Strawberry Jam

I had an early day off of work today because I was the only one who showed up to the office. heh. I arrived there at 9am, sat there for an hour and was like 'wow, everybody must have slept in.' And, speedily walked out of the office to quickly run an errand (buy Justice concert tickets). I came back and was still alone. At around 12.30 I called my boss just to be like 'oh shoot, was I supposed to be somewhere else?', but I guess it was just that fate collided and everybody else decided not to come to work today. :(. Alas, I decided then to take a field trip to H&M and then go home early.

I am about to run out to have dinner, but I wanted to share the pictures of the Strawberry Jam I made last Tuesday (another quick day at work due to a dentist appointment). I was shocked to discover how much sugar was put into jam. With the recipe that I used, the sugar amount is almost the same as the actual fruit. In the future, I am definitely going to find ways to make jam more healthier-and until then, I will think twice about licking the knife (well actually I probably won't..hehe)

I also want to just state that I made a HUGE mess while making this jam. At one part the recipe said that I had to keep the jam at a rolling boil for 1 minute. Seems pretty simple, except when the jam boiled it increased in volume by about 5x. It bubbled up out of the huge stockpot and fell over the oven. Meanwhile I am dodging giant, popping jam bubbles while trying to stir, counting the minute down. I came out with only one injury and I was happy about that! Nevertheless, I now have enough jam to last for a really, really long time.

I read after I made the jam that with butter/margarine, I could have limited the increase of size and foaming action. Note to self: this is a mandatory extra step.

The smashed strawberries and the sugar. It needs to be constantly stirred. 

All of my hardwork

What an individual jar of jam looks like, and behind: the bleach wipes that I used to scrub down the entire kitchen!

My next canning project is going to be salsa! Yay! And, I am in need to make some bread this weekend for lunches. It's going to be a cooking weekend-and the weather is gorgeous!

Rachel

PS: You probably all thought I forgot about my saurkraut. I have not. I have been checking on it for almost 3 weeks and it will be ready to be put into jars/eaten this Sunday! yay