Hi. It’s been a while, like 2 years. Life got crazy. Suddenly, like out of no where(!) I had a rapidly growing business and a small family. (A small family which until recently was often heard in the background of a business call.)
Beer jelly had taken off and it took over our world. It was all pretty exciting and we decided to ride the ride. My law grad TDH was grudgingly dragged threw himself into the family business and we began to build it together. We worked hard and were rewarded for it by doubling our growth each year for 5 years.
Along the way we made some great partners, but I also began to realize that my real idea of success may not be what I thought it was. I want to like the people I was work with! Ideally they like me too but I have a policy: “It’s none of my business what you think of me” 😉
I began to refocus myself. One night I was talking with old friends about it all and I blurted out KISS. Keep It Small Sister. It is a great way to summarize how I feel about growth right now.
I don’t want grow my business any larger than integrity will allow. What does this mean? This means that I don’t want to pay to play. I want to feel respected because you like my work. I value myself. I value my work & those people who work with me.
By keeping it small I can focus on quality. The quality of work, the quality of interactions, quality of product (etc). I am very excited for some new things bubbling up and I can’t wait to share them with you.
Thank you for your continued support of me and my small family business!
-Nancy
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Hard truth guys. I accidentally lie about my pepper jelly ALL THE TIME. It’s kind of accidentally on purpose. You see, I love my pepper jellies and they are my recipes. I grew up on pepper jelly and I used to eat my own but I developed a pepper allergy in the middle of all this canning biz. So I no longer eat any peppers at all and certainly not my hot pepper jelly.
When I am talking to a jam fan I get SO excited about all the uses for pepper jelly that I say “We use it for egg rolls or stir fry!” or “I love it over cream cheese!” Sorry, but that is a half truth. I actually haven’t tried a one of my pepper jellies in about 5 years. I do know how wonderful they are, and I used to make them for myself. Now, we make them for you. Because I believe in my jams and I love my Pot-heads I made pepper jelly corn bread this for sampling this past weekend.
To do this, I used my favorite corn cake recipe and substituted jam for half of the sugar. You can use any jam you please but pepper jelly seems especially well suited to corn bread. I never actually tried the corn bread before I served it !!! Not because I didn’t want to but I really didn’t want to suffer or die. But I can tell you that it was a huge hit!
Pepper Jelly Corn Bread
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup yellow corn meal
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1 cup milk
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1/3 – 1/4 cup pepper jelly
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cast iron pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder.
In a small bowl whisk egg, jelly, milk, and oil. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes or until the top is golden and a tooth pick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean.
yields 1 large cast iron pan (or 9″ cake pan, or 12 large muffins, or 4 dozen mini muffins)
Nancy Warner 
Looks tasty 🙂