The misfortune of strawberry jam (strawberry banana jam)

This jam is divine. 

consider — peanut butter on bananas (i slather it right on the bananas, don’t you?),

                                          or a strawberry-banana smoothie,

                                                                   maybe peanut butter and strawberry jam on toast 

Classic. too cliché?  how about a twist?

perhaps peanut butter + strawberry-banana jam?

oh….I thought so….

Our jam is made from the strawberries growing in the backyard (a mother’s day present gone wild – who knew 2 little plants could become a patch so quickly?) The banana flavour is subtle, just enough to make you say “oh..”

Those small “local” strawberries work best. More flavour per square inch than those gignormous supermarket berries.

Strawberry-Banana Jam

• 1 pkg pectin (I use Certo Light brand)
• 6 cups of crushed fruit (at least 5 cup of crushed strawberries, with enough banana to make 6 full cups)
• 4-1/5 cups granulated sugar

Crushing the berries:  do this in layers; in a large bowl, 1 layer at a time, pouring each crushed layer into your measuring cup before adding more berries to your crushing bowl.  Crush the berries with a potato masher or fork.  Do not use your blender or food processor to chop the berries.  Do the same with the banana.  Continue crushing the fruit until you have 6 cups.

In a large saucepan, add fruit. Combine fruit pectin with 1/4 of the measured sugar.  Add pectin mixture to the fruit and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling add remaining sugar and return to a hard boil (this means the fruit is bubbling and spitting all over the place), and boil hard for 1 minute.

Remove from heat, and stir and skim for 5 mins.  Skim off any foam that collects on top.  It is important to stir and skim for the full 5 mins, this helps create clear jam and ensures the fruit does not float to the top as it sets.

Fill warm sterilized jam jars (I use the sanitize setting on my dishwasher) with 2 part lids and screw caps.  (Screw caps can be reused, but you will need new seals each time, “used” seals do not always seal properly.  Warm the seals in a bowl of hot water to soften the seals while you boil and stir the jam.)

Fill to 1/4 inch from the top of the rim of the jar.  Wipe the rim clean, place seal and screw cap on jar and tighten.

Let sit until cool.  Listen for the “Pop!”

Part 2

This is what happens when you leave 2 kids alone in the kitchen to make their own PB+J ……

sigh….admittedly I considered picking the glass out……

       yes, that is right folks, this was the last jar