8:24 a.m. Yank covers off Princess Cupcake. Departure time in 16 minutes.
8:26 a.m. Have forceably inserted soccer socks and shorts onto Princess Cupcake while she is still horizontal in bed with eyes firmly closed.
8:27 a.m. Princess Cupcake sits upright with big eyes and says, “MOM. It’s TEACHER APPRECIATION day at Camp today. We HAVE to take a present for the teachers!”
Departure time in 13 minutes. Reamaining tasks include:
- Dress Princess Cupcake. Comb and braid her hair, brush her teeth. Put on her shoes.
- Load car with laptop, purse, swim lesson bag, soccer bag
- Fill waterbottle
- Feed Princess Cupcake breakfast. Feed mama breakfast.
- Make coffee to go.
- Magically create cards and gifts for soccer coaches.
The last one was certainly endangering our current on-time record, and it is is exactly why I jam.
I spent a weekend making these cute jars of delicious jam and they were still sitting on the table saying, “pick me! Pick me!”
SO, last minute teacher appreciation gift solved. I hit the jam stash. The “teachers” are actually soccer coaches from the UK so I thought jam was perfect. Everyone knows the English love jam.
Turns out, a lot of people love this jam I’ve made, so I thought I’d share my recipe with you. You know, so you can be prepared for those last minute teacher appreciation gifts and whatnot.
Triple Berry Mojito Jam
Adapted from Canning Special Interest Publication from Better Homes & Gardens
4 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh cherries
1 cup fresh strawberries
Finely shredded lime peel of 1 large lime
3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice (this is about 2 limes, depending on their size)
6 fresh mint stalks about 5 inches tall, tied together with 100% cotton kitchen string
1.75 ounces of fruit pectin
4 cups sugar
In a 6 – 8 quart heavy pot, crush 1 cup of the blueberries with a potato masher. Keep adding blueberries and crushing, then add the strawberries and cherries, until you have 4 cups of crushed berries.
Stir in lime peel, lime juice, and mint.
Stir in pectin.
Move pot to stovetop and bring mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.
While boiling, stir in sugar and return to full rolling boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Boil hard for one minute, stirring constantly. I know, seems like a lot of specific types of boiling but trust me.
Remove from heat. Remove and discard mint.
Skim off the foam from the top with a metal spoon.
Ladle hot jam into hot sterilized half-pint canning jars, leaving a ¼ inch headspace.
Insert knife along side to help remove any air pockets and remove.
Wipe jar rims, adjust lids and screw bands to fingertip tightness.
Process filled jars into a boiling water canner for 10 minutes. Start the 10 minutes after the water returns to boiling.
Remove jars from canner.
Cool on wire racks.
Check tops to make sure the lids are on tight. If you can push the center in, then put the jar in the fridge and eat over the next few days.
Makes 6 half pints of jam.
New to canning? Here’s a great tutorial on how to get your jars ready.
If you’re giving these as gifts, wrap the lids with a fun fabric, wrap some twine around and add your personalized label!
I like to have it for dinner with homemade biscuits. 🙂
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