Tag Archives: jam

Canned Goods

Watermelon Jam

I know, another watermelon post. The watermelon that I bought was HUGE! Besides the watermelon lemonade and the frozen watermelon balls, I also made 4 pints of watermelon jam. When you have too much of something, you know you can’t use it in time, and don’t want it to go to waste, more times than not, it can be canned. I didn’t think about it ahead of time so I composted my watermelon rind, but you can actually pickle the rind! Okay, enough about the could haves, let’s get sticky!

What you will need

  • 4 cups of watermelon
  • 1/2 cup of lemon juice
  • 7 tablespoons of fruit pectin
  • 4 cups of sugar
I told you it was as big watermelon!

Time to start… Jammin

  • puree 4 cups of watermelon
  • Pour into a medium sauce pot and juice 1 large lemon (don’t forget to zest the lemon first so that you can save it for a later recipe. It will be good in the refrigerator for about a week give or take a few days)
  • forgot to zest my lemon first, BAD JEN!
  • Look at all of that deliciously beautiful lemon juice
  • Add the lemon juice and watermelon to the sauce pot
  • Add in the sugar and the fruit pectin to the sauce pot
  • Bring the mixture to a boil and let boil for 20 minutes. Please make sure you watch it and stir it on occasion. I walked away for 2 minutes and boop… it bubbled over a little. Sad day. Don’t worry, it wasn’t much.
  • Get your canning supplies ready and put all the lovely deliciousness into the half pint jars and wait.

What’s next?

Don’t panic if your jam doesn’t set right away. With some jams it can take up to 48 hours for it to set. If it still hasn’t set at the 48 hour mark, resanitize your jars after dumping the mixture back into the pot. If you add a little more lemon juice and a little more fruit pectin to your mixture, you should be fine. Remember that jam, as with most other baking and cooking, has a little to do with altitude and humidity.

If you want to give it a little extra zing, you could add some of the lemon zest to it or some meddled mint leaves. Watermelon and mint is an excellent combination and it makes for a delicious and refreshing summer treat.

I was able to fill 8 half pint jars. 4 for us and 4 for the neighbors upstairs to steal like we aren’t going to notice that something this good is missing. Yeah, okay…

Until next time, leave some comments, send some feedback, let me know if you made this jam and how it turned out or if you tweaked it at all. Just remember, anything you can make, I can probably make vegan!

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Canned Goods

Orange and Vanilla Marmalade

Marmalade… Then nastiest of all of the jams and jellies out there on the planet, or so I thought. I tried orange marmalade when I was little. I remember being about 5 or 6 years old and my great grandmother had me try a bite of her toast. I didn’t like the taste or the texture of it at all. Fast forward about 15 years, I went to a cute little B&B and was given a nice cup of tea, oatmeal, and an English with a spread of yummy and fruity spreads. There it was, looking at me, calling to me. The beautifully citrus smell of the marmalade wafted up my nose. I was drawn to it. I scooped a nice size amount on my knife and spread it on my English muffin. It oozed into all of the little spaces. A smile went across my face and I took a bite. It tasted like… disappointment. I wish it hadn’t. I so wanted to like it.

Now I am 35 years old and was overwhelmed with the amount of oranges coming in with my fruit and veggie box that I get once a week from Misfitsmarket.com and didn’t know what to do with all of them. The kids will eat them once in a while but not fast enough. My solution? Marmalade. I will defeat you this time, mark my word. Here we go!

Here’s what you will need:

  • 1 lb of oranges
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1 cup of water
  • 1.5-2 tsp of vanilla extract

Your cooking tools:

  • Sauce pot
  • Mandolin or very sharp knife
  • Canning Jars

Let’s get cooking!

I use a mandolin to cut my oranges. It makes the perfect size slices (about 1/4″ thick) and they are all uniform. Pick out the seeds as you go. I do not cut anything off of the oranges and the seeds are the only part that I remove. I had several different kids of oranges so I used some of each. I don’t know if it changed the flavor all that much, but the end result tasted great.
Add the water and the sugar to the sauce pot and turn it to medium high.
Add in the oranges and the vanilla. I love the creamsicle taste that the vanilla added so I went for 2 tsps instead of 1-1.5 tsp.

Bring the whole mixture to a boil and then take it down to a low heat or simmer.
This is what my marmalade looked like after 1 hour. When your mixture is half the amount as it was when you started, it is about time to take it off the heat. There are several ways to test it. I took a spoon and put it in the freezer, when I got to the texture above, I took a little bit and dripped it onto the frozen spoon. When I tipped the spoon back and forth, it looked like I wanted the final product to look like when set.
To sterilize your canning jars, boil them! I take the lids and put them in the freezer. While my mixture is still hot, I spoon it into the canning jars because I don’t have one of those fancy canning funnels. I grab those super cold lids and rings out of the freezer and put them right on the jars. Once the lids are on, I throw them right into the refrigerator and the lid does its thing and seals!

So finally, after all these years at the age of 35, I finally do love marmalade. I am so sad that it took me this long, but at least it happened!

Until next time, send me some ideas of things that you would like me to make for you. Just remember, anything you can make, I can probably make vegan!

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