Jams + Spreads

Canning jam is an involved process, and although I don’t discourage it, I don’t enjoy doing it. But making jams and jellies is something I do enjoy. Sadly, people confuse the two and, as a result, avoid making them completely. That is a shame. The great news is that you can easily (and quickly) make […]

I never liked orange marmalade, until I made it myself. And to be clear, no, orange marmalade is not simply orange jam. Nor does the homemade version look nearly as scary as those little square packets that came with your hotel room service back in the 70s. But what is marmalade exactly and what makes […]

Summer and jam just go together.  Strawberry rhubarb jam is number one on my list of jam favorites.  To clarify, jams, jellies, marmalades, and conserves are all somewhat similar. They all are a mixture of fruit and sugar and share the basic preparation of crushing ripe fruit to release its juice, adding sugar and heating the […]

The question is, where has apple butter been my entire life? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had apple butter before, but never the homemade kind. Total game-changer. And to be clear, the homemade version of freshly baked biscuits is almost too incredible to speak about. But what is apple butter exactly? Not sure about you, […]

My family knows it, I am obsessed with almond butter. I buy it constantly and am always putting it into things I make. I have been wanting to make my own almond butter for some time, so this was a fun recipe to develop. I have had so many kinds of almond butter over the […]

Apparently, Christmas jam is a thing. As a chef and a food blogger, I had no clue. This is a fine example of the food world today, chances are, the idea (recipe) is out there long before you came up with the recipe, and the only hope is you make it better. Jam is something […]

Oh boy do I love figs, always have.  Fig Newtons (now called simply Newtons) in my lunch box as a kid was a favorite. I don’t think I encountered a fresh fig until I was in my mid-20s.  But, no surprise, I liked them right away.  Figs are native to the Middle East and western Asia […]

I don’t typically crave jam. But in the summer, with delicious ripe fruit and berries, it’s more appealing. Right before traveling to Europe, our entire apricot tree ripened at once. Totally serious, the whole tree! I made some coconut-apricot bars using my raspberry-coconut oatmeal bar recipe if you check out my Instagram feed you will see […]

Fresh blueberries always remind me of summer.  Well, that and the well-known children’s book “Blueberries for Sal” by Robert McCloskey, which I must have read to my boys 1,000 times when they were little.  Blueberries are a wonderful, tasty summer fruit.  Loaded with fiber, potassium, iron, vitamin C, and vitamin B6, they are believed to […]

Strawberry-orange quick jam is the perfect thing to do with all those berries you just picked with your kids or with leftover fruit you bought from the market that may not get eaten. This is a super easy summer cooking project that your kids could probably do by themselves.  I say let them try. This […]