Good morning everyone! I am getting spring fever so badly lately it's not even funny. Even though it is cold, we are having some very nice sunny days. Too bad it's really cold out. Oh, and the weather man is predicting 6+ inches of snow one day this week. Boo!
This has brought my thinking to jam and jelly. In the past, I have always made the basics: strawberry jam, blueberry jam, blackberry jam, raspberry jam, cherry jam, peach jam, grape jelly and triple berry jam. The triple berry was an experiment as I had some blueberries, strawberries and blackberries left over from making their jams that instead of wasting them, I threw them in a pot together and made jam. I also make apple butter too. I found an amazing Amish recipe that I adapted to use in my crock pots, which is so much easier than stirring for hours on end.
Later, due to request of friends, I added jalapeno jelly to the mix. I had no idea it was NOT mouth-burningly hot. A friend requested it and I thought what the heck! It is really good. And I don't like jalapenos. I always have a little dab of jam left after my jars are filled that isn't enough for a jar but is too much to waste. I generally put this in small amount in a little jar in the fridge for the kids to use. That jalapeno jelly was taunting me to taste it. I just knew that I didn't like jalapeno so I just knew I wouldn't like jalapeno jelly. After a while, I caved and tasted it...it's freaking awesome! The kids didn't get any of that little dab of jelly left over...LOL
I had given the neighbors baskets of jam and jelly for Christmas and I had one come back to me, empty jars in hand telling me he loved the triple berry jam and asking me if I could make him a triple berry-jalapeno jam. What the heck, I'm going to give it a try.
This got me thinking about more exotic flavors. I threw out an idea to my friends. I am going to make several different types of jam and have them be my guinea pigs to taste them and tell me what they think. I have great friends that are willing to do this!
I'm thinking of picking a few of these flavors to try out: Pear butter, Peach butter, Banana bread butter, pear basil jam, spiced pear jam, tomato jam, carrot cake jam, raspberry moscato jam, triple berry jalapeno, strawberry peach, pomegranate bluberry and strawberry kiwi. I'm still on the look out for new flavors.
In the future, I'll post about directions on how easy it is to can jam and jelly. Right now, I'm just in the thought process about new flavors and all the exotic combinations that are now in vogue.
So tell me, what's your favorite jam, jelly or butter?
I thought I'd update this. I had some berries in the freezer from summer and experimented a bit. I made a Triple Berry Jalapeno jam. I took it to my neighbor who requested it and asked them how the flavors were. I was worried about the amount of jalapenos in it. They said "For regular people, it's perfect. We like hot things so we'd like more spice." I'm going to take that as a win!
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