Rhubarb Jam with Strawberry

Today I’m sharing another rhubarb jam – Rhubarb Jam with Strawberry! I have made several kinds of rhubarb jam for Plenty Sweet Life, all using Grandma’s recipe and optional suggestions for different flavors, and this is the last suggestion she had on her recipe card. I had already made a recipe for Rhubarb Jam that was in one of her old church cookbooks, but then I found a similar recipe written out by her, and on the card she had also written some other flavors to use in that Rhubarb Jam – Rhubarb Jam with Blueberry, Rhubarb Jam with Apricot, and Rhubarb Jam with Strawberry. As I’ve mentioned before in some earlier rhubarb recipe posts, I had a meager rhubarb crop this year, so my daughter took pity on me and brought me some. Along with a bit more of my own, I was able to scrape together just enough rhubarb to make this batch of jam. Actually, it could have used one more cup. Oh well, sometimes you just have to make do – and I did.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Rhubarb Jam with Strawberry

Let stand awhile to give juice (I let it stand in the refrigerator overnight):

5 cups rhubarb, chopped

3 cups sugar

Cook about 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and add:

1 small package Strawberry Jello

1 can strawberry pie filling

Pour into jars.

Store in refrigerator.

Chopped rhubarb and sugar – that’s jam for ya!

Cover with plastic wrap and into the frig overnight – or just let it sit a few hours. We want a bit of juice for the jam.

Next morning, cook the rhubarb and sugar for 20 minutes, until the rhubarb is tender.

Next, in goes the Strawberry Jello and the strawberry pie filling. The strawberries looked so big, I thought the strawberry flavor might overtake the rhubarb – it didn’t. When I tasted it, I could still definitely still get both flavors.

The easiest way to get the jam into the jars without too much mess – a canning funnel. It’s not expensive, and it works great!

I got 1 pint and 4 half pints from this batch. There was a bit leftover for us to have on our toast for breakfast the next morning.

At the very least, you have a delicious treat to put on scones, muffins, toast, ice cream, cake, oatmeal, yogurt . . . I guess I’d better stop there. Just so you know – it also makes a very nice hostess gift. Or housewarming gift, or birthday gift, or wedding shower gift, or thank you gift . . . ok, ok, I’ll stop.

Rhubarb jam is one of my favorites, and this recipe is just so ridiculously easy. It’s nice to have this in the frig whenever you want it – but first make sure you have enough rhubarb to make it! Even if someone you know brings you rhubarb out of the goodness of their heart, you should make this jam. Seriously. Make a batch of this delicious Rhubarb Jam with Strawberry, and it will be your favorite, too!

 

Rhubarb Jam with Apricot

This recipe for Rhubarb Jam with Apricot is one of the additional recipes on Grandma’s card for Rhubarb Jam. She wrote on her card about 3 other kinds of pie filling that would be good in her recipe for Rhubarb Jam, so I decided to try them all. I’ve already tried Rhubarb Jam with Blueberry, and next up is the Rhubarb Jam with Apricot, which would also be good. I’m sure this is a bit confusing but my original recipe for Rhubarb Jam on Plenty Sweet Life was from one of Grandma’s old church cookbooks. Then I found Grandma’s recipe card with her recipe written on it, along with the 3 different flavors she also thought would be good. That’s where the confusion is – the recipe for Rhubarb Jam from the church cookbook and Grandma’s original Rhubarb Jam (from my post for Rhubarb Jam with Blueberry) recipe on her card are basically the same, so I didn’t make that recipe again. Ok. I’m glad we have that straightened out! Whew!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Rhubarb Jam with Apricot

Mix together and let stand overnight:

5 cups rhubarb, chopped

3 cups sugar

Cook 20 minutes.

Stir in:

1 small package strawberry jello

1 can apricot pie filling

Pour into jars.

Store in refrigerator.

I let the rhubarb and sugar sit in the refrigerator overnight, covered with plastic wrap. This makes a nice amount of juice with which to make the jam.

After cooking the rhubarb and sugar mixture for 20 minutes, all you do is stir in the Strawberry Jello and apricot pie filling.

I use a wide mouth funnel to get the jam into the jars without spilling TOO much. There was enough jam for 2 pint sized jars and 3 smaller containers (a taste that went home with my kids).

You can see the chunks of delicious rhubarb in the jam. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.

I like to use the jam for a topping on yogurt. Don’t forget a little sprinkling of Granola on top, too.

Like most, if not all, of Grandma’s recipes, this jam is absolutely delicious with an apricot flavor that mellowed a bit the next day. It’s so easy to make, and great for a hostess gift if you’re spending a weekend at a cabin, heading to a barbeque, or just want to make someone’s day. We’re keeping it a “Nothing But Easy Summer” by making this easy to make, delicious Rhubarb Jam with Apricot!

 

Rhubarb Jam with Blueberry

I have made Rhubarb Jam before, but today I’m trying Rhubarb Jam with Blueberry. When I made the first Rhubarb Jam on the blog, I used a recipe that I found in one of Grandma’s old church cookbooks. Then I was looking through Grandma’s recipe cards when I found what is essentially the same recipe written out by her. The only difference is that on the bottom of the card, she had written that using pie filling is good. Well, I mean really, we HAVE to try that! She says that apricot, blueberry, and strawberry pie filling are good. We know strawberry would be good because when making the jam, it calls for Strawberry Jello. I’ll have to try apricot sometime, too, just because I’m curious – how would that taste? Blueberry being my favorite – that’s the one I decided to try now. Would the blueberry overpower the deliciousness of the rhubarb? We shall see (as Grandma would say).

This sounds a bit odd, but here we go.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Rhubarb Jam with Blueberry

Let stand awhile (I let it stand overnight covered in the refrigerator) so it will give good juice:

5 cups rhubarb, chopped

3 cups sugar

Cook (20 minutes if we want to follow the other recipe for Rhubarb Jam).

Add:

1 small package Strawberry Jello

1 can blueberry pie filling

(I cooked the rhubarb and Strawberry Jello together for 15 minutes – no I didn’t read the other recipe first or I would have seen that you just cook the rhubarb alone first – then I cooked it all together with the pie filling for another 5 minutes. It turned out great anyway!)

Pour into jars and keep in refrigerator.

I let the rhubarb and sugar sit in the refrigerator overnight. It made a lot of nice juice, but didn’t really dissolve the sugar.

I added the Strawberry Jello and cooked it 15 minutes.

Add the blueberry pie filling and cook it another 5 minutes.

I only had pint jars available to me when I made this batch, but half pints would be great for hostess gifts.

I thought the blueberry might overpower the rhubarb, but it didn’t. You still get a definite rhubarb flavor in this jam. It is so good!

You can still see the pieces of rhubarb along with the blueberries in the jam. You need to try a batch of this jam now when rhubarb is plentiful and basically free. This recipe is very easy to do and pretty fast to make. The jam is great on toast, English muffins, angel food cake, pound cake, or ice cream. Any way you want to taste it, you’re going to LOVE this Rhubarb Jam with Blueberry!

 

 

 

Uncooked Jam

Remember those beautiful local strawberries I told you about in my post Freezing Berries? I used some of them to make this recipe. Uncooked Jam always seems easier than cooked jam. I needed to find a way to use up the rest of those little summer jewels. I haven’t tried yet, but it would be fun to try all kinds of berries for this jam. Grandma and her sisters had a lot of recipes for canning all kinds of end of the summer harvest, and that would have really heated up the kitchen. I’m sure this one was a way to make jam without turning up the heat. As long as they had room in their “icebox”, this recipe would have worked well for preserving all kids of beautiful summer berries.

You can never have too many kinds of jam to get you through the long, dark Minnesota winter!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Uncooked Jam

Combine:

1 1/4 cups berries, sliced or crushed (I used double this amount of berries AND crushing them worked best)

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 cups sugar

Let stand 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally to help dissolve the sugar.

Combine:

1/2 package powdered pectin

7 Tablespoons water

Cook, bringing to a full boil.

Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

(I skipped this part by using a package of liquid pectin, however, it didn’t firm up. It stayed fairly runny, so we’ll be using the “jam” as a syrup for pancakes or over ice cream.)

Slowly stir hot pectin into mixture of berries.

Stir for several minutes.

Pour into sterilized jelly glasses or jars.

Cover with lids.

Store in refrigerator.

Oh my gosh – how beautiful! I hated to cut them up!

It is a lot of sugar, but it IS jam.

When all the ingredients are combined, it made a lot of liquid even when I doubled the amount of berries(but it may be more runny because I used the liquid pectin).

I got about 3 1/2 pints out of this recipe.

So pretty.

This is the tastiest jam ever. It has to be because of the local berries. Even though this particular batch got a bit runnier than I wanted, we’ll still make great use of it for syrup and ice cream topping. Give this a try – it’s a great way to keep those beautiful summer berries just a little bit longer!

 

 

Tomato Jam

The recipe for today is something a little bit unusual. Tomato Jam was something Grandma made every year and I have to admit that it was never my favorite. It was always too tomato-y for me, but she loved it! I seem to remember that she served it with bread or toast, but also with some meats. It’s kind of like a chutney, being a bit on the savory side. This MUST be another good one since she didn’t keep recipes cut out from a newspaper very often. She even taped the cut-out right onto a card!

Note that this one also has the “V Good” connotation!!!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Tomato Jam

3 cups ripe tomatoes, chopped (blanched to remove skins)

2 cups sugar

1 package (3 oz.) lemon gelatin dessert

Cook tomatoes and sugar for 12 minutes (this is where I put in the peeled and chopped orange she mentioned).

Remove from heat.

Stir in gelatin dessert (or Jell-O) and stir until the gelatin dissolves.

Pour into sterilized jars.

Keep refrigerated or frozen.

I chopped the peeled orange about the same size as the tomatoes.

The orange melts into the tomato and it all cooks down together to make the sweet tomato-y jam.

It is jam, yet it still really looks like tomatoes. It’s also a great way to use up your over abundance of tomatoes from the garden!

Here’s another very pretty jar that’s great for gift giving.

This jam is also really good with meats. Try it on pork, beef, or even chicken.

Now I love this jam. It’s not nearly as tomato-y as I remember it. It’s just jam.

There’s nothing better than your own home-made jam on your own home-made bread. I’ll share the recipe for this Buttermilk Oatmeal Bread in my Friday post. Try this unusual jam. You will really enjoy it.

 

Peach Jam

I just had to share this picture that I found in an old photo album recently, of Grandma and two of her sisters from 1929. Grandma is the girl in the light-colored coat and her two sisters are on either side of her.

It looks like they were enjoying a day “in town”! Grandma is holding some books, so maybe she is on her way to school. She lived with family friends during the week so she could go to high school in town. Their farm was about 5 miles out, so I’m sure it was quite a ride to make twice a day every day back then.

Now for today’s recipe. It’s the time of summer for peaches! Yay! I love peaches. Yesterday, my daughters helped me make Peach Jam. We’ve made a couple of kinds of jam and they’re really getting into it!

One of my daughters renamed this recipe “Beach Jam” since it has a more tropical feel than peach.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Peach Jam

Grind together (I used a food processor):

3 pounds of peaches

1 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple with juice

1/2 jar of maraschino cherries (even though she had crossed it out and added it at the end, I only used half and put them in all together and it came out fine)

2 oranges, cut in chunks, peel and all (the peel has the pectin to make it thick)

Mix together in a large pot:

Fruit

3 pounds white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Boil for 30 minutes.

Put into jars.

Seal with a hot water bath for 10 minutes. I do have a canner, but when doing smaller jars, I use my stockpot with a silicone trivet in the bottom to hold the jars off of the bottom of the pot. For a hot water bath: Fill pot with enough water to cover jars 1″ when they’re all in there. Boil the water, then put the jars in and start the timing.

Cool.

I processed the fruit individually – there wasn’t room for all of it at the same time.

I weighed out the peaches on my food scale. I could only fit a pound at a time in the bowl.

It looks a bit soupy until the end of the cooking. I considered adding some gel pectin I had until it started to thicken at the end.

Using a funnel helps in the jarring process.

With all of the canning and jamming I’ve been doing, I had to scramble a bit for jars. These are all shapes and sizes.

The jars are so pretty and also great for gift giving.

This Peach Jam is a bit different. It’s not just peaches, so it does taste a bit more like fruit cocktail jam. That’s why my daughter renamed it Beach Jam. So tropical and so tasty!