Strawberry Peach Jam

336. No breakfast is complete without fresh fruit jam to slather on toast, muffins or croissant.  Walking down the grocers' aisle you can find a large variety of jam fruit flavors.  They always look so appetizing and delicious.  But when compared with a home made fresh fruit jam, there is no comparison. Occasionally you can pick up a great quality jam at a farm market or specialty store, but I am addicted to made-in-my-kitchen fresh fruit jam.  And I have the ability to add a pinch of this or that to design it to my exact taste.

Traditionally, home cooks would cook fruit with sugar till it would reach a thickened state when it coated the back of a cold spoon.  Unfortunately, some fruits have less pectin and it would take so long that the fruit would loose its beautiful bright color, turn brown and have an over cooked taste.  

I simply follow the Certo brand pectin directions which come in every box. Here is a beautiful pdf booklet you can download or print out for all jam, jelly and marmalade recipes from Certo. Find your fruit and follow the directions.  You can mix fruits as well,  peach with strawberries,  fig with plum or rhubarb with strawberries or figs. It's your choice.  Often when I have mixed fresh fruit salad left overs, I will measure and place the fruit in a saucepan, add sugar to the same measurement of fruit, place a pat of butter and bring it to a boil.  Add my Certo packet and place in sanitized jars.  Mixed fruit jam!  And I've done this with pineapple, kiwi, oranges and the like.  They all make beautiful jam when mixed together.

This jam was made with 5 cups of peaches and 1 cup of strawberries all cleaned and coarsely chopped, 7 cups of sugar, Tablespoon of lemon, 1 Tablespoon of butter (cuts down on foaming), pinch of cinnamon.  Mix all till completely blended and place on high heat and bring to a boil.  Once the jam is at a rolling boil that does not stop when you mix it, add your packet of Certo quickly.  Stir and bring back to boil.  Boiling for a full minute.  Turn off heat and ladle hot jam into sanitized jam size jars.  Wipe the glass rim and side rim of the jar with a clean wet towel so any drips do not interfere with the seal.   Cover with sanitized sealing lids that you are heating in boiling water off to the side.  Tighten lid and place up-side-down on a towel in a safe place on counter.  Jars will be very hot.  After 15 minutes turn your jars up-right and wait to hear the lovely sound of the seals popping on every jar.  It's a symphony!

You can use any jar that has a rubber seal on the lid.  Be careful that it is sanitized in very hot water and I use a little bleach to be extra careful with bacteria and a very hot rinse.  Then I place them upside-down until ready to fill.

I recycle these jars over and over but always careful that there are no scratches on the inside lids and that you sanitize and boil them before use.  The great thing about canning lids is that you can purchase just the round seal without buying a new lid band.  These seem to never wear out...unless of course they are old from a yard sale or your grandma's collection.  Walmart carries canning jars and supplies as well as Ace Hardware.  

Making jam is not hard...just takes time and diligence to follow the steps.  

“I'm sure I'll take you with pleasure!" the Queen said. "Twopence a week, and jam every other day."
Alice couldn't help laughing, as she said, "I don't want you to hire me - and I don't care for jam."
"It's very good jam," said the Queen.
"Well, I don't want any today, at any rate."
"You couldn't have it if you did want it," the Queen said.
"The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never today."
"It must come sometimes to 'jam today'," Alice objected.
"No it can't," said the Queen. "It's jam every other day: today isn't any other day, you know.” 
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“Jam on a winter day took away the blues. It was like tasting summer. ” 
― Sandra Dallas

Fresh Peach Blueberry Pie

311. A slice of fresh peach blueberry pie is on the dessert menu tonight.  

Using free-stone peaches is a breeze.  You are able to remove the peach pit quickly and clean leaving the beautiful peach in perfect shape.

A little sugar, corn starch and lemon juice with a pinch of salt and dash of cinnamon makes your filling light and perfectly sweet.

Instead of the traditional top crust I'm using my star cutters to make a random pattern, perfect for July⭐️ 🇺🇸.

If the stars are all the same it makes your top crust too uniform.  So I cut three different sizes and star frames as well.

A sprinkling of water and a few corse sugar crystals finish off the top.

With the left over pie crust I cut out little stars and sprinkle a sugar-cinnamon mix over.  My mom would make these for me when she had extra dough. 😋

I used Joy of Cooking to check my ingredients.  The recipes are always spot on and reliable.

And here is the finished product for your viewing pleasure!

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." 

~Steve Jobs, co-founder & CEO of Apple

Peach Pancakes

226. Peach season is a favorite time of year and I love to incorporate peaches into our daily meals or desserts.

Pancakes were on the breakfast menu this morning, our first day of "stay-cation".

So I mixed up a batch of my favorite pancake batter...from scratch. So much better than box mix.

Buttermilk Pancakes

1 egg

1 1/4 cups buttermilk (or milk and 1 tsp of vinegar or lemon juice added)

2 Tablespoons oil

1 cup flour

2 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

In a mixing bowl beat the egg with a fork. Add milk and oil and blend all together. Add remaining ingredients and stir the mixture till blended but slightly lumpy. Set batter aside to rest. Heat a griddle or skillet and lightly grease. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the hot griddle. Flip when bubbles begin to pop on the uncooked side of the pancakes. Serve hot with butter and syrup.

To make the pancakes peach, I chopped a large peach and added the chunks to the batter carefully before pouring on the griddle.

This recipe is a perfect recipe to add any type of fruit or spice to.

I sliced a couple more peaches to serve on the side of the pancakes.

Sausages were a great side as well garnished with a nasturtium from my garden.

The stack of hot Peach Pancakes were sooooooo delicious!

"The ripest peach is highest on the tree."

~James Whitcomb Riley

"One does a whole painting for one peach and people think just the opposite - that particular peach is but a detail."

~Pablo Picasso

Frozen Fruit Pops

224. With peaches in season and two sweet, ripe mangos, my daughter and I made a batch of Peach Mango and Blueberry Lemon Frozen Fruit Pops.

Our popsicle forms were from Bed Bath and Beyond and Tupperware.

The peaches smelled so delicious and I love the combination of mango and peach flavors.

We pealed and cut up 3 peaches and 2 whole mangos and placed the slices in a blender.

We added about 1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar and adjusted by taste. We also added a couple drops of coconut extract and a few gratings of nutmeg. Then we filled the blender 3/4 full with fruit juice which was a mango, peach, orange juice mix and juice from 1/2 a lemon.

Blend till smooth and taste for sweetness and flavor. Adjust any of the ingredients to your liking.

Pour directly into clean popsicle forms making sure you do not fill them to the tippy top. This allows for expansion and keeps the popsicles uniform.

Place in freezer on a level surface. Freeze for about 2 hours or till juice becomes thick. Push popsicle sticks into center of each pop and push down about 3/4 of the way. Freeze over night.

Our Blueberry Lemon frozen Pops started with blueberries. We used whole berries but this will give you tiny bits in your popsicles...which I particularly like. If you do not like this, place your berries in a sauce pan with 1/2 cup water and about 1/2 cup sugar and bring to a boil. Strain the juice from the berries saving the juice and discard the berries. Press down on berries to release all the juice. Place the juice in a blender with 1/2 cup sugar.

Zest one whole lemon and add the zest to the juice/berries in the blender. Then add juice from one whole lemon, dash of cinnamon and fill the blender with lemon aid till 3/4 full.

Blend on high and taste for desired sweetness and make adjustments to your liking. Pour into prepared popsicle molds. Follow the same process as the previous popsicles and freeze overnight.

When ready to serve remove one mold and carefully run hot water over the bottom of the mold. Work with one popsicle at a time. You will begin to feel the popsicle release and slide out of the mold. Be careful not to place in hot water for too long...the popsicles will begin to melt. If this happens, return to the freezer till molded again.

I served the popsicles on a plate of crushed ice covered with plastic wrap. It worked beautifully.

What a big hit they were! You can do this! The molds were so inexpensive and if you don't have fresh fruit just pour fruit juice into the molds. It is surprising how easy, yet how impressed your kids or guests will be.

"A tree is know by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost;

He who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love."

~ Saint Basil