Jammin'

I made "refrigerator" jam this afternoon.  Pup and I swam and went for a short walk after work, which took an extra hour or so out of the day.  Even though I wanted to do some housework, I've been wanting to make fresh jam.  Last week, blueberries were uber cheap, so that was what I thought I'd use.  Well, they weren't on sale, but strawberries were.

The recipe calls for four cups of berries and four cups of sugar.  There is just no way I would use that much sugar.  The instructions warned not to cut the amount of sugar.  Well, I'll live dangerously and with imperfection.  Ingredients are simple:  Strawberries, a few remaining blueberries, sugar, cinnamon, water and pectin.  This batch probably cost under five bucks to make.

To compensate for the under-use of sugar, I filled three jars mostly with fruit.  The last jar is more liquid.  I will use this as a syrup over ice cream or waffles.  The jars will sit on the counter tonight and then the syrup and one jar will go in the fridge. I will freeze the others.

I also made a chicken, spinach and basil pizza on a wheat crust for dinner, so we are just about done with the chicken.  Not sure what I will  make for dinner tomorrow, but it will be a pizza-like meal.  So far I've spent about $65 on food this week and don't want to shop for anything else unless we absolutely need it for the weekend.  I do think I saved money by making jam and will probably keep this up for the rest of the summer.

Are you jammin' too?