What to do with all that jam???

I was hauling jars of beans, spaghetti sauce and pickled beets to the storage room and stopped to gaze at all my hard work over the last 5 years. I have certainly gotten past my block that all canning produced jam. I guess I made this blog with the intent to post about all the wonderful jams that can be made but now I am faced with a few undeniable facts:

• my storage room still has nearly all the jars of jam I have made since I started canning
• my family is not big into eating jam
• I rarely bake or cook with jam
• I need to rewire my brain about jams

I stared at gorgeous jars of peach butter, cantaloupe peach jam, apricot jam, strawberry jam, even a few intensely beautiful jars of apple cranberry rhubarb jam. Now I need to start thinking about foods that blend with those flavors and create dinners, dressings, desserts, snacks and baked goods around those jams.

Chicken can go so many ways, so I am starting some dinner ideas using a crockpot and apricot jams.....carrots, beets, sweet potatoes and others can be glazed with a scoop of jam, fruity bars with a layer of jam, peach butter in coffee cake and smoothies, even drizzled on ice cream with a little caramel. I think I am going into the best part of the year to work on this. Hopefully the freezer will stay stocked with chicken, beef, lamb and pork so my jams and jellies and butters have a full palette to choose from.

mmmmmmm....rhubarb

Is there anything so lovely in the spring as the little fat heads of rhubarb peeking out of the moist soil? I planted a rhubarb plant a few years ago and harvested my first good yield last year. If the plant was especially fruitful I chopped and froze the stalks for later use. It's a great way to store it but I find I lose track of it in my freezer and find it sometime in November.

Many of the smaller stalks seem to stay green but some turn the deep rich red that lends itself so nicely to being combined with strawberries. I guess that is why there are so many recipes out now with rhubarb and strawberries. I'm never certain about how I feel using strawberry jello but it is a great way for beginning "jammers" to have instant success. Here are a few that are always winners:

Rhubarb Strawberry Jam

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked red-stalked rhubarb (about 1lb rhubarb and 1/4 cup water)
2 and 1/2 cups crushed strawberries (about 1 and 1/2 quart boxes )
6 and 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 bottle liquid pectin

Procedure:

• Wash rhubarb and slice thin or chop; do not peel. Add water, cover, and simmer til tender. (about 1 minute)
• Sort and wash fully ripe strawberries; remove stems and caps. Crush berries.
• Measure prepared rhubarb and strawberries into a kettle. Add sugar and stir well. Place on high heat and, stirring constantly, bring quickly to a full boil with bubbles over the entire surface. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
• Remove from heat and stir in pectin. Skim.
• Fill and seal containers. Process 5 minutes in boiling water bath.
• Yield - 7 or 8 half-pint jars.

Rhubarb-Raspberry Jam

Ingredients:

4 cups 1-inch pieces fresh rhubarb (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1  1/2-pint basket raspberries
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

Procedure:

Combine rhubarb pieces, sugar and fresh lemon juice in heavy large Dutch oven. Cover and refrigerate until juices form, stirring occasionally, at least 8 hours or overnight.

Bring rhubarb mixture to simmer over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and boil until rhubarb mixture thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Add raspberries and boil until mixture is thick, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes longer. Remove jam from heat. Stir in ground cardamom. Cool jam completely. (Jam can be made 1 week ahead. Store in covered container in refrigerator.)

Makes about 2 cups

Rhubarb-ginger conserve

Ingredients:

3 oranges, peeled, cut-up, seeds removed
2 lemons, peeled, cut-up, seeds removed
12 cups rhubarb finely chopped
1/2 cup candied ginger finely chopped
10 cups sugar.

Procedure:

Grind the oranges and lemons and combine them with the rhubarb, ginger and sugar. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and cook for about an hour. Pour and process for your altitude.

Not winter, not spring....

I ended my fall canning with the idea that I would spend some time this winter canning the items in my freezer and making more with tomatoes. It seems like tomatoes make me the craziest. They take forever to grow, they take time to pick and haul without bruising, they take time to wash, boil and peel and by that time I am so tired of them I don't want to do anything with them. Here is my new solution - I am buying canned tomatoes at Costco in huge cans and making sauces from them.

I figured out that I spent about $30 on tomato plants last year......they didn't like me and refused to cooperate in my garden. I also planted tomato seeds which also complained about all the sun in my yard.

I spent $15 on compost and soil amendments.

I spent $60 on boxes of tomatoes at Farmers Markets.

So, out of $100 or more, I ended up with less jars of soups and sauces than ever.

Now that I have managed to make it through the worst of winter and spring has yet to truly appear, I figure I'll spend some time over the stove simmering delicious tomatoes into a variety of flavors. Hopefully I will find a way to use some of these in a nice summer gazpacho......

This is my new plan: A large #10 can of tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes from Costco costs around $2.50. After I add the veggies and seasonings and simmer and bottle, I will have 4-5 quarts of spaghetti sauce from one can. I paid $15 for 5 cans and will have 25 quarts of soup and sauce. That is better than any box of tomatoes from Farmers Markets.

What can be made from tomatoes? Here are my favorites:

• spaghetti sauce
• tomato soup
• enchilada sauce
• salsa
• italian based tomatoes
• mexican based tomatoes

Now, if someone calls me and tells me they have free tomatoes I will be right there. But as for trying to grow them myself.....count me out. I'd rather have that garden space for herbs and carrots. Yum!

Jam Pan

It's a copper jam pan....lovely, isn't it? It's big, thick and has the most beautiful luster to it. I fell in love with it after one of my favorite jam making books said real jam is made in a copper jam pan. After many seasons of making jam in boring stock pots, this was a sensory pleasure that is worth the time it takes to clean the pan!

Copper heats more evenly, does not discolor the fruits and the shape of the pan lets the moisture evaporate so you do not need to use as much pectin or clear gel. Strawberries simmering in this pan are an amazing sight.....their color is amplified. I found myself stirring a pan of jam and refusing to bottle it because it was too lovely in the pan.

Jam makers know to properly make jams, jellies and bottled goods you must have the proper equipment. I would give this pan two thumbs up for bringing the beauty and pleasure back to jam making. I found it on eBay for $50. Send me your thoughts and recipes!