This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support! I was recently able to get strawberries for a really good price! So, I bought 8 cases of them! Needless to say, I've been doing a lot with strawberries this past week. Here is a list:
I posted the news about making jam on social media, and some of you wanted the recipe for Strawberry Ginger Ale Jam! So, I thought I would share that today!
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This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support. When I am able to get strawberries at a good price, I am always happy because I love strawberries. This past week, surprisingly, our local Kroger grocery store had strawberries for .47 per 1 pound basket. Of course I bought some. There was a limit of 5 baskets, which would be plenty for a good batch of jam, or to freeze some. I have so much jam that I need to use before I add more to the mix and I toyed with freezing them for smoothies, but then I saw a few posts from people about canning them. I thought it seemed like a good idea because If my freezer or electricity were to go out, I would lose frozen strawberries or have to use them up really quickly. Besides, I've canned blackberries before and they turned out great! Well.... I went ahead and canned my 5 lbs of strawberries and sadly the result wasn't as good as I had hoped. Here is the process that I used to can them. If you are more successful at canning strawberries than I have been, please tell me your secrets after you read what I did.
My jars sealed perfectly. From 5 pounds of strawberries, I canned 3 quarts and 1 pint. Immediately, I saw the strawberry color had gone a mushy looking white. I was sad. But, I thought that maybe they would taste better than they would look. So, I opened a jar. They seemed mushy, so I didn't want to eat one plain. I'm weird like that. I decided to make a smoothie. Here is what I put in it: Canned Strawberry Smoothie 4 Ice cubes 5 spinach leaves 1 banana 1/2 quart bottle of canned strawberries, juice and all. 1/2 cup vanilla homemade yogurt Honey or sugar to taste, or just leave it out. Whirr it all up in the blender! Normally, when I make a smoothie with strawberries, it looks red in the end. This time, the spinach overtook the strawberries, and even the 1 banana flavor was more prominent. It tasted pretty good, just not like I was hoping. The other half of the jar of strawberries is sitting in my fridge. I'd better make another smoothie because I don't think anyone else will look at them and chose to eat them. Luckily there will be only 2 jars to go after this jar is gone. I gave the quart jar to my granddaughter, Emily, because she helped me can them. Lindsey says that maybe they will make a good pancake topping. I am dubious because of the color thing. Maybe if they are blended up with the juice they will be more appetizing. Well, it was worth a try and I won't let them go to waste. It just goes to show that some foods are better fresh, frozen or turned into jam! Also, dehydrated and freeze dries strawberries are great. Like I said earlier, if you have had a better experience with canning them and know of a better method, please let me know and maybe I will try it again! Meanwhile, here are some more successful canning stories!
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support
This is the time of year in Phoenix when your friends with lemon trees gift you with bags of lemons! It is amazing! They still charge 69 cents per lemon in the grocery store, but everyone can get them for free if you have the right connections with people who have lemon trees! Lemon trees are very high producers and there are a lot of things to do with lemons. So, not having a lemon tree myself, having friends with a lemon tree is the next best thing! And they don't mind that I will return the favor by bringing them pie or marmalade.
So, since I am the welcome recipient of some really large and awesome lemons, you will probably be seeing a few delicious lemon recipes on the blog here for a few posts. Because they are ripe this time of year and yet lemons are great to use all year in so many recipes, it is nice to put some plain juice up in storage. You can freeze it or can it. Some people even can lemon slices! I have published a few lemon recipes myself that are well loved by my family and friends, such as:
I read recently that you can can Strawberry Lemonade concentrate for making that delicious beverage during the summer months. I want to give that a try, but the first thing I decided to do with my lemons was make Strawberry Lemonade Marmalade! I had to make it up as I went, which is always iffy because if you don't get the right amount of pectin and the right amount of sugar to fruit ratio, your jelly or marmalade will come out runny and you will be using it as a sauce! But, I am happy to announce that my marmalade jelled, my lids all sealed and this tangy concoction tastes great on an English Muffin!
When you have a lot of fruit to put up, it is always great to have a recipe that uses a lot of the fruit and produces a volume of jars. A great thing about this recipe is that it uses up 10 lemons! Not only that, you will end up with about a dozen jars of jam, depending on the size of jar that you use! That gives you plenty to store in your pantry as well as give as gifts.
I made these cute little labels for the tops of my jars. You can find the file and print them from here.
They are editable.
This marmalade is actually more like a jelly, but if you want more chunks in yours, add larger chunks of lemon rind and more coarsely chopped strawberries.
Without further ado, here is the recipe:
I hope that you enjoy it! Stay tuned for more lemon recipes!
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support.
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
May 2024
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