Peach Jam

I have really been enjoying making my own jams this season. Already I have made strawberry, peach and blueberry jam. I do have to admit (although I haven't tried the blueberry yet) that the peach has been my favorite so far. The peaches this season have been deliciously sweet and they are also very nutritious. The contain essential vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin A,B, C, copper, magnesium, potassium and zinc.

The process for making jam is very simple. Here is a picture of my mixture just getting ready to boil hard for 1 minute.

And here is the finished product. I really love the color of the peach jam. This batch turned out a little darker then the last batch but I am sure it is still delicious.


I have heard that pear jam is very good. So now that they are coming into season I think I may try to make some. Let me know of your jam making skills and what types of berries and combination you use.

Fruit Butters

After trying and enjoying Cranberry pecan butter I decided that during my strawberry craze to try Strawberry butter.

I simply combined and refrigerated

1/2 cup margarine
2-4 Tbsp crushed strawberries

This complimented banana bread very nicely. It can also be used on pancakes, waffles, lemon loaf or poppy seed cake.

I like the idea of added some flavor to our margarine. If you make fruit butters or herb butter please send me the recipe I would love to try them.


This recipe freezes well (making it great for when company comes over) and can be great given in a small tin as a gift with some fresh baked scones or biscuits.

Easy as 1-2-3

Well I finally did it!! I made my own strawberry jam and you know what? It really excites me knowing that its just that simple to make jam. I will be trying other berries as they come in season. Hubby and I both love jam on toast and in our homemade yogurt so for us its worth the money to make it ourselves. It comes out to be pretty cheap when making it. There are some initial like the jars, lids and Certo but for the amount of jam and the delicious fresh flavor it gives you its my way to go from now on! Here is my break down

The Strawberry jam

2 boxes of strawberries (~$4.00)
Jars (Free) or they can be picked up cheap at thrift stores or my mom recycles and glass jar she buys to put her jam in for example salsa and relish jars.
Lids ($2 for 12 bottles) ~ $0.16 per lid used 4 lids
Liquid certo ( $3.19) makes 2 batches ($1.60/batch)

Total for one batch supplies $6.20

This makes ~ 71/2 cups of jam

Price per cup $0.83

Compare to the cheapest bottle of jam

No Name 500 ml (~2 cups) bottle of jam $2.19
Price per cup $1.10

I am looking forward to enjoying our hard work...ok so it wasn't hard at all! Here are the steps to making jam.

1. Go a pick the berries. Its cheaper and great exercise.


2. Wash and hull berries


3. Place mashed berries (it says not to use a food processor but we did) in a pot along with sugar and lemon juice if you are using liquid Certo.


4. Bring berries to a boil

5. Boil mixture hard for 1 minute. This was a scary one minute as I thought it was going to over flow a couple of times but hubby was so calm.


6. Once boiled add liquid Certo while stirring and skimming for 5 minutes before pouring hot mixture into warmed and sterilized jars. Place hot sterile lids onto jars and seal.


7. Wait for the wonderful popping sound the jars make when they are sealed and store in the cupboard.


The thing that I learned after making my first batch of jam is that its a good idea to have everything ready for the process. Have the sugar measured, the jars/lids sterilized and warming, Certo ready, a good stirring spoon, and a clean working area.

For more money saving tips check out biblical womanhood.

Strawberry Yogurt Scones

With my abundance of strawberries that I picked last week I had to come up with ways to use them as they don't keep their freshness for every long in the refrigerator. So well looking on line I happen to come across this delicious scone recipe. They were so yummy I made a second batch.


The recipe was very easy to whip together and they tasted delicious. Scones are similar to biscuits, but these have a wet, sticky dough. Serve fresh from the oven with a cold glass of iced tea.

Strawberry Yogurt Scones


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup diced strawberries
2/3 cup strawberry fat-free yogurt (I used homemade plain yogurt)
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon grated orange rind (Orange Juice worked fine)
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
Cooking spray
2 teaspoons sugar

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Combine strawberries, yogurt, butter, rind (or juice), and egg white; add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead lightly 4 times with floured hands because the dough is VERY sticky. Pat into an 8-inch circle on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Cut into 12 wedges, cutting into but not through dough; sprinkle with 2 teaspoons sugar. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Another way to use up your strawberries is to make Strawberry Salsa with cinnamon crisp. This recipe is one of my favorite ways to enjoy strawberries. It makes a lovely snack and is usually a big hit at any BBQ. The recipe can be found in Dietitians of Canada Cook Great Food Cook book.

Strawberry Apple Salsa
1 cup mashed strawberries
1 Med tart apple, peeled and diced
2 Tbsp liquid honey or brown sugar
1/2 tsp grated orange zest (optional)

In a medium bowl, mash strawberries; add apple, honey and if using orange zest. Stir to blend well. Serve with Cinnamon Crisp.

Cinnamon Crisp

Small flour tortillas
Sugar
Cinnamon

Brush tortillas with water (or margarine), sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture (I have a cinnamon sugar shaker). Cut into wedges using kitchen scissors or pizza cutter. Place wedges on baking sheet and bake in preheated oven (425) for 5 minutes until golden and crisp.

Oh how I love...

STRAWBERRY SEASON!!

I love these juicy little guys that you can go and pick yourself. I know that we can buy "strawberries" during other seasons, if that's what you want to call them, but nothing beets the flavor of local strawberries. Its hard to believe how much nutrition in packed inside; they are full of vitamin A, B and C!

Our families have been picking strawberry's for the past week so we got to share in their labor this weekend while we were home. After enjoying a wonderful BBQ the desserts served where everything strawberry!

First this simple little treat of hand dipped chocolate covered strawberries; and yes some even had sprinkles on them for the kid in all of us.


Next was a pie that is well...not so healthy for you but as my mother in law says you can only enjoy this pie during strawberry season which usually is two weeks to 1 month. So when put into perspective...bon appetite! I will post the recipe later.


And of course we wouldn't want to foget old faithful. Strawberry short cake on homemade biscuits with real whipping cream.


The best biscuit recipe I have found is one that my mother-in-law uses

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cream of tarter
3 heaping Tbsp shortening
1 cup milk

Combine Flour, soda, powder and cream of tarter

Mash in shortening with a fork until shortening makes little balls

Add 1 cup of milk and stir just until combined

Plop dough onto a floured surface and pat down with hands. Then cut out biscuits using a biscuit cutter, a round cookie cutter, or a can (soup or tuna) that has both the top and the bottom removed.

Bake in 350 oven for 20 - 25 minutes

~ Now there are some serects to baking biscuits. One is that you don't want to over work the dough because unlike bread, which needs a lot of work because the yeast will raise better, biscuits will not raise if they are handled too much. Another sercert to getting a nice fluffy biscuit, which I learned from Martha Stewart, is that when you are cutting the biscuits out you NEVER want to twist the cutter. When you twist the cutter on the dough it closes off the air holes with help make the biscuit light and fluffy.

Now for the short cake part. You cut the biscuit in half; not by using a knife but by poking a fork the whole way around it until it breaks apart. Then on the bottom part you add strawberry's that have been cut up and whip cream. Add the top biscuit, whip cream and crown with strawberries!

For a new twist on whipping cream try sweetening it with maple syrup instead of sugar. It give it a great flavor that enhances any desert!

Mango Madness

Well I am not sure if my addiction to Mango's is getting worse because they have been on sale lately or what is going on, but I just can't seem to get enough of these odd shapen, half green, half red juicy fruits. I enjoy them cut up in the morning with my yogurt and granola, I love them on their own, they are wonderful cut up in salads and my newest love is a creamy mango drink.




Creamy Mango Drink

1 whole mango cut up (its great to use the ones that you find on the reduce rack because they are really ripe and sweet!)
1 banana
1 wedge of coconut (I usually don't have a coconut laying around the house so I just used a few drops of coconut extract)
The Juice from 1 orange

Put all ingredients into the blender and blend until creamy. If its too thick you could add a bit more orange juice, but try not to add too much as you want to enjoy the full flavor of the pureed mango.

You can put these drink into the refrigerator to cool off before you drink it.


I made this drink last night and decided because of the nice weather that I would try to freeze it to make smoothie Popsicles out of it.

They taste fantastic! Mango's are a great fruit as they promote contractions and enhance our digestive process. They are a source of vitamin A, B and C.

So what do you do with your mango's???