Strawberry Jam and Strawberry-Banana Jam

Yep, it's Plant City, FL strawberry season, the BEST strawberries on earth. We happened upon a Farmer's Market in Tampa a week ago, and I bought three $8 flats (12 overfilled pint baskets =1 flat). Half a flat went to momma and daddy, the other half went to my sister Patty, and the other two flats took up occupancy in the fruit and the vegetable drawers of my fridge until the Easter holiday passed.

I made a batch of strawberry jam, using this recipe by Pioneer Woman. It is a two-part directions, so you'll have to click for part two once you've completed the first steps.  Pioneer Woman is great! She does things simply and does them right. The only thing I do different is, I slosh in some vinegar (maybe a quarter cup) just before sitting the filled jars in to boil.  Doing this keeps the jars from getting a chalky residue from hard water, and this way, I don't have to wipe the jars off afterwards. I came out with six one-pint jars for this recipe.

Because I like variety when I'm cooking a large batch of anything, I broke things up and whipped up this recipe for Strawberry-Banana Jam. We had bananas with spots and tons of strawberries, so why not give it a go? This recipe produced 7 & 1/2 eight ounce (half-pint) jars. Mark said it smells wonderful, but I have a cold and sadly, cannot taste nor smell any of these recipes. I smeared some on buttered bread, but could have been eating pond scum and wouldn't realize it. Ugh. I hate having a cold! Mark said it ta"interesting" with only a mild hint of banana. He was glad it didn't have that awful artificial banana taste.

Still more strawberries. I made two more repeats of the original plain Strawberry Jam recipe by Pioneer Woman. I made this last year and I KNOW it's wonderful.  Better make a lot, as my friends and family have been begging for more after sampling last years' batch. I made two more batches with the strawberries (and jars) I had remaining. Total for 2 flats: 20 pints, using a mix of half-pint and pint jars.

There is nothing more satisfying than the pop-pop-pop of lids as they seal!

MUST BE JELLY, CUZ JAM DON'T SHAKE LIKE THAT!

I made jam, not jelly, but isn't that a funny thing to say?