Blueberry Freezer Jam

I can't decide whether strawberries or blueberries are my favorite fruit...they are very close.  We had decided not to look for wild blueberries this year since it has been so dry here in the Midwest (we've had some rain the past two days...Praise the Lord for rain!).  We thought they would not be very good.  Then when we saw in the paper that a berry farm not too far away was offering pick-your-own berries, we jumped at the chance.  They are the cultured, high-bush variety and received plenty of irrigation during this long dry spell.  We all including my parents went last Saturday morning to get the job done early and in good time, and we picked a nice flat of them.  So far I've made blueberry pie, muffins, jam, and have frozen a great deal...not to mention the little dishes of blueberries and milk we've been having.  I grew up on blueberries--those sweet, tiny ones that grow wild everywhere in Maine.  These we picked were bigger and not quite as sweet, of course, but they are delicious nonetheless and so good for us. 

This blueberry freezer jam didn't set very well (the very humid day may have affected it), but it tastes fresh and good and will be wonderful on hot, crusty English muffins on a cold day this fall.  Mmmmmm!

Strawberry Muffins

Remember all of those strawberries we picked this past summer? I froze many of them. We have several bags of cleaned and processed strawberries ready for winter. Well, I found a great recipe at allrecipes.com for strawberry muffins. With a few modifications, they turned out great. Why wait until winter to try them? To me the test of a good muffin is if it is good, it does not need anything like butter or jam on them (this excludes lemon curd, of course--lemon curd tastes good on everything or just on your finger!). These did not need anything. Yum!
So, here is the recipe...
1\4 cup oil......... 1\2 cup milk
1 egg......... 1\2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder......... 1\2 cup white sugar
1-3\4 cups flour......... 1\2 tsp vanilla
1\4 tsp cinnamon......... 1\2 cup nuts
1 cup chopped strawberries
Oven to 375 degrees. Put paper liners in muffin tin for 8 muffins. In small bowl combine oil, mil, egg and vanilla. Beat lightly. In large bowl mix salt, baking powder, sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Toss in chopped strawberries (mostly thawed if frozen) and stir to coat with flour. Pour in milk mixture and nuts and stir all together. Cook for about 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Double the recipe for breakfast with a hot cup of tea in the morning1