Homemade Grape Juice

Enjoying the bounty of the season (meaning I had more grapes than I know what to do with), I brewed a cup o’ joe and strapped on an apron.  Next I put on one of my favorite Pandora stations – French Cooking Music.  And then.  I made homemade grape juice. 

Yep, I channeled my grandma who sugared up her Concord grapes every year making jelly and juice galore. 

Except.

I didn’t have Concord grapes.  I had Sweet Sapphire seedless grapes.  No sugar necessary.  No boiling for an hour.  It was so easy and here is what I did.

Cleaned and De-Stemmed

This was the longest step.  There were a lot of grapes to clean and each one needed to be inspected with any old grapes discarded and all the stems completely removed.

Mashed

These grapes are quite large and rather sturdy.  They were quite a chore to mash, but John didn’t want to get his feet purple so I used a potato masher.  After they boiled down a bit, I mashed them again and made much more headway.

Cooked

I had a lot of grapes so I separated them into two batches.  I brought them to a simmer over medium heat in a large stockpot and cooked for 10 minutes, mashing a few times along the way.

Strained and Blended

I placed a strainer over another large pot.  The pulp that was left in strainer went into the blender and the remaining juice was strained again.  I think I blended each batch twice.  This method will not leave a smooth juice like what you get in store bottles, but a little pulp never hurt me.

This juice is so sweet, absolutely no sugar is needed.  It’s also rather strong, so one small juice glass is enough.  It will be excellent added to seltzer as a spritzer or topped with a bit of vodka like the recipe I found on healthyrecipes101.

After the juice was completely cooled, I put in a plastic container and froze it.  I’m really looking forward to refreshing  grape juice drinks in the days to come.  Cocktail and Mocktail recommendations will be shared!

Cleaned (the Kitchen)

Since I’m about the messiest person on Earth and since my kitchen is white, it was no joke that there was purple everywhere while I was making this juice.  I had a wet dish cloth in constant motion so the marble countertops wouldn’t stain. 

My apron has purple spots now.  My fingernails have a slight purple hue.  I found a few drops INSIDE my candle.  What?!  How did it get there?  There will probably be little purple reminders for the next month, but I think I got my kitchen pretty clean and ready for the next project.

Wrap Up

Dear reader, thank you for checking back in with me after almost four months.  I had all sorts of productive blog plans and I did none of them.  Zippo.

But.  I missed you.  I missed my projects.   And sharing recipes.  And taking pictures of all the little moments that make me smile.  I missed telling you about new authors and characters and current obsessions.

Social media is not really my thing.  I’m not on FB or Insta or Twitter.  But this little corner of the Internet has turned into something special for me.  I’m too old to care about what other people think about me.  I’m not in a race or trying to compare myself to others.

But I love to be inspired by others’ creativity and beauty and success.  And I hope what I post here makes your day a little brighter.

It turns out my little life is better when it’s shared with you. 

God bless you and yours and thanks for walking my journey with me.