Jammin

When I think of this title it makes me think of Bob Marley then of course Jamaica.  And Jamaica makes me think of the cocktails we had on the beach, coconut blossoms, purple rain, and the dirty bananas….yum!  But I digress…

Number 8 on my list of 29 plus 1 is to learn to can.  I’d been thinking about canning for a while now and this I actually over whelmed myself with different recipes to try.  Finally in March and April I picked a raspberry jalapeno recipe and tried it out.  Making jam itself is super easy.  And I’m now officially addicted to raspberry jalapeno jam.  I’ve put it on sandwiches, I’ve mixed it with cream cheese and used it for a dip for crackers or pretzels.  I’ve put it on english muffins.  I want to use it as a glaze on a ham or maybe some pork chops, or chicken breasts.  I used one and a half jalapenos, which when I was making the jam seems very hot and spicy for my wussy taste.  But now that it’s sat and the pectin set its barely spicy at all.  In fact I’ll put in at least two peppers next time.  I actually fancied up the jars a bit and sent a couple to a few friends.
I used the hot water bath method to process the jars and seal them.  It took a while for me to realize what a rolling boil is, it takes forever to get to that stage.  But once I got the hang of that I was under control.  The jam should be good for at least a year.  But right now I shouldn’t have any issues with jam lasting a year.  C is even enjoying it.

The other jam I made was in April.  I had a couple weeks of rhubarb obsession and found this recipe for rhubarb jam.  It’s really more of a rhubarb sauce since you don’t add in any pectin to firm things up.  I love rhubarb but I actually not loving this jam.  The color of mine is more a mauve color since I didn’t have super red rhubarb, I had to use frozen.  But I think its the rosemary. I have a love hate relationship with rosemary, I really love it in some instances.  Like in bread or in spice mixes on chicken and pork.  I really liked the combination of rhubarb and vanilla.  So now I’m thinking I should try this sauce on ice cream, maybe the sweet with the savory rosemary flavor will lighten it up a bit.  Otherwise I need to make some strawberry rhubarb vanilla jam.  I also found a recipe for some cranberry blackberry pink grapefruit preserves that I think sounds intriguing. 

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