I channeled my inner Amish last week and decided to make homemade jams and jelly to give as xmas gifts. When I was younger I wanted to be Amish. Or maybe I should just say I was slightly obsessed with the Amish. Their lifestyle fascinated me. Especially canning. Just like our ancestors in the olde days. I think it’s really cool to make food or to have a surplus of food and to put it in jars and seal them and then voila! you have food that keeps for years sometimes in these cool cute little jars and you made it all yourself. So voila! I made some of my peeps some cool cute little jars of homemade jam and jelly for Christmas.
First up is roasted red pepper jam with a kick. I saw the recipe years ago in relish magazine. It’s one of those inserts once a month in the newspapers. Now this jam may sound gross but trust me, it is so addicting it’s unreal. What I like about it is that it doesn’t set up real well like a jam should. It’s more on the runny side which is perfect for dipping sweet chili rice chips in or to pour over cream cheese and serve with crackers.
Red peppers, a jalepeno pepper, vinegar, vodka, lime juice, lime zest, sugar, salt, and pectin. The recipe can be found here.
Next up is a gingerbread spice jelly.
You make it with gingerbread tea. Pretty cool.
The recipe is from Taste of Home. The recipe can be found here.
Last up is a mixed berry jam. I had tons of bags of frozen mixed berries that I bought to make pies last year and had so many left over it was ridic. After making many a berry protein shake, I decided to use them all by making this jam. It turned out very tasty but it has a lot of seeds. I used the recipe that comes with the sure jell pectin for triple berry jam.
I decided to decorate some of the jars that I was going to give as gifts. Some of the jars are plain with vintage lids that my friend George gave me.
