"The Jam Plan"

"The Jam Plan."  Of course I'm referencing the episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S., where Monica tried to get over Richard by making jam ("The One with the Jam").  I hope you've seen it.  Anyway....

I received one of Ree Drummond's cookbooks for my birthday (The Pioneer Woman Cooks:  Food From My Frontier). In the back of the book, there are recipes for canning.  Her step by step instructions (with photos) made it seem like a piece of cake, and because I'm always trying to up my "domestic goddess" status I decided to make jam....and pickles.

I started with the pickles.  Sweet Lime Pickles.  They were a little harder and required more time.

{Ingredients}

{Slicing the cucumbers}

{Pickling lime}

{Adding all the spice}

{Ah.  Sweet satisfaction.}

Supplies:
Large Canning Pot (large enough to submerge the jars in water)
Tongs (I actually have a canning kit that comes with some useful items!)
Pint size mason jars with lids and screw-on rings (I ended up filling 10 jars)
Wide-mouth canning funnel
Canning rack to go inside the pot

Ingredients:
About 5 lbs of cucumbers
1 cup pickling lime
8 cups white distilled vinegar
8 cups of water
8 cups sugar
2 tablespoons pickling spice
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

What To Do:
- Chop off the tops and bottoms of the cucumbers and cut them into 1/4 inch slices
- Toss into a large pot
- In a separate pot or bowl, mix the pickling lime and water, then once combined, pour over the cucumbers.
- Cover the pot and place in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight- this makes your pickles crispy.
- Remove from fridge and rinse the cucumbers 3 times to make sure all of the lime solution is removed. If you are using the same pot to cook them in, be sure to wash it thoroughly as well.
- Place cucumbers back into clean pot and add vinegar, sugar, pickling spices, tumeric, salt and cayenne pepper.
- Bring the mixture almost to a boil and turn off the heat, stir and return to refrigerator for another 3-4 hours.
- Pull the pot back out of the fridge and back onto the stove boiling over medium heat for 40-45 minutes.
- In a separate pot, heat the pint jars and lids (not the screw tops)
- One at a time, remove jar from water and place the funnel in the jar, filling the jar with pickle slices.
- When you have as many as you can get in the jar, pour in enough liquid to reach 1/4 inch from the top of the jar.
- Place the lid and screw top on the jar, then repeat the process until all jars are filled.
- Place the jars in the pot of water and heat for 15-20 minutes.
- Allow to sit on the counter for 24 hours.  Over the next few hours, you should hear the lids popping.  This means they're sealing!  Yay!
- After that time, check to make sure that the lids are sealed, if any failed to seal, store them in the fridge.


Whew!  After ALL that, I decided to make the strawberry jam. 

{Ingredients}

{Not much to it.  Just makin' jam.}

{Jam}

I used this recipe for the jam.  I'm glad I started with the pickles.  The jam seemed easy after all the pickling.  Both turned out great!  I may try to make more jam after this.  I love the Jam Plan!