Life Lately

There's been a lot of canning going on at my house lately. So I thought a can can gif was appropriate. Get it? ;)

Over the past couple weeks, Kim and I have picked enough strawberries and blueberries to make more than 50 eight ounce jars of jam. Combinations have included strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, blueberry, blueberry lemon and blueberry lavender.

In addition to selling some and keeping some, we're mulling the possibility of trading some of our canned confections, too. I just discovered a local canning exchange via a flier I picked up in Pittsburgh, so I'm going to see if we're able to take advantage of it.

And over the next few weeks, we're planning to make a raspberry jelly and other blueberry jam variations. Strawberry pepper jam is also a possibility, if there enough strawberries left. I'm hoping to post at least one of the blueberry jam recipes soon.

In other news, things have also been a little nutty for me expense wise. I learned last week that I need a crown on one of my teeth (RIP tooth), which turn out to be pretty damn expensive. The dentist said he could've tried a putting in another filling first, but with my health insurance changing at the end of July, it's probably not worth the risk if the filling doesn't take and I have to get a crown anyway. The crown is going to cost more than $300 out of pocket. Sigh. Bye money. I'm more mad at myself that it's happening, because it could have been prevented. An old filling began to crack because I have a teeth clenching habit I wasn't even aware of until my appointment. I noticed myself doing it a ton at the dentist's office; I guess I do it a lot when I'm stressed. The hygienist showed me my teeth x-rays, pointing out the erosion, and it was shocking to see how flat some of my back teeth have gotten. So not clenching is something I've been trying to work on. If it gets worse, I might need to get a mouth guard for when I'm sleeping. Weird.

In addition to what my mouth is going to cost me, I've had some minor problems with my car, which ended up being more than $300 in repairs. Ugh. But at least, as of now, my car is running great. It's about to hit 150,000 miles, so I want my little Honda to last for as long as possible.

Lastly, I cut my bangs over the weekend, and let's just say I made them a little shorter than I wanted them to be. I cut them unevenly, so I just kept chopping until they were pretty high up on my forehead. Yikes. Maybe I should just go to a hairstylist soon. Oh well. I still saved a few bucks, right? :)

Hope I wasn't too much of a downer here. But to make myself feel better about all these unexpected costs, I did some thrift store shopping over the weekend. I'm hoping to share some of my finds later this week as well.

Strawberry Jammin' Forever

I'm not gonna lie; making strawberry jam is a bigger pain in the ass than most other jams I've made. But once I taste it, I know the fruits of my labor are worth it. Pun intended.

I think, subconsciously, I'm against anything and everything about strawberries. As a kid, I ate so many of them one summer I broke out in hives. I never ate them again until adulthood, because I was told I was allergic. I think my small, 3-year-old body simply couldn't handle five pounds of strawberries, or however many I ate. I don't even remember it happening. Turns out, I'm not allergic. At least, not when I don't eat my own weight in them.

Anyway, there are extra steps to making strawberry jam, verses other jams, like blueberry or blackberry. First, cutting the stems, coring them, and cutting the strawberries takes forever. Count on it taking hours, especially when working with locally grown berries, which aren't the ginormous berries found at most grocery stores year round. (I don't want to know what's done to them for them to be that big.) Basically, I never knew how big strawberries were supposed to be until I started picking and canning them. Picked strawberries are tiny, usually about double the size of a blackberry. Sad but true. Also, strawberry season is very short compared to most other fruits, only a week or two, so take advantage of the berries while they're around! Picking season here will probably be over by the end of this weekend.

Other extra steps when making strawberry jam include clearing foam that forms on the top of the jam when its cooking down. The foam needs to be scooped up constantly. This doesn't happen when cooking other fruits.

Lastly, when putting the stuff into jars, popping the air pockets with a sterilized pointy item, like a butter knife. Just go around the inside edges a few times to eliminate that problem.

I'm sorry for all of the snide comments. I'm a complainer by nature. The finished project, however, is delicious and worthwhile. And when canned via water boiling, it can keep for a year or more, without refrigeration. That always amazes me. It's magic. Even better, it's completely customizable, and I know exactly what goes into it, unlike the store bought stuff. I usually like putting in less sugar than what recipes call for, because the jam tastes tangier and fruitier that way. (And it's not super sweet.)

Anyway, here it goes:

Strawberry Jam
Recipe adapted from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserves

Yields about six 8 oz jars (have an extra jar or two ready just in case)

Ingredients:
• About two quarts of sweet, sweet strawberries
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 6 tablespoons (or one box) pectin
• 4 cups sugar (original recipe calls for 7 cups)

Directions:
Wash strawberries; drain. Remove stems. I like my jam with pieces in it, so I just crush the strawberries with a potato masher while they're cooking. Combine strawberries, pectin and lemon juice in a large sauce pot. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Ladle hot jam into sterilized hot jars, leaving 1/4 headspace. Attach two-piece. Again, lids need to be sterilized. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Once removed from canner, leave jars sit undisturbed for 24 hours. After a day, check seals by pushing the lid. If they stay in place, without flexing up or down, they're sealed. If they move up and/or down, the container hasn't sealed, and you can either water boil it again with a new lid or refrigerate immediately to eat.

For clarification's sake: Jars and rings can be used countless times. Lids, however, when water boiling to preserve, can only be used once.

Side note: My favorite part of the canning process, besides the food of course, is hearing the pop of the jars after taking them out of the canner. That means they're sealing! I'm probably just weird.

Also, please please please, if you've never canned before and plan on trying it out, read up on it first. Ball is the saint of canning, so you can read more about how to do it the right way here. While a canning pot helps, things can be water boiled in a large pot just fine. It's just good to be educated about it, since botulism is a very rare but dangerous risk if not done properly. It's most common when canning foods with low acidity (not so much strawberries with lemon juice), but still, it's better to be safe than sorry.

On a brighter note, here's the glorious end result:

Have you ever canned before?

P.S. You can also view this recipe on the Pittsburgh Kitchen blog.