Pump Up the Jam

 Sterilizing jars and lids at 175 degrees in my oven. 

 Strawberries, sugar, lemon juice,lemon zest, and a little bit of water (I didn't have enough juice to dissolve the sugar)

 Cooking down took twice as long as the recipe.

 hot liquids into hot jars, on a clean towel.

 Pretty pretty jam pics taken outside!

Next day jam on freshly baked biscuits. Yum!

I have never made jam before. I followed Barefoot Contessa's recipe. I read many of the reviews before starting and found them mixed. I doubled her recipe and used half pint jars (making 8). They are small and cute and I figured I could share the jam love with more people that way. I was slightly stressed out because I started the process of sterilizing, and then realize that I hadn't hulled and chopped three pounds of strawberries or juiced any lemons. I figured that the jars could stay in the oven for the duration of the cooking, so I had them in there about twice as long as the recipe called for. I started by combining the sugar and lemon juice. There wasn't near enough juice to dissolve the sugar, so I added a little water and that did the trick. I cooked and cooked those strawberries, but the juice never quite set up. Many reviews said that would happen. I figured it would taste good either way, jammy or not. Once I poured the hot liquid in the hot jars, I cleaned the rims with a clean wet paper towel, and put the lids on. I put them in the fridge overnight and immediately started bragging to people that I MADE JAM! 

The verdict: It tasted amazing. Nice and sweet with chunky strawberries. The juice never quite set up, so the strawberries sat on my biscuit, while the juice soaked in. No complaints. Yum. The next night, I brought a jar of jam to my Moma's house. I told her how the jam never set up. She said the same thing always happened to her, and her fruit would float. That didn't happen to me, but she suggested pouring it over ice cream. She had just enough Bluebell Homemade Vanilla for us to each have a small scoop with my strawberry "jam" on top. YUMMMY! Way way better than on the biscuits. It was so perfect on ice cream, that I don't even want to call it jam. Strawberry topping is more like it. If I made jam again, which i will (the jars are too cute not to) I would choose a different fruit (strawberry isn't even my favorite) and follow a recipe that calls for pectin (the liquid setter-upper).