All hail the new domestic goddess

I've been making jam. Yes, really. We have so many raspberries on the canes at the Grandparents' that I'm having to come up with creative solutions rather than let them go to waste. My first attempt was a small batch for myself which worked wonderfully well (and only lasted about three days because I ate most of it from the jar...) but I turned nearly a kilogram into jam for the Grandparents on Sunday. Mum has frozen some as well, yet I was still able to pick nearly 2lbs last night which, along with some that were in the fridge from earlier in the day, are in the process of becoming raspberry balsamic vinegar. There will be even more ready over the next few days. More freezing, I think.

Since Sainsbury's is currently selling off loads of strawberries that are nearly on the turn very cheap, last night I also made an attempt at strawberry jam. I was following one of Nigella's recipes. She said it didn't need added pectin because the lemon juice contains enough so used preserving rather than jam sugar (I had been using normal sugar plus pectin for the raspberries). It hasn't set. Next time I shall add pectin, but it makes for a nice sauce anyway which could go pretty well with ice cream or natural yoghurt and certainly works well in porridge. I could add some gelatine to some for use in a strawberry flan as well I guess.

Really enjoying this experimenting anyway, and the results are delicious.