Strawberry Sauce

I love to get food magazines and find amazing recipes. Getting a food magazine in the mail is like getting a gift. I go through it and drool and rip pages out. I put these recipes aside and then will go through them to make when I am feeling ambitious. Having picked all these amazing berries I decided none of them could go to waste. I always have a fear it will suck but if it looks good and the ingredients are not a crazy amount and directions are fairly easy, I will give it a try. 

I have a weakness for strawberry sauce and this looked way to easy to not try. This recipe came from the Food Network magazine. It was very simple and made a great silky sauce that was super delish. Try it and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

3 cups strawberries, finely chopped

1/2 cup sugar

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Combine the strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons water in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until berries break down, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in the vanilla

Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing against the solids; let cool completely. Store in refrigerator up to 4 days. 

Strawberry Freezer Jam

I have been wanting to make jam for many years but living in the city where there are no farms and no a lot of space in your freezer has kept me from doing it. Well this year we moved to Washington and finally have the access to many farms and plenty of freezer space. 

I grew up eating my grandma's strawberry jam. My sister told me that she follows the recipe on the box but my other grandma did it a little different because her's was a little runny but we never go to figure out just how she did it. Well I bought the Sure Jell box at the grocery store and compared it to a recipe I found on Betty Crocker's site.  I think I came up with just how she did it. I didn't follow recipe perfectly but quite close. 

I picked and bought 1/2 a flat of strawberries. That allowed me to make 11 small containers and 1 small container of strawberry sauce for ice cream. I think that means it officially cost. $1.20 per container of organic strawberry jam.  Not bad but I have to say I didn't do it to save money. I did it because I knew it would be fun and taste amazing. Well that is if it turned out as good as my grandma's. I think they both would be very proud of me. 

Ingredients

4 cups strawberries

4 cups sugar

3/4 cup water

1 package of fruit pectin (I used sure jell)

juice of !/2 lemon (I would only use if your berries are super sweet like mine)

Directions

Cut stems of strawberries and put all of them in a large bowl. Mash with a potato masher until you get consistency you like. Add 4 cups of sugar and stir. Let sit for 10 minutes and stir occasionally. 

Mix pectin and water in a medium size pan and heat until boiling and boil for 1 minute stir constantly. Then add berries to the pan and cook for 1 minute stirring constantly and turn off heat. Stir for another 2 minutes. Once sugar has dissolved it is done. 

Spoon mixture into containers and leave 1/2 inch space for the lid. Let sit for 24 hours at room temperature. Store in freezer up to 6 months or in refrigerator for 3 weeks.