I finally bought my fresh Michigan strawberries this morning and was able to make the new freezer jam recipe I found for strawberry rhubarb jam.  I found this recipe in Midwest Living magazine and couldn’t wait to try it.  I tripled the recipe below and ended up with ten large freezer containers full to last us through the winter and to share with friends.  And yes, that means I used 15 cups of sugar!  I did have a small issue trying to get the sugar to dissolve completely.  The recipe says to stir for 3 minutes to dissolve the sugar, but I stirred for 20 minutes and there was still a slight graininess to the jam.  We’ll see how it comes out when I eat some today.  Hope you enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Freezer Jam

3 cups strawberries

1 cup finely chopped rhubarb

5 cups sugar

1/2 t. finely shredded lemon peel

3/4 cup water

1 (1.75 once) package regular powdered fruit pectin

In a large bowl, use a potato masher to crush berries.  You’ll have about 1 1/2 cups.  Stir in rhubarb.  Stir in sugar and lemon peel. Let stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  In a small saucepan, mix water and pectin.  Bring to a boil over high heat, boil 1 minute stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add to berry mixture.  Stir for 3 minutes or until sugar dissolves and mixture is not grainy.  Ladle into pint-size freezer containers, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Seal.  Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.  Store 3 weeks in refrigerator or up to 1 year in freezer.

I love hot, spicy food!  The hotter the better.  My mom used to make this green pepper jam when I was younger, but I am not a huge fan of green peppers.  But I love hot peppers.  I finally asked her to find the recipe and decided to make a batch of freezer jam.  My sister gave me a bag of frozen hot red peppers and hot green peppers.  These were from her garden last fall.  Lucky for me, she did the dirty work last year and prechopped the peppers.  Unlucky for me, she did not remove the seeds before freezing.  And in my experience, the seeds are what give the peppers their heat.  The peppers I used were hotter than jalapeno peppers, but you could use jalapeno peppers or even plain green bell peppers.  I made two batches of jam, one with the hot red peppers and red bell peppers.  The other batch with the hot green peppers and green bell peppers.  I also made jelly and jam in each batch, jelly without the fruit and jam with the fruit.  To serve this, I drop an 8 oz slab of cream cheese on a plate and spoon about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of the jam on top of the cream cheese.  Serve with crackers.  This is a great last minute gift that can be stored in the freezer until needed.  It’s great at Christmas time, because of the red and green colors.  And if you are in a fix for a quick snack to pass, just grab and go!  Enjoy!

Hot Pepper Jam

2 1/2 c. finely chopped peppers (bell, hot, jalapeno, etc)

1 1/2 c. white vinegar

2 drops green food coloring (or red if doing red peppers)

7 1/2 c. sugar

1 envelope pkg Certo (6 oz)

mix peppers, sugar, vinegar and food coloring in large pan and boil for 6 minutes.  add certo and boil another 3 minutes.  remove from heat and stir for another 4 minutes.  fill freezer containers and cover.  let sit on counter for 24 hours.  move to freezer and enjoy!

recipe from mom

boiling the mix

removing fruit for jelly

poured into containers and ready for the freezer