Baking Blackheart: Sargent Pepper Jelly

Apparently my hubby has gotten this canning thing down. Good for him, good for us. Who needs smuckers jam and jellies, we can do it ourselves!

We really had no plans of baking or cooking this weekend; however, that all changed when I got called into work yesterday. I had taken the trip into town once already to ensure all my lovely little science projects were alive and ticking. All was well! And as I lay on the floor with Ryan talking to Chef Blackheart how we were going to spend this beautiful day, I got the call. Ugh, power outage. Thank you Centerpoint for ruining my Saturday, off to work I go, again. At this point I do not want to make another forty five mile trip by myself and force the family to join me in my trek to town. This is what I get for moving to the burbs. Luckily nothing was harmed too much and I was out of there in a jiff. Now what? We start going towards Target to burn some gift cards on little girl socks. On our route to Target is the Farmer's Market. Now we are stuck at this light forever, and decide we should pop in to get some strawberries for a new batch of jam. Somehow this is seamless. We find a parking spot quickly, the girls are happy to go, and our only downfall is that we don't have any of our bags. Also walking up we see our friends Josh and Donna. How lovely! One question guys, how to do you look so good in work out clothes? I don't get it, but it was great seeing you. Maybe sometime we should actually plan a trip to the farmers market so we can hang out for more than 2 minutes.

Back on track. In this trip we talked about buying some peppers for canning. In my head I was seeing candied jalapenos, Chef Blackheart had jam on the brain. Unfortunately, no one had peppers, so we had to get those from our favorite market, HEB. Although I had something else in mind, I can't wait to try the jam. Can't try it yet, but it smelled and looks amazing.

Things you will need:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cranberry juice (not low calorie)
1 cup vinegar
2-4 fresh jalapeno chile peppers, halved
5 cups sugar
1/2 of a 6-oz pkg of liquid fruit pectin

Cookware:
medium sauce pan with lid
sieve
measuring cup
6 quart heavy kettle
large spoon
ladle

Canning items needed (We are just using the boiling method, we don't own a canner):

extra large pot
medium pot
canning tongs
water

Let's jam!(I know, I'm a dork.)

Clean 5 half pints canning jars. Sterilize when finished. Make sure you have enough tops.

In the medium sauce pan combine cranberry juice and vinegar

Half the jalapenos and place in the cranberry vinegar mixture

Bring to a boil, reduce heat

Simmer covered for 10 minutes

Strain mixture through a sieve into a large bowl. (We don't have a sieve so Boyscout Blackheart made a sieve out of a colander lined with a coffee filter. It worked!)

Press with a back of a spoon to remove all liquid from the peppers. Discard peppers

In the 6-quart kettle, combine 2 cups of the liquid and the sugar

Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly

Quickly stir in pectin

Return to full boil, boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly

Remove from heat

Skim off foam

Ladle at once into hot sterilized half pint canning jars, leaving a 1/4" headspace

Wipe the rims, adjust lids, process in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes (start timing when the water returns to boil)

Remove jars and cool on a wire rack until set (2-3 days)

Large pot canning instructions for Ball Canning Jars and Lids

What you'll need:

extra large pot
medium pot
canning tongs
water

1. Boil water in both the extra large pot and the medium pot

2. Place jars into the extra large pot of boiling water. If the water doesn't cover the jars by about 1" add water from the medium pot to get the water to the correct height.

3. Place "lid on the pot with jars