Strawberry Jam

          Hey guys. Sorry for the blogger delay. Summer is a busy time for me. I work at Timberline and that is a pretty big part of my summer.

          Anyways, today the recipe is strawberry jam. You will need:

6 cups juicy strawberries

5 cups sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

          For the jars: First clean the jars with soap and hot water. Then put in a pan and put in a low oven. This will sterilize the jars. *Do not put the lids in the oven.*

          First, put the strawberries in a large pot (preferably non-stick) and mash them to desired consistency (in other words, some people like there jam chunky). Then mash in the sugar. Put on stove and start to heat. Heat to boiling and then boil for 20-30 minutes while constantly stirring. Then test and see if it sets (to do this you have to take a frozen plate, do ahead of time, and put some of the hot liquid onto the plate and put in the freezer for a couple of minutes. Then take it out and see if it runs if you hold the plate sideways. If it doesn’t than cook it for longer). If it sets, then add the lemon juice (this makes it start to thicken. It’s like a natural gelatine).

          Take the jars out of the oven and spoon the liquid into the jars. Then put lid on and let cool on counter for a bit. Then transfer to the fridge. You should keep these in the fridge.

          This recipe is curiously of my aunt. Thanks a million. Have fun cooking J

Dry Rub Chicken

          Hey, it’s your favourite blogger here. As you can see, I have renovated my blog. Looks neat right? I’m glad you like it. Anyways, I’ve been doing some serious thinking lately. What I’ve realized is that I haven’t posted in 2 months. One of the best ways that I think I can solve this problem is by making a promise to post a new thing every week. This way I can become more professional and maybe get more followers. I might or might not start this right away because it is the summer and it is difficult to find the time, but this is guaranteed for next year. Anyways, onto the post.

          This will be quite a short post but at least I’m coming back to the world of the living. Last week I was planning for my birthday party. I was had chicken for dinner. The thing is, I didn’t want it to be boring, and I wanted to impress my friend. So, I started improvising a dry rub. I don’t have exact measurements but what I remember is that I put salt (obviously), lemon pepper (this could be pepper and lemon zest but I had no lemon zest at the moment), a little cumin (not too much because it actually makes the chicken sweeter; not spicier), chives (fresh; no one likes dried chives, these could also be green onions but they don’t work as well), chilli powder (don’t be afraid because it isn’t as spicy as you think), and crushed garlic (you could also use garlic powder if you don’t have garlic). If you don’t use garlic, or if you just want a more tangy chicken, you can add just a little lemon juice (only 1 or 2 drops).

          Take the dry rub you made, and rub it onto each of the pieces of chicken you made. Since im letting you make it how you feel this doesn’t make a specific portion, but you would want to have a teaspoon for each piece of chicken, two for chicken breast. You can barbeque this of you can roast it in the oven. Make sure that you rub it on and then leave a little on the chicken as well. If you have extra use it for something else. This can work for turkey as well. Have fun cooking students or food :)