Freezer Strawberry Jam for #StrawberryWeek

For once I just shut my mouth and followed directions. I made my mom's recipe. 

Which is the Sure-Jell (pectin) recipe. 

And you know what? It rocks!

I guess some things shouldn't be fiddled with.

My poor mom. Sometimes I'm a bit too hard on her. When she told my brother that we were going to make this jam he scoffed at her, saying, "Kayle probably won't want to make your jam, she'll want to make her own!"

Because I'm a snobby meanie pants.

But this time that was not going to happen! I trusted in my family and their time-honored tradition of making this recipe, and it was totally the right choice.

Mom and I made this jam together, as a team. So I'm pretty sure we put some magical mother-daughter bonding love in there. Which is probably why it tastes so amazing. Plus all the sugar. Yeah. It's probably both.

Michael took one bite of a piece of toast loaded up with this jam and he said, "THIS is what strawberry jam should taste like!"

Recipe could not be simpler. You just mash some gorgeous strawberries, add in some sugar, cook a little pectin, mix mix mix, let sit, then freeze! DONE. Super easy. My mom made like a triple batch so we ended up with a ton of jam! It got given to aunts, uncles, grandma, etc. So we spread the love via spreading the strawberry jam!

This was the first strawberry recipe I made and now it is my final post for #StrawberryWeek-how perfect! Ending it the way it began.

Mmmmm mmmm mmm.

Raspberry Jam (Pectin Free)

The boyfriend loves raspberries.

He also enjoys having jams/preserves. I pack his lunch for work everyday, and I oftentimes make him a PB&J with whatever jam/preserves we have. For awhile, we had some that were given to us by his family. Then we ran out. Around this time, I also had a couple bags of frozen raspberries leftover from something or another. Also around this time, I think I was reading a blog post with a jam recipe. And I was like, "Whoa-that's it? That's all jam is?!" So I had the brilliant idea to google a raspberry jam recipe. Then I learned about pectin. I don't have pectin, and don't particularly want to buy any, so I made sure to search for pectin free recipes. And then I found one. This recipe makes a lot of jam, but I only had enough raspberries for a half batch-so that's what I made. It came out perfectly! I was (and am) so proud of myself!