Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.

I've been really busy the last couple of days. I mean, super crazy lady busy. I pickled asparagus, which was a lot of work because I had a lot of asparagus. Then yesterday I decided to use up some of the rhubarb that is taking over a corner of my backyard. I've never tried rhubarb before but Jake was super excited for a strawberry rhubarb pie, which I'm going to make tomorrow. I decided to try out the Strawberry Rhubarb Jam recipe I found on Barefoot Kitchen Witch which is an awesome blog full of recipes and gardening tips. I used her exact recipe for the first batch and it was so easy and tasty. For the second batch the only thing I changed up was that, after adding the sugar and stirring it all up, I decided to add about 2 Tbsp. of ground cinnamon just to give it a little something different.

All you need for the jam are strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, pectin and your regular canning items (giant pot, jars, etc). I won't copy the entire recipe but if you click on the link in the first paragraph it takes you right to the Kitchen Witch's funny post on how to make the jam. She posts a zillion pictures too which is so helpful.

Having never dealt with rhubarb before I had a lot of questions and did a lot of googling. I wasn't sure if you needed to peel it or not, you don't, but you can pull off any little strings if you want. Just be sure to wash it. Cut off the leaves and throw them away as they are toxic. If you're growing rhubarb in your garden, only trim a few stalks off at a time and your rhubarb will continue to replenish itself so you can keep cutting from the same plant.

In addition to the jam, I started a batch of vanilla extract that I'll be giving as gifts to my family. An 8 oz. bottle of pure vanilla extract goes for $20 at the grocery store but you can make your own at home for so much less. I've seen a lot of posts on how to do it all around the web but Kristina from Lovely Morning posted about it the other day and inspired me to get my butt in gear. Kristina used 2 vanilla beans per cup of vodka but I've read other posts that used 3 so I went down the middle and used 2.5 beans per cup of vodka. I also cut them down one side but did not break them open. Check out her post for some great ideas on finding beans at a decent price.

I'm linking up today at For the Love of Blogs for Tasty Tuesday.