Strawberry Jam

You know that summer is on its way when you head to the grocery store and you find that they start selling a lot of fruits. Watermelons, peaches, mangos, and STRAWBERRIES! I bought a huge box of strawberries at my favorite store, Costco, hoping that my daughter would love eating them as much as I do. Well, she didn't quite fancy them. Yet. But I'm working on that. In the meantime, I had a huge supply of unused strawberries that were beginning to over-ripen. So I had to find ways to use them up. I froze some of the good ones for use later on. The rest that were too soft to freeze, I decided to make jam with them.

I searched for ways to make them, and they were all pretty much the same. The hardest part of this recipe is finding fruit pectin. Where the heck am I going to find that??? Well, I did find it in the most unlikely places in the supermarket. Next to the fire logs, at the front of the supermarket, where I would never look. They also had the mason jars that you would use to store the jams. Perfect.

The recipe is a 1:1 ratio of sugar and fruit. If you don't like it too sweet, I suggest you lessen the sugar. Which is what I did.

4 cups whole strawberries (cleaned and stems removed)

4 cups sugar

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 Tbsp. (powdered) fruit pectin

1) In a food processor or blender, puree strawberries to your desired consistency. Place in a medium saucepan. Add sugar, lemon juice, and fruit pectin. Stir until well incorporated. Simmer on medium heat for 5-10 minutes.

2) Remove the whitish foam that forms on the top. Pour into warm, sterilized jars all the way to the top. Cover for 10 minutes. Invert the bottle on its lid until cooled. Store upright.