For everyone else, hi mom, I solemnly swear to get my blogging act together once again.
Back to the food! Earlier this year I thought it would be a swell idea to whip up my first ever batch of jam in the dead of summer and during record humidity. Cool. I'm full of smart ideas. I'm going to walk you through my missteps to guide you on what not to do.
I started with some plump blueberries from Joel's parents own blueberry bushes. Yum.
Mistake number one: starting the jam in this small-ish pot. The thing I learned about canning is you need to bring the fruit to a boil. This scene in the pot should have been a clue that problems were a'comin'. But, instead, I soldered on and waited until this was a boiling-over hot mess. Oy. Lesson learned. The hard way.
To give you a sense of how chaotic the boil-over was here's the view of the stove top pre-mess. As it turns out making jam requires me to have every burner going. The steam from all of the boiling water plus the mess of the boil-over I felt like I was in an episode of I Love Lucy. I didn't snap a photo because it was such a mess and frankly the boiling jam was a bit dangerous and of course my side-kick, the dog, was underfoot the whole time. #jamfail.
Ahhh, much better. And check out the bottom right corner in the pic and notice evidence of the spillage. I'm just keeping it real, friends.
I successfully made the blueberry-cinnamon jam and even a strawberry rhubarb jam. Both equally delicious. I'm not an expert in making jam as you've probably guessed at this point. However, the fabulous Food in Jars blog provided me endless guidance in my jamming adventures.
As you may know I could eat ice cream daily so it's no surprise that I enjoy the jam warmed up over vanilla ice cream. Yum-yum so delicious. What a fabulous way to enjoy this treat.
How about you - have you ever had any kitchen mishaps? Do you love making jam? Are you laughing at my boil-over hot-mess? All of the above?
