Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam

Last year was my first venture into making jam.  The initial batch was a total flop and I almost gave up.  I have the terrible personality trait that if I can't be good at something, I don't want to try.  Thankfully, after some good advice from a friend, I tried a different method that used pectin and the second batch turned out fabulously.  If I do say so myself.  If you're a new jam maker, forget trying to make it without any additives at all and just get Certo liquid pectin.  Just do it.  Then follow the recipe inside to the letter.

This year's jam was not without its trials.  

Oh, it started out beautifully.  I chopped up a bunch of strawberries.  I wish I could say I used homegrown strawberries, but I can't.  I started a strawberry patch this year, but it's not established enough to produce a lot of fruit so I just grabbed several cartons from the grocery store. 

We do have rhubarb, though.  I gathered rhubarb from our little patch, and chopped that up too.  Did you know that not all rhubarb is red?  It's not.  

If you're a health nut like me, you're going to be appalled at the amount of sugar that goes into jam.  There are different types of Certo for low-sugar, but not where I live.  So I went with the full-on, diabetes-inducing, sugar jam.  Yum.  

This, though, was the point where my jam making took a nosedive.  What's supposed to happen is that you bring your jam to a full boil, then add the Certo, then boil for one minute longer.  Mine came to a full boil alright....but unfortunately I wasn't standing right next to it and it boiled over.  Everywhere.

You don't even want to know how long it took me to get that off the glass top, off the counter, off the floor and all the cupboards between.  Thankfully only the stove was burned, and not the jam--which was the issue last year when I tried to make it without pectin.

  A super sticky pot does not prevent you from ladling out this sugar-luciousness into jars.

And what you end up with in the end?  Heaven.

Though I admit I could eat this out of the jar, I really love it swirled in plain yogurt or slathered on an English muffin.  Try it.  Grab some fruit, some Certo liquid pectin, and a whooooollllle lot of pure cane sugar, and make some.  Don't walk away from the pot, and you'll enjoy it all winter long!