Let's make jam!!!!

I love jam.  It's good on toast, with ice cream and on crackers with peanut butter (maybe even some cookie butter.)

I had a ton of blueberries and blackberries and I needed to use them up before I could no longer.

I decided to make jam, because, why not??

Jam is pretty simple to make.  You have fruit, pectin, sugar and possibly some lemon juice.

For this recipe I had 5 cups of the blueberry/blackberry (with 5 TB of fresh lemon juice) mixture.

Here it is cooking for a couple of minutes.

It already looks good.  After it cooks and gets to a rolling boil that can't be stirred down it's time to add the sugar.  I think I added about 5 cups of sugar (and this is the low sugar recipe.)

It's starting to look like jam.  Bring it back to a rolling boil and cook for one minute more. You need to stir this whole time!

During this time I like to heat the water in my water bath (for canning the jam.)  I also sterilize the jars in that water. At the same time, I put the lids and rings in some very hot water to sterilize and get the glue on the lids soft.

Once the jam is done, I used a "canning kit" to funnel the jam into the jars.

After the jam was canned, I cleaned the rims, added the lids and rims and into the bath they went.

Let the water get to a simmering boil, put the lid on the canner and process for 10 minutes.  Once the 10 minutes is up, turn off the stove and let the jars sit for 5 minutes.

After the 5 minutes take the jars out with a jar lifter and place them on a towel, not touching, for 24 hours.  The lids will "pop" down sealing the jars.  After this is done, they can be put in the cubbard for a year I believe until opened.  I don't think they will last that long though. ;)

This batch made 6 half pint jars.

Try it someday, and thank me later.  Keep some, give some as gifts, save some!

-April

Blueberry Waffles

I went to Costco the other day and stocked up on a lot of fruit.  I love this time of year!

I came home with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, pineapple and bananas.  

This morning I woke up and wanted waffles (again) and the first thing I thought of were the blueberries.

I searched online for a recipe in which I had all the ingredients for.  I also wanted to make my own syrup.

The whole process took less than an hour, and they were delicious!

Blueberry Waffles (recipe adapted from here)

2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups milk (I use almond)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoon white sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1.5 cups blueberries

Preheat waffle iron. Beat eggs in large bowl with hand beater until fluffy. Mix in flour, milk, vegetable oil, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon just until smooth. Let sit 10 minutes then fold in blueberries.


Spray preheated waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray. Pour mix onto hot waffle iron. Cook until golden brown. You may need to spray the iron in between waffles as the blueberries tend to stick.

Homemade Syrup (recipe from here)
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon maple extract (I got the Archer Farms brand at Target)


Bring water to a boil.  Add sugars and mix until they dissolve.  Let cool and enjoy.


Have a great Sunday!
-April