Summer Shake Up

 Well, summer is finally here, even if unofficially. The kids are out of school, the weather has warmed up and the mosquitoes have arrived in full force. Summer is my absolute most favorite time of year! I love the sun, the tank tops and the flip flops! I do not love the first 10 days of summer break though, it takes this long for my kids to adjust to a new routine and to figure out who's in charge (spoiler alert, its ME!). We have the chore charts, we have discussed summer expectations, and we have talked about some fun things we would all like to accomplish. We have started with the best of intentions and we will see if we can make it all the way through before Netflix becomes the babysitter. Being a mom is HARD, we are all aware of that, but it is also amazing! It is the best most amazing and most hard thing I have ever tried to do. I love my kids! They are not perfect but they are mine and I love them all! 

One of our goals this summer is to give them more responsibility. I mean haven't we all seen that video of the three year old little guy making stir fry over an open fire for his little sibling? Our kids are so capable! I want them to know how capable they are, and that they can do hard things, and that they can learn to do knew things too. But it is SO hard for me to let them make the messes. I am trying to teach them all to cook, so I'm going to share with you all our "cooking with kids" journey over the summer. Here's the plan...I have 4 kids ages 12, 11, 9, 6. All four of them in the kitchen is too much for me. So I split them up into teams of 2 and have the teams rotating every week through the summer. This week E and M are together and T and T are together. We are starting our roundup with Strawberry Freezer Jam. I usually make this every year and sell it to friends and family and use the money to spend on "summer fun" because going anywhere with four kids can get a little pricey. We try to do our best to always stretch the budget so we do a little "fun"draising. Any who, this year I'm letting the kids make and sell it to help offset the cost of church camp. (Seriously, why is it SO expensive?!?!)

Its super simple, and oh so yummy! Here is a quick rundown. You are only 15 minutes from some serious deliciousness.

Here is what you need. 

Yup, that's it! Sugar, Sure Jell and Strawberries.

First you want to wash your strawberries. Get all that yucky stuff off of them. 

Next, "hull" the strawberries. This just meant you remove the stem and that white stringy part in the center of the berry attached to the stem. (I used a knife this time because we ended up making 15+ batches, but you can use your fingernails too.)

Then you just want to crush them. You can use a food processor for this, but I think it almost liquifies the berries, and since its jam I like it to have more chunks of fruit in it, rather than processing it down too small, so we use an old-fashioned potato masher and then just go through and break up any pieces that are too big with our hands. The kids love this part! 

After you get your berries all crushed, you just measure out 4 cups of sugar (I know, I know but it is SO good. Make sure you use exact measurements or you won't get a good "set" on your jam. Do NOT be intimidated by this, just measure it out and you'll be fine.) and two cups of crushed berries and add them to a mixing bowl, stir to combine and let set while you do this next step. Easy peezy.

Add the package of Sure Jell and 3/4 cup water (temperature isn't very important but just don't use hot water.) to a small saucepan and whisk until combined, it will look like cloudy water. Then turn heat to high and stir occasionally. Once it starts to boil, you are going to want to stir continually for 1 minute. I don't mean just small bubbles around the edges, although this is when I start to be a little more conscious of my stirring. You want bubbles to form across the entire surface, that would be the boiling point, and it will start to "grow" (don't worry, its supposed to do that) just keep whisking. I actually do set my timer on this one, it needs to boil for one full minute.  

After your pectin (Sure Jell) has boiled for one solid minute, give your crushed strawberries and sugar a quick stir and then immediately pour the pectin into them. S
et another timer for three minutes and gently stir together the strawberries, sugar and pectin for 3 solid minutes. Once the timer goes off, you're done! Simply put the jam into freezer safe containers. The jam will need to set out on the counter at room temperature for 24 hours so that the jam gets a proper set. Then transfer to the freezer to store. We use ours straight out of the freezer, it doesn't freeze solid. Use it on toast, ice cream, cheesecake, bagels with cream cheese, add to shakes or smoothies, or frosting! YUM! To really make it look like you have your life together, make some "strawberry toast" make your toast, slather on some butter and freezer jam, and top with sliced strawberries, Your Welcome!

Cooking delicious food doesn't have to be hard, I promise. It's just one of the many things I hope you know! 

Much love, Jenn

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