Carrot Cake Jam

This year we are having our very good friends come over to help us celebrate Easter. The two mommies put our heads together and decided that a kids table would be a good idea. The kids' table is going to have a Easter Bunny and Carrot theme.  I decided to make a batch of carrot cake jam to put in little jars so I could use as name cards for each of the kids at the table.  On Thursday I'll show you how the whole table came together.  For now, I'm going to show you how I made the yummy favor.



I found this recipe here.  I decided to try it since it worked with my table theme.  I was not expecting it to be so good.  I like it because it is so different.  It's sweet, thick and so yummy. I am going to make sure this recipe is made again and again in our house.  The board of ingredients is pretty easy to find.  The green box is liquid pectin.  You can find it by the canning supplies at your grocery store.  You need one pouch per batch.  The box I bought had two pouches in it.  I also forgot to add two lemons to the board.  You need some fresh lemon juice for this recipe. 
 



Here's my fresh lemon juice.



Start by putting the whole can of pineapple in a large sauce pan over medium heat. 

Add the shredded carrot and diced pear.  Next time I would chop the pear more finely. 

I used freshly grated nutmeg. I buy the nuts in a jar and just grate them on my micro plain as I need it.  I love freshly grated nutmeg. 

Add the lemon juice, nutmeg and cinnamon to the pan.

Stir it all up and wait for it to come to a boil. 

When it comes to a boil turn the heat down to medium low and let it simmer for twenty minutes.  It will look like this.  Sorry for the steamy picture.  Try imagining how good that steam smelled. 

After simmering for twenty minutes, stir in a pouch of pectin and let it come back to a boil. Liquid pectin is cloudy, thick and the secret to really thick jam when you are making jam with low acid ingredients.  Carrots are pretty low acid so do not skip this ingredient.  It is important.

Next, add all the sugar and stir it in.  Keep stirring until it comes to a full rolling boil.  When it comes to a boil, you are finished.  You could can the jam at this point, or you could stick in your fridge and eat it all right away.  

This is what it looks like.

I am using 4 ounce canning jars here. I am not going to can or process the jars of jam, just putting the jam in the jars which will need to be refrigerated.   

Fill each jar with a half cup of the jam.

Put the flat lids on the jars. 

I used one of the flat lids and traced around it on scrapbook paper.  I cut out one circle for each jar.

Put a piece of the scrapbook paper on the lid.

Then, to keep everything in place, screw the ring onto the jar.  It's already getting cute.

I found these cute little carrots at a local shop.  The green carrot top is made out of dyed grass.  They are shedding like crazy, but they are so adorable. 

I chose three different ribbons to embellish the jars.

For these jars I measured out roughly nineteen inches of ribbon for each jar.  If the ribbon is any longer the ends don't look as cute and you have to trim the ribbon....so just measure and that way you don't waste the ribbon.

Tie the ribbon around the rim of the lid.

An extra super cute finger comes in very handy.

Tie the carrot to the jar where the tops meet the top of the carrot.  I just love this cure little jar.

Here is our patch of carrot cake jam favors.  Come back on Thursday to see how they look on the table.

Raspberry Sauce Recipe

Easter is one of the happiest holidays in our house.  We decorate, the Easter bunny comes, we color eggs and Dad does the best job of hiding several dozen eggs for the kids.  But the day itself is about family and celebrating our risen Savior.

Traditions are so important because they remind us every year how blessed we are.  They especially remind us of the good times we have had in the past and they are a great way to mark time.  Our three teenage sons are going through that hollow leg phase of their life where food is particularly important to them.  That means food traditions are especially important to them. 

Every year we have pound cake with raspberry sauce.  It's not the most glamorous or most original dessert, but it would not be Easter without the lovely raspberry sauce and the pound cake to soak it up.

I always like to make the raspberry sauce in advance so this is one less thing I have to worry about at the last minute. Raspberry sauce is so easy. It takes minutes and the results are amazing. If you are a raspberry fan, this is something to try. I have served this on ice cream, french toast, of course pound cake, under a rich slice of chocolate torte, and in a pinch you can add a bit to hot chocolate for a yummy twist.  The board of ingredients is simple.  A 12 ounce frozen bag of unsweetened raspberries, white sugar, and the orange liquor of your choice.  You will also need some water.  I am making a double batch so that there will still be some left over after Easter. 

To start, add your frozen berries to a sauce pan over medium heat. 

Add the sugar.

Add the water and just let everything sit for a few minutes.  

The cooking time is a bit odd for this recipe.  You cannot time this one...you have to look at the berries.  See how they are still intact and whole?  That means that they have not given all of their flavor up yet.  Keep cooking and stirring occasionally.

See this?  This is exactly what you want.  The raspberries have cooked down, but you still have a beautiful raspberry color.  Get them off the heat as soon as they start to look like this.  Over cooking them means you will loose color and flavor.   

I have set up a bowl and a strainer so we can get those seeds out of the sauce. 

Add a scoop of sauce to the strainer and let the delicious juice drip out.  If you press the juice through the strainer you will get sediment in the sauce.  Sediment is fine actually, but to get a beautifully clear sauce it will need to sit in the fridge for a few days to let the sediment settle.  It's up to you.  Sometimes I press the sauce cause I am in a hurry and I use it as is.  No one can really tell...except for me. 




Discard the seeds in your compost pile.





When you have your lovely juice, you need to add a bit of sugar right away while the juice is still warm.  If you wait until later to add the sugar, it will not dissolve.  I am also adding 1 teaspoon of orange liquor for each bag of raspberries...also while the juice is still warm.  If you do not want to use alcohol for this, you can use some regular orange juice.

I like to store the sauce in this squeeze bottle so I can dress up desserts in a hurry.  When I serve the sauce for Easter, I will put it in a pretty little crystal picture.

Now let me show you how to dress up a store bought dessert.  Take a small plate and add a puddle of sauce to the plate.  There is about half a tablespoon of sauce on this plate. 

Then add your dessert to the plate.  How pretty is this?  You can add a dollop of whipped cream, or ice cream or even a pretty flower if you had one.  All I can say is this sauce is so good.  The raspberry flavor will just soak right up into that torte and it will be so good. 

Raspberry Sauce

Ingredients:

12 oz Bag of Frozen, Unsweetened Raspberries
3/4 Cup White Sugar, Divided
1 teaspoon Orange Liquor or 1 Tablespoon Orange Juice
1/2 Cup Water

Directions:

1. Add frozen berries, water and 1/2 cup sugar to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the berries loose their shape. Remove from heat immediately.

2. Stir in the remaining sugar and orange juice or liquor until sugar is dissolved.

3. Strain sauce through a fine mesh strainer.

4. Serve sauced chilled or at room temperature. Makes approximately 12 ounces.

For a printer friendly version of this recipe click here.



I am joining Foody Friday.

Green Easter Baskets

We have been planting Easter grass for our Easter baskets ever since we adopted the kids.  This is such a fun tradition for us now.  The kids start reminding me in January to plant the Easter baskets so the grass will grow in time. The seeds need about two weeks of growing time to look good. 

This is the pile of supplies you will need.  If you are using a real basket then line it with a piece of plastic before you add the dirt.  I have used heavy duty plastic garbage bags or plastic drop cloths from painting projects. Since I am using cheap beach buckets this year, there is no need to line the bucket.

Any grass seed will work as long as it is not super old.  I have found that grass seed that has been frozen over the winter can be tricky to grow.  If you really want this project to work, try getting a new bag of grass seed every other year and storing the seed inside over the winter if you are in an area that reaches freezing temperatures in the winter.   

I found 'Easter Baskets' at Michaels for a buck each!  Their beach buckets also come in great spring colors.   

Fill your buckets a little over half way up.  If you fill it all the way up, you will not have that much room for the stuff the Easter Bunny is going to bring.

Then start sprinkling the grass seed in the bucket. 

This looks like a good amount of seeds to me.  You will want a thick patch of grass in your basket.

This is such serious work for these guys. 

When the seeds are sprinkled, they will need water.  We use a small spray bottle to water our seeds.  If you just pour a glass of water over the seeds, the water will move the seeds around.  A spray bottle works really well.  

Stick them in a south facing window if you have one and in about two weeks....

I also planted grass in my favorite casserole dish.  This is going to be the center piece on the kids' Easter table. The centerpiece is not as far along as the Easter Baskets because I don't want this grass to be as long as the grass in the kids' baskets. You can check back on Thursday to see how this turns out.