I think strawberry jam is the favorite among my family members for spreading on PB&J sandwiches and toast. Every year we get a few flats of the Hmong-grown berries from Central California and process some of them into jam and fruit rolls. The fruit rolls find their way into lunches for school and hikes and never seem to last very long. I’m much more concerned about the strawberry jam because there are so many ways we use it, particularly during the winter when fresh fruit is scarce or too expensive.
Yogurt. Sweeten and flavor plain yogurt all at once when you stir in a tablespoon or two of strawberry jam.
Smoothies. Adding strawberry jam to a cup of plain yogurt, a banana, and some ice cubes in a blender makes a quick strawberry smoothie.
Milkshakes. Or to make a milkshake, just add a tablespoon or two of strawberry jam to vanilla ice cream and milk and blend until smooth.
Strawberry milk. Strawberry and banana milk are popular beverages for children in Korea. Becky decided to make her own strawberry milk one day by whirling a tablespoon of strawberry jam and a cup of milk together in the blender. I was surprised at how good it tasted—much better than Strawberry Nesquik.
Pop-Tarts. We’ve been making our own pop-tarts for years. Just spread a little jam for the filling. Super tasty—worlds better than the store-bought stuff.
Pancake syrup. Make a quick and easy pancake syrup by warming corn syrup and strawberry jam at a 2:1 ratio in a saucepan over low heat. Serve immediately. It’s also great for pouring over ice cream.
Flavored cream cheese. I make plain bagels a couple of times each year. While we prefer using fresh fruit and a little sugar to flavor plain cream cheese for spreading on the hot bagels, I’ll stir in a couple tablespoons of jam when fresh strawberries are out of season.
Layer cake filling. Combine a little strawberry jam with vanilla pudding or cool whip and cream cheese for a fluffy layer cake filling.
Of course, you’re not limited to using strawberry jam—many other flavors also work well. Blueberry, raspberry, apricot, and peach are some of our favorites around here. A good supply of fruit jams will expand your food storage menu options significantly.
Be sure to store quality jam. Avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup in it, which is most of the cheap stuff on the market today. At the same time, you also should avoid storing any jam that is low-sugar or no-sugar. Sugar is a fabulous preservative and jams need the higher sugar content to have a longer shelf-life.
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