Living off the desert

Remember these prickly pear fruit that I picked back in August? Well at the time, all i did was rinse the bugs and dirt off (hopefully) and then I bagged and froze them. They have taken up space, and prevented me from buying ice cream for 8 months. Every time i opened the door I was reminded I needed to find the right recipe...It all just seemed like SUCH a huge amount of work

So, one night, C decided he was gonna finally do his, which he hadn't even rinsed or frozen - they were just sitting in a pail...for 7 months and I thought they would be all moldy for SURE and crawling with ants, but they weren't! We wore thick gloves and while he cut them in half, I pressed the juice through a sieve...and his entire bucket of fruits made about 1 cup of juice.

All inspired, I went home and took a bag out of the freezer...and tried to cut them in half dear god, they were like little cement blocks, so I left them in the sieve to defrost over night The next morning I came to find them all thawed, and all deflated and mushy!! I didn't even have to cut them, just pressed with a wooden spoon and then my gloved hand in the sieve til i had all the juice...and my own baggy made about 4 cups of juice.

Then, since these ARE cacti, and the pricks are TINY, I poured the juice through a cheesecloth rag to get the last bits out and voila! As gorgeous in color as they were, I fully expected a sweet taste to the juice, but it was pretty bland. I wanted to make SOMETHING, but couldn't find any recipes that didn't require CUPS of sugar or alcohol, so I used it to make jello jigglers with knox gelatin, and instead of water, I used the juice. Isn't the color AMAZING?? Can you see why I would think it would TASTE sweet?

Since the juice taste was pretty blah, I also used one packet of sugar free strawberry jello to jazz it up a bit. It was delicious!! I wonder what natural sugar was in this. With the juice that was left, I broke down and boiled it with sugar and made some hard candy, which is actually really good, except it sticks to your teeth like a mutha, and i am worried it might rip a filling out!! I have two more bags of frozen prickly pear fruits in my freezer. I want to find a "gummy candy" recipe The ladies at sit and stitch thought the jello was pretty good, and i will bring the hard candy tonight...hope their dentures can take it.

Just call me Martha!!