I took on a new activity last night per the suggestion of my friends Julia and Talia. We decided to make jam.
Making jam is one of those activities that sounds quaint and fun but as I haven’t cooked a full-on meal it what seems like months, I’m usually content to hand over the $2 for a jar of the sticky strawberry stuff. Not last night.
TJC Strawberry Balsamic Jam
Unlike various other activities I’ve attempted in the kitchen (like bagel making), this actually WAS worth the time! The ingredients were really simple too. Apparently jam is easy to make, so we just looked at a bunch of different recipes and made our own from that. We used:
- 3 pounds organic strawberries
- Juice of two juicy limes
- 2 cups of sugar (a lot of recipes call for more but this was fine)
- 3 capfuls of strawberry balsamic
- A few grinds of black pepper at the end
I’ve heard of a lot of jam recipes that include balsamic but we were inspired to add the pepper by this recipe. I admit to being slightly skeptical but it did add, as Julia eloquently worded, a nice “complexity” to the flavor.
Step one: cut the stems off and chop the berries.
Carefully.
Then we mixed the berries with the two cups of sugar and put it on the heat. Start off at low heat at first because otherwise the sugar will burn! We also squeezed two limes out. It was probably half a cup of lime juice overall. Some recipes call for lemon or orange—I dug the lime.
After we finally (carefully) brought it up to a boil, then it had to continue to cook at a lower temp for… a LONG time. I don’t know, an hour? It definitely is a while. The reason being that this recipe does not use any thickening agents (like cornstarch, or pectin). Julia made jam once with pectin and while it thickens much quicker, it can also take some of the taste away from the fruit, so if you have the time to let the real thing set, do it. I love foods with five ingredients!
As it was changing textures, some foam would appear that we’d skim off, or try to. Most of it was constantly dissolving back into the jam. Delicious.
Once it was almost done (you could visibly see the jam thickening as we stirred it) we added some balsamic—probably a tablespoon and then some. Not much. Enough to change the color from a bright reddish color to more brown, but it tasted great! We cooked it for about ten more minutes, ground some pepper in and taste-tested. You really could taste the strawberries (primary flavor) with the hints of the lime and balsamic, and the pepper definitely added something.
Only sad thing was we had ten jars and this recipe made four tiny ones! It cooked down a LOT from the beginning—if I made the recipe again with friends I’d double it and use a bigger pot so the fruits of my labor would last longer. : )
I had a really fun time making jam and will DEFINITELY consider making a bunch of these as gifts in the future!
I enjoyed several tastes last night and of course had to have peanut butter and jam on an English muffin for breakfast so I could eat some. Just as good as I remembered!
Note: this weekend is the Healthy Living Summit and I gotta say, I really wish I was there! I have really enjoyed meeting bloggers in real life and that would have been a great opportunity to meet so many of my favorites. Unfortunately, I really didn’t have the money sitting around. I looked into it when tickets were about to go on sale and I couldn’t find anything below almost $700 for the plane ticket itself. Then add in $100 for the ticket and probably $300 for the weekend… well, who knows how much hotel cost… and basically, there was no way in hell. Sure, looking back on it now, I definitely could have made it work, but it just seemed like too insurmountable. I still really want to go to a blogger conference and hopefully sometime soon.
I really would love to go to Foodbuzz as it’s in my city (!!!) but I’m not a Featured Publisher—I will work on that. I am really passionate about blogging and food and running and want to continue to meet more people that are into it.
Speaking of which—if you are a blogger in the bay area—email me! I’ve started trying to get some info gathered for a blogger meetup in SF and I’m really looking forward to that. 
A big part of HLS and Foodbuzz and all of that is FOMO—Fear of Missing Out. I suffer from FOMO big time. Much less than I did in college (“yes I have a midterm tomorrow and a paper due I haven’t started, but, like, omg soooo many people were going out to the bars tonight!”) but I still do. And a big part of that is Zumba. (Whose logo I am allowed to use as a paying ZIN member… for now!)
I got certified to be a Zumba instructor towards the beginning of the year. I am not great at many things, but I AM a great dancer, and I am very good at Zumba. Years of dance team and captaining paid off! I was so excited to teach, but then, little did I know, two weeks later I moved to SF and started a full-time demanding job. No Zumba teaching for me. I could sub at some gyms, but my schedule is too unpredictable. It just can’t happen right now.
I’ve spent over $500 into Zumba, with the course and paying for the 6-month ZIN (instructor network) membership—and I haven’t made a dime. My ZIN membership is about to expire and I need to just cancel it, because I’m literally throwing money away if I don’t. But that makes it certain: I am a Zumba instructor who will never teach Zumba, despite how awesome of a teacher I know I’d be. I’m trying to tell myself that it’s okay… I can ALWAYS take it up again later. I can. It’s fine.
I just hate the feeling that I’m Missing Out. It’s hard for me to accept that I can’t do everything.
I can’t.
But I can do SOME things, and right now I need to learn to make choices. Most of which are reversible. I’m going to work on embracing where I am now and being okay with the fact that I can’t have it all. Somehow, it all works out anyway.
Have a GREAT weekend everyone and have an amazing time at the HLS if you are there!
Courtney
Do you suffer from FOMO? What do you worry about missing out on?
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I’ve been debating about getting spin certified. I know I could come up with some great rides, but I dont know when I’d ever have the time to teach a class.
Alex @ IEatAsphalt recently posted..Twenty-five part 2
hard decision
that’s what I’m dealing with too.
That jam looks AMAZING! I totally want to make some! What a great idea!
Kristine @ Running on Hungry recently posted..A Moo Point
I’m drooling over this. Will definitely have to try it sometime!
I think the idea of opportunity cost is one of the Great Truths of Adulthood I’ve learned — everything you do costs you the opportunity to do something else (missing out). We just care more about missing out on some things than on others. I didn’t think about this much when I was younger because it seemed like I had an infinite amount of time and surely I could get around to everything eventually. More and more I’m aware that that’s very much not the case, but also that it’s okay. It just means I have to think more about what I *REALLY* don’t want to miss out on, and do my best to prioritize those things.
I love this! Seriously, I should be making my own jam, and I would have never thought about adding pepper.
Clarkie @ Beloved Green recently posted..50 Women Game Changers in Food – Patricia Wells – Watermelon and Feta Salad
Ugh, I feel like I’m CONSTANTLY suffering from FOMO… maybe part of our blogger meetup could be you teaching us all zumba! I’m a pretty horrible dancer but it sounds like fun!
Cate recently posted..Chevre and Apricot Phyllo Purses
Oh boyyyy do I suffer from FOMO (and I wish I could go to Foodbuzz since it’s here too…but yeah I’m not a featured publisher either). Yeah so I’m a bay area blogger too
but unfortunately i leave for europe this weekend and after that I’m moving back up to Portland :/
PS Strawberries and balsamic is a killerrrr combo
Sara K recently posted..Made With Love
Yup I definitely suffer from FOMO too, although the last couple of years I’ve been a little more chill. I am thinking of going to the Foodbuzz fest but lack of cash is stopping me!
Bianca @ Confessions of a Chocoholic recently posted..Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles
I agree with Cate – a Zumba blogger meet-up would be fantastic (although I have no dancing skills…). I am definitely a victim of FOMO too hence my race addiction. But I think it’s because I have such fantastic runner friends (yourself included!) that I know it’ll be a great experience.
Um, and yeah, that jam looks ah-mazing!
Zumba meetup for the win!
FOMO – a great new acronym!! Definitely suffer from it and also “TOWFM” (Too Obsessed With F*in Money) which is ridiculous but oh so present. owel (“oh well” – I missed getting it into the new dictionary update – dang!)
Victoria recently posted..Celebrating 12 years with music
Oh my deliciousness, that jam looks amazing! I need to try doing something like this. Seems like so much fun.
And FOMO – I get this too all.the.time. I think maybe even more so now than in college. I don’t know if it gets better, but at least with conferences, we can read the recaps on blogs!
When is Foodbuzz? And when are you thinking of doing the meet up? I may be getting to the city quicker than I originally thought so please add me to the list just in case
broccoliniandcheese@gmail.com
Jane @ Broccolini + Cheese recently posted..My Monty.
Your Strawberry jam looks delicious! I must try that. I wish I was a good dancer. I tried Zumba recently and probably looked like a uncoordinated mess to everyone else. I can’t be good at everything is what I told myself.
Fellow SF blogger here. Myself and my Co-worker started Cubicle Chronicles a few weeks ago. We’d love to meet up, share ideas, have fun with other SF bloggers.
And between you and me I wish I had been at HLS too. It looked like so much fun!
Jillian recently posted..Fig Proscuitto Goat Cheese Pizza
I just found your blog through Carrots and Cake.
Totally impressed that you are a cert. Zumba instructor – I personally have no sense of coordination so trying to do Zumba would probably just look like I was having a spaz attack
Emily@SavoryandSavage recently posted..Chili cook-off
Oh my gosh- I think we should be friends
I just saw your blog on Carrots n’ Cake and came over to say hello since I’m a SF blogger too! First of all that jam looks amazing! I always thought that making jam would be really complicated but maybe I’ll give it a shot… And omg I had the same exact feeling about HLS. I would have loved to go but financially I just couldn’t swing it.. . and then I got so excited about Foodbuzz but it’s only open to the featured publishers… just when it is in our city! And I love Zumba! Maybe we could teach a blogger class? Emailing you now 
Emily @ Glitz Glam Granola recently posted..Don’t Stop Believing
I made jam for our wedding favors! Strawberry, Raspberry, Saskatoon and Choke Cherry jelly! I absolutely loved it too! I wanted to make some this fall but I still have wedding favors to eat up yet!!
That picture of you with the knife made me laugh out loud!!
I love Zumba! It’s a shame you are going to cancel your membership!
At least you are close to many other food bloggers!! I am way up here in Canada!! GEEZ
Katie@Real Food Katie’s Way recently posted..Saving the Best for Last!
Fellow zumba instructor here.. Just had to comment. I teach it 4-5x per week on TOP of my day job (I am an Accountant)… it is truly the joy and highlight of my life! I have truly found my passion (outside of the corporate world of course hehe), and love love love teaching. I can’t say that enough. If you can every find room in your schedule, trust me, you won’t regret it.. as I know you know. Great job, though. GOOD instructors are the best
you can see some of my zumba stuff at http://www.facebook.com/committed2nutritionwitheva
GREAT BLOG!!