We be jammin'

Last Tuesday I wasn't feeling very well. I wasn't sure if it was allergies or a cold, but I needed some orange juice. Because there wasn't any at home, I stopped at Smith's to buy some.

ONLY ORANGE JUICE, NOTHING ELSE.

Then I ran into a friend who alerted me to the fact that the strawberries had been marked down to $1 a pound. OF COURSE this meant I had to buy 15 pounds of strawberries, and 15 pounds of sugar, and pectin, and karo syrup. I thought about buying jars, but thought that surely I had enough in my cupboard. Wrong, but we will come to that part later.

I came home and started cleaning strawberries and got three batches going. This was a bit complicated because I had to stir each one every five minutes and they were staggered, and my addled brain hurt trying to keep everything straight.

Did I put the lemon juice in that batch? Was that 3 cups of sugar or 4 cups that I just put in that bowl? (I haven't actually made any freezer jam for several years because we still had some each year.) Where are those cotton pickin jars that always seem to be taking up all the cupboard space, anyway? What is up with my blender and the fact that it wants the strawberries cut up so that it doesn't just become one big blob spinning around?

Well it was fun, let me tell ya.

And lickety split, I had all of my jars filled up. But alas my jars overfloweth with jam, and I was forced to return to the store for jars. Seriously? So I left in the middle of the assembly line and got more jars. Curses, I hate it when that happens.

In the end I made six batches and I still ran out of jars. Luckily I had some plastic containers to fill up. It also took more room in my freezer than I hoped it would. But it is good to have to throw old things out. Seriously, unless there was a famine, no one was going to eat those pork chops with freezer burn anyway. So it was a win/win situation.

Strawberry freezer jam is to die for, if I do say so myself. But you could probably put 2 cups of sugar with one cup of dirt and have it taste OK. Trent waked through the kitchen and was horrified and outraged at how much sugar I was using. Something about weight watchers or something. Killjoy.

If you have never made freezer jam, just follow the directions on the pectin. It is next to impossible to mess it up, so go ahead and try.

If anyone has any hot rolls or bread, come on over, I've got the jam.