Wine Jelly and Almonds

I really do love that I have the whole weekend before Christmas!  I can clean (sorta) and get the house organized (kinda) and make some things I like to putz with (yeah!) 

The house is quiet while others are out running last minute errands, I'm making some last minute things I just wanted to make.  Not necessary, but you know me.  Gotta squeeze in one more thing . . .

So, the house smells like wine and almonds.  I made Swedish Toast again - one of my favorites that I just have to make.  The recipe is HERE - from last year when I made it.  The wine smell has wafted its way out of the house now, but it did smell somewhat like a bar in here this morning.

We love cream cheese with just about any kind of jelly on crackers, and I've tasted the wine jellies before.  A very good appetizer!  I thought if I tried it with a pretty red wine, it would be a beautiful color, so I bought a bottle of this:

Mixed 2 cups of wine with 3-1/4 cups of sugar, and heated on the stove until the sugar melted.

Then I added one packet of liquid pectin,

Boiled the mixture hard for a minute while stirring, put it into clean canning jars, threw it in the boiling water canner for a 10-minute boiling process, and 

 Voila!

Barely an hour, and I have four pints and one half-pint of pretty red wine jelly. The color is pretty, but I think a white zinfandel or a rose would actually be prettier.  Had I thought ahead a little better, I could have tatted a pretty little top to tie onto the jar with a ribbon. Maybe I have time to do that . . .

Pretty, pretty!

Now I even have time to read the NEXT book I've started - Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  Thanks to Isdihara's post HERE, I'm on my second read of the month, completely avoiding the other books on my "to read" list.  I am so easily sidetracked :)

On with enjoying holiday preparations!