Canned Gifts

We made and canned several jams and jellies in 2011 and gave some to our family members. Ed's brother, Mike, really likes grapefruit, so we tweaked a recipe to make grapefruit jelly. It was actually pretty simple (just freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, sugar, and liquid pectin) and definitely tastes like grapefruit.



Grapefruit Jelly

We made some other jellies while we were at it, since the grapefruit jelly recipe only yields about 3 half-pints. We used some wine a friend brought to our house a long time ago for red wine jelly (the alcohol boils off when you make wine jelly, so it's more like a fancy grape jelly with a little different taste). It has a really pretty reddish-purplish color when you hold it up to light, but that didn't make for a good photo on the day I took these pictures. Red wine jelly can be used for flavoring roasts or tenderloins, among other things.


Red Wine Jelly

Next was white wine jelly. This tastes sweeter and milder--more like something you'd put on bread or crackers.
 

White Wine Jelly

 In early August, we made our first attempt at fig jam. We got a case of fresh figs from Valli Produce and used the whole case. The recipe yielded 6 half-pints, with a little left over to put in the 'fridge. It's really good.


Fig Jam

We made another batch of pineapple jam, which is a family favorite.


Pineapple Jam

And last, but certainly not least, kiwi daiquiri jam (that's what the recipe in the Ball preserving book calls it). We've made kiwi jam before, but this recipe is our new standard (one main difference is that it calls for powdered pectin instead of liquid pectin, which is what the other recipe called for). The best part is that the seeds are more evenly suspended (in the other kiwi jam, they would all rise to the top inch or two of the jar).


Kiwi Daiquiri Jam

I got some label stickers at Office Depot and made my own labels, so here they are all together and labeled (the light wasn't very good all week, and I needed to send these out, so it's not the best quality photo it could've been, but you get the idea).



It was fun to try some new recipes in 2011. Any suggestions for 2012?