Apple-Rhubarb Refrigerator Jam

If you were to ask me what my favorite vegetable is, I’d be hard-pressed to come up with an answer.  I’m a big fan of veggies and am not likely to turn many of them away.  But there is one vegetable (that doesn’t even really feel like a vegetable – it feels more like a fruit if you ask me) that probably generates a particular kind of excitement in me that others can’t match.

I’m talking about you, Rhubarb.

Mmmmm. . . rhubarb.

I suppose the reason that it excites me so is that it comes and goes so quickly.  It’s that whole limited supply, time-constrained marketing ploy that Mother Nature clearly figured out long before the fancy advertising executives did.

Plus, it’s delicious, so it has that going for it.

Rhubarb fascinates me, actually.  It’s beautiful.  Really truly beautiful.  The tall stalks are lovely and when you chop them up, the layers of color inside create an ombre effect that is so visually stimulating.  I love how it’s so firm in its raw state, but cooks and bakes up softly with ease.

This year, I have decided I need to stock up and freeze some rhubarb so that I can enjoy it for months to come, but for right now, I made jam.  Instead of going the traditional route, combining rhubarb with strawberries (which also would have been great, I’m sure), I decided to combine my rhubarb with apples and whip up a satisfying spread that delivers just a touch of sweetness to whatever it graces.

Enjoy.

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Apple-Rhubarb Refrigerator Jam

Makes 1 – 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rhubarb, chopped
• 1 cup apple, unpeeled, chopped (I used a Granny Smith)
• 1 cup sugar or sugar alternative of your choice
• ¼ tspn ground ginger
• ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Method:

In a heavy bottomed pot, combine all ingredients over med-high heat.  Bring to a low boil and then reduce heat to low-medium, so that it simmers gently.  Cook, stirring frequently and skimming off any foam that may develop on the top.  Using the back of your spoon or a potato masher, break up the chunks of rhubarb and apple as they soften and break down.  The jam is ready when it has become thick and viscous enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.  Remove from heat.  Pour into a glass jar and let sit, uncovered at room temperature until cool.  The jam will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks.

Recipe: Blueberry Jam (Filling the Blueberry Void)

For a while now, Mr. Move Eat Create has been lamenting the lack of blueberry jam.  Other jam flavors abound: strawberry, apricot, blackberry, raspberry and so on.  But, blueberry, he sadly noted, was missing.

I decided to fix that.

Knowing that blueberry season is quickly nearing its end, I thought I should act quickly.  So I snatched up two pints of locally grown blueberries and set about my kitchen to fill the blueberry jam void.

This is a fairly thin jam and has a really nice fresh flavor that is quite delicious spread on toast.  Mr. Move Eat Create also thinks it is amazing scooped onto some Nutulla-covered graham crackers.  To be fair, he thinks a good many things are great when combined with Nutella, but he’s probably right, nonetheless.

Jam.  Spread.  Nutella companion.  Whatever you want to do with it, enjoy!

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Blueberry Jam

Ingredients:

2 pints blueberries

½ cup cane sugar

1 tblspn freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:

1. Pick through your blueberries to ensure all traces of stems are removed and then wash them well.
2. Put blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice into a medium sized pot over medium-high heat.
3. As the blueberries warm up, begin to mash them with the back of a wooden spoon or potato masher.  It’s not necessary to completely mash them, as they will break down as they cook.
4. Once the mixture starts to boil, reduce heat to medium.  Continue to mash as needed and stir, while cooking uncovered over medium heat for 20-25 minutes.  Skim off foam or skin that forms on the top as it cooks.
5. The jam will still be quite thin, but you’ll know it’s ready to come off the heat when it has thickened enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon when dipped into it.
6. Remove from heat and let cool in the pot for an hour or two.  Skim off any remaining skin and pour into a jar.  Leave uncovered for several more hours or overnight in order to cool completely.  Cover and store in refrigerator.

My Weekend In Pictures

My new flex schedule at work provides me with three day weekends twice a month.  I’m loving the extra time and here’s some evidence to prove it!

A lovely little tea service.  Followed by a delicious cucumber sandwich.

Working fast to get caught up with my fellow knit-a-longers on the Holla Back Tank.

Time spent in the kitchen for blueberry jam and plum muffins (recipes to be posted soon).

A trip to the Farmer’s Market.

And an evening chopping veggies for Samosa Wraps.

Plus, a great long run and ordering yarn for another knit-a-long (more on that to come)!

A Perfect Saturday Morning Treat?

There are so many foods that I once thought I hated and have since been proven wrong about.  Not having been exposed to a wide variety of foods when I was young, I just wrote off most unfamiliar items as ‘not for me’.  But, I’ve been happily proven wrong over the last few years.  The list of surprisingly enjoyable foods includes a great many vegetables (such as cauliflower – one of my absolute favorite veggies), but some have been much more common.

Such as jam.  Yes, jam.  Delicious, delicious jam.

For 31 years of my life, I thought I hated it.  I think the reality is that I’d never really had it before.  I’d had jelly (which as it turns out IS actually something that makes me shudder) and just assumed jelly and jam were one and the same.  Turns out this is not true AT ALL.  And hurrah for that!

I have been sampling jams and preserves of late and am finding them to be such a satisfying and delightful sweet treat – such a great addition to an english muffin or my much revered scones.  What is so great about jam, I think, is that the sweetness (if made well) is primarily natural tasting and awakening to the senses. The unnaturalness of so many jellies is a big part of what steered me away from jam for so long. The jelly that you find lining grocery store shelves and slapped on top of peanut butter is either too overloaded with sugar or too crammed full of artificial sweeteners.  That is not appealing to me at all, but jam is a different story.  Well made, all-natural jam has pushed itself boldly into my little food world.

I just bookmarked a strawberry-rhubarb jam recipe that I intend to make next week with fruit from my CSA box (I’ll tell you about that another time), but for now, for this past weekend, I had the delectable snack you see above.

This delightfully crumbly, slightly sweet biscuit was sliced in two and filled with a healthy dollop of strawberry jam.  This biscuit and this jam MADE my Saturday morning.  I ate it slowly, in small bites so that I could savor it’s tastiness.  I washed my bites down with two cups of coffee from my favorite roaster (I’m looking at you, Stumptown) while alternately reading a book and people watching from the café window seat that I was fortunate enough to snag on a busy weekend morning.

It is moments like that one that I love to start my weekends with.  Now that the weekend is over and Monday is here, I wanted to relive the memory of it and start my week off with that feeling of contentment, and maybe share even just a little bit of that contentment with you, too.

Happy Monday.  Now go eat some jam.