I slept late today ;-) Last night was a "rest" - after DD and I got home from parade, she changed and the whole family went to pick up our jars and ribbons, then we met my parents at pizza place for dinner, picked up a cake and ice cream and went back to their house to celebrate my birthday 2 weeks late (we've been so busy have had no time to go to dinner - and now anniversary is coming up, I've got no idea when/how we're going to celebrate that b/c rest of the month looks busy too, with DS's awards - see my brag post - my mom visiting my sister's family for niece's b-days, and then coming back right before my dad has surgery). Anyway, I haven't made the apple-jalapeno (or any pepper jellies except Gold) for a couple years, I can't find the recipe I used, it was mostly apple juice or homemade apple pectin not vinegar so I don't remember how many jalapenos I used, how much lemon juice. There are a few tomato jam recipes on this forum if you search, I've used the Food in Jars no-pectin recipe successfully with cherry tomatoes (lots of skin and not so much juice as heirlooms, don't try it with really juicy tomatoes). The red-ribbon winner was Orange Minsk tomatoes peeled and sugared per Joy of Jams Tomato-Pineapple preserves recipe, but instead of fresh pineapple I used 1C (drained) of canned crushed pineapple, since that has already been cooked it didn't have the enzyme that hinders the set. I peeled (raw, not blanched so lost a little flesh) 3 huge Orange Minsk tomatoes for 2.25 lbs. 2C of sugar, let stand all day, lots of liquid but very ripe tomatoes were falling apart once I started cooking them. Added 4 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 Tbsp lime juice, 4 Tbsp OJ, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2tsp coriander and 1 Tbsp whole dried birdseye (Thai) peppers. Bring to a boil, add 1/2 a can (drained) crushed pineapple (about 1C). Boil until set. The next time I made this, I put the pineapple (not drained) in the pan first with the syrup from the sugared tomatoes, the lemon and lime juice (skipped the OJ), and brought that to a "hard simmer" and crushed the pineapple with a potato masher b/c I had bought 6 cans of pineapple chunks (in juice, not syrup) from BJ's and that's what DD used in her jam first. The pineapple chunks were a lot harder/bigger than the crushed - tidbits might work best, the crushed was really shredded and I was *trying* for a preserve with chunks of pineapple and whole yellow cherry tomatoes, but the tomatoes keep falling apart on me and I used the immersion blender on the whole pot, pulled out the skins. A food mill would have worked better. Same spices, skipped the hot peppers in that one. A 3rd batch used the Orange Minsk again, with crushed pineapple, same juices (incl. OJ) and spices, so it was jam consistency, but instead of whole birdseye peppers which were really spicy (to me and DS) when you bit into one, I added 1Tbsp of crushed red pepper flakes. But that hadn't set up as well by the time of the fair so I didn't enter that. I'll let you know how that goes. I've still got to work out the tomato preserves, but I think I need to use really firm just-ripe cherry tomatoes and it's the end of the season, I don't have any more. I've also been working on a savory "just tomato" spread using no-sugar pectin but am having a hard time getting a set with the juicy heirlooms I've tried this year.

Mine came back, also. But I was surprised that they actually both entered the nestbox which we just put back out. We set it up on a new pole contraptions and were checking it out. I guess they were, too. Is it normal for them to enter a nestbox? I live outside of Houston, so I expect them to be here all winter.

I have to respond to this one, huh! I love blue in all its variations, and that's a pretty shade...however, it's very hard to pull off blue cabinets. We are so used to seeing wood. A couple of people on this forum have used beautiful blue islands as part of a well thought out & integrated color scheme, which seems to work better than the overwhelming blue in your kitchen. IMO the blue cabinets COULD work (decor-wise), if they were in good shape and you didn't want to make other changes...but it sounds like they don't work and you have some very good ideas -- so go for it. Good luck! FWIW, I'm getting maple perimeter cabinets, an off white island, a Thermador range with blue knobs, and blue granite countertops. The blue granite will make a very strong statement. I also have lots of Kitchenaid cobalt blue cook tools and Chantal cobalt pots & pans, and will probably put in a utensil rail or potrack. I think that's quite enough blue! I'm resisting the urge to use blue mini-pendants because I want traditional schoolhouse lights, and I'm using basic/boring white subway tiles for the backsplash and either a basic/boring/beige tile floor or a medium hardwood. My buddy tried to talk me into a cobalt blue sink but IMO there are some things in life that should be in bright colors, and the sink ain't one of them.

We want it more like this: