"Nana crafts" for beginners

Well the greys might be gone (thank goodness for my snazzy new do, complete with lovely long foils of gold) but I'm still feeling like a bit of a Nana today :)

Between the sewing of dolls, crocheting of booties and general 'old-school' craftiness, all I need is start going to bed at 9pm and they'll be sending me my OAP card!

Today I made jam. I looked at some overripe strawberries languishing in my fridge and thought, "they deserve better". Well, actually I thought that after first wondering how people get away with putting fresh juicy strawberries over the top of browning, sunburnt ones in a punnet. Grr.

I'm amazed that I actually managed to complete my mission, I'd been expecting to merely make a mess, but I must be getting more domesticated because I now have a lovely fresh jar of jam in my fridge :)

Here's the recipe I used, if I don't write it down now I'm bound to forget it. And next week I'll likely be looking at another quarter kilo of manky fruit!

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Easy Strawberry Jam

* 5 cups of strawberries, cut into pieces
* 1 1/2 cup of caster sugar
* squirt lemon juice
* a clean jar

1. In a large saucepan, add sugar to strawberries.

2. Put clean jar into oven at 160 degrees for 10 - 15 mins (sterilises it)
3. Put small children to bed/watch a TV show/catch up on email for half an hour
4. Squirt in lemon juice and put saucepan over medium heat
5. Stir. Stir. Stir. Stir - for half an hour or more if you're game. It will froth and bubble, that is OK.
6. Test consistency - put spoon into saucepan, remove and allow to cool. If mixture seems thickish and stickyish, you're good to go :)

7. Remove jar from oven, don't burn your fingers, pour in jam
8. Add lid, refridgerate.

I looked at a lot of jam recipes, and they mostly say that you should eat jam like this within a few weeks. You might want to go for a fancier recipe if you're a pig like me if you don't think you'll be able to use the jam within this time frame.

I'll have something to talk to Grandma about next time she rings :) She does a huge amount of jams and preserves, I'm going to have to get her to show me when I next pay her a visit (she's 12 000 kms away so visits are few and far between).

Got any tips on 'jamming' other fruit? Let me know :)