Summer all year long

Back in July (or maybe it was June) I went strawberry picking.  Since I couldn't eat all the strawberries before they went bad I decided to make myself some strawberry jam so I could enjoy that Summer taste all year long.

This is only about 1/4 of what we picked that day.  Bad blogger me forgot to take a photo before I started making the jam...oops.

Since this was the first time I had made jam, or even canned in my life I decided to make it easy on myself and just follow the recipe that came in the Pamona's Pectin box

I chose to use the Pamona's Pectin because I wanted to make my jam with less sugar, my whole batch of jam only used 2 1/2 cups of sugar as opposed to other recipes that require 5-6 (or more) cups of sugar

my washed and sanitized jars ready to go

I put the tops in a simmering (not boiling, you don't want to ruin the plastic seal on them) pot of water till it was time to can

washed and hulled strawberries ready to go 

 I decided not to cut them up for a more chunky type jam.  I used my handy drink muddle tool to crush the crap out of them instead. 

Once I got all my aggressions out by crushing I added them to the pot along with the sugar and pectin

 After I let the mixture boil for the allotted time I used a Pyrex measuring cup to pour the strawberries into my sanitized jars

I didn't want to pour a hot liquid into cold jars, so I kept my jars hot by standing them up in a pan of simmering water.  Not sure if this is the correct way to keep them hot, but in a tiny kitchen with little to no counter space this worked for me.

Once all the jars were filled I put them in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Side note- I thought about investing in a canning pot, but since my kitchen is tiny I decided to work with what I have.  I realized that the All Clad pasta pot I registered for was perfect for this job.  It saves my fingers from being burned to a crisp as its super easy to lift the jars in and out in one sweep

After the jars were finished in the 10 minute water bath out they came and I let them sit on the counter overnight to cool and seal

I totally forgot to take pics of the jars after I added the cute labels I whipped up, but here is what they looked like so you get the idea

I ended up giving my Dad two pints of the jam to enjoy.  He eats peanut butter and jelly like he's still in kindergarten.  I figured some homemade jam would be just the thing to make his sandwiches special.

In other canning news, remember when I blogged about the pickles I made (you can see that post here)?  Well since I used a boiling canning method and didn't use any additives or grape leaves (as recommended by some) they didn't turn out as crispy as I had hoped. 

I was so sad when I finally got to try them that they were soggier than I would have liked.  I'm not giving up on pickles yet though. I'm going to try them again but make sure I find some grape leaves to get that crispiness I was missing the first time.  Any canning friends out there that can recommend a good CRISPY recipe?

Since I'm really getting addicted to this whole canning thing I cant WAIT to go apple picking this month.  I'm already drooling just thinking about homemade applesauce and apple butter.  Again to those canning friends, what apple recipes are a must try?

Happy canning everyone!