Homemade Jam

My apologies... I have still been slacking. Let's blame it on pregnancy.  However, I recently made homemade jam... the instant kind.  I made one pint of blackberry from berries we picked from our garden.  It is yum, but turned out a bit thinner than Tom wants so I will have to use more pectin next time.  I made a 3 pints from strawberries that were on sale for $1.50 a pound and I LOVE it.  If I remember, I will smear some on cream cheese on a bagel for breakfast tomorrow.  Yum!!

As for the "how to" part... well, it is VERY simple and the instructions are on the pectin package, but I will indulge a little.  I bought a single pouch of Ball instant pectin.  For each flavor, I put the fruit in my mini processor and blended until there were no more big chunks.  Then I mixed the required amounts of sugar and pectin in a bowl, stirred, and dumped the fruit in.  Then you stir some more (3  minutes I think) and pour it into the desired container (we bought cute glass jars, but those shouldn't really be frozen so we put some into tupperware for the freezer).  It takes a good 30 minutes or more to set up, but you are done!!  Freeze or refrigerate.  It is good in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.  ENJOY!!

Test Kitchen: Strawberry Bisque

This recipe was super simple, so I forgot to take pictures.  I will be "stealing" one for this post.  It is from this online photo album and was taken on a Carnival cruise.  That is where I first enjoyed this soup.  I recently found a recipe for it.  We plan to try adapting it to other flavors soon, such as raspberry.  SO YUM!!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups frozen strawberries (this can be somewhat approximate...we used whole strawberries with stems and all)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• fresh mint for flavor and garnish (optional)

DIRECTIONS

• Puree strawberries, milk, cream, and sour cream in blender or food processor until smooth.
• Blend in sugar.
• Chill 8 hours or overnight in refrigerator before serving.  (This serves to melt it a bit...microwaving it for about 5 seconds helps if you didn't plan ahead)
• Serve in bowls (chilled bowls would be a nice touch) and garnish with mint (optional).