Apricot Jam



Yesterday we found time to make some apricot jam.  It was an all day process because we could only work on it while baby M was sleeping.  The girls were big helpers pitting and cutting up the apricots.  D was so cute.  She kept telling me repeatedly which bowl the pits go in and which one the apricot pieces go in, just to make sure I put them in the right one.  And she was very proud of her new cutting skills.

 

T wasn't interested at first because she was so busy pretending M's blanket was her ball gown (I've been reading them Cinderella) that she didn't have time to help.  But after 10 minutes or so she had finished playing dress up and came to see what we were doing. 

After the girls and I pitted enough apricots, I blended them a little in the food processor and put them in a pot.  Then baby M woke up so that was the end of jam making for awhile.  About two hours later, baby M took another nap and I was able to finish the jam. 

I used a no sugar/ low sugar pectin which I have never used before.  I hope I did it right and that the jam will set.  I only used 1/2 a cup of sugar and a few squirts of honey for 6 cups of fruit, so we'll see how it turns out.  In the past I have used more sugar than fruit with liquid pectin and equal amounts of sugar to fruit for powdered pectin.  It will be so much healthier if it sets right. 

Now we are in Yorba Linda visiting Leila and Pho Pho.  The girls got to go swimming for the first time this summer.  They had fun kicking in the water and splashing on the shallow shelf area of the pool.  Tomorrow we will have more adults handy so they can go in without their life jackets and go in the deep end with us.