Feeling Fruity

Last week I took an afternoon to make some jam. Strawberries were at their cheapest price of the season and I took advantage of it. This was my first time with liquid pectin and it will be my last. The jam turned out to be a touch runny but quite tasty!

If you have never tried canning jam I highly recommend it. It is easy and does not take that much time to do. The hardest part is assembling all of your supplies: stainless stock pot, canning pot with rack, jar lifter, funnel, stainless ladle, jars. I would also add to that list dishtowels, small sauce pan, and very handy magnetic lid lifter thingie. The sauce pan is used to sterilize your lids. The towels are for clean up but I also use them to cover the counter where I place the newly washed and sterilized jars, and also to cushion the area where I place the newly filled jars. Lehman’s is a good source for online canning supplies but you can also find them at local feedstores like Agway, or even at Walmart. Give it a try, there is nothing more satisfying that those tops a poppin on your counter!

Unless it’s blueberry pie. Blueberry pie is very satisfying! We have been picking blueberries since July 4. Looks like a medium year for harvest for us.

I like a simple butter crust: 1 cubed stick of cold butter, 1 1/4C flour, 1/4C ice water. I mix it in the food processor, made a disk of the dough, cover it with plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for a bit. Make one recipe per crust. Then I use my mom’s very old rolling pin (the only thing I have from her kitchen and I treasure it greatly) and roll out the crust. The creak of the rolling pin as it presses the crust thin is very comforting.

With the extra crust, make cookies! Roll out the pieces and cut them with fancy cookie cutters or use a biscuit cutter like I did. Sprinkle the tops with cinnamon and sugar. Growing up, this was my favorite part when I helped my mom bake pies. And just like the kid I was, I still eat the cookies when they are way too hot, and eat them all way too fast because they taste that good.

I love a lattice crust on blueberry pie. It too is very easy! I use a pizza slicer to make the strips. Lay them out starting from the center of the pie, and alternate the vertical and the horizontal. Pinch the edges together. Cut a slice and add vanilla ice cream! I would show you what that looks like, but when I made mine I focused more on the eating and less on the photographing. Enjoy! And I hope things are fruit in your world too!