STRAWBERRY FREEZER JAM

It's that time of year again! Strawberry season is upon us! For you folks in the cold North, you still have another month to wait for berries! Someone gave me a bunch of "leftover" berries the other day and it was so many that my first thought was to make freezer jam with them! I ended up making 20 (1/2 pint) containers and still had enough left over to make a batch of strawberry shortcake! WooHoo!
Strawberry freezer jam is so quick and easy to make! And makes such a nice gift when you pair it w/ a loaf of homemade bread or biscuits. To make preparing the berries quicker, I chop mine in my food processor. But you could mash your berries with a potato masher or just mash them with your hands even. At any rate, any work that goes into making the jam is WELL worth the effort!

STRAWBERRY FREEZER JAM

2 cups  crushed strawberries (buy 1 qt. fully ripe strawberries)

4 cups  sugar, measured into separate bowl

3/4 cup  water

1 pkg.  SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin

 

RINSE 5 (1-cup) plastic containers and lids with boiling water. Dry thoroughly. Discard stems. Crush strawberries thoroughly, 1 cup at a time. Measure exactly 2 cups prepared fruit into large bowl. Stir in sugar. Let stand 10 min., stirring occasionally.  

 

MIX water and pectin in small saucepan. Bring to boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Continue boiling and stirring 1 min. Add to fruit mixture; stir 3 min. or until most the sugar is dissolved. (A few sugar crystals may remain.)

 

FILL containers immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off top edges of containers; immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Jam is now ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to 1 year. (If frozen, thaw in refrigerator before using.)

 

*I'm still trying to master the low sugar version. I made both kinds yesterday. The regular one set up quite nicely but the low sugar one did not. I'm working on fixing it and figuring out what I did wrong. 

If I can't fix it, I'll have 8 jars of ice cream topping to give away as gifts! When life hands you runny jam, make ice cream sundaes!  :-)   

HOMEMADE BREAKFAST SYRUP

For years I've tried to get away from as many processed food items as I can. It began when our little 6 yr girl was diagnosed w/ cancer. During her year of chemo we ate a whole foods diet and down through the years I have tried to continue that as much as possible. Real maple syrup is just the best, but who can afford it? I don't like the sticky "what is this stuff" taste about bottled syrup. Plus I love, love, love to make my own food rather than dumping it out of a bottle, can or box! This is super easy to cook up and who doesn't love nice warm syrup on their pancakes, waffles and french toast?!

HOMEMADE BREAKFAST SYRUP

1 cup water

2 cups white sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 tsp maple flavoring

1/2 stick butter

Combine water, sugar and corn syrup in saucepan. Heat, stirring occasionally until mixture boils. Cover and boil gently for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and maple flavoring and blend thoroughly. Serve warm over pancakes, waffles or french toast.

Yeild: 1 1/4 cups syrup



UNFRIED CHICKEN

This is the best "unfried" chicken you will ever have. The coating also works well on skinless, boneless chicken tenders to make into chicken fingers for the kids. You could serve that with honey mustard dipping sauce (I'll add a yummy recipe for that at the end of the chicken recipe). This particular chicken went really well with steamed white rice and the roasted veggies that we had for dinner tonight. My daughter Sarah cooked dinner tonight and surprised us with this meal. It was delicious! The black specks on the chicken is fresh ground black pepper. I sprinkled it on just before I dug in. Mmm!

UNFRIED CHICKEN

1/4 cup Fat free mayo
1 t. dijon mustard
2 t. grated lemon zest
1/2 t salt
4 drops hot pepper sauce (more or less to taste)
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 c. cornflakes, crushed

* Preheat oven to 375. Spray a large baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
*whisk together mayo, mustard, lemon zest, salt and hot pepper sauce in a bowl. add chicken, toss to coat.
*Place cornflake crumbs in a large zip-close plastic bag. add chicken, one piece at a time and toss to coat.
*place chicken in the baking pan, drizzle lightly w/ olive oil.
*Bake until golden brown and cooked through - about 30 minutes.

Number of Servings: 4

WW points value: 3 pts

HONEY MUSTARD DIPPING SAUCE

3/4 cup mayonnaise 3 tablespoon honey 2 tablespoon yellow mustard 1 tablespoon lemon juice or juice from 1/2 lemon 1 dash paprika 2 tablespoon orange juice (more or less as needed)
Combine all ingredients except orange juice; stir well. Thin to pouring consistency for dressing or dipping consistency for dips with orange juice. Cover and chill for 2 or 3 hours.