Time for jam!

Okay, so you remember that zucchini. That's right that SAME zucchini!!! There was still some left after making soup and zucchini bread... So I was trying to figure out what else I could do with it, and my mom tipped me off that I could make jam. What she had in mind was zucchini+kiwi. I've never heard of jams being made out of zucchini, but when I started searching online, turns out that there are quite a few recipes out there. And after I made it, I wanted to make more! So I asked my mom for her strawberry jam recipe. And the reason this last one is my favourite is because you get whole berries swimming in jam (it's the second recipe in this post, so read on).

Strawberry and Zucchini & Pineapple jams

First off all, this is my FIRST time making jam by myself; I mean I've done it with my mom and grandma, but they did most of the "making" while I, along with my sister, were mostly there to lick the spoons :)

Okay, so the recipe I picked was zucchini+pineapple, and here's how I did it:

* 750 g of zucchini (cleaned, peeled and chopped)
* 250 g of crushed pineapple (canned - IMPORTANT: squeeze out as much liquid from it as possible)
* 1 kg of sugar
* 1 cup of water (this is what the recipe stated... in hindsight, I should NOT have used any water...)
* 1 lemon (chopped with seeds removed, but keep the peel)

What to do with all of the above?

1. Melt sugar in the pot and bring this syrup to boil (for some reason, the pot should NOT be aluminium).
2. Add zucchini and pineapple and continue cooking for about 10 minutes.
3. Stir in lemon; cook everything on low for about 45 minutes, mixing now and again.
4. Let the mixture cool (it will thicken as it cools), pour into jars and store.
* this yielded 2x500 ml jars, plus a small bowl to enjoy immediately :)
~
My mom's strawberry jam is probably the easiest recipe of anything I've ever come across! Okay, maybe the prep time is longer than usual, but there are only 2, that's right 2, ingredients - 1 kg of strawberries and 1 kg of sugar (or more, but always in 1:1 ratio).

What to do?
1. Wash your strawberries and cut up the bigger berries; put them into the pot.
2. Pour sugar over the berries and cover with like a paper towel or a piece of newspaper (you still want strawberries to "breath", but don't want any water or anything like that contaminating the batch).
3. Leave this standing on the counter overnight. (In the morning you'll see that the sugar "melted" over strawberries and just how much water was in them! That's why there is no need to add water)
4. Bring everything to boil over low heat, stirring and taking off excess foam.
5. Remove from heat and set aside (cover with a paper towel again).
6. In the evening, repeat steps 4 and 5.
7. The next morning, cook everything on low for 45 minutes; again, make sure to mix and skim the foam of the top.
8. Let the mixture cool (it will thicken as it cools), pour into jars and store.

IMPORTANT: Make sure that all of your jars and lids have been sterilized (i.e. boil for 10 minutes) and are dry! Because if there's any water or condensation or anything like that, your jam will go sour.

STORING: Since the jars have been sterilize and the fruit cooked for 45 minutes, there is no need to refrigerate your jam.