricot tree in my backyard that overwhelms me with fruit every year. My mom learned to make jam from her mom and has been canning almost every year since I can remember. This year my mom taught me the process and together we made four recipes (24 jars) of jam (not jelly which only uses the fruit juice).

Last night I taught Greg and in both cases the process of picking, cleaning, cutting, cooking and processing the apricots allowed a lovely opportunity to talk with my mom and Gregory.

If you were wondering, the jam is delicious. It will be a welcome flavor of summer this December.

I've helped make a total of five batches this year, four with my mom and one with Gregory. Each batch tastes a little different based on the ripeness of the apricots and the amount of sugar. I prefer putting in a little bit of the underripe portions of the apricot to create a little tartness in an otherwise sweet jam.

Gregory's mom came out to visit us in California for the very first time this weekend! It was a short visit but we got a lot packed in. Her itinerary included:

Lunch at Grub in Hollywood,
the Fullerton Farmer's Market,
Downtown Pomona,
dinner with my parents,
the Griffith Observatory,
a drive through the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Beverly Hills, and
the Santa Monica Pier.

She had a great time and this is a good thing because it's our goal to get his whole family out to visit, and I'm sure she'll spread the good word about the LA area. So far we've had two of his five family members (yes, I'm counting you, Jason).

My first successful batch of sourdough bread. One of these loaves of the mother dough will go to my mom for Mother's Day.

Homemade lemon cream tart. The secret to its greatness is liberal amounts of sugar and butter.

If you ever decide to make this save yourself a lot of time and do one or two large pans rather than the individual tarts. Also double the lemon cream recipe because it is just too delicious not to.

Topped with a home grown strawberry.