Watermelon Jam

I saw this recipe on line and had to give it a try. 

My favorite fruit is Watermelon!  It's what makes the 90 degree days worth while in the summer, it's sweet, juicy and not really unhealthy.  So making jam that I can open up in the deep freeze of winter sounded like a perfect idea.

The recipe is included here:    http://blondiescakes.blogspot.com/2010/09/watermelon-jam.html

With most canning processes, it's just easier to put out a tried recipe since canning is more science than a lot of food we enjoy.  I used more watermelon than in this recipe and less sugar. 

And I didn't puree the fruit in advance. 

I used an immersion blender to smooth while cooking the fruit for a while to

save some time and mess.

The rest was the same process.

My $3.99 Watermelon made up much more jam than I expected.  This works out to about .75 per jar!

I'll have to let you know if it's a good as it looks when it sets up. 

Can't wait to spread a little on a biscuit!

Spicy Asian Plum Dipping Sauce

Dreary day here to end out February.
Rain, cold.  Ready for spring...............

Canned Apple Pie Filling

Today's adventure was Apple Pie Filling.  This was a water bath canning.  First I washed about 3 dozen apples.  Different varieties to add to the flavors, some red delicious, granny smiths and golden delicious.  This was the first time I got to use the apple corer that Bob bought me about 10 years ago...............  It worked really well on the apples that were fresh and hard.  Had some trouble with it on some of the overly ripened softer red ones.  They just kind of broke apart as the spindle turned but overall it worked perfectly on most of them.  So, washed up a bunch of apples, cored them and dropped the slices into hot water with a lemon to keep the browning process down some.

Firecracker Carrots

Bob and I did these tonight in a water bath.  The recipe didn't call for processing but we wanted to see if  they'd heat up even more over time.  Made 5 pints.

Can't wait to taste them...........here's Alton Brown's recipe for them from the Food Network site: