Make Your Own Homemade Marshmallows

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Plum Jam (Cooked Version)

Okay, I'm missing summer.  We've had a good bout of snow lately and while the sledding has been fun, warm would be nice.  So in honor of all the snow, here's another flashback to summer post.  Plum Jam.  Cooked jams are not too difficult and a little bit of fruit can actually make more jam than you might think.  And one of the best parts about making jam is that you can make "variations on the theme" jams that you'll never find in a store, like cherry-strawberry or plum-pineapple or peach-jalepeno (hubby's personal favorite).  So in this post we'll talk about making jam from plums, but the general process applies to making cooked jam out of almost any fruit.

I'm using the recipe out of the MCP pectin box, other recipes may vary on ingredient amounts. You'll need:
plums (5 3/4 cups chopped)
sugar (8 1/2 cups)
lemon juice (1/2 cup)
pectin (I like MCP, but any boxed pectin works)
jars (pint or half pint are good)
lids and rings
water bath canner

Step 1: Wash your plums.  I got these plums from a friend who got them from a friend of hers who had too many on their tree, but then my friend picked too many of those so I got a box of them.  They're kind of funny looking plums--not the kind you get in the store.  They are harder, very purple/blue on the outside, very green on the inside, and kind of oblong shaped.  Any plums work.

Step 2: Pit and chop the plums.  Cut the plums in half to get the pits out.  I used my scary food processor to do the chopping.

Step 3:  Put the chopped plums in a pot with the lemon juice and heat it up.  Doesn't look very "plum" colored does it?  As you heat, the color bleeds from the skins and it all turns a nice plum color.  About this time is also good to get your water in your canner and start heating that up.  You'll also want to put all your lids in a little pot of water and heat them up a little.

Step 4: In a separate bowl, measure all the sugar.

Step 5: Once the sugar is ready, add the pectin to the pot of hot fruit and mix it in.  Don't add the sugar yet.  You can also add just a dab of butter or margarine to the pot (about 1/2 tsp.)  This will reduce the foaming that happens when you cook the jam and make a better looking jam.  Why it works, I do not know.  Canning magic.

Step 6: Bring the fruit mixture to a full rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly (this is why you want your sugar already measured).

Step 7:  Once the mixture is boiling, stir in the sugar all at once and return to a full rolling boil.  Once you hit the full rolling boil, start your timer and let it boil for 4 minutes.  See?  Nicely plum colored now. :)

Step 8:  After four minutes, remove the jam from the heat, skim any foam, and scoop it into the jars.  Wipe the rims and put your hot lids on.  Put the jars in the canner and process for 10 minutes.  Make sure the water is 1-2 inches over the lids of the jars, add more water if you need to, then wait to start the canning time until it's boiling.

After 10 minutes, remove the jars from the canner and put them on a rack to cool.  I use the ultra cool upside down oven rack with the opposite end supported by a plate.

Label and put them away.  Jam of any kind makes great gifts or can quickly go with a loaf of bread or rolls to a potluck or family in need--a lot of these went out at Christmas this last year.  The last round I did, I didn't have enough plums so I opened a can of crushed pineapple and used that to make up the fruit volume.  That's my standby when I don't have enough fruit to finish a batch of jam, so we've had peach/pineapple, strawberry/pineapple, apricot/pineapple, and now plum/pineapple jam.  They're all good.

Cookies in the Sun Oven

I've borrowed a Sun Oven from a sweet friend, and since it's been sunny, I've been out experimenting with it a bit. I got it out Monday, intending to cook some bread in it since I was baking bread anyway, but it had never been out of the box, and the instructions say to let it heat up and then cool down and wash the interior before baking in it (you know, to burn off the "new" fumes), so that's how Monday's baking went--all the bread just went in the regular oven.

Tuesday was nice and sunny, so I busted the sun oven back out to bake some cookies. Here it is all set up in my yard:
After 20 or so minutes, it had heated up to about 310 degrees. Really. All you skeptics out there that think it would take two hours to heat up a solar oven, it really did heat up in 20 minutes. Here's the thermometer:
And just for good measure, here's a photo of the back of the sun oven with the height adjustment leg to enable you to aim it right at the sun. EASY.
I made my husband's favorite oatmeal cookies and put a pan of them in the oven. The cooking chamber isn't extremely large. I used a smallish pan instead of my regular cookie sheets.
This cookie recipe is 350 for 10 minutes, so I checked at 10 minutes and the cookies weren't quite done (of course, since the heat level was lower than 350).
Here's how we looked at 15 minutes. Done. Actually a little overdone--they were a bit dry. Not burned, just a bit dry. I pulled the second batch out a little sooner with better results.
That's steam coming out the top of the door when I opened it. Yep, it gets that hot in the oven.
The cookies were delicious, and cooking in the sun oven was easy. I'm definitely sold. I'll be trying something else this week before I have to give the oven back. :)

Huh? Pure Powdered Sugar

A while ago I bought powdered sugar at our local store where the good brand (C&H) is more expensive than the cheap brand by a very large margin, so I was forced by my frugality to buy the cheap brand because I couldn't stomach the amount they were charging for the good stuff.

Now I remember why I get the good stuff (this is the other brand):
Could someone please explain to me how "PURE" powdered sugar contains sugar AND cornstarch? This made a noticable change in the taste of my favorite chocolate frosting today--very disappointing.

Only have to suffer through another bag and a half of this ick before I'm back to the real stuff. Or maybe I'll save the unopened bag for barter . . .