.... with red stuff everywhere... splattered all over the kitchen counters, floor, not enough dishtowels to soak it all up. Brightly colored scarlet: gooey, sticky mess gumming feet to the floor and dripping all over the place.
Not to worry: I've been making strawberry jam. Lots and lots of strawberry jam. Much more than I had expected or intended, due to having all those berries. They were on sale at the store through last Saturday, and as cheap as I thought they would be all season. I was therefore compelled to buy some with the intention of turning the berries into toast topping the first of the week.
I got up Monday morning thinking I would get it done. But only got them ready: washing, cutting their little green caps/stems off, and putting in the blender to smoosh before the actual jam-ming part.
I could not figure out how much to buy, even though I read the paperwork/flyer that came in the box of sure-jel. So I came home with a flat of berries, plus more. A cardboard flat holds eight plastic boxes, and each box is a pound. I thought they were measured in pints, but what do I know? Obviously a lot more now, after making over thirty half-pint jars. And: Yay! success: they all sealed.
What I do know now: is that one pound of berries will make about two cups, if you are putting the berries in the blender to chop up. You don't want to puree to the point of no clumps/lumps, so you just kinda sorta make the blender do the hard part, so you don't have to extert muscle power with the potato masher. I used two different kinds of the gel stuff. One was a liquid with two packets in the box, and the other was for reduced sugar, which was powdered like a jello pudding mix, and called for about half the amount of sugar the other used. I'm a'jammin' all over the place...
Expect to get a little jar of strawberry jam for Christmas, tied up with a bright green ribbon, looking very seasonal. And if you don't mind, please return the jar, so I can make more jam next year?
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