October 5, 2010

A Tale of Two Jams (and a Butter)

I spend all of Sunday canning with my friends, making up some holiday gifts for my friends and family. (If I can bear to part with any of it, that is.) You must make this first recipe. Gift or not, this jam is SO good. My inspiration came from Stonewall Kitchen's Bellini jam. I thought 'I can make that!' So I simply substituted a cup and a half of Prosecco for some fruit in the low-sugar Sure Jell peach jam recipe.


The jam is sweet like peaches, but then has a tart finish, like Prosecco. It makes me want to go to Italy and drink Bellinis.

And a repeat from last year's jamming session, we made hot pepper jam. Oh, and be sure to use the online recipe, not the one in the package- the one in the package leaves out the sugar! So add 3 cups of sugar or else your jam will be gross.


This jam turned out prettier than last year's batch, since we made sure to use red bell peppers. The nice red flecks really make a beautiful difference. Cream cheese and Wheat Thins here I come!


And last, but certainly not least, the apple butter! Apple butter takes forever to cook down, so be sure to start it first thing. It also made a mess all over dear Kelly's stove and burned Hope once or twice with it's blurping. So be careful!

But it's worth the wait- it's so sweet and spicy. I can't think of what I'm going to use it on (other than the obvious toast), but maybe just eating it out of the jar will suffice.