I must can it all!

My how the time flies.  It has been a very long time since I sat down and blogged anything.  I meant to, just never did.  I have been super busy with subbing, and crocheting (or trying to get stuff crocheted) and taking a LOT of pictures with my new camera, that I have not tried any new recipes.  Until today...

Last week I went with my neighbor to Sam's Club.  I got a large pack of plums.  Who doesn't love a fresh plum?  Well my plums just didn't want to stay fresh.  And I was not about to eat the seven remaining plums in one sitting.  So I spent an hour or so yesterday dicing up the plums, I was not about to just let them go bad...then I bagged them and froze them because I wasn't sure when I would have time to make jam.

Today Mr. Fish and I went to the store and I got the half pint jelly jars, and the 4 oz jelly jars so I could make a LOT of jam.

I started with the plum jams. (Recipe here)

There is one recipe with several ways you can make it. Each starts out the same, plums and water.

I tried a small batch with anise and honey for sweetener, and the larger batch got cloves and sugar, and I hit it with a teaspoon of vanilla after I removed it from the heat.

The third batch I made Sparkling Grape Jelly.  I used the recipe from the Ball website and substituted Grape Juice for the Raspberry Juice.

I am still waiting to see if the Grape sets up, it's my first time making it, and the it tasted divine when I licked the spoon, and the measuring cup, and the funnel...I will give it 24 hours to see if it set up...

The jars are very pretty to look at.  Each kind looks different, even between the two kinds of Spiced Plum.

From Left to Right: Spiced Plum (Cloves), Sparkling Grape Jelly, Spiced Plum (Anise)

As soon as spring gets here I'm going to plant some strawberry plants so I can make a different kind of Strawberry jam...Until next time...ENJOY, and create something!

Can it all...

There isn't much you can't can...you can can almost anything...today my Mom and I are going to make and can some Lavender Vanilla Pear Jam.  We have decided to start with the Sure Jell recipe for making jam.  We are going to alter the recipe to add the vanilla and lavender.  We will do our best to write everything down.

The Kraft site says you need 3 lbs of Pears, and one lemon.  You need to peel, pit and finely chop the pears (you will or should end up with 4 cups of finely chopped pears).  Then add 2Tbsp fresh lemon juice and 5 cups of sugar.  But I think that is too much sugar, so we instead made a reduced sugar version following the directions on the Ball Classic Pectin jar.  And added our own twist.

We used:
4 cups of fruit
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4.5 tablespoons pectin
3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lavender in a tea bag
1/2 teaspoon butter

Bring a large pot of water to boil for the jars, you need to sterilize them before you put your hard work into them.  They can just stay in the water until right before you need them.  Same goes with the lids and bands...just let them sit in hot water until you are ready for them.

Prepare the fruit, we peeled some of the pears, but left the red skin on, cause it's so purdy.

This pear had a face

We cored them and chopped them into tiny pieces!

Put the fruit, lemon juice, butter, lavender and pectin in a large pot and stir it up!

 

Bring it to a full rolling boil (the kind of bubbles that don't go away when you stir it) and stir constantly. Stir in the sugar and let it get to a full rolling boil again, then set your timer for 1 minute.
It helps having two hands so you can pull the hot jars out of the water while the other person stirs.
Using a sterilized measuring cup with a handle and a wide mouth funnel ladle into the jars.  Wipe the rim before putting the lids on, screw the lids on finger tight and place back in the pot and let it boil for 10 minutes to process the jam. This part goes soooo fast we didn't get any pictures.

Remove the jars from the boiling water and place on the counter and listen for the pop!  Leave them to cool for 24 hours!

You can store unopened jars in a cool dry dark place up to one year, open jams keep in the fridge for up to three weeks.

Next time we are going to throw some of the lavender buds directly into the pear mix, they are edible and add such a depth.  I also want to try using some vanilla beans instead of extract.

Enjoy!

Mini me

In two short days I will be part of an annual Women's Tea.  I am hostessing my own table, and in charge of making cake.  I first thought, oooh cupcakes!!!  Then after getting on Pinterest and seeing the smorgasbord of ideas for having a tea party, ooooh petit fours!!!! So I attempted to make them...

After that long day and the unsatisfying results I decided it was the best and smartest idea to go BACK to mini-cupcakes. So I bought two box mixes. Tee hee!  For both mixes I substituted butter for the oil, and for the white cake I used half heavy cream and half 2% milk for the water.  for the lemon I used the juice of one lemon, and Sprite for the water.  I also zested the whole lemon and threw that into the batter too!

I think they turned out quite nice!

I am lucky enough to have two star tips for frosting.

The frosting part went faster than the baking part, thanks in large part to my mom!

Can't wait to dig into these tomorrow!