Strawberry Freezer Jam

With 3 quarts of strawberries left, we needed recipes. We thought about jam, but I wasn't looking forward to the cooking and the sterilizing of jars. Then I ran across several things about freezer jam. Maybe I'm out of the loop, but did not know this existed.
Freezer jam does not require cooking, but you have to store the jam in the fridge or freezer. You simply use the Sure Jell pectin recipe. It is so simple! And it turned out yummy. This jam will be a softer set than cooked, but has a brighter, fresh picked flavor than the traditional method.
I ate some on toast this morning and Matt tried some tonight. We agreed it is tasty, as Mitchell says. The recipe made 5, 8 oz containers. You can keep one in the fridge for 3 weeks and freeze the others for up to a year.
So if you find a good fruit deal and like jam, make this!

A certain someone trying to steal the jam.

Strawberry Scones

Well, one quart down, 3 to go! I was looking for strawberry recipes and stumbled onto a strawberry scone. Scones were on my "bucket list," so I killed two birds with one stone. These scones were super simple and turned out moist and not too dry like scones can be. My great grandmother's rosebud china seemed fitting. Wish the other pieces (plates) were not so hard to get to.

 

Summer Cookie Trio

 I can tell you that I truly missed decorating cookies. I know because it didn't feel like work at all. I had fun. I am a crafty, artistic person by nature. If I don't do something like this for awhile I get withdrawals.
I knew I wanted a summery theme for this batch of cookies. I had a big flower cutter I had never used and sunflower popped into my head. What's funny is, right after I decided this, several blogs I look at did sunflowers. I guess we were on the same wavelength. I saw some ladybugs that were cute and then leaves seemed like a nice accent. I don't have a ladybug cutter per say. I was just going to use my round and work from there. But as I was digging around, I saw the monkey head cutter I have. I looked at it and realized if I just cut off one ear it would work really well. I love using a cookie cutter for a totally unexpected shape. There's a reindeer cookie Martha Stewart did with a gingerbread boy cutter. Too cute!
Baking the cookies went really well as you know and then Saturday it was time for icing. I use royal icing and probably my least favorite part of decorating cookies is trying to tint my icing just right. And then I have multi hued fingers and icing everywhere.
Decorating went smoothly. I was very relaxed and didn't rush and this always leads to me being much happier with my cookies. Sometimes when I'm making them for an order, I get nervous.
I really like how they turned out and how they look together. I think they would be cute for a girl's summer birthday. So much fun. Looking forward to some 4th of July cookies.