When Life Gives You Dandelions, Make Jelly!

First and foremost, if you chemically treat your lawn, you should not make this jelly from your yard. I have no idea what that could do, and the flowers should only come from lawns that nothing but rain water. And maybe a little neglect... like mine!

Dandelions, in actuality, are some of the most edible plants overall. If you're a fan of spinach, you would love the dandelion greens. They're a teensy bit bitter, but delicious when sauteed in a little butter and garlic. splash of white wine or cider vinegar, and your eating gourmet all the way!

But if you feel like going a bit more exotic, you should try dandelion jelly. Yes, it's got definite floral notes to it, but so does honey. In a way, that's almost what you're doing here, is making your own honey. And it's reeeaallyy good on sandwiches. Like I said, it has a floral/honey quality that goes great with peanut butter.

So, you wanna give it a shot? Here you go! From AllRecipes.com...

• 3 1/4 cups water, or more as needed
• 4  cups lightly packed dandelion petals, divided, green parts removed
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 (1.75 ounce) package powdered fruit pectin
• 1 drop yellow food coloring (optional)
• 4 1/2 cups white sugar

First, boil the water with half of the petals for about ten minutes. Then, strain out the petals, but keep the liquid. After that, put the water back on the stove top, and add the rest of the petals. and boil it for an additional ten minutes.

Next, you'll need three cups of liquid. If you boiled more than that off, you can add some tap water to round it up to three cups. Put it back on the stove, along with the lemon juice, pectin, and the food coloring...if you wan it. Otherwise it will be a very pale yellow. when it's boiling again, add the sugar, and cook for another minute or so.

Take out an foam, and then pour the mixture into sterilized canning jars. Make sure to agitate it a little so there are no air bubbles. After that, wipe the rims of the jars in case there's any residue, and then put on the lids and rings.

Once you've done that, put some kind of rack into a pot that you can place the jars onto. Fill halfway with water, and boil. Once it's boiling, put the jars in carefully. Keep another pot of boiling water going too, in case you need to add more water to your canning pot. Get the water up to about an inch from the tops. Once it's boiling, cover the pot, and let it go for seven minutes.

After that, again very carefully, remove the jars. Put them on a towel, or a cooling rack, and keep them pretty far apart. Press down on the lids and make sure you've got a tight seal. That's the most important part. Once you're good there, let it cool for about 24 hours. Then pop one open and make a sandwich!

You've got a gajillion of those useless little flowers on your front, and back, lawn anyway. Get some revenge! Sure, you could just send them to a quick, merciful fate by mowing them. Or you could boil them alive and then eat them. The answer is obvious. And delicious.