A Quick "Jam Session"

So, I've had this jar of chokecherry juice in my freezer since August.  I've been meaning to make it into jam/jelly.  I finally did it today.  Possibly my best chokecherry creation to date.

This is not a true, pure straight up chokecherry jam.  I also had a handful of frozen strawberries leftover from some Christmas Jam I made, at you guessed it, Christmas.

I thought they sounded like a good combo, so I thawed them out and put them in with the chokecherries.  But then I ran into my classic jam dilemma.  Just too much for a four jar batch and not quite enough for a six jar batch.  (I use the Ball brand pectin with the flex-batch recipe on it)  I can't just pour out that extra half cup of precious chokecherry/strawberry mix.  Nope that would be wrong.  Immoral.  Possibly illegal.  So I think for a minute.  I dig around in the freezer.  Then, I find it.  A bag of frozen raspberries.  I add another 3/4 of a cup or so, enough to that my measurement comes up to that magic 4-cup line on the measuring pitcher.  The results are just plain wonderful.  

Here's the "recipe" for my clean out the freezer jam.  I think I'll call it Cherry Berry Jam. That sounds good.

Cherry Berry Jam

makes 6 half pint jars full

2 1/2 cups chokecherry juice

1 1/2 cup total strawberries and raspberries, crushed.

1 cup water

9 teaspoons lemon juice

4 1/2 tablespoons low sugar pectin (I use Ball brand)

1 1/2 cups sugar

Mix everything except the sugar together in a big pot.  A Dutch oven sized pot will do nicely.  

Bring to a rolling boil.

Add sugar all at once.

Bring back to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute.

Ladle into hot jars.  Adjust two-piece caps.

Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Enjoy :)

A New Year Already?

It's 2015.  What?  Wait a sec.  It was January 2014 about 20 minutes ago.  Crazy.

So, yeah, the year flew by.  I really didn't intend to take a break from blogging.  It just sorta happens sometimes.  

Since my last post:

Natalie turned 8.

My girl is growing up!

We made our annual trip to our neighborhood pumpkin patch.

I think I have a picture like this of the kids
from every year of their lives.

Natalie took a picture of us in the corn maze
to mark our 15 year wedding anniversary.

Matt went deer hunting. A lot.  To no avail.  For the first time in many years, we do not have fresh venison in our freezer. Joey tried out deer hunting this year too.  He even helped his uncle Danny haul his deer our of the woods.  It was a long walk for a little guy.

Joey headed out to go hunting,
pointing out deer tracks in the yard.

I started a second part time job as a substitute para for the school district.  I signed up for multiple districts, but have been busier than expected just with the schools right here in town.  I love it.

We hosted Thanksgiving.  My brother and nephew came.  Matt's parents came.  We had a huge turkey.  The whole deal.  It was yummy and fun and relaxing all at the same time.

The kids and I went for our annual Bon Bon day with Auntie Iris.  We made a bunch of different candy which was heartily sampled.

We butchered some roosters.  We wound up with 9 of the 10 chickens we hatched this spring being roosters.  That's way too many for a flock our size.  One went home to the neighbor's coop.  Six more went in our freezer.

We did lots of artsy projects and crafts for various Christmas gifts.  

Auntie Iris's tomato cage tree

Cookie decorating

We spent lots of time with family over Christmas.  Christmas Eve with Matt's family, Christmas Day with mine.  It was calm and relaxing.  Mostly.

The kids watching How to Train Your Dragon 2
on Christmas morning.

Joey gave Natalie a pink tip-up for Christmas.  They got to test it out on the day after Christmas when they went fishing.  She brought home a nice sized pike.  We ate it for supper that night and it was delicious.

Natalie's nice pike.  Caught at an undisclosed location
on a tip-up with shiner minnow bait.

Today the kids went back to school.  It is bitterly cold.  They weren't thrilled.  At all.  When I stopped by Joey's class after lunch to drop off his snack, the room was full of glassy eyed five year-olds.  I had a rare day off today.  Got some errands run.  Did some organizing of my recipes (an ongoing project for the past decade at least) and canned a quick batch of cranberry sauce.  

I don't do much in the way of New Year's resolutions, but if I had to say what my goals are for this year, they would be to blog more and spend more time in my garden.  We'll see how this pans out.

Happy 2015!