Canning some wicked jam.

The holidays are over, but citrus season is not. Because money isn't falling out of my ears (that would be gross anyway), I decided to get super crafty this year when it came to gifts. I recruited a special pal who has experience canning jam. FYI, non-perishable jam needs to be sealed and all items needs to be sterilized. My friend had doused her kitchen in boiling water and I brought the sharp knives. We ventured out to Berkeley Bowl for some fruit, in this case about 8 lbs of blood oranges and a 1/2 lb of Meyer lemons. After returned to her house, we rinsed the fruit and using a vegetable peeler, cut the colored part from 2 lemons and 4 oranges.

Then we finely diced the peel and put 2 tablespoons of the lemon peel and 6 tablespoons of the orange peel and 1 cup of water in a 6-8 quart pan. The rest of the peel is unnecessary.

With a sharp knife, we carefully peeled all of the white crap off of the fruit and cut the lemons and 10 oranges into chunks, trying to keep all of those pesky seeds out of the "good" bowl.

Take the fruit in the "good" bowl and puree them in a food processor until you have 2 cups that are smoothly blended. Pour this into the pan with the diced peel. Puree remaining fruit and put it through a fine strainer to extract juice. Juice the rest of the fruit until you have a total of 4 cups. We had to go get more fruit at this point because some fruit aint so juicy! Take this pan and boil it on high heat stirring a LOT until it's reduced to about 5 cups total, or for about 10 minutes. Now the pectin, mix it (a 1.75 oz pkg) with a 1/4 cup of sugar and add it to the pan. Stir on high until it starts to boil rapidly. Add 4 cups of sugar to the pan and stir until it returns to a boil. Now watch the clock for one minute and remove it from the heat.

Now using a sterilized spoon or ladle, scoop the mixture into clean canning jars.

Leave about 1/8 inch of room at the top, wipe jar rims clean and set a sterilized flat lid on each jar, screw on lids. All of these pieces should have been resting in a boiling pot of water and using tongs and a towel you can make this happen without burning your paws. Beware of splattering boiling water or fruit. OUCH. Let the jars rest on a towel for 5 minutes and turn them rightsideup. Let it cool there for 24 hours and by now all seals should have popped in. When you press on the top it shouldn't budge.

JAM!