So I spent the weekend doing film stuff. Going to small screenings... doing Q&As... eating with my producer and his wife at all the good places (or at least the ones we could fit into our time and location range)... and generally feeling life a small-time rock star.
So what did I do Sunday, once everything calmed down again? I made preserves. LOL
After going to my mamaw's house last week and leaving with a bag of berries and a bag of rhubarb, I decided that I really wanted to make preserves. As a kid, mamaw's strawberry preserves were the thing of dreams. She insisted they were really easy to make, but they still were simply the most amazing thing I ever ate.
When I got to visit with her for a bit, my son, who is also in awe of her general preserve-making abilities, talked her out of a jar of plum preserves, which we ate as part of dinner that night and then with breakfast the next morning. There is approximately a tablespoon still left in the jar right now, mainly because we ran out of bread.
But anyway, I made strawberry preserves, although I made some mistakes so we'll see if they turn out. After the strawberry was done, I looked around and saw all those berries she gave me and then saw the blueberries I had sitting in the fridge and thought why not? So I made some "berry" preserves.
As of this morning, the berry preserves are setting up nicely but it looks like the strawberry may not jell as well (LOL). But it said to leave them sitting for 24 hours. So tomorrow morning I'll be trying out my preserves on our morning toast. I'll let ya know how it goes!
4 comments:
Strawberry preserves are easy to do. Be sure to use some pectin. You can do them without that but you have to boil and stir them a long time.
Another easy thing to preserve in jars is tomato juice. When people are trying to get rid of masses of tomatos you just say yes to everyone. Drag it home, cut out hat little stem part and quarter. Boil and until frothy for a while and then run through a colander. Boil the juice some more. Be sure your jars and lids are hot! Then when that is dry, pour in the juice, put on a lid and screw down the rim. You set them in a airy place and listen for the lids to pop telling you the seal is set. Twenty four hours later, take off the rims and store in a pantry or cellar.
Sounds like you have a Jam plan ;-)
Thin preserves make great ice cream topping.
They turned out pretty good. We ate the berry ones yesterday and they gelled up really well!
Now the strawberry didn't gel. I think we used too much fruit. Plus I didn't get the strawberries as crushed up as I should have. I figure they'll still be edible.
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