..."What a jam jamboree!"

So ends the last line of one of my all-time favorite children's book- Jamberry. The line is quite appropriate since yesterday, instead of cooking with my Australian chef (she got sick), my mom and I made jam. Strawberry jam to be exact. Now, I have never made jam before and although mom has it was about a decade ago. So we felt a little intimidated with all of the recipes we found in our recipe search. Through a a series of events our efforts resulted in something akin to strawberry jelly... or syrup (which are both tasty in their own right!). I discussed our results with my Australian chef and she gave me some pointers:

~*~ Use equal parts sugar and fruit (insufficient sugar will prevent proper "jelling")

~*~ Add lemon seeds (in a sachet) to the boiling fruit- sugar mixture. Lemon seeds, in fact most or all fruit seeds, contain pectin that is key in jelly making.

~*~ If you make plum jam, simply throw the whole plums in the pot with your sugar. Again, the plum seed (or pit) contains the pectin afore mentioned. As the fruit- sugar boils the pits will float to the top making it easy to skim and remove them later.

~*~ Many of you may know this but if you are looking to make sure your jam is finished and ready to be poured into the jars, here is what to do: take a dish (if you are an Aussie you'll pronounce it "deesh") and place it in the fridge. When you think your jam is finished, drop a wee bit onto the dish and observe how quickly it "jells up." The faster it jells the closer it is to being done.