Strawberry Jam & Surprise Visit

I found myself with an abundance of strawberries and I wanted to use them before they went bad. I decided to make jam and spent hours searching pinterest for the perfect recipe. Making jam was very messy and quite a process, but so worth it. I've been giving the jam to people as a gift, and my pilot has gone through several jars already. You will need to have all the canning supplies which I found at Wal-mart for about $20.00 (mason jars w/lids, large canning pot, rack to fit inside canning pot, tongs with rubber ends, labels). I happened to be talking to my mom on the phone while I was making it, she made me promise to send her a jar. Mother's Day was two weeks away, so I formulated a plan to surprise my mom. Tank (my trusty golden companion) and I drove 12 hours to California, I called my mom and said I forgot to send her the jam so I thought I would hand deliver it, so come outside so I could give it to her. I believe she said, "Cerina, that's mean don't tease me like that!" I convinced her to come outside and I was standing in her drive way. :) She was very surprised!

Adapted from the Pioneer Woman

Ingredients
5 cups hulled mashed strawberries
7 cups sugar
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 package powdered fruit pectin
1/2 tablespoon of butter

Place your mason jars and center lids in a large canning pot filled with hot water. Make sure the water line is above the jars and bring to a simmer. While it's simmering use a spoon to hull the strawberries and put them on a baking sheet. Use a potato masher and mash those strawberries up. Measure a cup at a time and put in a large pot. Once you've gotten 5 cups, add the lemon juice. Then pour in the package of fruit pectin and mix together. Add butter. Turn on the heat and bring to a rolling boil. Stir in all the sugar and turn up the heat. Bring to a hard boil. Skim off the foam using a spoon, try your hardest not to take jam with it. Remove the jars one at a time using rubber tongs. Use a wide mouth funnel to put the jam in the jars. Scoop 1 cup of jam into the jar, fill until jam is slightly above the ridges of where you screw on the top. Take a butter knife and move along the edges of the jar, you want to try a remove any air bubbles. Whip off any excess jam from the jar. Use the tongs to get the lids place on top of the jar. Screw on the cap and set aside. Repeat the process with the next jar. Once you've finished place all of the jars back into the large canning pot, place the pot lid on, and bring to a boil. Boil for about 15 minutes. Turn off heat and remove the canning pot lid. Leave the cans in the pot for a few more minutes. Remove the jars and set aside don't touch them for the next 24 hours. I made myself a PB&J and boy was it delicious!