Not everything goes with Peanut Butter

Peanut Butter

You read right, I said not every jelly goes with peanut butter. Hard to believe that a jelly really doesn't taste that good with peanut butter, but there are some that don't. I am sure that you could come up with Pepper Jelly, but there are many more. I will try to give you a few recipes for things to use at your next party or your stay at home late night snack raid. I hope this does not upset your ideas about jellies or jams in some cases, but I think after you read this blog you will agree that the name above is true. Another thought, being from Georgia, I take my peanut butter seriously. To many in our state it is a way of life. I would not be surprised if the Governor of our state doesn't have a pack of Georgia Peanuts in his pocket, if he needs them.

Delicious pepper jelly with cram cheese and a cracker!

 

I think that any party without Pepper Jelly is something to avoid. Mixed with the cream cheese and a good cracker it is food for the Gods. Red, green either color was delicious. Hot or not hot both are tasty.
I have a blog telling you how to make this great item: http://canucanit.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=44&action=edit

This is the info about pepper jelly. This blog has just the recipes: http://canucanit.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=71&action=edit.

Go back and read them then come back for more things to serve at your parties, or just snack on. But after you read them come back here for more great things to serve your family and friends at your next party.

Just a note before I start. When I say use apple juice in my recipes, I mean apple juice that is not made from concentrate. You might have to look in the refrigerated section of your grocery. Juice from concentrate is made from a mixture of water and juice that has been cooked down. Using this adds more water than you want and also dilutes the flavor. If you want, you can use cider, but filter it thru coffee filters before. Someone suggested cheese cloth as a filter, but I haven't had much luck with that. I tend to make a mess. One more note before we start. These jellies in this blog do not set up hard like you are used to, they tend to be on the soft side. So if yours is that way, so is ours. One more suggestion, or recommendation if you like. The following jellies go great with milder cheese such as Brie or cream cheese.They also go best with mild crackers, such as Wheat Thins or Pita Chips. Try these combinations and I think you might have new favorites for your next party.

Horseradish

 

Now that we have gotten all that behind us, let's get started. How about a spicy one, Horseradish jelly. You  heard me right, I said Horseradish. This root is great when made into a sauce on roast beef or prime rib.  To make jelly you need to either buy the shredded in a jar or the way that I like to do, buy the root section, peel and grate to make your own. I use  a vegetable/cheese grater. I am sure you know what I mean. The kind that you always scrapped your knuckles on, your grandmother had hanging on the wall of her kitchen. I am sure that most of you have used this type of grater to make all sorts of things to eat.

Grater

 

Here is my recipe: 2 cups white vinegar, 1/4 cup prepared horseradish, 2 cups apple juice, 5 cups sugar, 1 package fruit pectin, 1/8 teaspoon salt (canning, Kosher or sea). Blend Horseradish with vinegar in a blender (not food chopper). Mix blended vinegar horseradish, with apple juice, fruit pectin, and salt together, bring to a boil. Add sugar and bring back to a boil.  Check to make sure it is setting up (using a wooden spoon stir the boiling mixture; remove the spoon and watch the liquid drip from the spoon. The jelly is setting up if you get sticky drops. That means drops that want to stay together, this is called sheeting. Don't use a metal spoon, you won't get the same effect.) If your jelly is not sheeting, add more sugar, mix and bring back to a boil. Check again with a wooden spoon. If it is setting up remove from heat and put into canning jars as soon as possible. Be careful as the hot liquid will burn you.
If you wait too long to put into canning jars you will find your jelly setting up in the pot. Use clean canning jars for any canning. Jelly jars or other jars might crack from the heat of the hot jelly. Use a damp paper towel and clean the rim of the jar. Place a sterile dome (a dome that has been rinsed in boiling water. place the ring on the top and finger tighten the ring (this means tighten , but not real tight. If you over tighten the air will not escape during processing and your jar will not seal. Under tighten and the water in the a boiling bath will fill your jars and destroy your hard work).
Using a rack or some such item carefully place your jars into a boiling water bath 15 minutes with at least 2 inches of water over the top of the jars. Start you timer when the water comes back to a rolling boil. Remove and set on a cooling rack or towel. Check the jars after they have cooled. If a jar does not seal, it has to be re- processed with a new dome. Remove the bad and clean the rim again before putting on new dome. After all have cooled and set, put on a label because many of the spicy jellies look-alike and you don't want to mix them up. Make sure that you put ingredients on the label. Someone that you give a jar to my have food allergies. Serve with cream cheese and crackers just like pepper jelly. Your guest will be surprised at the great taste and flavor of your new jelly

Garlic

The next jelly is a favorite for many of my local friends. Garlic Jelly. So many of my friends have told me that this is favorite spicy jelly. I love garlic in so many things that I eat. From sauces to breads to roasted chicken, I don't think your can get too much garlic. The recipe is very similar to other spicy jellies. 

Garlic Jelly: 1 cup garlic - minced, 4 cups white vinegar, 3 cups apple juice,1 package fruit pectin, 8 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon citric acid, 1/4 teaspoon salt, kosher or canning. Combine all ingredients except sugar in large pot. Bring to boil for 1 minute, add sugar and bring back to boil for 1 minute. Check for sheeting, if the jelly does not sheet follow the directions in the jelly above. Put hot liquid into canning jars. Follow cleaning and sealing direction above. Process 10 minutes in water bath. Remove then check for unsealed jars. I like to put a photo of the garlic on my jar. You can find a photo of just about anything online. Adding this makes your jar more festive. Serve this jelly as you would other spicy jellies, but also add to sauces for bar-b-ques, just cut back on the sugar in the sauce recipe.

I'll bet you never thought of using things used in this blog to make jelly did you? You can make jelly from just about anything, and yes as I said in the title, Not Everything Goes With Peanut Butter.

Sweet Vidalia Onions

Next on our journey is Onion Jelly.

You heard right, I said onion. When I need onions for a recipe I shred onions first then place in a strainer to drip. You will be surprised how much juice will collect. I put the juice in a small zip lock bag that I keep in my freezer till I have enough to make jelly. I use Vidalia Onions in most cooking recipes so my juice is Vidalia juice. I am sure that if you use other onions, mixing the juices will not be a problem. The recipe is quite simple. 
Onion Jelly: 1 cup white vinegar, 1 1/2  cups onion juice, 1 1/2 cups apple juice, 6 cups sugar, 1 package fruit pectin, 1/8 teaspoon canning salt (or Kosher, or Sea). Bring to a boil. Add sugar and bring back to a boil. Check to see if jelly is sheeting, if not add more sugar. Then follow jarring info in above recipes. This jelly is one of the mildest jellies of all the spicy jellies. It is as mild as traditional pepper jelly, maybe even milder.

Our next jelly is going to be a herb jelly. I love to serve this one to my friends and ask them if they know the herb. You will be surprised how many will get it right. I picked the herb used in most recipes in my house. Sweet Basil is used in so many sauces and great in Pesto.

Basil

Basil Jelly: Make herb infusion using 1 cups dried herb, 4 cups apple juice and 2 cups water. Bring water and juice to boil, then pour over herbs. Let sit overnight. Strain herbs from juice. This is your herb infusion. 2 cups herb infusion, 1/4 cup white vinegar, 4 1/2 cups sugar, 1 package fruit pectin, 2 drops food color if you use green coloring, don't use but a few drops, make the color a pale green. Combine all ingredients in large pot bring to boil for 1 minute. Add sugar, bring back to boil for 1 minute. Check for sheeting. Put in canning jars. Process 10 minutes in water bath. 



Next herb is Rosemary, another widely used herb

Rosemary

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Rosemary Jelly: Make herb infusion using 1 cup dried herb, 2 cups apple juice and 1 cups water. If you use fresh Rosemary, use twice as much. Bring water and juice to boil, then pour over herbs. Let sit overnight. Strain herbs from juice. This is your herb infusion. 2 cups herb infusion, 1/4 cup white vinegar, 4  1/2 cups sugar, 1 package fruit pectin. Combine all ingredients in large pot bring to boil for 1 minute.  Add sugar, bring back to boil for 1 minute. Check for sheeting. Add food color to color you wish. Put in canning jars. Process 10 minutes in water bath.Just a little note. If you haven't tried growing your own herbs, you should give it a shot. Even if you don't have the space for a garden, use pots on your porch. The flavor from something that you pick fresh is so much better than the herbs from your grocery store.

Well back to jelly. I am going to finish with a jelly that is quite unusual.

It is called Rose Petal Jelly. 

Mary Lynn got the idea when reading really old cook books. It looked like something she wanted to try, so the next family wedding she went around and collected roses that were used as decorations at the reception. She followed the directions and made a fragrant, mild  tasting jelly. She gave the jars to the mothers of the bride and groom as well as the happy couple.





Rose Petal Jelly: Pick the petals off the blossom. Only use the outer petals, as the ones closer to the bud are thicker and really don't work as well. make a rose infusion with 2 cups water, 3 cups rose petals. Boil and let cool then strain for use in recipe.
Here is the recipe: 2 cups rose water, 3 cups sugar, 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (the bottled stuff doesn't work as well and may lead to problems), 1 box pectin. Bring to a boil all ingredients except sugar to a boil in a small to medium pot. Add sugar and bring back to a boil. Check for sheeting and process as above. For canning jars I like to use the small 4 oz size. You are not making a large amount of jelly and the smaller jars work best. 

To make something really nice, try this.

Add your jelly to your jar about 1/2 way. Put a rose petal or petals (small look  nicer than just a single petal) on top of your liquid. Then finish filling. Process as above. You will be surprised how it looks. Something else that will surprise you is that it has the aroma of the rose. When you serve this jelly, cream cheese is probably best. If you use any other cheese, make sure that it is very mild. You don't want the flavor to cover the jelly. The same goes for the cracker. Too strong is not as good as something mild, like Wheat Thins, or any other cracker or toast  without a strong taste.


Now you see, what I said in the title, Not Every Jelly Goes With Peanut Butter. That doesn't mean some will try it just to say they did it. But I can think of so many other jellies I want on my crunchy peanut butter sandwich and glass of milk.

If you want a recipe that I have not posted. Send me a e-mail and I will send it to you. There are so many others and I have just a certain amount of space. I would like to ask you for any ideas; things you want to read about. Things you might have tasted and would like to make yourself. Maybe even something you remember from growing up that still holds a special place in your heart. Let me know what it is, I will try to come up with the best way I can find to help you with your wants or needs. I will try to help you along, just tell me what you need.

One more little item before I go, this pertains to my blog. I wish the people, company, or whatever would stop sending me SPAM telling me that I don't get any readers. For the price of $XXX.XX a month they can get me thousands. I would like thousands, anybody would, but not by paying you to trump up my numbers. Please leave me alone.

Sorry for such strong negative words, but I get so very many SPAM comments, over 4,000 in the last year. I am afraid real comments get lost. If you sent me a real comment and don't see it posted, I am sorry. We both can blame the SPAM companies for this.

Don’t forget…. let me know what you would like to make or any ideas you have for the next blog. Also if you have any questions you would like me to try to solve. Just drop me a note at jellymanga@gmail.com.

Don’t keep my blogs a secret, pass the word on to your friends, neighbors and family members. They just might make something and share with you.

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Don’t forget, if someone asks you can you can it?
 

Say YES I can can it.