Peach-Rosemary Freezer Jam

Once upon a time, there was a wife who talked her husband into buying a little patch of land with some peach trees on it. There were four peach trees: two yellow fleshed and two white fleshed. This wife had always dreamed of having her own peach trees, ever since she was a little girl "helping" her Nana can the peaches from a backyard tree.

When the first season came around, the wife watched, entranced as blossoms came with a multitude of honeybees earnestly going about their work. And when the blossoms set fruit, she rejoiced over each hard green marble. And as the season went by, she mourned the necessity of thinning such an abundance of fruit. And then one day, she walked out to check on the fruit of her labor and was rewarded with this sight:

Big, beautiful, aromatic, juicy, delicious fruit. And then she looked at the four trees and went, "Oh, my, but that's a heck of a lot of peaches."

And, indeed, it was. And so the canning began. And continued... and then continued some more.

But then one day, the wife and her husband got orders from the military: "Thou shalt sell your beloved farm and move to the suburbs in Florida." And so they did... leaving those beautiful peach trees behind.

Fortunately, Georgia peach country isn't that far from the panhandle of Florida. There's a fruit stand in town that sells the things and isn't ashamed to let a box of cast offs go to a gal for a decent price. I got this fifteen pounds of slightly blemished peaches for only five bucks. This box made seven 8-oz jars of jam and eight pints of cut peaches in syrup. Not a bad deal! Fortunately, when making jam, you can simply cut around all the bruises.

I made this jam once before in a cooked variety and it was decent, but I left the rosemary in too long and once the peaches lost their "fresh" taste when cooked, it just wasn't as good. However, when I tried the combination this time as a freezer jam? Heaven! The subtle aroma and flavor of the rosemary just adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the peaches. It may sound weird, but I urge you to give it a try!

I used the peach freezer jam recipe from a box of Certo liquid pectin. All I really did differently was add two four inch springs of rosemary to the fruit and sugar and let it sit a while, stirring periodically. I tasted every so often and continued to let it sit until the flavor was just right. When is it just right? Well, when it tastes good to you! It took my fruit about an hour to infuse to the level of flavor I thought right. Use your best judgement! Once the fruit tastes right, remove and discard the rosemary sprigs.

Add the pectin and lemon juice as instructed on your package and put into containers. I prefer jars, but you can use whatever floats your boat. Such a pretty hue! And oh so tasty!

Peach-Rosemary Freezer Jam
Yield: 7 or 8 cups
Adapted from the Certo Liquid Pectin Insert

2 3/4 cups finely chopped peaches
6 1/2 cups sugar
2 pouches Certo liquid pectin
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 4-inch rosemary sprigs

Remove the peel in a boiling water bath and pit and chop into small pieces. While working, toss finished pieces into a water bath with some lemon juice or fruit fresh to inhibit browning. Drain and measure out the fruit and add to the sugar. Stir together. Add the rosemary sprigs and let sit, stirring occasionally, until the peaches have a nice, subtle hint of rosemary, about an hour.

Remove the rosemary sprigs. Mix the pectin and lemon juice together and let them sit for ten minutes. Add the lemon pectin mixture to the fruit mixture and stir continuously for three minutes. At this point, the mixture should only have a few sugar crystals remaining.

Pour the jam into prepared containers, leaving a half-inch of head space for expansion as the jam freezes. Let the jam stand at room temperature until it is set, up to 24 hours. Freeze until ready to use. Thaw in the refrigerator before use.

Spiced Cranberry Sauce

I feel like a failure for not getting this posted before Thanksgiving. Of course, I didn't actually make up the recipe until I was making cranberry sauce the day before we all sat down to eat. I suppose there are a lot of folks out there who do another round of traditional feasting for Christmas. Additionally, this version of cranberry sauce may just alter your thinking about it only being a once or twice a year dish.

I have always felt that store bought cranberry sauce was a little blasé. Well, that goes without saying... I am all about cooking from scratch, after all. Unfortunately, I always felt freshly made cranberry sauce had an astringent quality to it I didn't quite care for. I noticed early on that when I canned my own cranberry sauce, I really only started enjoying it after it had been sitting on the shelf for a few months.

With that in mind, I started playing with ways to balance the cranberry's natural tannins. Citrus became my go-to ingredient for many years. This year, I wanted to try something a little different, so I decided to add some apples and spice. What a wonderful decision! This is, hands down, the best cranberry sauce I've ever eaten. Apparently, my mom agrees, since we practically started duking it out over who would get to eat most of it. Even if you're not a big fan of traditional cranberry sauces, I urge you to give this one a try.

You can start with fresh or frozen berries. I found this bag in the deep, dark recesses of my freezer. To be honest, I'm not really sure what year I bought those berries. Fortunately, since we were going to cook them, it didn't really matter. There are four main flavors in this sauce: cranberry, orange, apple, and fall spices. You want to start with the cranberry and orange. In a sauce pan, mix the berries, orange juice, zest, sugar, and water and bring to a simmer.

Once the cranberries have started to pop, add the peeled, diced apple and orange segments. Simmer over medium low heat until the apples are tender and then add the spice mixture. Let simmer five minutes and then remove from the heat and cool slightly before decanting into a pretty bowl, covering with plastic wrap, and chilling in the refrigerator.


Spiced Cranberry Sauce
Yield: 2-3 cups

1 bag of fresh or frozen cranberries
1 orange, zested, sectioned, and juiced
2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced
2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp spice mix (mix 1/4 tsp of ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves)
1 TBS brandy (optional)

In a sauce pan, bring the cranberries, orange juice and zest, sugar, and water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the berries start to pop, about 5-10 minutes. Add the apple and orange sections (cut out so that you do not end up with the membrane) and cook over medium low heat until the apple is tender. Stir periodically to ensure the mixture does not scorch on the bottom.

When the apple is tender, mix together 1/4 teaspoon of the following dried spices: ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. Then use 1/4 teaspoon of that mixture to spice to sauce. You can save the remaining mixture for later or discard it. Let the mixture simmer for five minutes before removing from the heat, cooling, and decanting into a bowl to refrigerate before serving.

NOTES: This sauce is quite delicious warm and you could very easily serve it right after removing it from the heat. Also, it would be wonderful with some currents or raisins. If you decide to add them, be sure to put them in when you put in the apples so that they can soften.