Not quite new years

You cannot can fruit in champagne. Or, well, you can, just not using the recommended processing times. That is, unless you want champagne erupting from your hot jars like it does shaken by overzealous (and already drunken) bottle-opening groomsmen on certain occasions.

That is what I learned today. Haha.

I love champagne, and what occured today happened simply for want of an excuse to pop open a long shelved bottle on my one day off this week and a half. That, and some really beautiful white peaches.

I love white peaches. There is something about them, their blushing cheeks against stark white flesh that makes them lovely to look at. To smell, they are more subtely aromatic than their golden brothers, offering what the lychee nut gives to gewurtz that sets it apart from all other wines. And their taste. Divine, sweet, effervescent--like champagne.

So I thought I would combine these two loves and set them on jars to share with my other love on days when there are no white peaches to be had (thank goodness wine, at least, is a year round thing). Think again.

Peeled and poached in sugar and sparkling, all was going well, and I was thinking of what a pro-canner I had become...until twenty five minutes later when I removed the first batch from the boiling black pot. Fizz was coming out all over the place! I thought perhaps one jar was not properly sealed, but the next to reacted the same, splashing me and my floor and landing me in fits of laughter as i ran for a towel. Oh boy. Now I had really done it, two disasters with white peaches. But still in love.

And apparently, oblivious to the ridiculousness of my endeavor. I had no recipe--though I must admit that I was inspired for the combination by a stone fruit devoted section of Donna Hays wonderful magazine that set slices of white peaches in champagne jelly; not one for gelatin, I thought id simply omit that minor detail; again, Haha--and yet, I continued canning, sending the next three jars into the water. What was I hoping for anyways. Ten minutes in, while on the phone to my ma sharing the hilarity of moment, i realized this, and yoinked the jars out. No fizz. No New-years style stickiness. And three little pop sounds, signalling success.

So you can can with champagne. And you can also find ways to eat your way through three jars of unsealed champagne poached white peaches. I particularly enjoy them on one dessert I do do successfully--unlike the first white peach disaster of last week--Buttermilk Pudding Cakes; then again, straight from the jar and drinking the dregs seems like a pretty good idea right now.