Jam Plan

Does anybody remember that Friends episode where Monica makes all that jam because she just broke up with her boyfriend, Richard? Well that happened to me MINUS the breakup part. So basically I just made jam for the sake of making jam. So thanks to the combined inspiration of Friends and Martha sending me jam recipes, I did it! It was the best decision I had made in weeks, though. YUM.

First you must OBVI wash the 4lbs of strawberries. MMM.

Then chop them all up into one inch squares/bits. This is one box chopped and put into an 8 quart stock pot. Martha says 10 quarts but...I only have 8. Make it work!

Phew! Here is what 4lbs of strawberries looks like all chopped up. Next, turn the heat up on your stove...

And start pouring on the sugar! Pour in 1/4 cup to start.

Stir it around with a wooden spoon until it is all mixed in.

Then I put in a few more cups of sugar, and stirred it as I went along. MMM it smells so good!

Next, turn up the heat and bring the strawberries and sugar to a boil and maintain a temperature of 220 degrees on your candy thermometer. After this, you are to do a gel test. Spoon a tiny amount of the almost jam onto a plate that you had put into the freezer about 3 steps ago, and leave it in there for about 4 mins. After 4 mins, test the jam to see if it has "gelled." In other words, is it gellin'? If it is, then you're good to go and you can take the jam off the burner. If not, keep boiling it. And test again.

After you've tested the jam to see if it's gelled (or licked a very very cold plate a few times), then you can start to pour it into the jars! I got small jars so that it would look like I had a lot of jam. It's important that you put it in while it's warm.

I made 7 jars!

Then, if you're a huge nerd, you can take out your sticker maker and make sticker labels! I made mine with Farrow and Ball wallpaper. Martha also has some templates, but I wanted to make my own.

Here they are!

Close up.

OOPS.

HERE is Martha Stewart's recipe which I was most impressed by. Next stop: scones. Thanks!

Alicia B.