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How to peel peaches the easy way

By on September 1, 2011 in Tutorial, We're jammin

I love peaches, not the canned type which is pretty much all I ate growing up.  I am talking about fuzzy, sweet, juicy peaches.  Being this close to Georgia, I got my hands on some Georgia (say it with a Goergia accent… Jo-Ja) Peaches.  These will be destined to become spice peach jam tomorrow but before then I wanted to show you all how easy it is to peel peaches…no knife or peeler involved.

Begin by washing your peaches.  Overly ripe peaches or too green and you cannot peel them with this method so use nice ripe peaches.  Get a pot of water on the stove to boil, add enough water to cover the peach completely.  On the counter you will be working on fill a bowl with ice cold water.  Ready?

When the water is boiling, take your peach and put one in the water, count to 30, take it out and plunge it into the ice cold water, repeat with the rest of them.

Now you should be able to rub or peel off the skins with your bare hands.  No waste and super easy. See how smooth and shiny they are without peels? Yummy

I had a sweet bottle of Moscato waiting for me as my reward for such strenuous work : )
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We’re jammin… Nilla strawberry jam

By on May 15, 2011 in Preserving the Harvest, Recipes, We're jammin

I love this time of year in my town.  We have u-pick farms all around with corn, blueberries, blackberries and strawberries.  Strawberries and more importantly, jam is our favorite.  I love this recipe because it is soooo yummy and the vanilla (though you don’t really taste it) brings another depth of flavor.

What you need:
3 pints of strawberries, green top cut off
4 cups of sugar
Juice from half a lemon
1 tsp really good vanilla (I use Neisen Massey Bourbon vanilla)

 wash your strawberries

 I added about a cup of the sugar

 then start mashing!  This is the hardest part I promise.

 mash until you get to the consistency you like.  I don’t like chunky so I mashed alot, you might like bigger pieces of berries so that is up to you.  At this point it was so yummy that I had a hard time convincing myself to continue and not use them as is but I need jam so I had to continue on

 add the lemon (make sure you use a sieve to catch the seeds)

 add your vanilla…I added this picture to show you my vanilla.  In my (very humble) opinion this is the very best vanilla out there.  It is expensive but the flavor is so amazing that to me it is totally worth it and it is my little secret for a few years now which I share with you.

Now take your berry mash and put it into your pot, add the rest of the sugar and cook it on medium until it reduces and starts getting thicker.  I do not use pectin in my recipe because I want it to be as natural as possible.  We tried it today and it was perfectly jelled and oh so good.  OK back to the recipe.  How can you tell if you are ready to put your jam into jars?  Here is what I do.

  I put a little plate in the freezer and I take it out when I am ready to test my jam.  I put a little and since the plate is frozen cold it will jell up if ready.

 put into your jars, put the lids on and then can them.  You can find lots of instructions on line but basically, I boil a big soup pot of water.  I put my jars and lids in and boil them for a few minutes.  Carefully take them out and I put them on a towel or cloth on the counter.  I ladle my jam into each jar leaving a little room at the top.  Put the lids on and put them into the boiling water for about 10 minutes.  I remove them and wait for the plink.  The plink is the sound the jar lid makes when it seals (love that sound).  If after about 20 minutes your jar lids do not seal you can either boil them again or put them in the fridge.

I promise you will never want to eat store bought again…  my kids said it was unbelievable, incredible and totally awesome (that kid sound like he is from the 80s).  I spent a total of $4 to make this jam and I got 8 jars.  Even if you don’t have a u-pick in your town, last week Whole Foods had organic strawberries for $1 for a pound of strawberries.  Keep an eye out for those sales.

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